The following article was written by my friend and colleague Alonso Duralde. You can learn more about him HERE.
WHAT’S NEW ON DVD/BLU/4K IN MARCH: BABYGIRL, WOMEN WHO RUN HOLLYWOOD, FILIPINO HORROR, AND MORE!
NEW RELEASE WALL
Babygirl (A24): Overlooked by the Oscars, but nonetheless one of 2024’s most memorable and provocative films, this sophomore feature from writer-director Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies) stars Nicole Kidman as a forceful CEO and seemingly happy wife and mother who discovers she has a yearning for sexual submissiveness when she crosses paths with a new intern played by Harris Dickinson. Kidman is fearless and frank as she plunges into the character’s contradictions, and the film never judges her for intimate journey of discovery.
Also available:
Antiviral (Severin): A 4K release of Brandon Cronenberg’s 2012 debut feature.
The Brutalist (A24): Brady Corbet’s Oscar-winning epic was an intense big-screen experience, but many of its strengths will still come through in your home theater.
Gladiator II (Paramount): Paul Mescal steps into Russell Crowe’s sandals and breastplate for another go around the arena.
Kraven the Hunter (Sony): The final nail in the coffin of Sony’s “Spider-Man Without Spider-Man” movies is better than Morbius but not quite as stupid-fun as Madame Web or Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
Moana 2 (Disney): Turning what was originally intended to be an episodic series into a big-screen sequel turned out to be good business for Disney.
Red One (WBD): This saving-Santa action epic starring Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, and J.K. Simmons is better than its reputation, and given that Apple still won’t release films like CODA and Killers of the Flower Moon on physical media, we should be at least a little thrilled when a streamer puts their movies on Blu-ray.
The Room Next Door (Sony): Pedro Almodóvar proves his fluency in the language of cinema with his shattering English-language feature debut, featuring indelible performances from leads Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore.
Sing Sing (A24): Colman Domingo stars in (and was Oscar-nominated for) one of last year’s sleeper hits, a moving look at men behind bars creating art and seeking transcendence.
Wolf Man (Universal): Christopher Abbott stars as a stay-at-home dad turned lycanthrope in this moody remake.
NEW INDIE
Ex-Husbands (Greenwich Entertainment): James Norton, Griffin Dunne, and Richard Benjamin play three generations of men whose various emotional issues come to the fore when the youngest of them gets marries. (And with Rosanna Arquette along, she and Dunne have an After Hours mini-reunion.)
NEW INTERNATIONAL
Rose (Cohen Media Group): French film legend Françoise Fabian (My Night at Maud’s) scores a late-career triumph with her portrayal of a French widow who slowly sheds her own life and begins to sparkle anew, much to the consternation of her grown children, who all have problems of their own. It took three or four years for Aurélie Saada’s funny, moving, and insightful character study to get to the United States, but it was worth the wait.
Also available:
Eat the Night (Altered Innocence): This queer French festival fave follows a brother and sister whose respective love lives become inextricably entwined with an online role-playing game.
Ghost Cat Anzu (GKIDS): An 11-year-old girl is shipped off to live with her grandfather in a temple, where she befriends the titular creature/spirit.
NEW DOCUMENTARY
Women Who Run Hollywood (Kino Classics): This box set features a quartet of documentaries dedicated to female filmmakers who made a huge impact on the first five or six decades of the art form, from the writers and directors of the silent period, through movie star and mogul Mary Pickford, trailblazing auteur Dorothy Arzner, and actress-turned–legendary director Ida Lupino. An essential primer for an oft-overlooked branch of cinema history.
Also available:
The Battle of Chile (Icarus): This release of the restoration of Patricio Guzmán’s legendary documentary also includes the director’s first film, The First Year.
Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid(Greenwich): Doc filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer (Valentino: The Last Emperor, Where’s My Roy Cohn?) examines famed Democratic consultant James Carville.
Every Little Thing (Kino Lorber): A lovely profile of a Hollywood resident who tends to injured hummingbirds.
Hans Zimmer: Live in Prague (Mercury): Live concert film celebrating the legendary film composer in performance.
The Klezmer Project (Greenwich): A history of the beloved Yiddish musical tradition along with a search through Eastern Europe to recover lost melodies.
NEW GRINDHOUSE
Fear in the Philippines: The Complete Blood Island Films (Severin): This two-disc set features new 4K scans of a quartet of outrageous horror movies – Terror Is a Man, Brides of Blood, Mad Doctor of Blood Island, and Beast of Blood – created by Filipino horror pioneers Eddie Romero and Gerry de Leon between 1959 and 1971. Featuring US genre stars like John Ashley and Celeste Yarnall, these schlocky creations became cult favorites and are being presented fully intact with improved color and audio.
Also available:
The 10th Victim (KL Studio Classics): This stylish 1965 Italian satire saw reality TV coming from decades away, as Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress play finalists on a deadly game show who might fall in love if they don’t kill each other first.
38 Especial (Degausser): This Mexican cult fave sees a detective and a radio psychologist teaming up to stop a religious-fanatic serial killer.
The Bloody Lady (Arbelos): A Czech take on the legendary Elisabeth Bathory, who purportedly bathed in the blood of young virgins to retain her youthfulness.
College Confidential (KL Studio Classics): One of the nuttiest ensembles ever assembled, for a drive-in movie that dared to take sex seriously: Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows, Mamie Van Doren, Walter Winchell, Mickey Shaughnessy, Herbert Marshall, Rocky Graciano, Sheilah Graham, Earl Wilson, and Elisha Cook, Jr.
Crawlspace (Kino Cult): Klaus Kinski plays one of his trademark creepazoids, a son-of-a-Nazi who runs a boarding house that features female residents and lots of secret passageways.
The Daredevils / Ode to Gallantry (Eureka Classics): Two collaborations between director Chang Cheh, known as the “Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema,” and the “Venom Mob,” six legendary martial-arts performers known for their work in Cheh’s Five Deadly Venoms.
Deep Blue Sea (Arrow): One of the cinema’s greatest shark-eating deaths, plus a ridiculous closing theme from co-star LL Cool J make this one a midnight-movie fave.
Devil Fetus / Her Vengeance (Vinegar Syndrome): Two of the wilder 1980s titles from Hong Kong studio Golden Harvest.
Devil’s Stay (Well Go USA Entertainment): There’s a disturbing force afoot as a cardiologist’s dead daughter miraculously and terrifyingly comes back to life in this South Korean import.
Don’t Torture a Duckling (Arrow): Well, they told you. Lucio Fulci’s giallo classic makes its North American 4K debut.
Eye for an Eye 2: Blind Vengeance (Well Go USA Entertainment): A bounty hunter becomes enmeshed in a young girl’s search for revenge.
Forgotten Gialli: Volume Eight (Vinegar Syndrome): The Italian horror genre enters the 1970s and leans on both sex and violence, as displayed in Rings of Fear, Reflections in Black, and A.A.A. Masseuse, Good-Looking, Offers Her Services.
The Godsend (Kino Cult): A mysterious pregnant woman gives birth, leaves the child with another family, and then all Hell breaks loose.
Godzilla vs. Biollante (The Criterion Collection): Following up on Criterion’s comprehensive and gorgeous Showa-era box set, the label digs into Gojira’s Heisei era with this 1989 classic in a new 4K restoration.
The Hungry Snake Woman (Mondo Macabro): Go-go dancers, chainsaws, black magic and more in this unhinged Indonesian horror curiosity.
The Killer Is Not Alone (Mondo Macabro): This long-unavailable Spanish giallo, the only featured directed by Jesús García de Dueñas, makes its North American debut and its first Blu-ray release worldwide.
Peril & Distress (KL Studio Classics): A thriller two-fer, featuring Agatha Christie’s Endless Night and Bert I. Gordon’s Picture Mommy Dead.
Play It Cool (Arrow): This acclaimed tale of a Japanese college student working her way through school as a hostess in Tokyo’s nefarious nightclub circuit gets its first home-video release outside of Japan.
There’s a Zombie Outside (Gravitas Ventures): Writer-director Michael Varrati (Deathcember) makes his feature debut with this horror yarn about an indie filmmaker whose monstrous art blurs into real life.
Tokugawa Sex Ban (Mondo Macabro): A feudal Japanese warlord is introduced to sexual pleasure, and then tries banning it amongst his subjects, in this outrageous 1970s sexploitation historical epic.
NEW CLASSIC
Choose Me (The Criterion Collection): One of the gems of writer-director Alan Rudolph’s cinematic career is this genre-defying love story, a bittersweet romantic farce of mistaken (or misrepresented?) identity. Keith Carradine plays a mysterious and charismatic drifter whose sudden appearance shakes up the lives of an unhappy wife (Rae Dawn Chong), a bar owner (Lesley-Anne Warren), and Dr. Love (Genevieve Bujold), a radio host who dispenses amorous advice despite having almost no experience with romance. (That all of these women are directly or indirectly connected to Patrick Bauchau’s rich wastrel is the farce part; that Bauchau’s character also gets a shot at redemption speaks to Rudolph’s love of his characters.) Overlay all of this with a memorable Teddy Pendergrass song score, and you’ve got one of the best films of the 1980s, now with a new 4K restoration and new interviews and conversation with the cast and creators.
Also available:
Akira (Crunchyroll): The groundbreaking anime classic, now in 4K.
Arabesque (KL Studio Classics): Director Stanley Donen didn’t quite recreate the magic of Charade in this caper starring Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren, but it’s a worthy effort.
The Belly of an Architect (Vinegar Syndrome Labs): Brian Dennehy plays an architect who goes to some very Peter Greenaway places in this provocative arthouse hit that deserves to re-enter the cultural conversation.
Best Defense (KL Studio Classics): Eddie Murphy was edited into this flatlining Dudley Moore comedy after the fact by desperate Paramount executives, and even Murphy acknowledges it’s his worst film.
Black Sheep (KL Studio Classics) / Tommy Boy(Paramount): Two Chris Farley–David Spade faves both making their 4K debuts.
The Black Tulip (KL Studio Classics): Before actually playing Zorro, Alain Delon swashed his buckle playing a very Zorro-like French hero.
Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (Kino Cult): Lynda Carter stars as a waitress with dreams of country stardom opposite Marjoe Gortner’s self-styled outlaw in this cult favorite.
Brimstone & Treacle (Vinegar Syndrome): Sting plays a handsome stranger who upends the lives of a repressed British family in this Teorema-esque drama written by Dennis Potter.
Cry, the Beloved Country (KL Studio Classics): The first adaptation of Alan Paton’s beloved novel about apartheid-era South Africa features one of Sidney Poitier’s earliest standout performances.
Delicatessen (Severin): Jeunet and Caro’s perversely hilarious post-apocalyptic comedy, now in 4K.
Diary of a Chambermaid (KL Studio Classics): Jeanne Moreau stars in Luis Buñuel’s perverse, surrealist satire.
Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XXIV (KL Studio Classics): More tough guys and dangerous dames in The Crooked Circle, Jennifer, and Union Station.
The General’s Daughter (KL Studio Classics): The John Travolta thriller makes its 4K debut.
The Glass Web (KL Studio Classics): John Forsythe and Edward G. Robinson star in this noir thriller from Jack Arnold (The Incredible Shrinking Man), available on Blu-ray for the first time in (red/cyan) 3D.
Half a Chance (KL Studio Classics): Veterans Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon were cast against up-and-comer Vanessa Paradis in Patrice Leconte’s 1998 action-comedy.
Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers by Alain Corneau (Radiance): This box set of 70s-80s French noir features two starring Yves Montand (Police Python 357, Choice of Arms) and a Jim Thompson adaptation (A Hell of a Woman).
Hi-Jack Highway (KL Studio Classics): French legends Jean Gabin and Jeanne Moreau star in this taut thriller.
Ho! (KL Studio Classics): Jean-Paul Belmondo plays a racecar driver who effortlessly segues into driving getaway cars for bank robbers, and before long, he’s running the whole gang. Co-stars Joanna Shimkus (Boom!).
In Custody / The Proprietor (Cohen Media Group): Two films from Ismail Merchant, best known as the producer half of Merchant Ivory, although he was known to step behind the camera himself from time to time.
Last of the Red-Hot Lovers (Cinématographe): Alan Arkin, Sally Kellerman, Paula Prentiss, and Renee Taylor star in this mostly-forgotten Neil Simon adaptation, given a new lease on life with this extensive release that features a new commentary track, new interviews, and new video and written essays.
Losing Ground (The Milestone Cinematheque): The first American feature film written and directed by a Black woman, Kathleen Collins’ groundbreaking marital comedy-drama arrives on Blu-ray in a two-disc set with plenty of extras, including a restoration of Collins’ first short.
My Girl (Sony): The movie that traumatized a generation of young Home Alone fans gets a 4K release.
The Nice Guys (Warner Archive): Shane Black’s tongue-in-cheek homage to 1970s buddy-cop movies, featuring charming turns from Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, comes out in 4K.
Night Moves (The Criterion Collection): If you’re revisiting the filmography of the late, great Gene Hackman, this existential thriller from Arthur Penn should absolutely be on your watch list.
Paddington 2 (WBD): At long last, one of the greatest films of the 21st century gets the 4K release it so richly deserves.
Thief (The Criterion Collection): Michael Mann’s first foray from TV to the big screen wasn’t a huge hit at the time, but audiences and critics have come around on this methodical caper, starring James Caan and Tuesday Weld.
Tommy (Shout Studios): Celebrate the 50thanniversary of The Who and director Ken Russell’s legendary rock-opera freak-out with a new 4K edition.
Two-Way Stretch (KL Studio Classics): Peter Sellers stars as a master thief planning the perfect jewel heist – from inside a jail cell – when everything goes hilariously wrong.
The Wages of Fear (The Criterion Collection): Henri-Georges Clouzot’s thriller about men transporting nitro across rickety jungle bridges in South America remains one of the most heart-stopping movies ever made; now it’s in 4K, too.
A Woman of Paris (The Criterion Collection): A rare Charlie Chapin movie not to star Chaplin himself, Edna Purviance is the titular femme, torn between being loved and being kept.
NEW TV
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: The Complete Series (Warner Archive): Here’s one for the “if you wait long enough, someone will finally release it” category – this Hanna-Barbera cartoon was essentially the animated version of All in the Family, with an out-of-it dad and his more open-minded teen children occupying opposite sides of the generation gap in this prime-time series, which ran from 1972 to 1974. A snapshot of its era, to be sure, but now you can own it on home video.
Also available:
Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers (Film Movement): Campbell and his work have become so tied to George Lucas and Star Warsover the years that there’s a whole George Lucas extra bonus section on this new release. (I always think of this as the documentary that Rory and Paris rewatched on their spring-break trip instead of partying on Gilmore Girls.)
Mr. Show: The Complete Collection (WBD): David Cross and Bob Odenkirk’s brilliant and legendary sketch-comedy series still holds up.
The Penguin: The Complete First Season (WBD): An unrecognizable Colin Farrell reprises his role as the Batman villain, and he’s more than matched by Cristin Milioti’s vengeful mob heiress.
Sesame Street: Elmo’s World: Elmo Loves to Giggle (Shout Kids/Sesame Workshop): It’s true, he does.
Star Trek: Lower Decks – The Final Season (CBS): The animated comedy about the working-class grunts who keep the starships aloft makes one final spin around the universe.