THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN BY MY FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE ALONSO DURALDE. YOU CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT HIM HERE.
WHAT’S NEW ON 4K/BLU/DVD IN JUNE: SPIELBERG, ELVIS, JACKIE CHAN, PRIDE FAVORITES, LAST SUMMER, AND MORE!
NEW RELEASE WALL
Steven Spielberg: The Spotlight Collection (Universal): Whichever side of the Disclosure Dayreviews you might fall upon, there’s no denying that Steven Spielberg is one of this generation’s legendary filmmakers, and a new box celebrates the breadth of his career, even as it scratches the surface with just eight titles. Spanning genres (and studios), the Spotlight Collection includes Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extraterrestrial, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and The War of the Worlds, with 4K versions of all the films plus more than 25 hours of bonus features. The set is limited to 5,700 units, so fans should snap it up.
Also available:
Alpha (Neon): The latest from Titane director Julia Ducournau divided critics after its Cannes debut.
Crime 101 (Amazon MGM): Overlapping storylines come together in this elaborate L.A. heist drama featuring an all-star cast (including Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Barry Keoghan, and Corey Hawkins).
The Drama (A24): Past secrets threaten the relationship of Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, just as they’re headed to the aisle in this darkly comic drama.
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (Neon/Universal): Baz Luhrmann applies his usual dizzying flourish to an array of Elvis performance footage, including never-before-seen rehearsals.
Fantasy Life (Greenwich): One of the year’s sleeper indies follows a neurotic young man (writer-director Matthew Shear) who falls for a woman (Amanda Peet) whose kids he’s babysitting, oh, and she also happens to be the daughter of his therapist (Judd Hirsch).
Hamilton (Disney): A 4K release of the live-performance film of the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning musical.
Hoppers (Disney/Pixar): A young environmentalist who has her brain put into a wildlife creature accidentally kicks off the animal revolution in this delightful Pixar comedy.
It Was Just an Accident (The Criterion Collection): Legendary Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi received several Oscar nominations for this farcical drama about a group of former political prisoners who think they may have found their onetime tormenter. Panahi fans will also be thrilled that KimStim is releasing his 2003 film Crimson Gold on Blu-ray this month as well.
The Land of Sometimes (Radial): The voice cast for this animated UK import includes Ewan McGregor, Helena Bonham Carter, Asa Butterfield, Mel Brooks, and Terry Jones.
The Last Showgirl (Lionsgate): Pamela Anderson received a Golden Globe nod for her moving turn as a Vegas dancer who’s ready to turn in her feathered headpiece.
Magellan (Criterion Premieres): Acclaimed Filipino director Lav Diaz makes his first feature with an international star, as Gael García Bernal plays the infamous conquistador.
The Mastermind (Mubi): Josh O’Connor spearheads an art theft that goes from bad to worse in Kelly Reichardt’s quietly moving look at the death of 1960s idealism.
One Battle After Another (WB): First 4K steelbook release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar winner.
Queen Kelly (The Milestone Cinematheque): This never-completed Erich von Stroheim film – starring Gloria Swanson, funded by Joseph Kennedy – finally gets the restoration it deserves. (Yes, this is the movie that Swanson’s Norma Desmond screens in Sunset Blvd.)
Scream 7 (Paramount): Neve Campbell’s back, but the magic is mostly otherwise missing in this return to the beloved metatextual horror franchise.
Suburban Fury (Kino Lorber): Robinson Devor’s documentary examines how suburban single mom Sara Jane Moore was radicalized by her work as an FBI informant and how that led to her attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford.
They Will Kill You (WBD) / Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (20th Century): A woman skilled at combat must fight her way to survival while trapped overnight in a house with a bunch of rich miscreants. These similarly-plotted films hit theaters within a week of each other, and now they’re both on physical media.
The Worlds of Lucile Hadžihalilović (Severin/Yellow Veil): Celebrates the career of the French-Bosnian filmmaker with four features – Innocence, Evolution, Earwig, The Ice Tower – and four hours of bonus content, plus a 60-page booklet.
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH
The Boys in the Band (Cinématographe): 4K debut of William Friedkin’s legendary adaptation of the still-controversial Mart Crowley play, featuring a bevy of extras (including an essay by me).
Hairspray / Desperate Living (both The Criterion Collection): New 4K releases of two films that represent the spectrum of the great John Waters, from the family-friendly musical Hairspray to the outrageously filthy satire Desperate Living.
High Art (The Criterion Collection): This new Blu-ray of Lisa Cholodenko’s contemporary lesbian classic features lots of great extras, including one of her early short films, a new conversation between Cholodenko and Karyn Kusama, and an essay by the iconic B. Ruby Rich.
Kiss of the Spider Woman (Kino Lorber): Bill Condon’s 2025 adaptation of the Kander/Ebb stage musical deserved a broader audience, but this new 4K will allow people to discover the film’s skillful balance of MGM musical and political-prison drama. Jennifer Lopez takes full advantage of a role that digs into her larger-than-life screen presence (and musical chops), and it’s frankly a disgrace that Tonatiuh, in his breakthrough performance, didn’t get more Oscar buzz for his rapturous work as movie-loving queer prisoner Molina. (Diego Luna makes a great Valentin, too.)
Maurice (Cohen Media): Merchant Ivory’s adaptation of E.M. Forster’s posthumously-published gay novel, still swoon-inducing after all these years.
The Serpent’s Skin (Dark Star): Start getting to know the work of young trans Australian filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay, still in her 20s and already with several impressive features under her belt. This one plays like a wonderful mix of Gregg Araki and The Craft, with a little Cronenberg thrown in.
Single, Out: Season Four (Cinephobia): The fourth and final season of the Australian series about a young gay man looking for love and a sense of self.
Some Nights I Feel Like Walking (Film Movement): A group of Manila hustlers hit the road to accomplish their friend’s dying request in this internationally acclaimed Filipino drama.
NEW INDIE
Diane (The Film Desk): Mary Kay Place won a well-deserved Best Actress prize from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for her turn in Kent Jones’ low-key but devastating drama about a woman whose ongoing acts of kindness and service for friends and family may be rooted in guilt rather than charity.
Also available:
Badland (MVD): This 2007 festival fave about a damaged Iraq war vet on a road trip with his young daughter (after killing the rest of their family) features Jamie Draven, Vinessa Shaw, Chandra West, and Joe Morton.
Delco: The Movie (MVD): Three teens in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, set out to have the night of their lives in this indie comedy.
NEW INTERNATIONAL
Happyend (Film Movement): Among the least widely seen of the films on my Top 10 of 2025, the narrative debut from documentarian Neo Sora (Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus) captures the ragged state of contemporary politics while also offering hope for people to push back against authoritarianism. In near-future Tokyo, a group of high-school students rebel as their school’s surveillance and administrators grow more and more oppressive, with the young people finding bold ways to rebel. It’s a guaranteed mood-lifter for anyone feeling ground down by life.
Also available:
731 (Well Go USA): This drama examines biological warfare fought by the Japanese in China.
Amrum (Kino Lorber): Diane Kruger stars in Fatih Akin’s moving look at a young German boy’s coming of age in the waning days of WWII.
Eagles of the Republic (Cohen Media): A leading Egyptian actor learns he’s not immune to his country’s politics when he falls out of favor with the government.
The Goat (Cleopatra): A young girl and her goat undergo a perilous trek to save her Egyptian village from a western corporation out to steal their water; co-stars Mira Sorvino and John Savage.
The Most Precious of Cargoes (Distrib Films): Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) directs this animated tale of a lumberjack and his wife who take in an abandoned baby during wartime.
A Poet (1-2 Special): In this darkly hilarious Colombian comedy from writer-director Simón Mesa Soto, a washed-up poet (the brilliantly self-effacing Ubeimar Rios) attempts to mentor a young writer, only to encounter disaster around every corner.
Suspended Time (Music Box Selects): Olivier Assayas summons the lockdown with this COVID drama about two brothers and their partners riding out the pandemic in their parents’ country home – filmed in the family country house where Assayas and his brother did just that.
To a Land Unknown (Watermelon Pictures): A Palestinian refugee in Athens seeks revenge after being ripped off by a smuggler.
Undine (IFC Films): Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski are star-crossed lovers plagued by an ancient curse in Christian Petzold’s haunting romance.
A Yard of Jackals (IndiePix): A quiet loner is plagued by shady new neighbors against the backdrop of the Pinochet regime in this Chilean import from director Diego Figueroa.
Yes (Kino Lorber): Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid (Synonyms) provides further examination of his national identity in his bold and provocative new film, a darkly comic political satire that spares no one and finds no easy answers in the current cultural landscape.
NEW DOCUMENTARY
Pavements (Utopia): It’s a rock-doc that’s also a narrative that’s also a satire that’s also much more – director Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell) and indie darlings Pavement have collaborated on a movie that provides some insight into the band and its history, but it’s also playing around with cinematic form in a way that matches the musicians’ experiment with sound. The film shoots off in various directions, from a fictional gallery show to an off-Broadway workshop of a Pavement jukebox musical to, hilariously, the making of a Pavement biopic, with actors like Joe Keery and Jason Schwartzman giving very straight-faced performances as “themselves,” letting us in on their very serious process. Whether you love the band or have never heard of them, the witty and anarchic Pavements has something for everyone.
Also available:
Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer (Cleopatra): Fans come to the rescue of pioneering metal vocalist Paul Di’Anno when he suffers health issues.
Erotic Nature: The Films of Pierre Creton (Several Futures): Creton (A Prince) brings his fascination with botany and sexuality to this collection of features and shorts.
The Gits (Factory 25): 20th anniversary reissue of the doc celebrating the Seattle punk band, including interviews with fans including Joan Jett and Kathleen Hanna.
Nintendo 64 Quest (ETR Media): A collector has 14 days to track down all 296 Nintendo 64 games (no online purchases allowed) so that he can auction the lot to raise money for Alzheimer’s research.
Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes (Film Movement): Reissue of Cass Paley’s 1998 documentary on the infamous porn legend.
NEW GRINDHOUSE
Jackie Chan’s Breakout Hits (Arrow): He modeled his martial-arts moves (performed without a double) after Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, and eventually reached their level of global stardom and cinematic iconography. Jackie Chan’s uniquely balletic style of bone-crunching violence – and his adeptness at handling comedy and drama alike – makes him a one-of-a-kind superstar, and this new box set collects the 4K premiere of one of his undisputed masterpieces, Drunken Master II, alongside some of the highlights of his later career, including Rumble in the Bronx, Thunderbolt, Police Story 4: First Strike, Mr. Nice Guy, and Who Am I? This set includes alternate cuts, outtakes, interviews, making-of reels, trailers, and much more, plus a 160-page book.
Also available:
Audition (Arrow): Takashi Miike’s terrifyingly twisted love story, now on 4K.
Bride of Re-Animator (Ignite Films): A 4K, extras-packed collection celebrating Brian Yuzna’s beloved sequel.
Cannibal Girls (CIP): This Canadian horror cheapie helped launch the careers of, believe it or not, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, and director Ivan Reitman.
Children of the Wicker Man (Severin): The sons of director Robin Hardy dig into the legacy of their father’s cult hit The Wicker Man. (Some editions include a 232-page hardcover book with the elder Hardy’s personal documents and photographs related to the film.)
Day of the Dead (Scream Factory): Four-disc, 4K debut of the George A. Romero sequel includes new interviews, commentaries, and featurettes.
Dead Hunt (Saturn’s Core): In a scenario that’s probably aspirational for a lot of filmmakers, ten film critics are summoned to a gathering and then picked off one by one by a mysterious killer.
Death Ship/Terror Train (KL Studio Classics): Two conveyance-based horror movies, now packaged together.
Drive Back (Dark Star): A couple returning from their engagement party find themselves trapped on an apparently endless road.
Lucky (Shudder): An author finds herself pursued by a stalker whom no one else seems to notice.
Matinee (Kino Cult): Not the Joe Dante one – this 1989 meta-slasher takes place at a horror-movie festival, where participants are being bumped off one by one.
Mortal Kombat Kollection (Arrow): Collects the 1995 movie and the sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, with a boatload of extra content.
Ninja Zombie (Bleeding Skull): This joyously wackadoo underground film was shot on Super 8 film in Chicago.
Protector (Magenta Light): War vet Milla Jovovich fights cops, the military, and organized crime to rescue her kidnapped daughter.
Sangster Directs Hammer (Severin): This seven-disc collection celebrates a trio of Hammer Horror films directed by fright-film legend Jimmy Sangster: The Horror of Frankenstein, Lust for a Vampire, and Fear in the Night.
Scream 4 (Lionsgate Limited): New release of the oft-underrated “rebootquel” in 4K steelbook; the VHS version, alas, already sold out.
Slither (Radial): 4K steelbook of the creature feature that put James Gunn on the map.
Unearthly Stranger (KL Studio Classics): 1963 British sci-fi tale about a scientist (John Neville, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) who finds out his new bride may not be of this Earth.
Voices of Desire + Fly Now, Pay Later (AGFA): Future cult-adult director Chuck Vincent made his debut with the trippy erotic horror film Voices of Desire, paired here with another vintage bit of psychedelia.
Waves of Lust (Raro Video): New 4K of an erotic thriller from the director of Cannibal Holocaust.
NEW CLASSIC
Last Summer (Warner Archive): Frank Perry’s 1969 coming-of-age film has long been a favorite of screenwriter Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood), so it’s only fitting that he’s featured among the many extras on this new Blu-ray, including a feature-length documentary directed by Karaszewski and Justin Bozung. The tale of a love triangle (Bruce Davison, Barbara Hershey, Richard Thomas) that turns tragic, Last Summer chillingly explores the moral drift of the decade (not unlike Perry’s earlier film The Swimmerand his subsequent Play It As It Lays). Long unavailable to the viewing public, this new physical release will no doubt introduce the film to a whole new generation. (And Universal, now that you’ve got a 4K of Play It As It Lays, when is that classic finally getting its very first physical-media release?)
Also available:
10 Cloverfield Lane (Paramount): New 4K to mark the 10th anniversary of this bunker-based thriller.
Birds of Prey (KL Studio Classics): Not the Margot Robbie one – this 1968 French thriller sees Lino Ventura sent to South America to commit political assassination.
Brit Noir Collection II (KL Studio Classics): More tense thrillers from across the pond — Home at Seven, The Intruder, and The Long Arm.
Charade (The Criterion Collection): Arguably the Hitchcock-iest movie Hitchcock never directed, the Stanley Donen–directed romantic thriller, featuring world-class sparks between Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, gets a new 4K release.
Click / 50 First Dates (both Sony): If you bought a 4K set-up for maximum Adam Sandler, these two new releases are for you.
Eclipse Series 6: Carlos Saura’s Flamenco Trilogy(The Criterion Collection): The legendary Spanish director tells a trio of stories – Carmen, Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding, and El Amor Brujo – through a uniquely Spanish form of dance.
Eraser (WBD): Later-era Schwarzenegger action saga, now in 4K.
Escape from L.A. (Paramount): The John Carpenter sequel scores a 4K for its 10th anniversary.
Five Easy Pieces (The Criterion Collection): New 4K release of the New Hollywood essential that marked a major breakthrough for Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, screenwriter Carole Eastman, and director Bob Rafelson.
A Game for Six Lovers (Vinegar Syndrome): Serge Gainsbourg (who scored the film) earned his first number-one hit with the title song of this Nouvelle Vague erotic roundelay directed by Cahiers du Cinéma co-founder Jacques Doniol-Valcroze.
Hang ’Em High (KL Studio Classics): Clint Eastwood stars as the survivor of a lynching who turns lawman to get revenge on the men who strung him up.
The Hunt for Red October (Paramount): No doubt timed for Father’s Day, this sub adventure returns with a 4K steelbook edition.
Inspector Maigret Collection (KL Studio Classics): Jean Gabin stars as Georges Simenon’s legendary sleuth in Maigret Sets a Trap, Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case, and Maigret Sees Red.
Jory (KL Studio Classics): Young Robby Benson made his screen debut as a teen who must learn to survive in the Wild West following the death of his father.
King Kong (Paramount): The 1976 version gets a 4K release.
The Lost Man (KL Studio Classics): Sidney Poitier met his soon-to-be-wife Joanna Shimkus on the set of this thriller, starring Poitier as a Black militant on the run after a heist goes wrong.
MacArthur (KL Studio Classics): Gregory Peck plays the legendary general; now in 4K.
Major Payne (KL Studio Classics): Combat veteran Damon Wayans brings his relentless USMC training to bear on a bunch of middle-school ROTC kids in this 1995 comedy.
A Man Could Get Killed (KL Studio Classics): James Garner gets caught up in international intrigue in Ronald Neame’s tongue-in-cheek espionage adventure, co-starring Melina Mercouri, Tony Franciosa, and Sandra Dee.
Marlowe (Arrow): More James Garner, this time taking the role of Raymond Chandler’s immortal gumshoe, sometime after Humphrey Bogart but before Elliott Gould. (Bruce Lee makes his US feature debut here, unless you count his appearance as an infant in Esther Ng’s 1941 Golden Gate Girl.)
A New Love in Tokyo (Kani): This 1994 tale of women working in Japan’s erotic underworld emerges as a rare sex-positive (and even sex work–positive) to emerge from that era.
The Other French New Wave, Vol. 2 (CIP): Quebec had its own Nouvelle Vague, represented here by Between Sweet and Salt Water, Where Are You?, Geneviève, and Fabienne (Fabienne sans son jules).
The Patriot (Sony): Roland Emmerich’s take on the American Revolution, now in 4K.
Redacted (Magnolia): Brian De Palma’s 2007 film examines soldiers fighting in Iraq through the lens of media coverage of the war.
Repo Men (KL Studio Classics): Jude Law and Forest Whitaker are friends turned adversaries in a future dystopia; 4K debut.
The Sacrifice (Kino Classics): Andrei Tarkovsky’s haunting tale of one man’s efforts to set the world right after a devastating war.
Sunset (Mill Creek): Bruce Willis is Tom Mix in Blake Edwards’ comedy-mystery set in the dawn of Hollywood.
Super 8 (Paramount): If Spielberg can get a fancy box set this month, then his protégé J.J. Abrams can score a 4K steelbook release for his most Spielbergian film.
The Texas Rangers (KL Studio Classics): Fred MacMurray giddy-ups for director King Vidor.
Three by Wojciech J. Has (Yellow Veil): A trio of ’60s and ’70s movies from the Polish filmmaker who counted Buñuel, Scorsese, and Coppola among his admirers: The Saragossa Manuscript, The Hourglass Sanitorium, and How to Be Loved.
Vertigo for a Killer (KL Studio Classics): This 1970 European crime thriller knows what it wants to be filed next to in your home-video library.
Wake in Fright (Arrow): One of the first Australian features to break out to an international audience, this harrowing thriller (and Christmas movie!) gets a full 4K treatment with commentaries, interviews, and much more. A difficult film, to be sure, but an absolute must-see.
West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty (The Criterion Collection): Mauritanian filmmaker Med Hondo boldly challenges the history of colonialism with this musical staged in what appears to be a slave ship.
White Palace (Mill Creek): Rich boy James Spader falls for burger-flipping older woman Susan Sarandon in this cult romance.
You Light Up My Life (Mill Creek): Go look up how big a hit this movie and its title song both were; if you weren’t around in the late 1970s, you won’t believe it.
NEW TV
Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal: The Complete Third Season (WB): More visionary prehistory from one of TV animation’s most imaginative creators.
Masters of the Universe: Revelation/Revolution (Mill Creek): Between the original cartoon and the recent big-screen revival came this well-received TV series.
Tales from the Darkside: The Complete Series (Paramount): Fans of anthology shows that go bump in the night won’t want to miss this one.
