Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage, and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.
Every column has felt overloaded as of late, as if home video distributors know we’re all planning on finally leaving the house soon, and want to sell us a few more things while they can. This week’s selection includes not only a handful of terrific new releases and notable catalog titles, but two big box sets that will take up the better part of a week; there’s plenty to recommend, so let’s get to it.
ON HULU:
“Collective”: Nominated for both Best Documentary and Best International Feature at this year’s Oscars, this stunning work from Romanian director Alexander Nanau is both a true crime story and a testament to the power of investigative journalism – a documentary “Spotlight,” to put it in the simplest terms. Naanau begins with a terrifying fire at Bucharest nightclub Colectiv, which killed 26 people – but more than that died while receiving treatment at hospitals after. The focal point is a crew of dogged journalists who refuse to swallow the propaganda they’re being fed; Nanau follows their lead, meticulously following the story to all the dark corners where it leads.
ON 4K / DISNEY+:
“Soul”: Pixar’s latest, which premiered on Disney+ last Christmas, makes its physical media debut, and the 4K image is stunning, filling the screen with gorgeously rendered cityscapes and fantasy in-between worlds. The picture’s blend of body-swapping buddy comedy, New York City adventure, and jazz valentine shouldn’t come together as well as it does, but director Pete Docter manages to recapture much of the magic of “Up” and “Inside Out,” tethering big metaphorical ideas to palpable pieces of human emotion, particularly in the heart-wrenching climax. (Includes audio commentary, deleted scenes, and featurettes.)
ON BLU-RAY / DVD / VOD:
“News of the World”: The new film from Paul Greengrass reunites the director with Tom Hanks, his “Captain Phillips” star, and they’re a good match; Greengrass is well aware of how much melancholy and determination Hanks can put across in a carefully placed and well-timed close-up, and Hanks knows that, within Greengrass’ big canvases, he can do the kind of small acting he does best. Greengrass is a terrific filmmaker but a decidedly contemporary one, smart enough to know that he’s working in a more conventional genre, and he thus (mostly) eschews his signature flourishes for a more classical style. He doesn’t seem cramped by the demand; quite the contrary, in fact, as his frames pulse with affection for the wide vistas and sun-cracked skies. He understands the political and emotional stakes of the setting, in a way that some Westerns don’t even acknowledge, nodding to the tensions of post-Civil War America, and how his protagonist attempts, in some small way, to soothe them. (Includes audio commentary, deleted scenes, and featurettes.)
“Wonder Woman 1984”: Like “Soul,” Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” sequel is taking the new, pandemic-era route to physical media, following a splashy Christmas Day streaming debut. It wasn’t terribly well-received in that wide spotlight, and it’s not hard to see why: the pace drags, the prologue is wildly unnecessary, and the geopolitics are, um, a problem. But there’s still quite a bit that works, including the well-worn chemistry between Gal Gadot and Chris Pine, the energetic villainous turns by Pedro Pascal and Kristen Wiig, and the big action set pieces, particularly a highway chase that’s a real barnburner. (Includes featurettes and gag reel.)
“The Projectionist”: Abel Ferrara has been keeping himself mighty busy these days, turning out late-period pieces like “Tomasso” and “Siberia” that are among his sharpest and most mature works. This documentary portrait of Nicolas Nicolau, his old pal from the Times Square grindhouse days, feels like more of a throwaway, a home movie of Abel (as delightfully cranky as ever) hanging out with his buddy and swapping stories. But they’re good stories, and the clips that illustrate them are a blast, and if it’s ultimately not much more than a Ferrara vanity project, well hey, hasn’t he earned one? (Includes documentary short.)
ON 4K:
“The Ten Commandments”: Just in time for Easter, Paramount Pictures gives the 4K treatment to one of the season’s perennials, and boy does it wear it well: the colors pop, the sound pounds, and the practical special effects are just as jaw-dropping as they must’ve been fifty-plus years ago. As drama, it remains pretty tinny, stiltedly written and woodenly acted; Cecil B. DeMille made spectacles, and earnest drama wasn’t a top priority. But perhaps that’s why this particular film has made it through the decades so well: it’s an Easter pageant, with all of the pros and cons you associate with such a phrase. (Includes commentary, newsreel footage, and theatrical trailers.)
“Gattaca”: Andrew Niccol’s first (and still best) directorial effort is a rare science-fiction picture that actually gives a damn about the science, a ten-minutes-into-the-future tale of a world remade by genetic engineering, and the underprivileged but ambitious fellow (Ethan Hawke) who tries to circumvent his circumstances. Niccol is playing in so many keys here – sci-fi, film noir, murder mystery, romance – that it’s kind of amazing that he never loses his balance. But he doesn’t; as when it hit theaters back in 1997, this is an uncommonly intelligent and rigorously entertaining picture, and the 4K image, remastered from the original camera negative, is gorgeous. (Includes deleted scenes, blooper reel, and featurette.)
ON BLU-RAY:
“World of Wong Kar-Wai”: Any journey through a director’s filmography is bound to tell us much about their growth as an artist and an individual voice, but it’s especially striking in the case of Criterion’s new box set dedicated to the work of they hyper-cool Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai. The first feature presented, 1988’s “As Tears Go By,” features many of the stylistic devices we’d come to associate with him: neon night exteriors, popping color temperatures, careful and effective use of slow-motion, impossible romances, inventive use of pop music. But with each passing work, we see those devices becoming part of a specific aesthetic, and the building of a confidence that often allows him to dispense with the crime narratives of the early work to simply luxuriate in his characters and their vibes. The title for the set is well-chosen; by the midpoint, he truly has built a world in his films, and it’s a pleasure just to hang out there for a while. (Includes new – and controversial – restorations, Q&A program, short films, alternate versions and endings, archival interviews, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes footage, music videos, director’s note, and essay by John Powers.)
“Best Picture Essentials: 10-Movie Collection”: Paramount’s new Oscar season box set packages ten winners of American cinema’s biggest prize – going all the way back to the first ceremony, and that year’s winner “Wings,” followed by “My Fair Lady,” “The Godfather,” “Terms of Endearment,” “Forrest Gump,” “The English Patient,” “Titanic,” “American Beauty,” “Gladiator,” and “No Country For Old Men.” Some have aged better than others (again, it includes “American Beauty”), and none of the titles are new to HD. But it’s currently going for less than $80, which is a hell of a price for a collection of this magnitude – and I’m always looking for an excuse to watch “Terms of Endearment” again.
“Defending Your Life”: Albert Brooks was midway through one of the great runs of American filmmaking when he wrote, directed, and starred in this delightful afterlife comedy, which joins its predecessor “Lost in America” in the Criterion Collection this week. He plays something of an everyman, whose premature death is followed by a trip to “Judgment City,” where the recently departed are put on trial (with video clips!) to determine if they lived a good and brave enough life to warrant moving on, or if they’re to go back for another try. It’s a delicious comic premise, and most filmmakers would’ve figured that was enough; Brooks gives us a sweet romantic subplot as well (with Meryl Streep, never more charming), and then interweaves those threads in ways unexpected and effective.
“Secrets & Lies”: Mike Leigh’s big American arthouse breakthrough finally arrived in 1996, with this sleeper hit, Oscar-nominated family chronicle, which mines the comic potential of its setup (a Black professional seeks out her biological mother, and is shocked to find that she’s a white working-class woman) and then moves into a searing drama of, well, secrets and lies. Leigh’s much-discussed methodology, of building characters and situations over an extended period of workshops and improvisations with his actors, has rarely yielded more satisfying results; this is a stunning movie, and packs as much of a punch now as it ever has. (Includes new and archival interviews and trailer.)
“Lust, Caution”: Perhaps it’s a coincidence that KL Studio Classics is giving Ang Lee’s 2007 drama its overdue Blu-ray release the same month as Criterion’s Wong Kar Wai box set, as they work in tandem so well; “Lust” features WKW’s frequent leading man Tony Leung, and its slow-burn romantic tension is particularly reminiscent of “In the Mood for Love,” though with a much more explosive payoff. The film’s explicit sex scenes dominated the conversation around its original release, but what’s worth noting is they don’t begin until the 90-minute mark, and while they’re remarkable (show this movie to some of those uptight puritans who keep tweeting about how sex scenes don’t move the plot), the delicacy and tentativeness of the building sexual tension are what really stand out. At the time, on the heels of “Brokeback Mountain,” most agreed this was minor Lee. Now, it feels like one of his very best. (Includes audio commentary, featurette, and trailer.)
“Jeremy”: This 1973 teen romance from writer and director Arthur Barron is one of the first releases from the new distributor Fun City Editions, and the New York connection is right there in the name – this is a charmingly offhand snapshot of the city in the early 1970s and the kind of kids who lived in it. Barron adopts a modest, low-key style to capture the stammering awkwardness of teen courtship, here between shy introvert Jeremy (Robby Benson) and the beautiful Susan (Glynnis O’Connor). Like “Say Anything” a decade and a half later, “Jeremy” is about teenagers who aren’t looking to party or get laid, but are merely looking for some special to ponder big questions with. Some of the filmmaking is a touch amateurish, but it doesn’t matter much; these characters are almost uncomfortably vulnerable, and the picture benefits from their openness. (Includes audio commentary, O’Connor introduction, new interviews, video essay, and trailers.)
“Celine and Julie Go Boating”: It’s forgivable to be afraid of Jacques Rivette’s 1974 classic, new to the Criterion Collection because it has so many of the markers: it is, after all, long and French and important. But there’s nothing to be scared of here; it’s silly and free-spirited and fun, a buddy comedy before the term was even around, in which two very funny, very messy women explore their strange lives and get wrapped up in a surreal, unwrapping parallel melodrama. Between the winking intertitles and the metatextual playfulness, it could very easily veer into the land of the smugly self-satisfied, but no such worries; this is a rich and strange and wonderful film indeed. (Includes audio commentary, new and archival interviews, Claire Denis’ documentary “Jacques Rivette: Le veilleur,” and essay by Beatrice Loayza.)
