Pick of the Week
Stories We Tell (Lionsgate) — Sarah Polley’s documentary is an examination of her own family’s secrets, triumphs and tragedies, which takes the complex relationship between real life and its irretrievable immediacy as its subject, using the narrative structure of an investigation as a form of preordained revelation; conceived after each of the film’s participants already knew the central secret of Polley’s story (a secret I will not reveal here because, frankly, why spoil it? It is not the story that matters in this instance as much as the telling…), the film uses a blend of fictional recreation, interviews, archival home footage and voice over narration to explore the idea of how a family collectively preserves its own memory of itself. The enigmatic heart of the film is Polley’s own mother, Diane, a flamboyant actress whose energy and zeal for living made a profound impact on her family and friends. It is not too much to reveal that Diane Polley passed away from cancer at a relatively young age, leaving a void in the lives of those who knew and loved her. The film fills that absence with the memories of those who remain, with the complex balance of ascribing feeling and authority to Diane’s experience through the filter of their own lives, judgments and perceptions, each unique and each only revealing facets of a complicated, ultimately unknowable life. Read Tom Hall’s full HTN review. Available on DVD and at Amazon Instant.
New/Old to DVD/Blu-ray
Slacker (Criterion) — Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
The Battle of Algiers (Criterion) — Available on Blu-ray.
Have Not Seen Yet But Really/Kinda/Sorta/Maybe Wanna
Blancanieves (Cohen Media Group) — Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Petunia (Wolfe Video) — Available on DVD and at Amazon Instant.
Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie (Magnolia) — Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Violeta Went to Heaven (Lorber Films) — Available on DVD and at Amazon Instant.
The English Teacher (Cinedigm) — Available on DVD, Blu-ray, and at Amazon Instant.
Now You See Me (Summit Entertainment) — Available on DVD, Blu-ray, and at Amazon Instant
Arthur Newman (Cinedigm) — Available on DVD, Blu-ray/DVD Combo, and at Amazon Instant.
The Lords of Salem (Anchor Bay) — Available on DVD, Blu-ray, and at Amazon Instant.
The Iceman (Millennium) — Available on DVD, Blu-ray, and at Amazon Instant.
Somm (First Run Features) — Available on DVD and at Amazon Instant.
Cockneys vs. Zombies (Shout! Factory) — Available on DVD/Digital and Blu-ray/Digital.
Wild Card of the Week
Sharknado (The Asylum) — Available on DVD, Blu-ray, and at Amazon Instant.
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