ON DVD / VOD:
“Worst to First: The True Story of Z100 New York”: Your enjoyment of this brief (63 minutes) documentary on the 74-day ascendancy, clear back in fall of 1983, of the now-legendary NYC radio station from worst to first place will likely hinge greatly on both your interest in the mechanics of terrestrial radio and tolerance for the hijinks of morning disc jokey Scott Shannon and is “Z Morning Zoo.” Director Mitchell Stuart isn’t much of a craftsman, and even within that abbreviated running time, a fair number of points are over-articulated. But for those of us weaned on ‘80s radio, it’s a pleasurable throwback to an irreplaceable era. (Includes audio commentary, deleted scenes, and trailers.)
ON 4K:
“Reservoir Dogs”: Quentin Tarantino’s debut film, new on 4K from Lionsgate, was originally intended as a micro-budget affair, with the roles of his color-coded jewel thieves played by the writer/director’s friends (and himself, in the role of “Mr. Pink”). But producer Lawrence Bender got a script to Harvey Keitel, who not only signed on to play the pivotal role of “Mr. White,” but helped raise a more respectable budget. The street cred of Keitel’s involvement turned the young video store clerk’s ingenious script into a hot commodity, attracting a cast of up-and-comers (Tim Roth, Michael Madsen), indie faves (Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi), and certified legends (Lawrence Tierney and crime novelist Eddie Bunker). That cast is so good, even Tarantino’s middling acting isn’t a distraction, and his script and staging are as electrifying as ever. (Includes deleted scenes and featurettes.)
“Carrie“: Stephen King’s first bestseller has been filmed and filmed and filmed: a TV movie adaptation, a 1999 sequel/remake, the wholly inexplicable 2013 version, and so on. But the first take is still the best, finding director Brian De Palma at the height of his Gothic, split-screening powers, Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie perfectly matched as the title character and her Bible-thumping mom, and a flawless cast of sympathetic and/or sneering supporting players (particularly Amy Irving, William Katt, an impossibly young John Travolta, and the great Nancy Allen). Though endlessly quoted and imitated, its barn-burner finale still packs a wallop, and that last scare never loses its ability to jolt. Shout Factory‘s 2016 Blu-ray collector’s edition was, one would think, the definitive one – but they’ve gone and topped it with this gorgeous 4K disc, so I’m afraid you’re just going to have to buy this one again. (Includes audio commentary, interviews, featurettes, theatrical trailer, and TV and radio spots.)
“Adaptation”: Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s unconventional adaptation of Susan Orlean’s non-fiction book “The Orchid Thief” was in the works before he became a movie rock star thanks to his brilliant “Being John Malkovich” script—which makes it all the more unbelievable that Kaufman had the stones, when faced with writer’s block while trying to adapt the seemingly unadaptable book, to turn it into a script about the impossibility of adapting “The Orchid Thief.” Kaufman turned himself and his fictional twin brother Donald (both played, brilliantly, by Nicolas Cage) into the film’s main characters, while manufacturing a romance between Orlean and her subject, as well as chases and conflicts prescribed by screenwriting guru Robert McKee. “Malkovich” director Spike Jonze orchestrates the activity with appropriately gonzo energy, crafting a whip-smart meta-movie not just about the difficulty of screenwriting, but about adapting our own lives and neurosis into something manageable. (Includes featurette and trailer.)
“Coraline”: Director Henry Selick (“The Nightmare Before Christmas,” this year’s “Wendell & Wild”) wrote and directed this knockout stop-motion animation adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s book, a creepy, masterful effort that launched the wizards at LAIKA in the process. The film’s 150 sets were all created by hand in a giant Oregon warehouse, and this stunning new 4K restoration from Shout Factory allows viewers to fully take in the depth and detail of Coraline’s (and Selick’s) world. (Includes audio commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes, and feature-length storyboards.)
“ParaNorman”: LAIKA’s next release was Chris Butler and Sam Fell’s witty, winning, utterly delightful animated adventure, which sports a cockeyed world view and a genuine sense of play that’s altogether too rare among films geared to the family audience. Equal parts ghost story, coming-of-age tale, and slapstick comedy, it’s like an ‘80s Sam Raimi movie toned down and repurposed for kids. Boisterous, high-spirited, and big-time fun, this one also has a new 4K restoration, a handsome steenbok, and is well worth your time – even if there’s not a kid in sight. (Includes audio commentary, featurettes, and feature-length storyboards.)
“Starship Troopers”: Paul Verhoeven’s adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s novel, also out in a shiny new 4K steelbook, was one of the great bait-and-switches of mainstream ‘90s moviemaking. The sci-fi/action epic was promoted to the lucrative teen-boy audience as a mindless tale of military recruits taking on giant insectoid killing machines. But as with his similarly smuggled “Robocop,” Verhoeven had actually carpet-bombed his audience with a sly and knowing satire on propaganda films, American militarism, and combinations of the two (like “Top Gun”). Too many of its original critics didn’t catch on, but the film is now properly canonized as one of the most gleefully subversive big-budget pictures of the era. (Includes audio commentaries, picture-in-picture, featurettes, deleted scenes, and screen tests.)
“48 HRS. / Another 48 HRS.”: Alas, Paramount Pictures isn’t following up its jaw-dropping “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” long-lost-deleted-scenes rescue mission with the reassembling of Walter Hill’s 1990 “48 HRS” follow-up that fans have been longing for; it was reportedly cut by 45 minutes from Hill’s preferred version, and nearly half of that was lopped off merely a week before its release. What remains is understandably incoherent, but blessed with occasional laughs and Hill’s reliably skillful action choreography. And the 1982 original remains a monster; Hill’s direction is razor-sharp, involving and inventively photographed, and the testosterone-fueled screenplay proved the ideal showcase for Eddie Murphy’s gifts. In his film debut (!), Murphy is a filthy-mouthed, fast-talking keg of cinematic dynamite, and its best, so is the movie. (Includes featurettes and trailers.)
“Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”: VCI Entertainment marks the 50th anniversary of this early effort from director “Benjamin Clark” – aka Bob Clark – with a deluxe 4K treatment, a pretty remarkable achievement considering the picture’s micro-budget roots. But even in this embryonic state, Clark wasn’t one for mere genre slavishness; the script (co-written by lead actor Alan Orsmby) is a witty affair, poking ample fun at the artistic pretensions of a college theater company whose attempt at a mock Satanic ritual goes very wrong. The “Night of the Living Dead” lifts aren’t subtle, and the performances are wildly uneven. But it’s got convincing creature effects, ambience for days, and a thoroughly loathsome villain, so it’s a pretty damn good time. (Includes audio commentary, feature-length documentary, interviews, featurettes, music videos, and essay by Patrick McCabe.)
“Black Christmas“: And just in time for the holidays, Shout treats us to a 4K upgrade for Clark’s holiday favorite, the heartwarming holiday tale of a serial killer picking off the residents of a sorority house. Happy yuletide! This low-budget thriller gets the job done with blunt effectiveness—and, predating “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th” and their countless imitators, points the way towards the “slasher film” craze of the 1980s. Director Clark, however, didn’t participate in that trend; he’d move on to comedies, first with the surprise smash “Porky’s” and then, amusingly enough, an actual holiday family favorite, “A Christmas Story.” Shout’s 4K treatment is another must-have, capturing both the grimy zest of the low-budget Canadian production and the considerable beauty of stars Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder. (Includes audio commentaries, new and archival interviews, featurettes, Q&As, alternative title sequences, theatrical trailers, and TV and radio spots.)
“Silent Running”: Special effects whiz Douglas Trumbull’s 1972 sci-fi film is a fascinating and seemingly incongruent mixture of tones and ideas (its screenwriters include “Mike” Cimino and Steven Bochco). It’s a space saga in which you can plainly see the origins of “Star Wars,” “Alien,” and “Moon” – and most directly, “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” dealing as it does with a lone man on a space station who mostly communicates with a pair of robots. But it’s also an environmentalist screed, a rare slab of hippie sci-fi, complete with Joan Baez needle drops and a Bruce Dern performance that goes from mild and sensitive to wildly unhinged. The effects remain stunning, even after all these years, and Arrow’s new restoration gives them their deserved shine. (Includes new and archival audio commentaries and interviews, isolated music and effects tracks, archival featurette, and trailer.)
ON BLU-RAY:
“Shawscope Vol. 2”: Arrow Video follows up last-year’s show-stopping box set of marvelous Shaw Brothers martial arts epics with fourteen more, spread over 10 discs with a host of extras. The main attraction here is the 1978 classic “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin,” the fast and furious Wu-Tang favorite that more than earns the idolatry, as well as its sequels “Return to the 36th Chamber” and “Disciples of the 36th Chamber”; other highlights include the uproarious “Mad Monkey Kung Fu” and “My Young Auntie,” the early Johnnie To effort “The Bare-Footed Kid,” and a young Jet Li in “Martial Arts of Shaolin.” (Includes interviews, essays, and music CDs.)
“Michael Haneke: Trilogy”: On one hand, it’s odd that the Criterion Collection waited until after Black Friday to release a pair of three-disc sets; on the other, these aren’t exactly gift items, though this one will make an ideal purchase for the Sickos on your list. Collecting the first three theatrical films from the Austrian provocateur (“The Seventh Continent,” “Benny’s Video,” and “71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance”), the set displays the stylistic formalism and thematic nihilism that would make him one of our most gifted – and divisive – filmmakers. (Includes new and archival interviews, featurette, deleted scenes from “Benny’s Video”, and essay by John Wray.)
“Three Films by Mai Zetterling”: The contrast between the creators of Criterion’s two three-movie boxes couldn’t be more striking; Zetterling was a Swedish actor-turned-director who made shaggy, loosey-goosey takedowns of patriarchal norms, loaded with explicit politics and frank sexuality. The three films repped here – “Loving Couples,” “Night Games,” and “The Girls” – date from 1964 to 1968, a fraught period for culture and cinema (to put it mildly), and these audacious films reflect that period while maintaining their bold modernity and freshness. (Includes documentaries, new and archival interviews, archival footage, and essay by Mariah Larsson.)
“Cooley High”: Michael Schultz’s 1975 coming-of-age comedy/drama (another new Criterion addition) positions itself as something of a black “American Graffiti,” from the early-‘60s setting to the jukebox soundtrack to the “Where are they now?” wrap-ups. But there’s also a “Mean Streets” feel in its affable hang-out vibe and loose story of a group of guys cutting class, chasing girls, and getting into trouble. (And if it takes, it also gives; it plays now like a blueprint for “Boyz n the Hood,” particularly in its closing passages.) Eric Monte’s script sprinkles in a touch of sly social commentary on education and ambition, and his make-out scenes capture a wonderfully funny and true awkwardness. Sure, its gender politics haven’t aged well, and much of the acting is mighty amateurish. But star Glynn Turman handles many tricky moments well, and co-star Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs is pure charisma. (Includes interviews, featurette, panel discussion, and essay by Craig Barboza.)
“The Girl on a Motorcycle”: This 1968 drama from director Jack Cardiff (best known these days as cinematographer for The Archers) was originally released in the U.S. as “Naked Under Leather,” and the film wastes no time proving the point; Marianne Faithfull is stunningly sexy as the free-spirited heroine, a woman in a dull marriage who takes off one day on her motorcycle to contemplate staying in her situation or running away with her lover (Alain Delon). Some of the dream imagery is awfully corny, and the outcome is depressingly pre-ordained in a film of this period about a sexually liberated woman. But that outcome is spectacularly well-executed, and the picture has a welcome unpredictability until then, taking unexpected and even surreal turns to put us into our heroine’s crowded headspace. (Includes audio commentaries and trailer.)
