It’s that time, oh you know it’s that time, for $240 worth of pudding the Barnes & Noble Criterion sale. To coincide with it, Criterion is upgrading its Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy box set and finally releasing Robert Bresson’s swan song, L’Argent on Blu-Ray. But of course, that’s not it this week. We actually have okay slates for both new and catalog titles this week, with new titles maybe even standing out the most. There, we have the latest (if furthest thing from the greatest) entry in the Fast & Furious saga, and, uh, the new Smurfs movie (whose existence completely left my mind until I did the research for this), but also the David Byrne-approved concert and color guard documentary Contemporary Color, Lone Scherfig’s breezy Their Finest (which is probably getting released now due to it being about British propaganda for the Battle of Dunkirk), Terence Davies’ Emily Dickinson biopic (with Cynthia Nixon as Dickinson) A Quiet Passion, and especially James Gray’s epic The Lost City of Z, with its ravishing Darius Khondji cinematography, powerful combination of the old and the new (especially in the absolutely stunning last part), and genuinely solid Charlie Hunnam performance (with low-key great assistance by Robert Pattinson). It also has Spider-Man, I guess.
Catalog titles also contain some goodies. After some lengthy delays, Arrow finally brings us their special edition of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Pulse, along with the Dalton Trumbo-penned western Terror in a Texas Town. Meanwhile, Shout Factory continues their quest to release every American horror film anybody has heard of with their release of Species, the Warner Archive Collection gives the people the John Wayne film they’ve been clamoring for, The Sea Chase, and Mill Creek gives Bobcat Goldthwait’s directorial debut (and inspiration for a pretty kickass R.E.M. song), Shakes the Clown, a Blu-Ray release including a newly-recorded commentary with Goldthwait.
L’Argent (Criterion)
Contemporary Color (Oscilloscope)
The Fate of the Furious (Universal)
The Lost City of Z (Broad Green)
The Man from Planet X (Shout Factory)
Pulse (Arrow)
A Quiet Passion (Music Box)
Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy (Criterion)
The Sea Chase (Warner Archive Collection)
Shakes the Clown (Mill Creek)
Smokey and the Bandit (Universal)
Smurfs: The Lost Village (Sony)
Species (Shout Factory)
Terror in a Texas Town (Arrow Academy)
Their Finest (Lionsgate)