By Rob Hunter
Plus 8 More New Releases to Watch This Week on Blu-ray/DVD!
Welcome to this week in home video! Click the title to buy a Blu-ray/DVD from Amazon and help support FSR in the process!
Pick of the Week
The Blackcoat’s Daughter
Why see it? Writer/director Oz Perkins delivers an absolute mood-piece with this chilling and atmospheric horror film, and while it won’t be to all tastes thanks in large part to its slow-burn mentality most genre fans will relish its icy grip. It’s split between two narrative threads, one involving two girls (Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Boynton) nearly alone at school over holiday break and the other featuring a girl (Emma Roberts) hitching a ride towards that same town. Perkins tips his hand a bit too early on one of the halves, but the end effect still resonates with terror and thrills as the pieces come together. Fans of quiet but powerful horror owe it to themselves to give this one a spin.
[Blu-ray/DVD extras:]
The Best
Ghost World [Criterion Collection]
Why see it? Scarlett Johansson has grown on to become the big breakout star from this 2001 film, but while she’s good here the film’s joys belong mostly to Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi. The two become an unlikely pair of oddballs bonding over music and a shared disdain for too much of what’s around them. It’s a funny film, but while there are a few laugh out loud moments much of the humor comes in the form of sadly humorous realizations about the lives they’ve made for themselves. Criterion’s new release comes packed with extras highlighting the film’s production and origins.
[Blu-ray/DVD extras: 4k restoration, commentary, interviews, deleted scenes, booklet, comic excerpt]
Malibu High [Vinegar Syndrome]
Why see it? It’s not often a T&A flick (from the ’70s or otherwise) ends somewhere completely different from where it began, but Irvin Berwick’s feature does just that. It’s a romp of boobs and bullets that shifts effortlessly from a story about a teenage bad girl getting it on with every man in her life to a teenage worse girl shooting some others to death. It embraces the “sexy” quotient by opening with the high schooler waking up fully nude – as most high schoolers do – and seeing her go topless a dozen times thereafter, but the shift towards violence makes for a far more interesting film. It’s an oddity that entertains even as you shake your head at the onscreen antics.
[Blu-ray/DVD extras:]
Obsessions [Cult Epics]
Why see it? There are more than a few selling points to this Dutch thriller’s US debut, but the top one is probably Martin Scorsese’s involvement as co-writer of the film’s script. He focused on the dialogue as it was Holland’s first English-language film, but his work here offers an interesting footnote to the beginning of his career. All of that aside though the film is an interesting psycho-sexual thriller with its own merits as the truth behind the apparent deaths slowly comes to light against a backdrop of Amsterdam’s side streets and Bernard Herrmann’s score. Less of a mystery than an exploration of characters and their twisted interests, the film is a slickly-produced late ’60s slice of exploitation. Cult Epics’ new Blu-ray brings the film to the US for the first time and does so with a new HD transfer and some informative interviews.
[Blu-ray/DVD extras: Introductions, interviews, Martin Scorsese script notes]
The Rest
Before I Fall
Why see it? The main reason to see this YA drama, aside from that premise above, is the lead performance and presence of Zoey Deutch. She’s a terrific young actor capable of moving effortlessly between the serious and the humorous, and she has a charisma that has her standing apart from the crowd. She was the only element worth watching in the recent James Franco rom-com, Why Him?, but happily she’s part of a better ensemble here. The film itself isn’t up to her snuff though as the script falters and loses its way after the first act. Her character suddenly dumbs down missing the most obvious of reasons for her dilemma until the film’s ending, and that ending? Hoo boy. It’s dumb in both its conclusion and its ignorance of what surely will follow.
[Blu-ray/DVD extras: None]
Blackenstein [Severin Films]
Why see it? As blaxploitation horror films go this one has existed pretty much under the radar. It’s been mentioned of course, but far too many of us had yet to see it. Big thanks are due for the folks at Severin Films then for bringing the film in all its glory to Blu-ray. It’s an at-times bloody, goofy, and sexy romp that follows many of the Frankenstein tropes while adding some ’70s twists of its own. Just as entertaining as the film though is the backstory behind its creation leading up to the still-unsolved murder of the man who wrote it. It won’t realign your world, but there’s fun to be had with this one.
[Blu-ray extras: Theatrical/extended versions, interviews, featurettes]
Collide
Why see it? This little action picture zipped in and out of theaters with impressive speed, and having now seen it it’s easy to see why. Yes, there are some solid action beats here involving car chases and such, but they’re too frequently affected with CG enhancements that immediately dull the effect. It fares far worse outside the action as the script asks us to care about an idiot (Nicholas Hoult) whose every choice leads to more bad luck for the innocent bystanders around him. We’re meant to care about his love story (with Felicity Jones), but it’s difficult to wish him anything but death.
[Blu-ray/DVD extras: None]
Fist Fight
Why see it? Charlie Day can be a funny guy, and Ice Cube has his moments, but even together they can’t quite carry this comedy across the finish line. There are laughs of course, but far too much of the film consists of loud noises, things crashing, and a desire to find humor in other people’s pain and suffering. It doesn’t work as well as it wants to. The focus is on the two teachers, but we’re supposed to be laughing equally as much at the students getting away with all manner of cruelties and outrageous behavior around them. I love immature humor as much as anyone, but this is more often than not just too mean-spirited for my tastes.
[Blu-ray/DVD extras: Deleted scenes]
Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD [Severin Films]
Why see it? I’m not a big comic guy and was unfamiliar with the UK’s 2000AD before seeing this doc, but their story is an entertaining and engaging one all the same. Talking heads including Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and more all share memories of their relationship to the comic label, either as fans or employees, and the doc does a good job setting the comic’s history alongside the historical context of England at the time. It’ll mean most to die-hard comic book fans, but even casual observers like myself will find something to enjoy in the various commentaries on the industry and the times.
[Blu-ray/DVD extras: Featurettes, extended interviews]
Also out this week:
Dark Harvest, Evil Ed [Arrow Video], Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 2 [Criterion], Queen Sugar – The Complete First Season, The Sheik, The Son of Sheik, Spotlight on a Murderer [Arrow Academy]
The article Fans of Atmosphere, Dread, and the Encroaching Darkness Will Love ‘The Blackcoat’s Daughter’ appeared first on Film School Rejects.
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