Build your collection with some (or all!) of these titles, coming to stores in June.
NEW RELEASE WALL
Avatar: The Way of Water (20TH Century): James Cameron embarks on his sequel-thon with the next installment of his planned multi-film Avatar saga. Don’t remember what happens in the first one? Don’t worry, it’ll catch you up by itself. And with more than three hours of bonus material on this two-disc set, you’ll be watching it for twice as long as you did in the theater.
Also available:
Assassin Club (Paramount): Henry Golding is hired killer tasked with killing a bunch of other murderers, which can understandably be considered something of a challenge. Co-starring Noomi Rapace and Sam Neill.
Big George Foreman (Sony): Khris Davis and Forest Whitaker star in this faith-based biopic of the legendary boxer.
The Covenant (Warner Bros): In Guy Ritchie’s wartime drama, Jake Gyllenhaal is an Army sergeant who has to help the Afghan interpreter (Dar Salim) who saved his life by risking his own when the US government doesn’t give the interpreter safe passage out of the country.
Evil Dead Rise (Warner Bros.): The latest entry in the much-loved Evil Dead series resurrects the gruesome fun for a new generation.
John Wick: Chapter 4 (Lionsgate): John Wick keeps on killing the killers in this three-hour operatic bloodbath (now with bonus material).
The Man From Toronto (Sony): Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson star in this comedy of mistaken identities and trained assassins, featuring Ellen Barkin as a delightful villain.
The Pope’s Exorcist (Sony): Russell Crowe is the Vatican’s best devil-brawler, and he has to do some heavy lifting when Satan keeps on possessing people.
Renfield (Universal): Nicolas Cage is the Dracula and Nicholas Hoult is the beleaguered familiar in this goofy would-be horror comedy.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie: Power Up Edition(Universal): Let the barrage of sound, motion, and color engulf you in 4K UHD, or just nap while your kids watch it on repeat.
NEW INDIE
Altered Innocence Vol. 2(Altered Innocence): Distributor Altered Innocence is living up to its name for Pride Month with this collection of LGBTQ+ short films that run the gamut from transgressive to tender. All the shorts are from up-and-coming filmmakers exploring coming-of-age narratives, and the disc clocks in at well over three hours of exceptionally queer film power. Give it to someone you love this month.
Also available:
Bone Cold (Well Go USA): Two military snipers trying to escape a dangerous area are pursued by a mysterious creature in a race against the clock.
I Am T-Rex (Well Go USA): Missing The Land Before Time? Here’s a new animated feature all about dino drama.
Moko Jumbie (IndiePix Unlimited): A young British woman of Indian descent goes to rural Trinidad, where she finds love with a local fisherman in this drama from Vashti Anderson.
One Ranger (Lionsgate): Thomas Jane is a Texas Ranger who winds up trailing a terrorist all the way to London. Co-starring John Malkovich.
The Severing (Kino Lorber): The latest from Mark Pellington (The Mothman Prophecies) is an immersive, all-dance project featuring acclaimed choreographer Nina McNeely (Gaspar Noe’s chaotic and grueling dance frenzy Climax).
The Tank (Well Go USA): An inherited family estate holds a gruesome secret in this creature feature from director Scott Walker.
Therapy Dogs (Utopia): Two Toronto high schoolers shoot a senior video over the course of an entire school year to memorialize their years together in this Slamdance award-winner.
Whisper of the Heart (Capelight): A live-action reimagining of the Aoi Hiiragi’s classic manga coming-of-age tale of first love.
You Can Live Forever (GDE): From writer-directors Sarah Watts and Mark Slutsky, it’s the story of queer Canadian teens raised as Jehovah’s Witnesses who find each other and form an inseparable bond.
NEW INTERNATIONAL
How to Be a Good Wife (Icarus Films): It’s May of 1968, and young people are in the streets, changing France. Meanwhile, one woman (Juliette Binoche) running a homemaker’s school and teaching young women how to please their husbands is about to be catapulted into the revolution. Martin Provost’s comedy of women’s liberation is a warmhearted look at social turbulence, and it had the misfortune of opening in France on March 11, 2020. Now’s the time to give it the attention it deserved.
Also available:
Cinema Sabaya(Kino Lorber): A group of women attend a filmmaking workshop in their small town and begin documenting their own lives in Israel’s official submission for last year’s Academy Awards.
Concerned Citizen (Greenwich): A socially progressive Tel Aviv man tries to “improve” his neighborhood, and everything goes sideways in this Israeli comedy.
Everything Went Fine(Cohen Media Group): The latest from French auteur François Ozon concerns a family dealing with end-of-life issues for an elderly father. Starring Andre Dussolier, Sophie Marceau, Charlotte Rampling, and Hanna Schygulla.
Fist of the Condor (Well Go USA): This Chilean action thriller showcases rising martial arts star Marko Zaror, who kicked a lot of ass in John Wick: Chapter 4, Alita: Battle Angel, and Machete Kills.
The Forger (Kino Lorber): Louis Hofmann stars in this docudrama as a Jewish man who adopts a new identity and forges documents to save lives during World War II.
Horseplay (Dark Star): Three Argentine friends – two closeted and queer, one a homophobe – find their alliance pushed to the limit.
How to Be Loved (Yellow Veil): Restoration of Polish director Wojciech Has’ 1963 drama that follows a young woman who was part of the Polish Resistance during World War II.
The Neighbor (Dark Star Pictures): Tragic Italian drama follows a gay couple torn apart when one is beaten into a coma by neo-Nazis. From director Pasquale Marrazzo.
On the Edge (Kino Lorber): A subway train conductor in Spain witnesses his son’s death and begins his own investigation in this crime thriller.
Prague Nights (Deaf Crocodile): The first U.S. release of this essential 1969 Czech horror anthology, with lots of extras and lots of weirdness.
Radiance (Film Movement): A young woman befriends an aging photographer who’s losing his eyesight in this thoughtful drama from acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase.
A Radiant Girl(Film Movement): French actress Sandrine Kiberlain makes her directorial debut with this drama about a teenage girl in Nazi-occupied France.
Rodeo (Music Box Films): A young French woman joins a biker gang and learns how to steal motorcycles in this Cannes entry from director Lola Quivoron.
Sakra (Well Go USA): Donnie Yen stars in and directs this martial arts thriller about a man wrongly accused of murder.
Still the Water(Film Movement): A mysterious coming-of-age drama from Japanese director Naomi Kawase involves a teenage couple who find a dead body and together look for answers.
Sublime (Cinephobia): A shy 16-year-old in Argentina has to navigate emerging feelings of love for his best male friend and learn what to do when the closet seems like the only choice.
Tommy Guns (Kino Lorber): Angolan-Portuguese director Carlos Conceição’s story dives into the sprawling nightmare of colonialism’s past and the horrific present it spawned. This includes zombies.
The Worst Ones (Kino Lorber): From new filmmakers Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret, it’s about a movie being shot in a French housing project, one whose directors are looking for “the worst” teenagers they can find to give their project authenticity.
NEW DOCUMENTARY
Matter Out of Place (Icarus): Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter (Our Daily Bread) travels the world, framing human systems that impact the planet, and the results are mesmerizingly beautiful, quite often in direct contrast to the destruction depicted. For this film, he follows the trail of material waste created and disposed of in far-flung global spots, and it is, as one critic for Global Comment summed it up, “this year’s most riveting film about garbage.”
Also available:
Film: The Living Record of Our Memory (Kino Lorber): A film about film – its necessary preservation and the ways in which commercial enterprises routinely neglect that responsibility – features commentary from Jonas Mekas, Ken Loach, Wim Wenders, Barbara Rudin, and Ousmane Sembene.
Nam June Paik: Moon is The Oldest TV (Greenwich): From filmmaker Amanda Kim, with narration by Steven Yeun, comes this exploration of the life and career of legendary Korean video artist Nam June Paik.
ParaGold (First Run): Follows the journeys of four Paralympic equestrians as they aim for a spot on the 2020 US Dressage team.
River (Greenwich): A musical meditation on the deep relationship between the world’s rivers and human historical progress, from filmmakers Jennifer Peedom and Joseph Nizeti, with music by Radiohead.
NEW GRINDHOUSE
Honey (Raro): Somewhere along the way, the faux-arty, fully horny genre of Euro-Sexy-Movie faded away from our lives. But while it thrived, it gave the world films like Gianfranco Angelucci’s Honey, about a woman who checks into a sexy hotel where sexy people are doing sexy things. Then she walks around and explores the sexiness, including a forbidden room where more sexy things happen. You get it.
Also available:
Caliber 9 (Raro): A 4K restoration of Fernando Di Leo’s 1972 Italian crime classic starring Gastone Moschin (The Godfather Part II) and Mario Adorf (The Tin Drum).
Effects (AGFA): Real-life horror filmmakers like Tom Savini and Joe Pilato gather to make a horror movie in this DIY shocker from 1980, fully restored in a two-disc set.
Game Trilogy (Arrow): A triple feature of 70s Yakuza crime dramas – The Most Dangerous Game, The Killing Game, and The Execution Game — with a lot of bonus material for the die-hard fan.
Jimmy Zip (Boom! Cult): A young man (Brendan Fletcher) who lives to start fires teams up with a sculptor to battle the art world and a local crime boss in this restoration of the 1999 cult film.
Prison Girls (KL Studio Classics): 1972 meant you could watch a nudie romp about lady inmates on a sex furlough in 3D. Now there’s a Blu-ray (also 3D) to help you recreate the moment.
Shame (Umbrella) This 1988 rape-revenge drama from Australia stars Deborra-Lee Furness as a woman determined to destroy the men abusing a group of local women.
Stone Cold (Kino Lorber): Football star Brian “The Boz” Bosworth decided to become an actor in this crime drama about a cop who takes down a biker gang.
NEW CLASSICS
Hustle (KL Studio Classics): In 1975, all you needed to make people go see a neo-noir crime romance about a cop and a “call girl” on Christmas Day – that’s when it was released — was make Burt Reynolds, the man, Catherine Deneuve, the mysterious foreign woman, and illustrate both of them on the poster with bared flesh and the tag line, “They’re hot.” It worked, and now we get to enjoy the sexy, yet brooding, 70s on this Blu-ray. Bonus: great co-stars like Paul Winfield, Eileen Brennan, Eddie Albert, Ernest Borgnine, Ben Johnson, and Jack Carter, all directed by Robert Aldrich.
Also available:
Anna May Wong Collection(Kino Lorber): A three-fer of 1930s glamour from screen icon Anna May Wong, featuring Dangerous to Know, Island of Lost Men, and King of Chinatown.
Avatar – Ultimate Collector’s Edition (20th Century): 4K UHD makes everything bluer, and this edition features even more behind-the-scenes material.
The Bridges at Toko-Ri (KL Studio Classics): William Holden, Grace Kelly, and Frederic March star in this Korean War drama based on James Michener’s novel. (It’s the film indirectly referenced by Sean Penn’s Holden-esque character in Licorice Pizza.)
La Chèvre(KL Studio Classics): 1981 French mismatched buddy comedy starring Gerard Depardieu as a private eye and the bumbling accountant (Pierre Richard) who thinks he’d make a good detective. (Remade in the US as Pure Luck.)
Clash of the Wolves / Where the North Begins(Kino Classics/Library of Congress): Rin Tin Tin, the biggest dog celebrity of the silent era, delivers action-hero performances in this restored double feature.
Les Compères(KL Studio Classics): Gerard Depardieu and Pierre Richard re-team for this 1983 buddy comedy of errors and paternity frame-ups. (Remade in the US as Father’s Day.)
Creepshow: Collector’s Edition(Scream Factory): George Romero and Stephen King’s smash horror-comic hit full of cockroaches, zombies, and people buried up to their necks. 4K UHD with lots of extras (and a limited version with stickers, a pin, slipcovers, and posters)
The Draughtsman’s Contract (Zeitgeist): The 40th anniversary of Peter Greenaway’s 1982 puzzle-box of a film brings a beautiful Blu-ray restoration with lots of extras.
Duet for One (KL Studio Classics): Julie Andrews is a violinist with multiple sclerosis in this 80s drama, co-starring Alan Bates and Max Von Sydow, featuring Rupert Everett and Liam Neeson.
The Experts (KL Studio Classics): The Soviet KGB kidnaps Arye Gross and John Travolta (and his cool mullet) to provide information on all things cool in the U.S. in this oddball 1989 comedy.
Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XIII and XIV (Kino Lorber): Sold separately, here are two more triple features from the noir vaults. Vol. 13 delivers Spy Hunt, The Night Runner, and Step Down to Terror, while Vol. 14 brings Appointment with a Shadow, One Way Street, and Undercover Girl.
A Fistful of Dollars(KL Studio Classics): Clint Eastwood stars in the 1964 Sergio Leone film that started it all, and it comes with a stunning amount of extra material.
For a Few Dollars More (KL Studio Classics): Eastwood returns for another round with Sergio Leone in this 1965 classic. Again, with more bonus material than you can handle.
Funny Ha Ha(Factory 25): Acclaimed indie director Andrew Bujalski’s 2002 feature set a template for the decade to come; just please don’t call it “mumblecore.”
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (KL Studio Classics): 1966 all-timer from Sergio Leone starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach. Features tons of bonus material.
Gorky Park(KL Studio Classics): Michael Apted’s 1983 thriller stars William Hurt and Lee Marvin in a story of murder in the former Soviet Union.
The Great Train Robbery (KL Studio Classics): Michael Crichton’s 1978 caper stars Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland.
Insidious(Sony): The haunted house movie that launched the popular ongoing franchise, now in 4K UHD.
Joy House(KL Studio Classics): Underrated 1964 erotic mystery from French director René Clément (Purple Noon), starring Jane Fonda, Alain Delon, and Lola Albright.
Juggernaut(KL Studio Classics): A terrorist plants seven bombs on a luxury liner in this sophisticated 1974 thriller from Richard Lester, starring Omar Sharif and Richard Harris.
Kamikaze(KL Studio Classics): The 80s French cult classic from co-writer Luc Besson and director Didier Grousset, all about a tech-terrorist on the hunt for TV announcers.
The Longest Yard (KL Studio Classics): Burt Reynolds leads a prison football team in a bitterly funny, rebellious comedy from Robert Aldrich, one that Adam Sandler would later remake and ruin.
Lord of War(Lionsgate): Nicolas Cage runs illegal weapons in this 2005 crime drama now in 4K UHD, a SteelBook package, and lots of bonus material.
Love Letters(KL Studio Classics): William Dieterle directs Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten in this 1945 romantic noir about deception, amnesia, and catfishing before there was a name for catfishing, with a screenplay by Ayn Rand.
The Manchurian Candidate (KL Studio Classics): One of the all-time greats of the 60s, now in 4K, with lots of extras, including a commentary from director John Frankenheimer.
Medicine for Melancholy (The Criterion Collection): Before Moonlight, filmmaker Barry Jenkins delivered this beautiful 2008 romance starring Wyatt Cenac and Tracey Heggins.
Millennium Mambo (Metrograph): A stunning 2001 drift into romantic malaise, this beauty from Hou Hsiao-hsien gets its deserved Blu-ray bow.
Mr. Wong Collection(KL Studio Classics): Boris Karloff played Mr. Wong in five films about the fictional Chinese detective from 1938 to 1940. Yes, Boris Karloff, and here’s where to find five examples of Hollywood’s problematic history.
My Man Godfrey (KL Studio Classics): No, not that one. This is the 1957 remake starring David Niven and June Allyson, featuring a commentary from critic Simon Abrams.
National Lampoon’s Vacation (Warner Bros.): Follow the Griswolds in 4K UHD for the 40th anniversary of the classic comedy, and then try to get that theme song out of your head.
The Night of The Hunter (KL Studio Classics): Robert Mitchum is the preacher who kills in this bone-chilling 1955 drama from Charles Laughton.
The Oyster Princess / Meyer From Berlin (Kino Classics): Rollicking silent comedies from the legendary Ernst Lubitsch during his pre-Hollywood years.
The Package (KL Studio Classics): Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones find themselves involved in a military conspiracy in this underseen 1989 thriller.
Pasolini 101 (The Criterion Collection): A major Criterion release, this box set of nine classics from legendary Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini is housed in beautiful packaging with a stunning amount of bonus material. Essential.
Red Sun (Radiance): This 1970 West German thriller from director Rudolf Thome is about a commune of women who kill each man in their lives five days after they arrive. Comes with lots of extra material, including a book of critical essays.
Ronin (KL Studio Classics): De Niro and Jean Reno square off in this wildly exciting 90s thriller from John Frankenheimer.
The Rules of The Game (The Criterion Collection): Jean Renoir’s classic 1939 comedy is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time. Get this new 4K reissue right now for all the extra material Criterion routinely packs into their thoughtfully-produced editions.
The Servant (The Criterion Collection): Joseph Losey’s 1963 jolt to traditional ideas of class, power, and sexuality stars Dirk Bogarde and James Fox as two men whose employer-employee relationship is never all that it seems.
The Sorrow and The Pity (The Milestone Cinematheque): One of the all-time great documentaries from Marcel Ophuls chronicles the occupation of Paris by the Nazis during World War II.
Tales from Gimli Hospital (Zeitgeist): This deliriously lo-fi dream of a Guy Maddin film has to be seen to be believed. Bonus features include a commentary from Maddin and his amazing 2000 short film The Heart of The World.
There’s No Tomorrow (Kino Classics): From the legendary Max Ophüls comes this tragic 1939 romance starring Edwige Feuillere.
Time Bandits (The Criterion Collection): Terry Gilliam’s wild 1981 adventure through time and space gets an extras-packed Criterion release.
Transformers: Limited Edition SteelBook 6-Movie Collection(Paramount): A box set as big as a car. All six movies in 4K UHD and Blu-ray, with digital codes, each in its own SteelBook, and the entire collection housed in one box. Loads of special features on each Blu-ray. You even get an Autobot decal.
The Treatment (Kino Lorber): As late as 2006, they were still making intelligent rom-coms for grownups. Here’s an underrated one starring Famke Janssen and Chris Eigeman as people in therapy and in love.
Warriors Two(Arrow): Restoration of Sammo Hung’s second directorial effort, co-starring Casanova Wong.
Warm Water Under a Red Bridge(Film Movement Classics): Acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Shohei Imamura’s final film was this unforgettable 2001 erotic comedy about a woman whose body is a well and whose orgasms support the local river.
Waterworld (Arrow): You haven’t soaked in enough Waterworld until you’ve done it in 4K UHD (and it comes with tons of extra material).
The White Buffalo(KL Studio Classics): Charles Bronson is Wild Bill Hickock on the hunt for a mythical White Buffalo in this 70s western co-starring Jack Warden and Will Sampson.
Will Penny (KL Studio Classics): Charlton Heston’s favorite of the films in which he starred, this is a mournful 60s western co-starring Joan Hackett, Donald Pleasance, Bruce Dern, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, and a young Lee Majors.
A Zed & Two Noughts / The Falls: Two Films by Peter Greenaway (Kino): Two of the iconoclastic filmmaker’s most sought-after 80s provocations, restored and collected here with bonus features.
NEW TV
The Venture Bros.: The Complete Series (Warner Bros): One of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block’s most enduring success stories is this Jonny Quest–style adventure into absurdity, one that shifted gears and flipped itself upside down enough times that it demanded more, not less, of its audience as the series progressed. And it’s all here – 82 episodes – with lots of extra material in a box set that keeps on giving.
Also available:
Battle Kaiju Series #01 – Ultraman vs. Red King (Mill Creek): Packed with extras, this 16-episode collection follows the most famous kaiju fighter and one of his greatest foes.
Criminal Minds: Evolution: Season 16(Paramount): One of the profiler’s UnSub’s (aka Unknown Subjects) built a team of serial killers during COVID, and now the profilers have a big scary job on their hands.
Fear The Walking Dead: Complete Seasons 1-7 (Lionsgate): The whole thing, all in one place. Watch it with all of The Walking Dead and settle in for a year’s worth of zombie TV.
Tulsa King: Season 1 (Paramount): Sylvester Stallone stars in this hit comedy series about a mob boss exiled to Oklahoma.
UFOs: Seasons 1 & 2 (MHz): Jump into this oddball French sitcom about UFO investigators in the 1970s, described as a mash-up of The X-Files and The Office.
Wartime Girls: The Complete First Season and The Complete Second Season (Kino Lorber): This gripping Polish TV series follows three women who fought against the Nazi occupation during World War II.