The Spool / Columns
What’s New on DVD/Blu-ray in March: Women Talking, Animated Batman, Dawson’s Creek and More!
Because in the world of streaming, nothing lasts forever.
Read also: popular streaming services that still offer a free trial>

Because in the world of streaming, nothing lasts forever.

NEW RELEASE WALL 

Women Talking (Universal): The women of an isolated religious community tormented by pervasive physical and sexual abuse come together to decide what, if any, action to take. As they make their plans, they do more than talk — despite the title — and the thoughtful, powerful, Academy Award-winning adapted screenplay from writer-director Sarah Polley is one to remember, as are the performances from a superb ensemble including Frances McDormandRooney MaraClaire FoySheila McCarthy, and Jessie Buckley

Also available: 

Alice, Darling (Lionsgate): Anna Kendrick plays a woman asserting her independence from an abusive boyfriend, only to have her strength tested when he decides to keep tormenting her. 

All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix): The Oscar-winning war drama makes a speedy transition from streaming to physical media in this limited-edition, 4K UHD, two-disc + book box set. 

Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (WB): The Dark Knight fights supernatural forces in this brand-new animated drama. 

Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist (101 Films): Kevin Sorbo ushers in the End Times in this third franchise based on the doom-obsessed best-sellers. 

New DVD/Blu-ray in March M3gan (Universal)
(Universal)

M3GAN (Universal): The breakout murder-robot hit arrives in an unrated edition. Slay, Mama. 

A Man Called Otto (Sony): Tom Hanks and Mariana Treviño star in this comedy-drama about a grumpy widower who befriends a young pregnant woman and her family. 

Missing (Sony): Storm Reid is an internet-savvy teenager desperately trying to locate and rescue her missing mother (Nia Long) in this smart, brisk thriller. 

Plane (Lionsgate) Gerard Butler and Mike Colter heroically fight for the lives of a downed aircraft’s passengers in this action thriller, which plays like an R-rated cut of a 1970s made-for-TV disaster movie. And that’s a compliment. 

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (DreamWorks): Puss In Boots, the breakout star of the “Shrek” universe, is back for one more (last?) adventure in which he finds he’s burned through eight of his allotted nine lives.  

The Whale (A24): Brendan Fraser won the Academy Award for his portrayal of a lonely gay widower, determined to kill himself slowly, who finds spiritual redemption. Because Oscar loves it when a straight actor plays a gay guy who dies. 

New DVD/Blu-ray in March (XYZ Films)
(XYZ Films)

NEW INDIES 

Hypochondriac (XYZ Films): In this jarring psychological thriller — something like a queer indie “Repulsion” for a new generation — from filmmaker Addison Heimann, a gay Hispanic artist with a peaceful life and loving boyfriend finds himself thrown into turmoil when his mentally ill mother returns after a decade-long absence. He spirals into fear, despair, and paranoia that he will become like her, tormented by an imaginary(?) werewolf from his childhood. For fans of the dark side of LGBTQ+ cinema. 

Also available: 

Eat Brains Love (Gunpowder & Sky): A love story in which two high school students turn into zombies, eat their class, then hit the road in search of a cure. And more brains. 

For the Plasma (Factory 25): The indescribably strange, aesthetically sophisticated indie about woodland surveillance and psychic manipulation of financial markets arrives on physical media, ready for a whole new audience to ask, “What IS THIS, and why am I so deeply into it?” 

Foxhole (Yellow Veil): James Le Gros stars in this trio of dramas that intersects the experiences of soldiers in three separate wars: the American Civil War, World War I, and Operation Desert Storm. 

Seriously Red (Lionsgate): A young woman dreams of being a Dolly Parton impersonator, meets an Elvis impersonator (played by Rose Byrne), and finds success as the onstage and romantic partner of a Kenny Rogers impersonator. It could happen. 

New DVD/Blu-ray in March (Altered Innocence)
(Altered Innocence)

NEW INTERNATIONAL 

Beautiful Beings (Altered Innocence): Not to be confused with the ‘90s UK queer teen romantic classic Beautiful Thing, this Icelandic feature — which also centers the experiences of teenagers — is far less easily explained. When a small gang of adolescent outsiders escalate their aggressive activities in a violent direction, one of them begins to experience clairvoyant visions that could guide them all to a better place in life. The question is, will anyone listen and believe in this strange, beguiling film about growing up and letting intuition guide you? 

Also available: 

All Eyes Off Me (Film Movement): A group of young Israelis pursue adulthood through extensive exploration of pleasure with few boundaries. 

A Bag of Marbles (Film Movement): A Jewish boy and his brother embark on a journey of survival in Nazi-occupied France, based on Joseph Joffo’s autobiographical novel. 

Blue Thermal (Shout Studios): Young love feels like soaring on air in this anime about two high-school kids falling for aviation and each other. 

Code of the Assassins (Well Go USA): An assassin on the run from the government and rival assassin clans must unravel a complex conspiracy involving powerful players. 

New on DVD/Blu-ray in March (Shout Studios)
(Shout Studios)

Deemo: Memorial Keys (Shout Studios): A girl falls from the sky and into a castle where a mysterious figure plays a piano that causes a tree to grow out of it in this fantastical anime. 

Goliath (Icarus): When a French schoolteacher’s husband gets cancer from pesticide exposure, she begins a fight against corporate lobbyists and multinational chemical corporations. 

Legend of Gatotkaca (Well Go USA): Prophecies, assassins, superpowers, and a college kid who believes in none of the above form the basis for this Indonesian action fantasy. 

Leonor Will Never Die (Music Box Films): A former Filipino film star in a coma finds herself inside an action-movie script of her own creation in this fantastical, comedic family drama. 

Let It Be Morning (Cohen Media Group): This Israeli Oscar submission follows a Palestinian man living in Jerusalem who finds himself cut off from his family during a military lockdown. 

Sadness and Joy in the Life of Giraffes (IndiePix Unlimited): An extremely tall 10-year-old girl and a living teddy-bear friend named Judy Garland hunt for the prime minister of Portugal in this fantasy parable about growing up. 

New on DVD/Blu-ray in March (Factory 25)
(Factory 25)

NEW DOCUMENTARY 

The Upsetter: The Life & Music of Lee “Scratch” Perry (Factory 25): Here’s the not-so-well-known story of a reggae legend. The mystical Lee “Scratch” Perry more or less invented the entire genre in the 1950s before discovering Bob Marley and working with everyone from Paul McCartney to The Clash. Here’s his story, from filmmakers Ethan Higbee and Adam Bhala Lough, narrated by Benicio Del Toro. Essential music history here. 

Also available: 

American Rapstar (Utopia): This SoundCloud-rapper documentary features Lil Pump, Bhad Bhabie, Smokepurpp, Lil Xan, the late XXXTentacion, and more. 

Burlesque: Heart of the Glitter Tribe (Virgil Films): The stories and unlikely lives of contemporary burlesque’s most celebrated performers. 

Dear Mr. Brody (Greenwich): The true story of a hippie millionaire who decided to give away his fortune and the subsequent chaos that caused. 

How to Build a Time Machine (Collective): This fascinating documentary sees the intersection of two men, both of them obsessed with building a time machine for reasons both aesthetic and personal. 

I Got a Monster (Greenwich): For more than 50 years, the Gun Trace Task Force police unit terrorized the city of Baltimore until they were finally exposed. This doc, based on the non-fiction book, explore the cops who were actually criminals.  

Meet Me in the Bathroom (Utopia): Based on Lizzy Goodman’s best-selling cultural history, this is the story of the NYC music scene after 9/11, featuring The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and TV on the Radio.  

The Super 8 Years (Kino Lorber): Nobel Prize-winning French writer Annie Ernaux (with David Ernaux-Briot) creates a story of family memory from her own home movies of the 1970s. 

New on DVD/Blu-ray in March (AGFA)
(AGFA)

NEW GRINDHOUSE 

Shaolin Invincibles / Seven to One (AGFA): The heroic treasure-hunters at American Genre Film Archive have found the only known prints of these two 1970s martial arts mind benders — plot elements include rock-and-roll samurai warriors, street gangs, wizards with giant tongues, and fighting gorillas — and they’ve restored them to the best possible quality for this deliriously fun double-feature of epic wildness.  

Also available:  

Calvaire (Yellow Veil Pictures): It’s Christmas in France, and that means it’s time for a weary traveler at a creepy inn to encounter extreme violence and horror in this unexpected arthouse-grindhouse crossover. 

Glorious (Shudder): Ryan Kwanten and J.K. Simmons are trapped in a bathroom together, and if the severed leg on the box art is any indication, surviving that scenario could prove difficult. 

Nightmares (Umbrella): In the wake of the original Halloween, cheap, trashy slasher films experienced a major and sustained production boom hoping to cash in, and this 1980 kill-fest from Ozploitation filmmaker John D. Lamond features a staggering body count. 

The Retaliators (Quiver): A pastor is on the vengeance-filled hunt for his daughter’s murderers in this splatterfest featuring Five Finger Death Punch, Tommy Lee, and Papa Roach. 

New on DVD/Blu-ray in March (Criterion)
(Criterion)

NEW CLASSIC 

Chilly Scenes of Winter (Criterion Collection): Joan Micklin Silver – director of the Oscar-nominated Hester Street – was a trailblazing filmmaker and one of the very few women directing major-studio movies in the 1970s. Based on Ann Beattie’s best-selling novel, this drama stars John Heard and Mary Beth Hurt as co-workers having an affair and dealing with the complex consequences that come with that. A classic of the sensitive ‘70s, this Criterion edition comes with plenty of extras, including the happy ending the studio forced Micklin Silver to shoot for a version that went out under the title Head Over Heels

Also available: 

Air Force One (Sony): Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman star in this crowd-pleasing action thriller about what happens when terrorists hijack the President’s plane. Bonus: 4K Ultra HD and SteelBook packaging. 

Asphalt (Kino Classics): This brooding 1929 crime drama from Joe May represents Weimar cinema at its most stylish. 

The Assassin of the Tsar (Deaf Crocodile Films): Malcolm McDowell stars in this 1991 psychological drama about a man dealing with a uniquely tormenting mental illness. 

The Belle Starr Story (Raro Video): Elsa Martinelli stars in this gender-rebellious 1968 Italian western from Lina Wertmuller (who replaced Piero Cristofani three days into the shoot). 

Black Sunday (Arrow): John Frankenheimer’s exciting ‘70s thriller is a tense timebomb about terrorists at the Super Bowl. Starring Robert Shaw and Bruce Dern

March DVD/Blu-ray (Arrow)
(Arrow)

Border River (KL Studio Classics): Joel McCrea stars a Confederate soldier who steals $2 million in Union gold bars and winds up pursued for his crime. 

Breathless (Fun City Editions): It’s the 1983 Richard Gere–starring remake of Jean-Luc Godard’s all-time classic, and it’s a lot cooler and weirder than those facts would suggest. 

Counsellor-At-Law (KL Studio Classics): John Barrymore stars in this William Wyler drama about a lawyer who finds himself embroiled in a scandal he helped cause. 

The Crusades (KL Studio Classics): This 1935 Cecil B. DeMille epic stars Loretta Young and Henry Wilcoxon as royals in love in warring Christian Medieval times. 

Double Crossbones (KL Studio Classics): Singin’ in the Rain star Donald O’Connor finds himself an accidental pirate in this silly ‘50s comedy. 

The Fan (Mill Creek Entertainment): Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes, in a thriller that imagines what would happen if the former took his The King of Comedy stalker character Rupert Pupkin and made him even more terrifyingly violent. 

March DVD/Blu-ray (Mill Creek Entertainment)
(Mill Creek Entertainment)

Fear (Mill Creek Entertainment): Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon star in this ‘90s teen romance/stalker thriller that’s an even wilder viewing experience decades later. 

Flaming Ears (Kino Classics): A low-fi punk entry into the New Queer Cinema canon, this 1992 lesbians-meet-aliens piece of underground sci-fi filmmaking from Ursula Puerrer can now find the audience it deserves. 

Gina (Canadian International Pictures): Canadian filmmaking legend Denys Arcand (The Barbarian Invasions) complicated the exploitation crime genre with this 1975 film about a woman in trouble with criminals. 

The House That Screamed (Arrow): Considered an important predecessor of Dario Argento’s giallo work, director Narciso Ibáñez Serrador’s Spanish horror classic is fully restored to the director’s full-length version. 

If I Had a Million (KL Studio Classics): Ernst Lubitsch co-directs this anthology film with a handful of other legendary filmmakers, and the result is an unhinged Pre-Code screwball comedy about greed starring Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, W.C. Fields, and George Raft. 

Inland Empire (Criterion Collection): David Lynch’s epic 2006 freakout starring Laura Dern is given the two-disc Criterion treatment, with lots of extras to further bend your mind. 

Inland Empire (Criterion)
(Criterion)

Knockabout (Arrow): This martial arts cult favorite — restored and full of bonus material — from actor-director Sammo Hung gave acrobat-actor Yuen Biao his first leading role and delivers stunning action sequences. 

Last Hurrah for Chivalry (Criterion Collection): The 1979 John Woo wuxia classic, in a 2K restoration alongside interviews, trailers, new subtitles, and critical essays. 

The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk, 1 & 2 (Ronin Flix): Corey Yuen’s double punch of ‘90s martial arts mastery stars Jet Li in his powerful prime, now released in a perfect double feature. 

Little Miss Marker (KL Studio Classics): One of Shirley Temple’s earliest roles, this 1934 comedy finds her melting the hearts of hardened gangsters and nightclub singers alike. 

Love Letters (KL Studio Classics): Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten star in this WWII-era romantic film noir, a love story based in deception. 

Lucky Jordan (KL Studio Classics): Alan Ladd plays a wartime washout who accidentally finds himself at the center of a military operation full of Nazi spies, assassins, and saboteurs.  

March DVD/Blu-ray (The Milestone Cinematheque)
(The Milestone Cinematheque)

The Man Without a World (The Milestone Cinematheque): A 4K restoration of a most unusual 1991 feature from director Eleanor Antin, one shot to appear as though it were made in the silent era by an imaginary filmmaker. 

Making Mr. Right (KL Studio Classics): Desperately Seeking Susan director Susan Seidelman delivered this hip, breezy 1987 comedy starring Ann Magnuson as a PR genius who finds herself falling in love with an android played by John Malkovich

The Mask of Zorro (Sony): You get double the Zorros when Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins team up in this ‘90s action adventure, now in 4K Ultra HD with SteelBook packaging. 

Mildred Pierce (Criterion Collection): A 4K UHD digital transfer and loads of extras are part of this Criterion package for the classic 1945 Joan Crawford drama (which earned her a Best Actress Oscar). 

Never Say Die (KL Studio Classics): Bob Hope and Martha Raye zoom through this screwball comedy about a millionaire who thinks he’s dying. 

No Man Is an Island (KL Studio Classics): Jeffrey Hunter (The Searchers) plays a military man trapped on Guam and fighting for survival on December 7, 1941, the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. 

Party Girl (Fun City Editions)
(Fun City Editions)

Party Girl (Fun City Editions): Heh-heh-HELLO! This Parker Posey ‘90s classic finally gets the full Blu-ray treatment in a loving collection that includes new interviews with Posey and director Daisy von Scherler Mayer. 

Problem Child (Mill Creek Entertainment): John Ritter, Michael Richards, Gilbert Gottfried, and Jack Warden star in this comedy that makes the kid in The Bad Seed look lovable. 

Rawhead Rex (KL Studio Classics): 4K UHD, 2-disc, and bursting-with-extras, this cult 80s artifact from George Pavlou and Clive Barker is about a demon unleashed and unhinged. 

Secret Admirer (KL Studio Classics): C. Thomas Howell, Lori Loughlin, and Kelly Preston form a perfectly ‘80s high-school love triangle in this cult comedy about mistaken identities. 

Secret Defense (Cohen Media Group): French legend Jacques Rivette’s 1997 thriller stars Sandrine Bonnaire as a scientist out to solve her father’s murder. 

Secret Defense (Cohen Media Group)
(Cohen Media Group)

Sumurun (Kino Classics): Ernst Lubtisch directed this 1920 adventure starring Jenny Hasselqvist (The Saga of Gosta Berling) as a member of a harem who rejects the sheik and falls for a cloth merchant. 

Thanks for the Memory (KL Studio Classics): The title of this 1938 Bob Hope comedy was based on the hit song of the same name that appeared in an earlier Bob Hope film, “The Big Broadcast of 1938.” However, Hope’s signature song is not in this film. Got it? 

Tomahawk (KL Studio Classics): Van Heflin stars as Native American sympathizer Jim Bridger who fought for Sioux territorial rights when the US government built a trail to Montana gold reserves. 

The Wildcat (Kino Classics): Pola Negri stars in this 1921 farce from Ernst Lubitsch, a comedy described by Peter Bogdanovich as an “uproarious, hard-edged anti-military spoof.” 

Dawson's Creek (Mill Creek Entertainment)
(Mill Creek Entertainment)

NEW TV

Dawson’s Creek: The Complete Series (Mill Creek Entertainment): There will be no “I don’t wanna wait” jokes here, but it’s almost certainly a limited run of this 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition box set, so perhaps make buying it a priority if you plan to repeat-view every episode of the classic ‘90s series. This latest release comes with new interviews, commentaries, alternate scenes (and an alternate pilot episode ending) along with Entertainment Weekly’s 20th-anniversary reunion package.  

Also available: 

The Adventures of Batman (WB/DC): Here comes the full slate of classic late ‘60s animated Batman cartoons, so pour yourself a giant bowl of very sugary cereal and enjoy. 

The Good Fight: The Final Season (Paramount): Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald carry it home amidst political turmoil in this sixth and final season of the popular CBS series. 

The Hunters: Complete Seasons 1 & 2 (Kino): Rolf Lassgard stars in this Swedish noir where a retired cop is drawn back into solving a mystery. 

Jim Gaffigan – Stand-Up Spotlight: Noble Ape + Quality Time (Mill Creek Entertainment): There’s always one stand-up who keeps it clean and funny without being annoying about it, and that’s Gaffigan, with two of his specials packaged here. 

Maigret: Season 4 (Kino): The classic French detective series from 1963 drops its fourth season onto Blu-ray to dazzle a whole new generation of sleuthing fans. 

Mike Birbiglia (Mill Creek Entertainment)
(Mill Creek Entertainment)

Mike Birbiglia – Stand-Up Spotlight: My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend + What I Should Have Said Was Nothing (Mill Creek Entertainment): The self-deprecating stand-up storyteller brings two specials to this disc. 

Paris Police 1900: Season 1 (Kino): It might be la belle époque, but there’s plenty of murder, scandal, and conspiracies going on in this popular French series. 

Rick and Morty: The Complete Sixth Season (WB): The press release promises limited-edition SteelBook packaging and “more piss,” which seems very on-brand for this chaotic animated series. 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Season One (Paramount) Before Kirk, there was Pike, and Anson Mount plays him in this prequel series. 

The Walking Dead: The Complete Eleventh Season (Lionsgate): There’s no stopping the zombies, but there is stopping a series. Here’s the epic final season to complete your collection.