July '26 Digital Week III

4K/UHD Releases of the Week 

The Crying Game 

(Criterion Collection)

Neil Jordan’s best film is brilliantly directed and written (he won the 1992 Oscar for best original screenplay), starting out as a thriller, then shifting gears into a tentative romance until becoming a quasi-mystery for its startling finish. All these disparate parts are melded into a seamless whole by Jordan, who combines standard plot elements with refreshing twists and psychologically acute characterizations and motivations as well as uncannily juggling disparate moods and rhythms. And let’s not forget the estimable acting by Stephen Rea, Forrest Whittaker, Natasha Richardson and Jaye Davidson, right down to the smallest parts. Criterion’s UHD transfer superbly accentuates Ian Watson’s tangy cinematography; extras are Jordan’s 2005 commentary, new interviews with Jordan and Rea, 2005 making-of documentary and an alternate ending with Jordan’s commentary.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy 

(Warner Bros)

For 135 messy minutes, writer-director Lee Cronin slogs through several excruciatingly insipid storylines that tie standard mummy legend to obscure Egyptian mythmaking and, of all things, demonic possession films, especially The Exorcist, which could sue for defamation. Sequence after limp sequence marches in front of the camera, and it’s all sadly risible—and the end threatens a sequel. Including his name in the title is quite the flex, as if anyone else would want to take credit. The film does look impressive in UHD; extras comprise Cronin’s commentary, deleted scenes and three making-of featurettes.

In-Theater Releases of the Week 

The Floaters 

(Brainstorm Media)

Director Rachel Israel and a cohort of writers concocted this genial comedy set in a Jewish summer camp that brings together former besties Nomi and Mara, who attended as kids; Nomi takes a job as a counselor from camp director Mara after being kicked out of her own rock band and is told to supervise the “floaters,” camp kids considered misfits. Those who are familiar with—or attended—summer camps might get more laughs and nods of recognition from this, but it is certainly likable, especially when the floaters unsurprisingly win over their critics, and nicely-acted by Jackie Tohn (Nomi), Sarah Podemski (Mara) and Judah Lewis, Nina Bloomgarden and Jake Ryan as the head floaters. 

Hadestown 

(Bleecker Street Media) 

Orpheus and Eurydice have been fodder for artists for centuries, but this musical—which opened on Broadway in 2019—by book writer-lyricist-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, isn’t a patch on Offenbach or Cocteau. Set in a Depression-era burg that recalls the French Quarter, the show at times spits out the swampy, jazzy Big Easy sounds; at its most original, Mitchell’s music grooves robustly. The men (Orpheus, Hades and Hermes) have more to work with vocally than the women (Eurydice and Persephone). That’s no slight on Eva Noblezada and Amber Gray, who sound comfortable in their middle range, but the male leads’ voices—Reeve Carney’s high tenor, Patrick Page’s rumblingly low bass and ageless Andre de Shields in between—go on a more satisfying vocal ride. Although Mitchell’s derivative music, lyrics and book don’t come close to their mythical forebears, director Rachel Chavkin makes the show move, literally—a trio of onstage turntables, combined with Rachel Hauck’s seedy set, Michael Krauss’s sober costumes and Bradley King’s savvy lighting, conjures a sweaty musical purgatory.  

Night Nurse 

(IFC Midnight)

Writer-director Georgia Bernstein’s glossy drama about Eleni, a young nurse at a retirement home who becomes entangled in a sordid emotional and criminal relationship with Douglas, one of her elderly patients, tries to be so many things at once—erotic thriller, crime drama, psychological character study—that it ends up flailing unsatisfactorily. As Bernstein loses control, the film’s moodiness becomes a liability, as scenes of Eleni and Douglas in various stages of their mutually harmful kinship start to become perfunctory and dull—even a surprising murder seems more a desperate way to end things. On the plus side, Cemre Paksoy gives a commanding performance as the needy Eleni and Bruce McKenzie is nearly as good as the dementia-addled but virile Douglas.

CD Releases of the Week

Ottorino Respighi—Chamber Music 

(Brilliant Classics)

Italian composer Ottorino Respighi’s prodigious and impressive output has been reduced over the decades to his best-known orchestral tone poems like Pines of Rome and Fountains of Rome; as this excellent disc shows, Respighi was much more than his most popular works. (He even composed several flavorful operas.) The DaVinci Ensemble plays two of Respighi’s string quartets and the masterly F-minor piano quintet—with an assurance that showcases the composer’s characteristic melodic sense and musical structure.

John Williams/Bernard Herrmann—Orchestral Works 

(Pentatone)

John Williams and Bernard Herrmann were two of the greatest film composers—Williams’ long collaboration with Steven Spielberg is equaled by Herrmann’s with Alfred Hitchcock—so this disc, comprising concert works by both composers, is an intriguing left turn. Williams’ Essay for Strings (1965) and Concerto for Flute, Strings and Percussion (1969) contain the attractive melodies and ear-catching rhythms associated with his later film scores. Herrmann’s 1967 Clarinet Quintet (subtitled Souvenirs de Voyage), adapted by Hans Sorensen for clarinet and string orchestra, is a pensive late work. The soloists (flutist Jin Ta and clarinetist Ma Yue) and Singapore Symphony Orchestra under conductors Darrell Ang and Joshua Tan play with sensitivity to both composers.

December '25 Digital Week III

In-Theaters/Streaming Releases of the Week 

Blue Moon 

(Sony Classics)

Ethan Hawke throws himself into playing Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart—one-half of the immortal team of Rodgers and Hart, creators of such indelible musicals as Babes in Arms and Pal Joey—in Richard Linklater’s mostly inert biopic that concentrates on one day in Hart’s life, the opening night of Oklahoma, the first collaboration of Hart’s former partner Richard Rodgers with Oscar Hammerstein II. Set at the venerable theater restaurant Sardi’s, the film has a certain interest for musical theater fans (especially when a young Stephen Sondheim, a protégé of Hammerstein, appears), but Robert Kaplow’s script tries to cram too much into its single setting, taking away from its focus on Hart, who would be dead a few months after this night. Hawke does immerse himself poignantly in the songwriter’s messy personal life, and he’s the main reason to watch until the predictably tragic end.

Sentimental Value 

(Neon)

Danish-Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s latest melodrama explores a fractured family, as film director Gustav returns home after his ex-wife Sissel’s death to tell his two adult daughters—Agnes, a wife, mother and historian; and Nora, a temperamental stage actress having an affair with a married colleague—with the news that he’s making a film (with famous American actress Rachel Kemp) about his mother’s torture as a Nazi resistance fighter leading to her suicide when Gustav was young. The complications of family history rear their heads throughout, but Trier concentrates on too many loose ends, like standard-issue stage or on-set sequences that do little to illuminate matters. Stellan Skarsgård is perfectly cast as the boorish but boyish Gustav, Elle Fanning is an excellent Rachel and Renate Reinsve a fine Nora, but Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas steals each of her scenes as Agnes. Trier should have focused on her instead.

4K/UHD Releases of the Week 

David Byrne’s American Utopia 

(Criterion)

Director Spike Lee and cinematographer Ellen Kuras capture David Byrne’s groundbreaking 2019 Broadway show combining music and movement in exhilarating fashion, centered on Byrne’s unique stage presence, a savant leading his congregation in the holy gospel of song, with Annie-B Parson’s expressive choreography and Bob Sinclair’s inventive lighting visually complementing Byrne’s songs—from early Talking Heads to his recent solo material—accompanied by a dozen musicians, singers and dancers. Criterion’s new release comprises a 4K disc of the film, which looks and sounds immaculate; and two Blu-ray discs of the film and two extras: a 55-minute documentary about the show featuring Byrne, Kuras, Parson, and Sinclair, and a short Byrne and Lee conversation, socially distanced, from 2020.

Boogie Nights 

(Warner Bros)

Paul Thomas Anderson’s second feature, made in 1997, is now considered a classic—unaccountably, in my view; this shrill, cartoonish, shallow look at the L.A. porn scene of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s fails as both a satire of and affectionate tribute to its dim denizens. In a cast of banal caricatures, Mark Wahlberg and Burt Reynolds come off best; following his auspicious debut Hard Eight, this overstuffed would-be epic is the first of similar films that have dotted Anderson’s career—Magnolia, The Master, Licorice Pizza, One Battle After Another—but I realize I’m in the minority. It all looks great in 4K; extras include commentaries by Anderson and by the cast, American Cinematheque Q&A and deleted scenes.

Blu-ray Release of the Week 

Maria Roumagnac 

(Icarus Films)

Two legends of the silver screen—Marlene Dietrich and Jean Gabin—appeared for the only time together in French director Georges Lacombe’s doomed soap-operaish romance between a shop owner very popular with men and a working-class building contractor, whose jealousy over her sexually adventurous past (and present) pushes him over the edge tragically. Despite the stiffness of the characterizations and the dialogue—especially in the climactic court sequence—the onscreen chemistry between Dietrich and Gabin more than compensates. The restored 1946 B&W film looks ravishing on Blu. 

DVD/CD Release of the Week

Nicola Porpora—Polifemo 

(Chateau de Versailles)

Italian composer Nicola Porpora (1686-1768) wanted to challenge reigning opera genius George Frideric Handel at his own game in London, and the result was this 1735 Baroque epic romance populated by the goddess Galatea, the Cyclops, and ordinary men including Ulysses, whose appearance presages a conflict between the gods and the mortals. This live performance from Versailles in 2024 is colorfully over-the-top both vocally and visually; it’s too bad that it’s only a DVD instead of superior sharpness of a Blu-ray. Still, it’s nice to have a visual record of this performance, along with three CDs housing the audio recording.

October '25 Digital Week III

In-Theater Releases of the Week 

Auction 

(Menemsha Films/Film Forum)

A painting by Austrian artist Egon Schiele turns up in the house of a young man, and André, an enterprising dealer from a famed Paris auction house, discovers that it was taken from its rightful owner by the Nazis in 1939, and the owner’s heirs are making a claim to it. Director Pascal Bonitzer’s accomplished drama unfolds like a slow-burning thriller, but it’s also a clear-eyed look at ethics and morality in a world that’s anything but black and white. Bonitzer and top actors like Alex Lutz (as André), the great Léa Drucker (as Bertina, his colleague and ex) and Louise Chevillotte (as his oddball intern) help make Auction smart and involving from the get-go. 

It Was Just an Accident 

(Neon/Film at Lincoln Center)

The latest from Iranian master Jafar Panahi—who has made ironical dramas about contemporary Iranian life for the past 30 years, since his debut, The White Balloon—is possibly his most incendiary yet, confronting defenders of the current authoritarian regime through their vicious actions against those in opposition. Vahid, who was arrested years earlier by an unapologetic pawn of the regime who’s nicknamed Peg Leg, realizes his torturer is living an ordinary family life and decides to kidnap him—but then hesitates about what to do next. Suspenseful and tense sequences abound, including a few truly stunning one-shot moments that make the flamboyant visuals of One Battle After Another look like amateurish meandering. Panahi filmed this surreptitiously—and illegally, according to incensed government officials—but every frame is filled with unparalleled urgency and artistry.

The Mastermind 

(Mubi/Film at Lincoln Center)

Kelly Reichardt’s latest stripped-down anti-comic drama is crammed with contrivances that show a filmmaker who’s run out of ideas. When James, a disaffected, unemployed father, decides to steal four Arthur Dove paintings from a Massachusetts art museum, he soon finds himself in trouble with his family, the mob and the law (duh). Although Jack O’Connor gives an appealing hangdog quality to James, a man who doesn’t quite know what his American dream but is desperate to try anything to achieve it, there’s not much else to recommend this shockingly sloppy movie. Rob Mazurek’s rhythmic score is more enervating than tense, while Alana Haim as Terri, James’ wife, is as inexpressive as she was in Paul Thomas Anderson’s worst movie, Licorice Pizza. Though set in 1970, at the height of the Vietnam, evidence of the war is scant until there’s a climactic peace demonstration in which James gets his comeuppance; it’s one of the most leaden bits of dramatic irony I’ve seen in a long time but is the perfect ending for such a lazy film.

4K/UHD Releases of the Week

Deep Crimson 

(Criterion)

Mexican master Arturo Ripstein’s take on The Honeymoon Killers is a fairly lurid, fairly sensational and fairly interesting crime melodrama—except that all those “fairly”s add up to a well-done missed opportunity. There are some very good, even memorable moments like each of the murder sequences, which are treated in a matter-of-fact fashion that’s all the more disturbing. And Ripstein’s vivid visual sense is made manifest by his subtly roving camera that moves among the criminals and their prey. But a routine atmosphere soon settles in, and by the final scenes of the couple’s capture and execution, what started dynamically ends in lurching fits and starts. Even David Mansfield’s chamber score seems out of place. There’s an exceptional 4K transfer; extras are interviews with Ripstein and cowriter Paz Alicia Garciadiego along with a post-screening Q&A they gave.

Weapons 

(Warner Bros)

In Zach Cregger’s convoluted thriller, new teacher Justine is the prime suspect when all of the young students in her classroom disappear one night, except for one—but there’s much more to the seemingly inscrutable happenings once she, Archer (father of one of the children) and policeman Paul (a married ex she’s still sleeping with) start snooping around. Cregger cheats right from the start—shots of the kids running through the streets at night have an eerily similar look to the famous photo of a Vietnamese child burned by napalm, which I hope isn’t intentional—and he ends up telling a familiar tale of a witch’s spell that destroys all in its nonsensical path. The acting by Julia Garner (Julie), Josh Brolin (Archer), Alden Ehrenreich (Paul) and an unrecognizable Amy Madigan (the witchy villain) partially elevates Cregger’s derivative script and direction. The film looks impressive on UHD; extras are short on-set featurettes and interviews.

Blu-ray Release of the Week

School in the Crosshairs 

(Cult Epics)

Japanese auteur Nobuhiko Obayashi, whose unclassifiable but classic 1977 magnum opus House is his best-known film, made this even more surreal sci-fi parody-cum-homage in 1981. It follows the exploits of a high-school student (played by Hiroko Yakushimaru, a teen heartthrob at the time) who discovers she has telekinetic powers one day at school and soon realizes that a malevolent alien invasion is imminent. Obayashi’s droll social commentary comes to the fore when several students’ minds begin to be controlled by extraterrestrials, stifling free speech; a welcome sense of playfulness in Obayashi’s directing and writing is on display, as it was in House. The restored film looks quite good on Blu; extras include a commentary and visual essay.

DVD Release of the Week 

Niki 

(Distrib Films US)

Charlotte Le Bon’s fiery performance as French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002), who overcame incestuous abuse as a young girl from her father—which led to mental health issues for which things like shock therapy were deemed appropriate treatment—to find her voice in painting, sculptures and collages, centers this conventional but well-made portrait of the artist as a young woman. Making her directorial debut, Céline Sallette imbues time-honored devices like split screens and title cards with remarkable freshness, but it’s all at the service of telling an honest account of a difficult story that ultimately shows how art can be a way to overcome trauma.

CD Release of the Week

Bacewicz—String Quartet No. 4, Piano Quintet No. 1 

(Evil Penguin)

It’s heartening that Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-69), the first 20th-century Polish female composer to earn deserved—if belated—recognition for her startlingly original scores, has in the past few had releases of several excellent discs of her music, even though they have primarily been recordings of her highly expressive orchestral works. This disc features two of her most exhilarating chamber pieces, the Piano Quintet No. 1—which begins with one of the composer’s most haunting musical themes—and the String Quartet No. 4, which was composed in 1951, amazingly just a year before the quintet. The Kinski Quartet, with marvelous accompaniment from pianist Jâms Coleman in the quintet, gives these superlative pieces vigorous workouts alongside a beating heart.

August '25 Digital Week II

In-Theater Releases of the Week 

Eden 

(Vertical Entertainment)

Based on the sordid true story of a group of Europeans moving to an isolated island in the Galapagos in the early 1930s to escape what they see as the decline of civilization only to discover they are also capable of destroying themselves in utopia, Ron Howard’s drama is blunt and often eye-rollingly unsubtle, but the strange goings-on hold interest for two hours along with an array of bizarrely idiosyncratic performances. There’s Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby, intense as the original couple; Daniel Bruehl and Sydney Sweeney, understated as the first visitors to arrive; and Ana de Armas, brazenly scenery-chewing as a self-styled, sexually voracious Baroness. A 2013 documentary, The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, covers the same tale but gives the disappearances and deaths a more mysterious air.

Angelheaded Hipster 

(Greenwich Entertainment)

Although Marc Bolan and his band T. Rex are known here solely for the hit “Bang a Gong (Get It On),” in England Bolan was a national treasure, as popular in his early ’70s heyday as Bowie, Elton John and Queen. In keeping with their near-invisibility stateside, Ethan Silverman’s illuminating documentary was made in 2022 and is only getting released—it returns to that moment to show how Bolan’s personality and unique genius bolstered his popularity until his seemingly inevitable early death, at age 35 in a 1980 car crash. Voluminous archival footage, concert clips and interviews present a colorful portrait of a singular artist in rock history.

Checkpoint Zoo 

(Abramorama)

Russia’s unprovoked 2022 invasion of Ukraine has not only put people and property at great risk for the past 3-1/2 years but also countless animals; Joshua Zeman’s wrenching documentary focuses on Feldman Ecopark, an animal refuge near Ukraine’s second-largest city where those in residence needed to be removed from their dangerous location to safer spaces once the invasion began. Zeman also introduces the many brave people, from zoo workers to volunteers, who risk their very lives to try and get the animals to safety, all while the deadly war rages around them. In fact, the most memorable moments of the documentary are the raw footage from the front lines that these same people record for posterity.

The Glassworker 

(Watermelon Pictures)

In the first hand-drawn animated film to be produced entirely in Pakistan, director Usman Riaz has created an often visually stunning if diffuse drama about Vincent, who follows in his father Tomas’ footsteps to become an original glassmaker; he also falls in love with Alliz, a young musician from an army colonel’s family. There’s also a war that kills Alliz’s father and indirectly cripples Tomas; if parts are borderline cheesy and shamelessly sentimental, there’s no denying the mindblowing animation that spectacularly recreates the exacting glassworks. 

My Mother’s Wedding 

(Vertical Entertainment)

Although it’s laudable that Kristin Scott Thomas makes her directorial debut from a script she cowrote with her current husband John Micklethwait based on how her father’s and stepfather’s tragic deaths affected her and her family, the resulting film is a soggy mess, with the director herself playing Diana, marrying for the third time while her grown daughters—Victoria, a famous Hollywood actress; Katherine, a Navy officer; and Georgina, a harried wife and mother—must deal with the heavy emotional baggage of the event and family history. To be sure, some of the acting is excellent, with Sienna Miller particularly effective as the pampered Victoria, Scott Thomas her incandescent self as Diana and Emily Beecham a heartbreaking Georgina, but Scarlett Johannsen is out of her element as Katherine, with a wavering British accent and no chemistry with the charming Frieda Pinto as her lover Jack. 

My Undesirable Friends: Part I—Last Air in Moscow

This monumental five-hour documentary by director Julia Loktev is an upsetting yet hopeful chronicle of the state of opposition journalists in Russia—specifically, those who, against all odds and with punishment hanging over their heads, counter the party line that Putin is infallible. (According to law, they must admit, in their writings and TV appearances, that they are “foreign agents.”) Anna Nemzer, one of these enterprising and unabashedly brave journalists, codirects, and together she and Loktev have created an urgent time capsule of Russian resistance just before and immediately after Putin’s illegal 2022 invasion of Ukraine. 

4K/UHD Releases of the Week 

The Burmese Harp

Fires on the Plain 

(Criterion Collection)

Japanese director Kon Ichikawa (1915-2008) made several classics, including An Actor’s Revenge (1963) and Tokyo Olympiad (1964)—both also released by Criterion—but his greatest may be this pair of anti-war dramas that home in on how individual soldiers are forever changed by the insanity of war. The Burmese Harp (1956) follows several prisoners of war in a British labor camp and how their spirituality helps them overcome all odds, while Fires on the Plain (1959) poetically but terrifyingly evokes the complete loss of humanity among a group of soldiers lost inside war’s horrors. Ichikawa was a humanist who was also a realist and his films are a difficult but worthwhile watch. Both films have luminous UHD transfers; extras include interviews with Ichikawa, actors Rentaro Mikuni and Mickey Curtis and an intro by scholar Donald Richie.

The Accountant 2 

(Warner Bros)

Did we really need a sequel to the autistic hitman movie of a few years ago? Apparently so—and, it must be admitted, the second go-round of accountant/killer Christian Wolff’s exploits is more entertaining than the first time. If director Gavin O’Connor takes his sweet time setting things up—and almost losing control during a drawn-out set piece concerning a bus filled with migrant children—the payoff is in the chemistry between Ben Affleck’s Christopher and Jon Bernthal’s Braxton, Christian’s brother and fellow hitman. (How’s that for keeping it in the family?) There are already rumblings that there will be a third chapter, and if they can make it sleeker and swifter (under two hours, please!), I’ll gladly partake. The film looks splendid on UHD.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

Donizetti—Roberto Devereaux

(Dynamic)

In this historical opera by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), the real-life tale of England’s Queen Elizabeth I and her favorite, the Earl of Essex, has attractive music and fast-moving—if often fanciful—storytelling. Stephen Langridge’s 2024 staging at Bergamo, Italy’s Donizetti Festival keeps the focus on the central relationship, and the performances of Jessica Pratt (Elisabetta) and John Osborn (Roberto Devereux) are musically and histrionically satisfying. The playing of the Orchestra Donizetti Opera under conductor Riccardo Frizza and singing of the Coro dell’Accademia Teatro alla Scala under chorus master Salvo Sgrò are equally fine. The hi-def video and audio are first-rate.

His Motorbike, Her Island 

(Cult Epics)

Maverick Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi (1938-2020) made several films about ordinary young people on the margins of society, and his 1986 drama follows Koh, a biker who meets and falls for Miyoko, a young woman who also rides motorcycles. Obayashi cleverly uses much visual and aural trickery to his advantage, and his leads, Riki Takeuchi and the beguiling Kiwako Harada, are thrillingly alive as the young lovers. The film looks quite good on Blu; extras comprise a commentary, two visual essays and an archival Obayashi interview. 

Rather 

(Giant Pictures)

The long and storied career of veteran CBS reporter and anchorman Dan Rather is recounted by director Frank Marshall in this breezily informative—but not hagiographic—documentary. Rather’s many highs (coverage of the JFK assassination, the 1968 Democratic Convention, the Vietnam War) are documented alongside lows like his antipathy for the Bush family that culminated in the sad spectacle of forged documents about Dubya’s national guard exploits that nearly derailed Rather’s career. Rather himself, of course, is heard from, in archival footage and in a new interview, along with family members, colleagues and analysts like Margaret Sullivan of the Buffalo News. The sad truth is that the sort of journalism Rather practiced is sorely missing from today’s imbecile news cycle and will probably never come back.

CD Release of the Week

Yuliya—Forgotten Songs of Julia Weissberg Rimsky-Korsakov 

(Azica)

As the daughter-in-law of famed Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov—whose elaborate operas never gained a foothold in the repertory but whose evocative orchestral piece Scheherazade did—you’d think Julia Weissberg Rimsky-Korsakov (1878-1942) would have had a higher prominence based on name alone. But that was the not the case: although her music was played in Russia and Germany, after her death she faded in obscurity, possibly because she didn’t use her famous father-in-law’s last name. Now, thanks to the intrepid efforts of American soprano Sarah Moulton Faux, here’s a group of 15 of Weissberg’s songs that will likely be an impressive introduction for many listeners. These harmonically adventurous songs have fluid vocal lines that Faux sings beautifully; piano accompanist Konstantin Soukhovetski plays sensitively; and the disc makes us want to hear more from a mostly forgotten composing voice.

June '25 Digital Week III

In-Theater Releases of the Week 

Materialists 

(A24)

In her second feature—her debut Past Lives earned her an Oscar nomination for best screenplay—writer-director Celine Song again explores the intimate relationships of her protagonists, this time among a subset of Manhattan residents: Lucy, a matchmaker; John, her former boyfriend and struggling actor; and Harry, a charming billionaire she falls for. As in the earlier film, Song’s dialogue is beautifully written—clever without being cloying and articulate without being overbearing; but she can’t completely break free of the rom-coms she is deconstructing, so the characters interact predictably and, in the end, conventionally. In the leads, Dakota Johnson (Lucy) has never been better, and Chris Evans (John) and Pedro Pascal (Harry) are equally good as the men in her lives. 

Sex 

(Strand Releasing)

The second film in Norwegian writer-director Dag Johan Haugerud’s triptych about nontraditional intimacy follows two married men who work together in Oslo—a chimney sweep and his supervisor—who discuss intimate subjects including their sex lives: the supervisor admits to having had pleasurable sex with another man. The sweep is surprised, but when the supervisor confesses his escapade to his wife, she feels (not wrongly) that their entire relationship has shifted because he cheated, even if he says it was a one-off with no lasting repercussions. Like Love, Sex is an intriguing theoretical exercise masquerading as a deep dive into intimate relationships. Since Haugerud plays coy throughout, the film’s emotional and dramatic stakes of these endless conversations never seem genuine or urgent—what will the final film, Dreams, bring? 

In-Theater/Streaming Release of the Week

Simple Minds—Everything Is Possible 

(Greenwich Entertainment)

Joss Crowley’s entertaining documentary about the Scottish rock band—founded by and still comprising singer Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill—touches on its storied history, from forming in high school in the late ‘70s to still going today, in a fleet 87 minutes. Although it glosses over a lot, Kerr and Burchill are forthcoming, and their stories (and those of musical colleagues and friends) are often uproarious and even poignant. Molly Ringwald is on hand to inform us that she told The Breakfast Club director John Hughes that Simple Minds should record what turned out to be the group’s biggest hit, “Don’t You Forget About Me.” Although Kerr and Burchill admit to being reluctant to record a song they didn’t write, they’ve since come to terms with it overshadowing the rest of their career—at least in America.

4K/UHD Releases of the Week

Drop 

(Universal)

The latest Blumhouse horror is less horrific than occasionally unnerving: widowed mom Violet has a first date that goes wrong in every way, especially when someone begins drop-texting her, threatening her young son and babysitter sister if she doesn’t kill her date. Director Christopher Landon and writers Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach’s lean thriller speeds through so many unlikely twists and turns that there’s no time to stop and say, “WTF.” It helps, too, to have a sympathetic and appealing lead like Meghann Fahy as the harried Violet. There’s a super UHD transfer; extras include featurettes and a director’s commentary.

The Wiz 

(Criterion)

When Sidney Lumet’s vivid cinematic adaptation of the hit Broadway show that tweaked L.L. Baum’s The Wizard of Oz for a funky generation was released in 1978, it was met with either guffaws or indifference, despite its pedigree and starry cast led by Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Lena Horne and Richard Pryor. Yes, it’s overlong and overstuffed and Lumet doesn’t have a complete handle on the musical numbers, but it’s a riotously colorful snapshot of mid-’70s New York, especially in the finale at World Trade Center Plaza. Criterion’s restoration looks eye-poppingly impressive; too bad extras are so meager: short archival interviews with Lumet and Ross as well as an audio commentary.

A Working Man 

(Warner Bros)

In his latest routine action flick, Jason Statham plays a former black-ops soldier now working as a construction foreman who returns to his old job when his boss’ daughter is kidnaped by a group of violent Russian thugs. Unsurprisingly, Statham and director David Ayers follow the blueprint of last year’s The Beekeeper, although to meager returns. But there is fun to be had in watching Statham do in so many bad guys (and gals), even if the thread of credibility is stretched thin to breaking. The film looks sharp in 4K; there are no extras.

CD Releases of the Week 

Ligeti—Concertos 

(Harmonia Mundi)

Hungarian composer György Ligeti (1923-2006) is best known for his otherworldly music, which was so brilliantly used by Stanley Kubrick in three films: 2001, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut. But Ligeti’s genius stems from his wide-ranging oeuvre, which makes up a singular musical vision. The concertos on this disc bear that out, from the early Concert Românesc for small orchestra to the dizzying flights of fancy of his violin and piano concertos, fiendishly difficult to perform but still playful and light on their musical feet. The soloists—violinist Isabelle Faust and pianist Jean-Frédéric Neuburger—are more than up to the task, as is the ensemble Les Siècles led by François-Xavier Roth. 

Shostakovich—Suites and Concertos 

(Capriccio)

The great Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75) was prolific in many genres, from chamber music to symphonies to operas; in fact, his cycles of 15 string quartets and 15 symphonies are among the most imposing of the 20th century. This superb compilation of several recordings made between 1996 and 2005 contains three discs of some of his signature works for orchestra, like his Jazz Suite No. 2, suites from the ballets The Bolt and The Age of Gold, and two of his concerto masterworks: the Piano Concerto No. 1 (which includes the famous obbligato turn for a trumpet) and the Violin Concerto. Various orchestras and conductors acquit themselves well in these works, and the concerto soloists—pianist Thomas Duis, trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich and violinist Vladimir Spirakov—give estimable performances.

June '25 Digital Week II

In-Theater Releases of the Week 

Ballerina 

(Lionsgate)

This entry into the John Wick universe introduces Eve, an assassin out to avenge her father’s murder at the hands of a syndicate headed by the Chancellor, who seemingly has an entire village in central Europe at his lethal disposal. Director Len Wiseman doesn’t vary the blueprint for these shoot-’em-ups that resemble nothing more video games on the big screen, and despite how dopily entertaining it is, two hours of dozens (and dozens) of killings, however cleverly executed—Eve and adversaries wield guns, grenades, knives, swords, ice skate blades, water hoses and flamethrowers—make its star, the usually magnetic Ana de Armas, secondary to the action. The ending leaves room for a sequel, which is either a promise or a threat, depending on one’s point of view. 

Our War 

(Cohen Media Group)

French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy has already made films about Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion—Why Ukraine, Slava Ukraini, Glory to the Heroes!—and his latest (codirected with Marc Roussel) is another urgent dispatch from the front lines, showing that the fighting spirit of the armed forces, ordinary citizens and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not wavered despite years of wanton destruction and death. Lévy smartly shows, without comment, the disgusting gotcha Oval Office display by Trump and his lapdog Vance when they jumped on Zelenskyy as if he invaded Russia and not the other way around—letting its idiocy speak for itself. But the bulk of Lévy’s film records the depth of the brave patriotism of so many Ukrainians.

Redlands 

(Dekanalog)

Made in 2014, John Brian King’s film about Vienna (Nicole Arianna Fox), a nude model who poses for creepy photographer Allan (Clifford Morts) while living with her creep of a boyfriend/pimp, Zack (Sam Brittan), is a slow-burn drama in which not much is burning. It’s a series of stiffly staged sequences that leads to a final scene in a morgue, and it ends up resembling a snuff film. It’s sharply photographed by Ioana Vasile and unevenly acted by Morts as Allan and Brittan as Zack, while Fox’s winning presence as Vienna make us feel that both performer and character deserve a better fate. 

Streaming Releases of the Week

The Amateur 

(20th Century Studios)

Based on a novel by Robert Littell that was previously adapted as a 1981 drama with John Savage and Christopher Plummer, James Hawes’ mild thriller follows a CIA cryptographer, Charlie Fuller (Remi Malek), who forces himself into action to track down the quartet of terrorists responsible for the gruesome execution of his innocent wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan). Jumping around Europe following Charlie ingeniously planning his revenge against the foursome—and evading his complicit superiors—the movie covers a lot of geographical ground but haphazard plotting and a lack of an emotional connection (Ramek is surprisingly distant in what could have been a bravura turn) mitigate its efficiency.

Hurry Up Tomorrow 

(Lionsgate)

Pop star vanity projects are a dime a dozen, but not since the mid-’80s—when Prince’s Purple Rain and Under the Cherry Moon and Paul McCartney’s Give My Regards to Broad Street soiled screens—has there been a wrongheaded entry like this, which the Weeknd cowrote and stars in as a version of himself dealing with emotional and relationship turmoil while being the biggest star in the world. At least Prince and Paul had good tunes to assuage their egos; the Weeknd’s synth-laden, autotuned pop is tough to hear over and over. The usually appealing Jenna Ortega only has one good scene, when she dances deliriously; poor Barry Keough is also wasted as the star’s manager. Director Trey Edward Shults (also a cowriter) has little sense of pacing or drama, and the result is a dreary 105 minutes.

4K/UHD Releases of the Week

Brazil 

(Criterion)

Terry Gilliam’s dystopian vision was made in 1985, but its bleak look at a society crushed by an oppressive government might even be more relevant today, in the second era of Trump. Despite its subject matter—our hero ends up being crushed like the bug at the beginning that sets everything in motion—the movie is awash with the brilliantly original visuals that have made Gilliam one of our premier cinematic stylists. The 4K image looks superlative, and this set (one UHD, one Blu-ray) ports over numerous extras from Criterion’s three-Blu-ray set: Gilliam’s sparkling commentary; on-set documentary What Is Brazil?; The Battle of Brazil, a one-hour documentary about the friction between Gilliam and Universal Studios; interviews; storyboards; visual essays; and Universal’s 94-minute, mercilessly butchered “Love Conquers All” version of the film that Gilliam disowned and which was only shown in syndication.

Sean Connery 6-Film James Bond Collection 

(Warner Bros)

Debates have gone on for decades about who was the best James Bond; Pierce Brosnan came close with his mixture of sardonic suavity, but the OG, Sean Connery, still reigns supreme, as witness this set of his first six appearances as 007. The movies, of course—1962’s Dr. No, 1963’s From Russia With Love, 1964’s Goldfinger, 1965’s Thunderball, 1967’s You Only Live Twice and 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever (his abortive return in 1983’s Never Say Never Again is mercifully skipped)—remain sniggeringly sexist and offhandedly racist, but Connery’s charisma and a raft of plots, gadgets and guest villains make them as entertaining as ever. The films have superb UHD transfers; and the voluminous extras include director and crew commentaries as well as many archival featurettes, interviews, TV ads, and documentaries.

January '25 Digital Week II

4K/UHD Release of the Week 

The Mother and the Whore 

(Criterion)

French director Jean Eustache’s 1973 masterpiece may be the greatest film his compatriots Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer or Jean-Luc Godard never made—its mammoth length (3 hours and 40 minutes) belies the simplicity of its subject and execution: it’s a look at a narcissistic young man’s relationships with his live-in lover and a new woman in his life. Although it’s nearly all talk, since it’s Eustache’s script—with supposedly no improvisation—it’s emotionally direct and honest. This is by far Jean-Pierre Leaud’s best performance, and Bernadette Lafont and Francoise Lebrun equal him as his eponymous lovers. The photography and editing are sublime, and the shattering ending reminds one of Ozu, which is high praise indeed. The B&W film looks stupendously sharp in UHD; extras comprise new interviews with Lebrun and filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin; archival interviews with Eustache, Leaud, Lafont and Lebrun; and a restoration featurette.

In-Theater/Streaming Release of the Week

Wicked 

(Universal)

It starts with an ugly, CGI-drenched opening and ends more than two and a half hours later with the showstopper “Defying Gravity”—which is only the end of the first act of Steven Schwartz’s blockbuster Broadway musical. That means we have to sit through another two-plus hours next holiday season to finish this thing. So is it all worth it? Not really—it’s a mighty slog to get through, the songs are mainly negligible, the story isn’t as clever as it should be, and only Cynthia Erivo has the requisite vocal chops and acting prowess to make Elphaba soar into the stratosphere. Ariana Grande also has a powerhouse voice, but when she tries to act, she’s laughably inadequate. Further, Bowen Tang, Jeff Goldblum, and Michelle Yeoh are wincingly hammy, while Jon M. Chu’s direction consists of making things bigger, louder and more garish without settling on a consistent tone or style.

In-Theater Release of the Week 

Every Little Thing 

(Kino Lorber)

Sally Aitken’s heartwarming documentary is an intimate portrait of author Terry Masear, who diligently and lovingly rehabs hummingbirds out of her California home, taking in those that were orphaned or injured and meticulously nurses them back to health. Aitken’s camera follows Masear, who founded Los Angeles Hummingbird Rescue 20 years ago and wrote the book Fastest Things on Wings in 2016, and also provides stunning views of the birds themselves—as Maseur notes, hummingbirds flap their wings 50 times a second, something that seems impossible to contemplate even as Aitken records it.  

Streaming/Blu-ray Release of the Week

Touristic Intents 

(First Run)

Prora, which was a huge resort complex on Germany’s Baltic Sea, was built but left unfinished by the Nazi regime, and Mat Rappaport’s informative and thoughtful documentary explores its postwar life: the East German government continued its construction, using the place for military operations as well as housing for conscientious objectors. Then there are the lasting implications of its history—through insightful interviews and on-location footage, Rappaport raises important questions exploring the dissection of tourism and politics. There’s an excellent hi-def transfer.   

Blu-ray Release of the Week 

Mozart—Mitridate re di Ponto 

(Unitel)

One of Mozart’s early operas, a tragedy about a king and his two sons who are all in love with the same woman, comes off as stately and often static in director Satoshi Miyagi’s 2022 Berlin State Opera staging, despite Mozart’s often melodious music. The cast, led by Pene Pati, Ana Maria Labin, Angela Brower, Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian, Sarah Aristidou and Ken Sugiyama, is impeccable, while the Les Musiciens du Louvre under conductor Marc Minkowski provide solid support. There’s first-rate hi-def video and audio.

DVD Release of the Week

Sisterhood 

(Distrib Films US)

Although the French title, HLM Pussy, gets right to the point—if too rudely for some, obviously— Nora El Hourch’s trenchant character study dramatizes how a close-knit group of teenage female friends becomes partially estranged when one calls out her brother’s best friend for sexual harassment. Bringing “MeToo” into a different arena, El Hourch finds space for sympathy and understanding as well as justified rage, and she has assembled a perfect cast of mostly unknown performers—I only recognized the elegant Berenice Bejo, who plays the mom of one of the teens—for a clear-eyed, truthful study that’s all the more remarkable for being El Hourch’s debut feature.

CD Release of the Week 

Ruth Gipps—Orchestral Works, Vol. 3 

(Chandos)

Englishwoman Ruth Gipps (1921-99), like many women composers of the 20th century, was automatically considered second class, despite having gotten a doctorate and showing the facility to write sophisticated works. Now, decades after her death, her works are have been justly resurrected, as this third volume in a series by conductor Rumon Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic of her orchestral works rewardingly shows. There are three shorter pieces: Coronation Procession is a sparkling opener, followed by the wistful Ambarvalia and the passionate pastoral Cringlemire Garden, whose lovely string writing is reminiscent of Gipps’ teacher Vaughan Williams. The two major works are Gipps at her most original: the Horn Concerto has a lyricism that soloist Martin Owen brings to the fore, while Gamba and the orchestra give the superb first symphony a vigorous workout in its first-ever recording.