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 MARCH: KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, OFFICE KILLER, THE BIG COMBO, AND MORE!
NEW RELEASE WALL
Killers of the Flower Moon (The Criterion Collection): Given how long it took Apple TV to put Best Picture winner CODA on physical media, we should be grateful for the relative speed with which we’re getting a 4K release of Martin Scorsese’s masterful tale of crimes committed against this nation’s indigenous peoples. It’s a sweeping epic of American barbarism, with greedy interests out to slaughter the population that dares stand between a corporation and its oil, told with brutal efficiency and heartbreaking disappointment in human nature. (It also provided a worthy spotlight for the extraordinary Lily Gladstone, who’s been doing excellent work since her brilliant debut in Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women.)
Also available:
Anaconda (Sony): Paul Rudd and Jack Black star as two dreamers who set out to remake the Jon Voight/J. Lo creature feature despite an absence of means or talent.
The Birthday (Arrow): This long-lost Corey Feldman movie, never previously released in the U.S., was recently unearthed by superfan Jordan Peele.
Clika (Sony): Jay Dee stars as a Mexican-American musician with dreams of stardom who gets caught in the gears of the music business.
Ella McCay (20th Century): Writer-director James L. Brooks made a long-awaited return to the big screen with a political satire that didn’t thrill critics or audiences.
Greenland 2: Migration (Lionsgate): Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin are back, looking for yet another safe haven in a world fallen apart.
Hamnet (Universal): Jessie Buckley scored a Best Actress Oscar for Chloe Zhao’s divisive adaptation of the best-seller by Maggie O’Farrell.
The History of Sound (Mubi): Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal star as a pair of early-20th-century musicologists falling in love as they travel the rust belt making ethnographic recordings of American folk songs.
The Housemaid (Lionsgate): Amanda Seyfried hires Sydney Sweeney as a domestic, and the latter catches the eye of Seyfried’s husband Brandon Sklenar. But all is not as its seems in Paul Feig’s deliciously trashy, Sirkian soap.
Is This Thing On? (Searchlight): The imminent divorce of Will Arnett and Laura Dern fuels Arnett’s surprising and burgeoning career as a stand-up comic in Bradley Cooper’s low-key comedy-drama, bolstered by the two leads’ powerful performances.
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (GKIDS): This Oscar-nominated animated feature (winner of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s animated award) shows a young Belgian girl growing up in early-1970s Japan and, like all children, slowly realizing that she is not actually the center of the universe.
Lurker (Mubi): This multi–Spirit Award nominee is deliciously terse little thriller, set among L.A. influencer culture, with two indelible turns from actors Archie Madekwe (Saltburn) and Théodore Pellerin (On Becoming a God in Central Florida).
Marty Supreme (A24): Despite being an Oscar bridesmaid, this terse sports drama from Josh Safdie features a Timothée Chalamet performance (as an obnoxious climber in his field) that will stand the test of time.
The Running Man (Paramount): Edgar Wright takes a crack at the prophetic Stephen King novel, with Glen Powell laced up for action.
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants(Paramount): Lost in the year-end shuffle alongside Zootopia 2 (see below), this third SpongeBob saga was hilarious, colorful, and once again quietly subversive in its critique of gender roles. (No, really.)
We Bury the Dead (Vertical): Daisy Ridley searches for her missing husband in wartime but comes face to face with a bunch of zombies.
Zootopia 2 (Disney): Disney takes us back to the animal world where snakes and bunnies and foxes are
friends but also have to expose deadly conspiracies.
NEW INTERNATIONAL
Suspended Time (Music Box): Olivier Assayas spent the COVID lockdown hunkered down in his family’s country house, and then later made a movie about two couples doing that very thing, in the very same house. We’re only just starting to get movies about how we survived the lockdown, and what it did to our individual and collective psyches, and Assayas’s insights into human behavior, as always, yield hilarity, heartbreak, and much more.
Also available:
The Divine Sarah Bernhardt (Distrib): Sandrine Kiberlain stars as the legendary actress in this French biopic.
Little Trouble Girls (Kino Lorber): Two teenage choir girls clash and come together as they experience a sexual coming-of-age in Slovenia’s Oscar entry.
Poppy (IndiePix Films): A young woman with Down syndrome is determined to fulfill her dream of becoming an auto mechanic in this feel-good Australian import.
NEW DOCUMENTARY
The Big Johnson (Freestyle): A look at the life, career, and untimely death of New York performance-art star Dean Johnson of Dean and the Weenies; interviewees include drag legends Lady Bunny, Jackie Beat, and Sherry Vine.
Cinderella: In Concert (Cleopatra): A 1991 performance by the hair-metal legends.
Elvis ’56 (Lightyear): If Baz Luhrmann’s recent documentary left you hungry for more performance footage, this compilation features many of The King’s earliest TV appearances.
Zodiac Killer Project (Music Box): Documentarian Charlie Shackleton uses an abandoned true-crime documentary as a way of analyzing and deconstructing the true-crime documentary itself.
NEW GRINDHOUSE
Office Killer (Vinegar Syndrome): The one film to date directed by legendary photographer Cindy Sherman – who has used the imagery from old movies and their publicity stills as a touchstone throughout her career – is a clever take on the slasher movie, with Carol Kane giving an indelible performance as a put-upon white-collar wage slave who starts dispatching her obnoxious co-workers. Featuring a stellar supporting cast (including Molly Ringwald, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Barbara Sukowa), this is art-house horror at its most provocative. This new 4K release includes a conversation between Sherman and Ringwald, among other extras.
Also available:
Agitator (Radiance) and Blazing Fists (Well Go USA): Two new releases spotlight the work of prolific, outrageous auteur Takashi Miike.
The Blade (The Criterion Collection): Visionary filmmaker Tsui Hark’s take on the legend of the one-armed swordsman was a commercial disappointment upon its original release, but now ranks among his most acclaimed films.
Busted Babies (Blood Sick): Avant-garde artist Kasper Meltedhair mixes horror and absurdism to nightmarish effect.
Coven of the Black Cube (Blood Sick): A coven of witches helps wives to murder their husband in director Brewce Longo’s queer and bleakly funny take on horror and true-crime.
Cuddly Toys (Vinegar Syndrome): Kansas Bowling explores young women and corrupt older men, with a dollop of Faces of Death, in this cult horror.
Eiichi Kudo’s Samurai Revolution Trilogy (Arrow): This compilation includes three cornerstone films, including 13 Assassins (later remade by Takashi Miike), The Great Killing, and 11 Samurai.
Forgotten Gialli: Volume Nine (Vinegar Syndrome): This new collection of Italian horror features Madness, the queer-themed Bugie Rosse, and Murder in Blue Light.
Helter Skelter and Sakuran (both 88 Films): Two boundary-pushing films from former fashion photographer Mina Ninagawa: Sakuran, her debut, focuses on a successful but reluctant brothel star, while Helter Skelter tells the colorful tale of a top model who comes to regret having extreme and illegal plastic-surgery procedures to stay at the head of the pack.
Highway to Hell (Visual Vengeance): Texas genre master Bret McCormick follows an escaped serial killer on a homicidal spree and the dogged cop on his trail.
Intensive Care (Vinegar Syndrome Labs): The only Dutch horror film directed by a woman (to date) is this 1991 slasher saga about a mad doctor (George Kennedy!) who awakens from a coma and starts eliminating everyone in his path.
The Key (Cult Epics): Stefania Sandrelli and Frank Finlay star in this 1983 erotic saga (banned by the Catholic Church) from Caligula director Tinto Brass.
Leprechaun (Lionsgate): New 4K of the horror fave, featuring Jennifer Aniston in her first big-screen performance.
Lone Samurai (Well Go USA): A dejected samurai on a deserted island regains his desire to live when he becomes the target of the local cannibal tribe.
Massacre (Vinegar Syndrome): Horror filmmakers accidentally summon the spirit of Jack the Ripper in a séance in this bloodier-than-usual giallo, now in 4K.
Picture of a Nymph (88 Films): Martial artists tackle spirits and demons in this xianxia horror saga, produced by Sammo Hung.
Red Sonja (Arrow): The success of the Conan films led to Brigitte Nielsen donning the chain-mail bikini of the Robert E. Howard pulp heroine.
Reviver 2 (Reviver): Another “mystery box” of archival discoveries – titles aren’t announced, but the label promises amazing lost films that have never before been featured on physical media.
The Sexploiters/Raw Love (Kino Cult): Two sleazy grindhouse classics – the former, shot and edited by Cassavetes collaborator Al Ruban, the latter a “hicksploitation” favorite about moonshiners and their cavorts.
The Stewardesses (Kino Cult): One of the most successful 3D releases ever, this stereographic soft-core classic can now be viewed on your home 3D TV with all dimensions intact.
The Substitute (Lionsgate Limited): New 4K of the cult fave starring Tom Berenger as a Vietnam vet who goes undercover as a teacher to take down the high-school gang that assaulted his girlfriend.
Unmasked Part 25 (Vinegar Syndrome): Both a satire of slasher cinema and a bloody example of it in its own right, this British import tells the story of a masked killer who considers hanging up his machete after he falls in love.
Vampyros Lesbos and She Killed in Ecstasy (both Severin): Two sexy, atmospheric Euro-horror classics from the one and only Jess Franco.
NEW CLASSIC
The Big Combo (Ignite): This 1950s noir classic pushed the limits of what the Hays Code would allow, from an offscreen moment of implied sexuality to the close – some might say intimate – bonds between thuggish henchmen played by Lee Van Cleef and Earl Holliman. Cornel Wilde stars as a cop driven to the brink of obsession over his fixation on rescuing society girl Jean Wallace (off-screen, Wilde’s wife at the time) from gangster Richard Conte, and Joseph H. Lewis’ acclaimed crime drama gets the full treatment for its 70th anniversary, from a new 4K restoration to interviews, commentaries (including one from noir king Eddie Muller) to essays (including one by yours truly), and the inclusion of 1949’s The Crooked Way, also shot by Big Combo cinematographer John Alton.
Also available:
Badge 373 (Cinématographe): The recently-departed Robert Duvall stars in this underrated NYC cop drama in a new collection packed with commentaries, essays, and other extras.
Beethoven (KL Studio Classics): Charles Grodin and the St. Bernard that launched a family-film franchise, now in Blu-ray.
The Blue Light (Kino Classics): Before becoming Hitler’s favorite propagandist, Leni Riefenstahl made her directorial debut with this fantastical telling of a German legend.
The Boy and the Beast (GKIDS): 4K premiere of this magical buddy tale from anime legend Mamoru Hosoda (Scarlet).
A Bridge Too Far (KL Studio Classics): This WWII saga assembled one of the most star-packed casts in the history of cinema.
The Business of Fancydancing (The Milestone Cinematheque): Indigenous novelist and screenwriter Sherman Alexie made his directorial debut with this tale of a queer poet who returns to the reservation for the funeral of his childhood friend.
The Chase (Mill Creek): Arthur Penn’s tale of a volatile Southern town in the 1960s boasts an incredible ensemble, led by Marlon Brando, but critics remain divided over the results.
Classe Tous Risques (The Criterion Collection): Lino Ventura and Jean-Paul Belmondo star in Claude Sautet’s gritty drama about a ruthless criminal on the run.
Conversation Piece (Raro): New Blu-ray of Luchino Visconti’s lush period drama, starring Burt Lancaster as an aging professor facing a changing world.
The Court Jester (Paramount): Danny Kaye and the vessel with the pestle, now on Blu-ray.
Cruel Tale of Bushido (Eureka): Director Tadashi Imai won the Golden Bear at the 1963 Berlinale for this tale of generation after generation of tragedy, tied to the moral code of the samurai.
Cutter’s Way (Radiance): Ivan Passer’s murder mystery about the demise of 1960s idealism provided John Heard and Jeff Bridges a platform for some of their richest
performances.
The Dancing Hawk (Radiance): Grzegorz Królikiewicz’s 1977 drama tracks the ruthless rise of a peasant’s son in Poland’s post-WWII socialist society.
Genghis Khan (Mill Creek): Lest you think John Wayne in The Conqueror was the only non-Asian actor to tackle the role of the Mongol military mastermind, Omar Sharif took a crack at it in Henry Levin’s 1965 biopic-adventure.
The Hi-Lo Country (KL Studio Classics): Billy Crudup and Woody Harrelson star as cowboys who both fall for Patricia Arquette in Stephen Frears’ romantic drama.
It All Came True (Warner Archive): Ann Sheridan stars in this musical comedy, featuring Humphrey Bogart as a gangster who hides out in eccentric Zasu Pitts’ boarding house.
K2 (KL Studio Classics): Talk about “opening up” a play – the theater piece is set on the ascent of one of the world’s most treacherous mountains, but this film version features breathtaking shots of the real thing.
Maigret Sees Red (KL Studio Classics): Jean Gabin steps in as the legendary French detective in this 1963 policier, co-starring Françoise Fabian.
Malfeasance: Four Films by Yves Boisset (KL Studio Classics): A quartet of films – Angel’s Leap; Mad Enough to Kill; The Woman Cop; Rise Up, Spy – celebrating the leftist filmmaker known as “the most censored man in France.”
A Man and a Woman (The Criterion Collection): Claude Lelouch’s super-swoony 1960s romance – that theme song! – continues to enchant audiences.
Port of Shadows (KL Studio Classics): New 4K of Marcel Carné’s love story about a deserter (Jean Gabin) finding love in a small town.
The Prisoner of Zenda (KL Studio Classics): Peter Sellers gets full mileage out of playing multiple characters in this spoofy take on the old adventure story.
Rango (Paramount): 4K release of the Oscar-winning animated comedy.
The Return of the Pink Panther (KL Studio Classics): Peter Sellers stepped into the trenchcoat of Inspector Clouseau after a decade’s absence from the big screen, but the results were as hilarious as ever; now in 4K.
Scott Joplin (KL Studio Classics): Billy Dee Williams stars in this Motown-produced biopic of the legendary ragtime composer, which started life as a TV-movie before getting a theatrical release.
Tea and Sympathy (Warner Archive): Vincente Minnelli’s adaptation of the Broadway hit was either a bold or timid exploration of queer themes, depending on your perspective, but the lush Minnelli touch is evident throughout.
Testament (The Criterion Collection): Jane Alexander scored a well-deserved Oscar nod for Lynne Littman’s gutting 1983 drama about an average American family dealing with the aftermath of a nuclear attack.
Uncommon Valor (KL Studio Classics): Gene Hackman assembles a private squadron to search for POWs in Vietnam ten years after the war’s end; new on 4K.
Viridiana (The Criterion Collection): New 4K release of Luis Buñuel’s scathing satire on Catholicism.
NEW TV
Salem’s Lot (Arrow): Tobe Hooper’s acclaimed adaptation of Stephen King’s second novel was declared a horror classic upon its original airing in 1979, remaining a fan favorite to this day. This 4K debut comes loaded with extras, including both the TV-miniseries and theatrical versions, new commentaries (as well as vintage one featuring Hooper), interviews, and featurettes, to name just a few.
Also available:
The Closer: The Complete Series (WBD): Relive the seven seasons of Kyra Sedgwick’s stint as a deputy police chief.
Cobra Kai: The Complete Series (Sony): A show that took a simple concept – what if there were more to the bad guys from The Karate Kid than we gave them credit for? – and turned it into a streaming hit.
For All Mankind: Season Two (Sony): Apple TV’s hit series contemplates a world in which the space race never ended.
Spaceballs: The Totally Warped Animated Adventures! (MVD Rewind): I, for one, had no idea that there was an animated spin-off of Mel Brooks’ Star Wars parody, let alone that Brooks returned to provide the voice of Yogurt, but here it is.
