Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.
Our last streaming and buying guide of the year offers up plenty of fun for those of you lucky enough to have some time off— a handful of ace new releases, an eclectic assortment of catalog titles, and a must-have box set for martial arts aficionados. We’ll start there:
PICK OF THE WEEK:
“Shawscope: Volume 1”: Just under the wire, Arrow Video unleashes one of the must-have Blu-ray sets of the year with this stellar collection of titles from the Hong Kong action masters, the Shaw Brothers. This first collection – and it’d better be the first of many – features twelve titles: “King Boxer,” “The Boxer from Shantung,” “Five Shaolin Masters,” “Shaolin Temple,” “Mighty Peking Man,” “Challenge of the Masters,” “Executioners from Shaolin,” “Chinatown Kid,” “The Five Venoms,” “Crippled Avengers,” “Heroes of the East,” and “Dirty Ho.” Most are kung fu movies, and quintessential ones, rowdy as hell but beautifully staged, with high production values and top-notch fight choreography. But the inclusion of “Mighty Peking Man,” a delightfully silly “King Kong” riff (and one that makes the love triangle angle a bit more explicit) reminds us that the studio didn’t just do kung fu, and bodes well for the sheer fun of those hopeful future installments. (Includes audio commentaries, new and archival interviews, three-part “Cinema Hong Kong: Kung Fu” documentary, featurettes, alternate opening credits for international versions, trailers, TV spots, and two CDs of music from the films.)
ON HBO MAX:
“The Matrix Resurrections”: “Nothing comforts anxiety like… a little nostalgia.” So says Morpheus – well, the new one – in this fourth installment of the “Matrix” saga, this time directed solo by Lana Wachowski. And she finds a clever way to reboot the series, pulling out and re-contextualizing the original trilogy in a manner both funny and surprising; there is something fundamentally thrilling about not knowing, early on, where this is going. But she also wrestles with the typical sequel conundrum: much of what works is riffing on the earlier movies, and for all of their flaws, the one thing the earlier sequels didn’t do was the kind of beat-for-beat recreation that this one falls into in its second half. But the picture finds its way out by finding its heart, focusing on the relationship between Neo and Trinity, and thus the warmth between Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss (his “It’s my turn to believe in her” may be his loveliest line reading of the series). It’s frequently silly, dazzlingly inspired, occasionally ponderous, and often thrilling. In other words, it’s a “Matrix” sequel.
ON 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY:
“The Karate Kid Collection”: The titling is a little deceptive – Sony’s new set does not include the Pat Morita/Hillary Swank “Next Karate Kid” of 1994 nor the Jackie Chan-fronted remake 16 years later – but fans of the original trilogy will be quite happy to have “The Karate Kid” and its first two sequels in 4K. And make no mistake, the first film is the crown jewel, a charmingly earnest mashup of the high school bully movie and the underdog sports story, with Ralph Macchio an endearing lead, Elisabeth Shue a delightful ingénue, and Morita equally funny and moving as the handyman who teaches him how to defend himself. The return diminishes “The Karate Kid Part II” and “The Karate Kid Part III,” but they have their own charms – mostly in the continuation of the sweet relationship between its leads. (Includes audio commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, and trailers.)
ON BLU-RAY / DVD / VOD:
“The French Dispatch”: Wes Anderson’s latest is one of his best, and perhaps his funniest – he’s firing on all comic cylinders here, filling this feature-length illustration of “an American magazine published in Ennui, France” with fabulous little flourishes of verbal and (especially) visual wit. It’s an anthology film, and as is so often the case, the quality varies from episode to episode; I found the Jeffrey Wright story strongest and the Timothée Chalametthe weakest, but your mileage may vary. But it coheres beautifully under the umbrella of Anderson’s distinctive aesthetic and deadpan humor.
“No Time to Die”: The latest James Bond adventure (and the final go-round for Daniel Craig) is exactly what you want from this franchise: it’s fast, it’s fun, the locations are beautiful, the gadgets are snazzy, and it’s loaded with hot people. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga shoots the action well – it’s precise, exciting, and unpredictable – and the Cuba sequence is an all-timer, though Ana de Armas’ appearance is criminally short. Rami Malek kinda whiffs it as the villain (it’s a mercilessly dull turn), but that complaint aside, this is a thoroughly enjoyable bit of razzle-dazzle. (Includes featurettes.)
“Her Smell”: Elisabeth Moss is magnificent as “Becky Something,” lead singer of a ‘90s riot grrrl band in an emotional and artistic tailspin in this startlingly affecting 2019 musical drama from writer/director Alex Ross Perry (new on Blu from Gunpowder & Sky). He takes on a classical structure (five acts, some separated by years) and expansive running time (135 minutes), but neither feels like an indulgence; the director his actor take this character seriously, and the breathing room they give her, as well as the semi-real-time construction of each act, make us feel like we’ve been a part of her orbit by the picture’s powerful conclusion. (Includes audio commentaries, interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, music videos, and trailer)
“Moments Like This Never Last”: Dash Snow was a true New York character, a 1990s street punk, graffiti artist, and photographer whose work (and life) captured the city in what felt like its last moment of artistic urgency. He spun his difficult situation into a reckless, daredevil lifestyle, and this documentary portrait from director Cheryl Dunn (who was there when it happened) is both a visceral snapshot of that era and a precise postmortem of Snow: how he got famous, how it got out of control, and how he tried to pull it back and failed. Equal parts cautionary tale and celebration, with much to say about its primary subject and the world he inhabited. (Includes Q&A, bonus scenes, and trailer.)
ON BLU-RAY:
“The Seduction of Joe Tynan”: Alan Alda wrote and starred in this 1979 political drama from director Jerry Schatzberg (“Panic in Needle Park”). He stars as a “flaming liberal” junior senator from New York who gets a crash course in political horse-trading, media image-making, and how power can serve as an aphrodisiac – the later in the form of relative newcomer Meryl Streep, captivating as a savvy operative with whom the family man politico embarks on a passionate affair. But the best performance in the movie comes from Barbara Harris, who conveys all of the complications of the spurned spouse, and the compromises of the political wife. Their conflict, surprisingly enough, becomes the film’s most compelling element. (Includes audio commentary, theatrical trailer, and radio spots)
“The Four Seasons”: Alda moved into the director’s chair for his next big-screen effort, spending the ‘80s making the kind of lightly romantic comedy/dramas that had become Woody Allen’s stock-in-trade. This is one of the best, and most ambitious, with Alda and Carol Burnett as one of three couples who, as longtime friends, take a vacation together once every few months (hence the title). The chemistry between the couples is credible – you believe these relationships, particularly when one of them comes to an ugly end after 21 years and a new, much younger partner is brought into the group. Alda’s smart script keys in on the various ways in which this little shift can upset the entire apple cart; it’s a funny movie, and a wise and knowing one too. (Includes audio commentary, theatrical trailer, and radio spots)
“Detention”: In the authoritarian “White Terror” regime of Taiwan circa 1962, rebellious thoughts are a crime, books are banned, and a group of school kids and sympathetic teachers meet in the utmost secrecy to read and copy those forbidden works. This 2019 shocker from director John Hsu is wildly ambitious, threading horror, mystery, and thriller elements in its early passages, and descending into a waking nightmare of paranoia and fear by its closing scenes. It’s a chilling picture, full of haunting imagery and poignant performances. (Includes featurettes and trailer.)
“Norway”: Zano (Vangelis Mourikis) travels to Athens, just looking, it seems, for a good time, a wide-eyed… well, not an innocent, it turns out. And writer/director Yannis Veslemes coasts for a while on pure vibes, as Zano gets high and tries to get laid and falls in with a hot couple, and folks, that’s when things really get nuts. The anything-goes spirit of the evening is nicely reflected by Veslemes’s storytelling style, which takes every wildly absurd turn with a blink and a nod and carries on. I wouldn’t dream of revealing Zano’s ultimate, utterly bonkers destination, but suffice it to say that it makes for one memorable ending. (Includes audio commentary, behind-the-scenes footage, interview, music video, and trailers.)
“Giallo Essentials (Yellow Edition)”: Arrow Video continues its collections of vintage Italian slasher/cop thrillers with three more sleazy little items: Massimo Dallamano’s 1974 giallo/polizioteteschi picture “What Have They Done To Your Daughters?”; the great Sergio Martino’s grisly 1973 coed-killer movie “Torso”; and the best of the bunch (and certainly the best title), Andrea Bianchi’s 1979 bloodbath “Strip Nude For Your Killer,”which has all the gore, atmosphere, and debauchery we come to expect, with the added bonus of lots and lots of Edwige Fenech. But all are scuzzily entertaining, and these “Essentials” sets remain a good starting point for those new to the genre. (Includes audio commentaries, video essays, interviews, alternate opening sequences, Q&A, and trailers.)