The major DVD/Blu-ray release today is Gone Girl, David Fincher’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling mystery novel. It’s one of 2014’s most entertaining and provocative films, with a lot to say about modern relationships and how the public processes scandal. But this is also an exceptionally good week for unusual independent and foreign films, such as Bird People (about a business traveler and a hotel maid who cross paths in a Paris hotel), The Strange Little Cat (about the ordinary day of a Berlin family) and Honeymoon (about newlyweds who fall out synch after a strange, possibly supernatural encounter). And perhaps because I just watched it a couple of weeks ago—too late to consider it for my year-end best-of list, I’m sorry to say—I’m most excited about Love Is Strange coming out on home video, and perhaps finding a larger audience. Though Ira Sachs’ film starts out as a quiet melodrama about an old gay couple (played by Alfred Molina and John Lithgow) who are separated when they can’t afford their New York apartment any more, Sachs subtly and surprisingly shifts the focus of the film, making it more about how at a certain point, we all cease to be the star of our own lives and become part of the background of someone else’s story. This is a profound, beautiful film that gets better and better on reflection.
DVD and Blu-ray (* = combo pack)
The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant (Criterion)
The Falcon And The Snowman (KL Studio Classics)
Finding Fela (Kino Lorber)
Foxes (KL Studio Classics)
Fugly! (Olive)
Gone Girl (20th Century Fox)
Honeymoon (Magnolia/Magnet)
The Identical (Cinedigm)
Jessabelle (Lionsgate)
Jimi: All Is By My Side (Xlrator)
Love Is Strange (Sony)
Memphis (Kino Lorber)
Men, Women & Children (Paramount)
Once Upon A Time In Shanghai (Well Go USA)
Racing Hearts (Universal)
Revenge Of The Green Dragons (Lionsgate)
River’s Edge (KL Studio Classics)
The Skin (Cohen)
The Twilight Saga: Extended Editions (Summit)
The Two Faces Of January (Magnolia)
A Walk Among The Tombstones (Universal)*
Wetlands (Strand)
Young Ones (Screen Media)
DVD
Bad Turn Worse (Starz/Anchor Bay)
Bird People (MPI/IFC)
Cosplay Fetish Battle Drones (Collage Fossil)
The Culture High (Peace Arch)
Demon Queen (Massacre)
Duane Michaels: The Man Who Invented Himself (Alive Mind)
Entangled (Maverick)
Expedition To The End Of The World (Virgil)
Fist 2 Fist 2: Weapon Of Choice (Anderson)
Guardian (Action Slate)
Keep On Keepin’ On (Anchor Bay)
Knock ‘Em Dead (Peace Arch)
Middle Of Nowhere (Lionsgate)
Not Human (Peace Arch)
The Ouija Resurrection (Cinedigm)
Pretty Peaches (Vinegar Syndrome)
The Ribald Tales Of Canterbury (Vinegar Syndrome)
Sexual Heights/Undulations (Vinegar Syndrome)
Silent Youth (Ariztical)
The Strange Little Cat (Kimstim)
The Tall Lie (VCI)
That Burning Feeling (E1)
Three Ripening Cherries/Sensual Fire (Vinegar Syndrome)
21 Years: Richard Linklater (Breaking Glass)
Two Mothers (TLA/Canteen Outlaws)
Valley Of The Witch (Hannover House)
Venus Flytrap (Massacre)
Viktor (Inception)
Who Killed Alex Spourdalakis? (Disinformation)
Zarra’s Law (Arc)
Blu-ray
At The Earth’s Core (Kino/Scorpion)
Capricorn One (Shout! Factory)
Dances With Wolves: 25th Anniversary Edition (MGM/UA)
Dead Man (Lionsgate)
Fitzcarraldo (Shout! Factory)
Jersey Girl (Lionsgate)
Marvin’s Room (Lionsgate)
My Left Foot (Lionsgate)
The Razor’s Edge (20th Century Fox)
Supernova (Scream! Factory)