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OnVideo's Weekly Guide to Home Video Releases
April 28
The Incoherents: Four 40-somethings -- each mired in some sort of midlife malaise -- reunite their 90's indie rock band. (DVD release: Day & date)
The Photograph: A series of intertwining love stories set in the past and in the present. (DVD, Blu-ray release: May 12)
Reawakened: Michele is the sole survivor of a vacation gone horribly wrong, in which several of her friends were murdered. She discovers that she is harboring the spirit of a centuries-old witch inside her, and it’s up to her best friend to find a way to save her soul from eternal damnation. (VOD only)
Until the Birds Return: A property developer is witness to random street violence. A pair of secret lovers make their way across the desert. A doctor is accused of having a criminal past. These three interconnected tales take the pulse of modern-day Algiers, a country once riven by colonial occupation and sectarian warfare yet still abundant in beauty and promise. (Digital, VOD)
May 1
Nightfire: Two American agents are hired to retrieve military chips containing a large sum of government money. Their plan goes awry when an unexpected political prisoner (Dylan Baker) enters the picture. (VOD only)
Nuestras Madres (Our Mothers): Ernesto is a young anthropologist working for the Forensic Foundation in Guatemala in 2018, when the whole country is immersed in the trial of the soldiers who sparked the civil war. As victim statements come one after another, Ernesto’s job is to identify the bodies of the missing. One day, while hearing the account of an older woman from a small village, he thinks he has found a lead that might guide him to his father, a guerrillero who went missing during the war. Against his mother’s wishes, he throws himself body and soul into the case, looking for the truth. (VOD only)
Shout! Factory TV Streams Gene Autry: The first collection from Gene Autry’s personal archive, with the streaming debut of fully restored feature films "South of the Border," "Gaucho Serenade," "Melody Ranch," "The Strawberry Roan" and "Blue Canadian Rockies." (VOD only)
The Wretched: A defiant teenage boy, struggling with his parent's imminent divorce, faces off with a 1000-year-old witch, who is living beneath the skin of and posing as the woman next door. (Digital, VOD only)
Arrow: The Eighth and Final Season
(2019-20) Three-disc set with all 10 episodes. Following the arrival of The Monitor, Oliver Queen left his home, his family, and his team behind to take on his most challenging battle yet, knowing the cost may be his life. But this time it’s not just his city he’s seeking to protect – it’s the entire multiverse! Oliver’s quest will send him on a journey where he is forced to confront the ultimate question: what is the true cost of being a hero? Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, Digital. Extras: "The Best of DC TV's Comic-Con Panels San Diego 2019." "Arrow: Hitting the Bullseye" broadcast special, deleted scenes. A limited edition bonus disc featuring all five DC Crossover Events: "Crisis on Infinite Earthsepisodes," will be available exclusively for fans who purchase the Blu-ray. (Warner).
The Assistant
(2019) Julia Garner, Matthew Macfadyen, Makenzie Leigh, Kristine Froseth, Jon Orsini. A searing look at a day in the life of an assistant to a powerful executive. As Jane (Garner) follows her daily routine, she grows increasingly aware of the insidious abuse that threatens every aspect of her position. Formats: DVD, VOD, Digital. (Universal).
The Dark Red
(2018) April Billingsley, Kelsey Scott, Rhoda Griffis. A young woman is committed to a psychiatric hospital after claiming that her newborn has been abducted by a secret society called the Dark Red -- an ancient, underground cult that harvests and controls an incredibly rare blood type that gives one the power to hear and guide another person's thoughts. The woman, Sybil, claims she is special, that she carries a pure and powerful strain of the blood like nothing seen before, and that the society sees her and her child as central to its next evolution -- or perhaps its greatest threat, should she turn against them. Is the Dark Red entirely a figment of Sybil's imagination -- a complex coping mechanism to overcome a terrible personal tragedy -- or is there some truth behind her story? Formats: DVD, Digital. (Dark Sky Films).
The Europeans
(1979) New 4K restoration of Merchant Ivory Productions' classic period drama. The film marked the first Merchant Ivory adaptation of a novel by Henry James, and stars Lee Remick, Robin Ellis, Lisa Eichhorn. Set in the 1850s, the film centers on the wealthy, puritanical Wentworth family living outside Boston, whose lives are upended by the not-so-welcome arrival of their European cousins one particularly golden autumn. Remick shines as the snooty and calculating Eugenia, a baroness whose marriage to a German prince is on the fritz. Meanwhile, her dapper brother Felix (Tim Woodward) has his eye on one of the Wentworth daughters, Gertrude (Eichhorn). Exploring one of Henry James' great themes -- the social and moral clashes between the New World and the Continent -- the film was produced by Ismail Merchant, directed by James Ivory and features a witty screenplay by their frequent collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, Digital. Extras: The original trailer; the restoration trailer; a conversation with the filmmakers; "Conversations from the Quad," in which James Ivory discusses the making of the film; new interview with Ivory. (Cohen Film Collection).
Gutterballs
(2008) Alastair Gamble, Mihola Terzic, Nathan Witte. A brutally sadistic rape leads to a series of bizarre gory murders during a midnight disco bowl-a-rama at a popular bowling alley. One by one, players of two teams meet blood-drenched gruesome deaths at the hand of a black bowling-gloved masked killer. This alley runs red with blood by sunrise. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray. Extras: Commentary with director Ryan Nicholson, "Behind the Balls: Making of Gutterballs," photo gallery. Blu-ray adds "Pin-etration Edition." Blu-ray Collectors Edition adds Over 40 hours worth of never-before-seen extras. (Unearthed Films).
The Incoherents
(2020) Jeff Auer, Alex Emanuel, Walter Hoffman, Casey Clark, Amy Carlson, Annette O’Toole, Kate Arrington. Bruce Flansburgh (Auer) is a bored, 40-something New York paralegal who hasn’t let go of his dream of rock stardom. While slogging through an increasingly unbearable day-to-day existence, it dawns on him that the reunions of The Pixies, Soundgarden and other alternative/indie rock bands from the 90’s could inspire his former group, The Incoherents, to reform. The group, each mired in some sort of midlife malaise, reunite their 90s indie rock band for one last shot at stardom. Formats: DVD, VOD, Digital. (Gravitas Ventures).
Just One of the Guys BLU-RAY DEBUT
(1985) Joyce Hyser, Clayton Rohner, Billy Jacoby, Toni Hudson, William Zabka, Sherilyn Fenn. Terri (Hyser) blames sexism when her journalism teacher refuses to enter her article in a competition to win a summer internship at the local newspaper. With the help of her kid brother, Buddy (Jacoby), she masquerades as a guy at a rival school and enters the contest there. During her charade, “Terry the Boy” tangles with a vicious bully, Greg (Zabka), and fends off an amorous classmate, Sandy (Fenn). But when she falls for a handsome loner, Rick (Rohner), she must find a way to convince him that she’s not "just one of the guys". Extras: New reunion commentary featuring director Lisa Gottlieb and actors Arye Gross, Joyce Hyser, Clayton Rohner, Toni Hudson, John Apicella. (Sony).
Série Noir
(1979 -- France) Patrick Dewaere, Marie Trintignant, Myriam Boyer, Bernard Blier. A sleazy slice of noir, Alain Corneau's Palme D'Or-nominated, no holds-barred adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel "A Hell of a Woman" in a 2K digital restoration. While trying to track down a deadbeat customer, door-to-door salesman Franck Poupart (Dewaere) encounters Mona
The Sharks (Los tiburones)
(2019 -- Uruguay) Romina Bentancur, Federico Morosini, Fabián Arenillas. Follows 14-year-old Rosina, who ticks the days of a restless summer in a sleepy beachside town away, until she sees an ominous dorsal fin during a swim. The rumor of sharks quickly spreads, unsettling the town, but Rosina remains unphased, instead focusing on her enigmatic coworker, Joselo, who she becomes increasingly attracted to and begins circling, much like the mysterious predators lurking just under the surface. Winner of the Directing Award in World Cinema – Dramatic at Sundance. Formats: DVD, VOD. (Breaking Glass Pictures).
System Error
(2018 -- Germany) Endless growth is a tenet of capitalism—larger markets, more products, new services. But can it really go on forever? Or are we about to ram up against its limits? And if we are, what happens then? Shot in the US, Brazil, China, Germany, and the UK, this documentary explores the notion of endless growth in conversations with advocates such as a Brazilian soybean magnate, an algorithmic trader, finance journalists, and multinational executives. The film is divided into chapters on subjects including the amorality of GDP, destructive agriculture, the decoupling of finance from the real-world economy, and automation. Formats: DVD, VOD. (Icarus Films).
The Rhythm Section
Blake Lively stars as Stephanie Patrick, a woman on a path of self-destruction after her family is tragically killed in a plane crash. When she discovers the wreck was no accident, Stephanie enters the dark, complex world of international espionage seeking vengeance. Her search leads to Iain Boyd (Jude Law), a former MI6 agent who trains her to hunt down those responsible. With nothing left to lose, Stephanie transforms from victim to assassin and discovers that neither revenge nor the truth are what they appear.
Vitals: Director: Reed Morano. Stars: Blake Lively, Jude Law, Sterling K. Brown, Max Casella, Raza Jaffrey, Daniel Mays, Richard Brake, Geoff Bell.
2020, CC, MPAA rating: R, 109 min., Action Thriller, Box office gross: $5.437 million, Paramount.
Blu-ray extras: Deleted and extended scenes, multiple featurettes.
Guns Akimbo
Miles’s (Daniel Radcliffe) nerdy existence as a video game developer takes a dramatic turn when he inadvertently gets caught up as the next contestant with SKIZM, an underground gang livestreaming real-life death matches. While Miles excels at running away from everything, that won’t help him outlast Nix (Samara Weaving), a killer at the top of her game.
Vitals: Director: Jason Lei Howden. Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Samara Weaving, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Ned Dennehy, Grant Bowler, Edwin Wright, Rhys Darb.
2019, CC, MPAA rating: R, 98 min., Action Comedy, Box office gross: $.956 million, Lionsgate.
Extras: Audio commentary with writer-director Jason Lei Howden, “Welcome to SKIZM” featurette, “Nix vs. Dane Stunt Sequence Exploration” featurette.
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark
(1988) She's back! Elvira, Horrorland's hostess with the mostest, finally busts out on Blu-ray with this long-awaited, positively bursting-at-the-seams special edition of her big screen debut. Having just quit her job as a Los Angeles TV horror hostess, Elvira receives the unexpected news that she's set to inherit part of her great aunt Morgana's estate. Arriving in the small town of Fallwell, Massachusetts, to claim her inheritance, Elvira receives a less than enthusiastic reception from the conservative locals -- amongst them, her sinister uncle Vincent, who, unbeknownst to Elvira, is in fact an evil warlock secretly scheming to steal the old family spellbook for his own nefarious ends. Campy, quirky and stuffed to the brim with more double entendres than your average "Carry On" movie, this film helped solidify the horror hostess (played by Cassandra Peterson) as a major pop culture icon, here owning every inch of the screen with her quick wit, sass, and of course, cleaving-enhancing gown. New restoration from a 4K scan of original film elements, with original uncompressed stereo 2.0 audio. Formats: Blu-ray. Extras: Introduction to the film by director James Signorelli; 2017 audio commentary with Signorelli, hosted by Fangoria editor emeritus Tony Timpone; 2017 audio commentary with Patterson Lundquist, www.elviramistressofthedark.com webmaster and judge of US TV show "The Search for the Next Elvira"; archival audio commentary with Cassandra Peterson, Edie McClurg and writer John Paragon; "Too Macabre -- The Making of Elvira: Mistress of the Dark" newly-revised 2018 version of this feature-length documentary on the making of the film, including interviews with various cast and crew and rare never-before-seen archival material; "Recipe for Terror: The Creation of the Pot Monster" newly-revised 2018 version of this featurette on the concept and design of the pot monster, as well as the film’s other SFX; original storyboards; extensive image galleries; original US theatrical and teaser trailers; reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sara Deck; FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring writing by Kat Ellinger and Patterson Lundquist. (Arrow Video/MVD Entertainment).
Renaissance painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune — while around them, political upheaval consumes the continent. Meticulously designed, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" is a breathless picaresque and a poignant paean to friendship and the grandeur of a vanished world, performed with panache by an all-star ensemble that includes F. Murray Abraham, Adrien Brody, Saoirse Ronan, Willem Dafoe, Jude Law, Harvey Keitel, Jeff Goldblum, Mathieu Amalric, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray.
Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc with 2K digital transfer, supervised by director Wes Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray.
Extras: New audio commentary featuring Anderson, filmmaker Roman Coppola, and actor Jeff Goldblum; selected-scene storyboard animatics;
The Making of “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” a new documentary about the film; new interviews with the cast and crew; video essays from 2015 and 2020 by critic Matt Zoller Seitz and film scholar David Bordwell; behind-the-scenes, special-effects, and test footage; trailer; two pieces by critic Richard Brody and (with the Blu-ray) a double-sided poster and other ephemera.
(The Criterion Collection)
Guns Akimbo
(2019) Daniel Radcliffe, Samara Weaving, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Ned Dennehy, Grant Bowler, Edwin Wright, Rhys Darb. A video game developer is forced to play a game of survival while being broadcast online for others’ amusement. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, Digital. Extras: Audio commentary with writer-director Jason Lei Howden, “Welcome to SKIZM” featurette, “Nix vs. Dane Stunt Sequence Exploration” featurette. (Lionsgate).
Me and You and Everyone We Know
(2005) With this compassionate, startling comedy that could have come from no other artistic sensibility, the brilliant Miranda July reveals a world both familiar and strange — an original vision of creativity, sexuality, childhood, and loneliness through a series of braided vignettes around a pair of potential lovers: Richard, a newly single shoe salesman and father of two (John Hawkes), and Christine, a lonely video artist and “Eldercab” driver (July). While they take hesitant steps toward romance, Richard’s sons follow their own curiosity toward their first sexual experiences, online and in real life, venturing into uncharted territories in their attempts to connect with others. Playful and profoundly transgressive, "Me and You and Everyone We Know" is a poetic look at the tortuous routes we take to intimacy in an isolating world, and the moments of magic and redemption that unite us. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray Disc with high-definition digital master, approved by director Miranda July, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray.
Extras: New documentary about July’s artistic beginnings and the development of her debut feature; "Open to the World," a new documentary by July about the 2017 interfaith charity shop and participatory artwork she created in collaboration with Artangel; "July Interviews July: Deauville, 2005," a discovery from July’s archives, newly edited; six scenes from the 2003 Sundance Directors Lab, where July workshopped the film, with commentary by July; "The Amateurist "(1998) and "Nest of Tens" (2000), short films by July; several films from July’s "Joanie 4 Jackie" project, and a documentary about the program; trailer; essays by artist Sara Magenheimer and novelist Lauren Groff.
(The Criterion Collection).
The Rhythm Section
(2020) Blake Lively, Jude Law, Sterling K. Brown, Max Casella, Raza Jaffrey, Daniel Mays, Richard Brake, Geoff Bell. Stephanie Patrick (Lively) is an ordinary woman on a path of self-destruction after her family is tragically killed in a plane crash. When Stephanie discovers that the crash was not an accident, she enters a dark, complex world to seek revenge on those responsible and find her own redemption. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray/DVD Combo, 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo, VOD, Digital. Blu-ray extras: Deleted and extended scenes, multiple featurettes. (Paramount).
(Trintignant), a teenage sexpot living with her miserly aunt. After being dumped by his wife and thrown in jail by his boss, Franck agrees to help Mona kill her aunt and make off with her millions. Unfortunately, their scheme backfires, and Franck sees his luck take an even darker turn for the worse. Dewaere, the too-soon-gone premiere wild man of 70s French cinema, gives a live-wire, no-holds-barred performance, playing the entirely-amoral Thompson protagonist to the hilt, his increasingly frenzied star turn driving the film headlong towards derangement. Formats: Blu-ray. Extras: "Série Noire, The Darkness of the Soul" featurette, interview with Alain Corneau and Marie Trintignant, new essay by film critic Nick Pinkerton. (Film Movement).
The Wind
(1986) What would you do if going outside meant being killed by a raging hurricane, but staying indoors meant being hacked to pieces by a sickle wielding maniac? When mystery novelist Sian Anderson (Meg Foster) arrives in the remote Greek town of Monemvasia, Elias Appleby (Robert Morley), the pompous British landlord of the house she's renting, warns her of two dangers: the wind, which gets dangerously strong at night, and Phil (Wings Hauser), his sleazy and suspicious American handyman. As night falls and the wind starts howling, Sian witnesses the shocking sight of Phil burying Elias's dead body in a shallow grave in his front garden. Trapped indoors from the raging, tree-branch-breaking wind, Sian must play a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the murderous Phil, who'll stop at nothing to silence this inconvenient witness. A tense and thrilling blend of Euro-horror and late 80s slasher, "The Wind," from prolific genre filmmaker Nico Mastorakis, the director behind such cult classics as "Hired to Kill" and "Island of Death," is a stalk 'n' slash hidden gem, presented here for the first time on Blu-ray. New restoration by Arrow Films from a 4K scan of the original negative, approved by writer-director Nico Mastorakis. With original DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround and LPCM Stereo 2.0 Audio. Formats: Blu-ray. Extras: "Blowing The Wind" new interview with director Nico Mastorakis; "The Sound of The Wind" complete soundtrack composed by Hans Zimmer and Stanley Myers; collection of trailers for the films of Nico Mastorakis; reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys; FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic and author Kat Ellinger. (Arrow Video/MVD Entertainment).
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April 26, 2020
(ISSN 1094-3676).
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