There is actually a whole bunch of good stuff out this week, so I’ll get started. New releases are ruled over by Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, which is indeed a lot of fun as a flashy, splashy action/musical extravaganza, although unfortunately it has not stuck with me like Wright’s other films have (it doesn’t help that it does not stick the landing). But I look forward to listening to the always entertaining Wright talk on the disc’s two audio commentaries, the biggest part of a large supplemental package that includes the (delightful) music video where Wright first used the germ of Baby Driver‘s central idea. The best new release, however, is Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled, which just fucking rules. Compared to the hot, sleazy energy of Don Siegel’s original film, this is almost a dry comedy of manners for its first hour or so, with its school of abandoned Southern girls and women (including Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning) going crazy for the arrival of a Union soldier (Colin Farrell), whose true motives never become clear to them or us. Then it takes a wonderful turn into a more melodramatic, crazed version of The Virgin Suicides, with Coppola’s sensual lens used to capture some quite unexpected developments. And I think I can confirm, unless something blind-sides me in the winter movie season, that it has the best cinematography of the year, courtesy of The Grandmaster‘s Philippe Le Sourd. Sorry, Deakins.

Aside from those two, new titles also include Criterion releasing the singular Polish murderous-mermaid musical (try saying that three times fast) The Lure, and Warner Bros. releasing the final season of The Leftovers. Catalog titles provide plenty more riches, including another Warner release, of Michael Curtiz’s The Sea Wolf, and most prominently Criterion finally giving Orson Welles’ version of Othello the exhaustive release (with the two original cuts, not the Beatrice Welles 90s reedit, plus Filming ‘Othello’ and plenty of additional supplements) it deserves. There’s also the long-awaited disc release of Penelope Spheeris’s Dudes (with cinematography by Robert Richardson) from Shout! Factory, and Woody Allen’s hilarious debut Take the Money and Run finally gets an anamorphic release, let alone a high-definition one, although I don’t recommend holding your breath for it looking that good, considering the screenshots of it online look pretty fuzzy (goddamn you, Kino, Criterion had it and you took it away!). Hopefully Kino did better with their releases of Billy Wilder’s Avanti! and Mario Bava’s Kill, Baby… Kill!. And you won’t have to worry about Arrow doing right by A Fish Called Wanda, because they very much have, giving it a pristine new 4K restoration with a generous helping of supplements (its only fault is that it doesn’t come packaged with a replica dead dog, but whaddya gonna do). And then there’s our good pal Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, whose debut (and still best movie) Amores perros comes out from Lionsgate this week, albeit with a transfer that’s already controversial for how it removes the film’s bleach-bypass look. If only this is what AGI gets high-and-mighty about these days…

Amores Perros (Lionsgate)
Avanti! (Kino)
Baby Driver (Sony)
The Beguiled (Universal)
Blood Feast (Arrow)
Dreamgirls: Director’s Extended Edition (Paramount)
Dudes (Shout Factory)
A Fish Called Wanda (Arrow)
The Flamingo Kid (Kino)
The Green Slime (Warner)
The House (Warner)
Kill, Baby… Kill! (Kino)
The Leftovers: The Third and Final Season (Warner)
The Lure (Criterion)
Othello (Criterion)
The Poughkeepsie Tapes (Shout Factory)
The Sea Wolf (Warner)
Take the Money and Run (Kino)
Wish Upon (Broad Green)