Pick of the Week
Keep The Lights On (Music Box Films) — Full disclosure: the song that my wife and I chose to dance to at our wedding was “Close My Eyes” by Arthur Russell, but even removing that from the equation, the combination of Russell’s fond lament and hauntingly beautiful paintings in the film’s opening credits helped to set the perfect tone for this memory of a motion picture. Ira Sachs makes a bold decision that caught me off guard the first time I saw this at its Sundance world premiere. Normally, when telling the story of a doomed relationship on film, it seems important to establish just how strong and passionate this true love is. Yet here, we never get a sense that either of these characters were experiencing once-in-a-lifetime emotions. Nonetheless, as a survivor of a relationship much like this one, I eventually understood that the purpose here wasn’t to chronicle the tragic crumbling of “true love”; Keep The Lights On is more directly a cautionary tale about how, for whatever foggy reasons, we don’t check out of a bad relationship when every single sign is shouting at us to do just that. Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Recommended
Searching For Sugar Man (Sony Classics) — I wouldn’t necessarily call this great filmmaking, but when you have material like this, who cares. Malik Bendjelloul’s resurrection of Sisto Rodriguez is a powerful reminder of how musical myths and legends are born, but more than that, it is guaranteed to turn people on to an artist whose time in the spotlight is longgg overdue. Available on DVD, Blu-ray, and at Amazon Instant.
Nature Calls (Magnolia) — Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Nobody Walks (Magnolia) — Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
New/Old to DVD/Blu-ray
Trust (Olive Films) — Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Ivan’s Childhood (Criterion) — Available on DVD, Blu-ray, and at Amazon Instant.
Deadly Blessing (Shout! Factory) — Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Cujo (Olive Films) — Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Have Not Seen Yet But Really/Kinda/Sorta/Maybe Wanna
The Paperboy (Millennium) — Available on DVD/Digital, Blu-Ray, DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital, and at Amazon Instant
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (Sony) — Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Beauty is Embarrassing: The Wayne White Story (Docurama) — Available on DVD and at Amazon Instant.
A Thousand Cuts (Lorber Films) — Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Breathing (Kino Lorber) — Available on DVD.
End of Watch (Universal) — Available on DVD, Blu-ray, and at Amazon Instant.
Birders: The Central Park Effect (Music Box Films) — Available on DVD.
For A Good Time, Call… (Universal) — Available on DVD, 2-Disc Combo Pack: Blu-ray/DVD/Digital/UltraViolet, and at Amazon Instant.
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