The catalog titles this week are slim, but that’s made up for with an unusually robust selection of new titles. There’s Creed II, widely agreed to be the Rocky II to Creed‘s Rocky, Lee Chang-Dong’s widely acclaimed Burning, and Brady Corbet’s divisive Vox Lux. But looming larger than all of them is Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite. Lanthimos is not even two years off of making a movie where Colin Farrell threatens to make his son eat his own hair, and yet he’s now on the Academy’s good graces without having to tone down his bad behavior much. The Favourite is only different from his previous films because its characters get to sound like more than slowly malfunctioning robots (and are allowed some sympathy from the audience accordingly); otherwise, it’s the same brutally absurdist observations on the silliness of man from everybody’s favo(u)rite Greek misanthrope (with the expected animal cruelty thrown in). And that’s fine by me, because I’m buying what Lanthimos is selling, especially when it’s accompanied with such an excellent trio of lead performances (plus Nicholas Hoult as the one man in the movie who can dish on their level). Of course, it’s a lesser cinematic accomplishment than the movie that’s just “Eyyy! Pizza pie!” for two hours.

Ben Is Back (Lionsgate)
Burning (Well Go)
The Craft (Shout Factory)
Creed II (Warner)
Duets (Kino)
The Favourite (Fox)
House of Cards: The Complete Sixth Season (Sony)
Instant Family (Paramount)
Kalifornia (Shout Factory)
Liz and the Blue Bird (Shout Factory)
Mad Dog and Glory (Kino)
The Mercy (Screen Media)
Sister Street Fighter Collection (Arrow)
Vox Lux (Universal)