Can you feel the excitement in the air? The Academy Awards are swiftly approaching, and this week’s DVD and Blu-ray new releases include several nominated films and frontrunners, a film classic getting the Criterion Collection treatment, a recent holiday effort, and much more. Check out what’s now available!
A superb performance by Casey Affleck drives this powerful, critically acclaimed drama. In the wake of his brother’s sudden death, janitor Lee Chandler (Affleck) becomes guardian to his teenaged nephew (Lucas Hedges). Back in his hometown of Manchester, Massachusetts, Lee is forced to confront a painful past, which includes his ex-wife (Michelle Williams) and the devastating tragedy they share. With Gretchen Mol, Kyle Chandler, Matthew Broderick.
Joan Crawford netted her sole career Oscar for the title role in this memorable soap-opera-as-film-noir melodrama, as the divorced mother who climbs from waitress to chain restaurateur in order to provide a good life for her children, only to face a fateful–and fatal–betrayal from her heartless and ungrateful eldest (Ann Blyth). Gripping read on the James M. Cain novel co-stars Zachary Scott, Jack Carson, Eve Arden; Michael Curtiz directs.
Glamorous but unfulfilled L.A. art gallery owner Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) unexpectedly received galley proofs of a novel by Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal), the ex-husband she hadn’t spoken to in years. As she immerses herself in the book’s desert-set terror-and-revenge narrative, she finds disturbing parallels to her course of her relationship with Edward, and sobering revelations about her own nagging self-doubts. Tom Ford’s stylish story-within-a-story stunner co-stars Michael Shannon, Isla Fisher, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Armie Hammer.
After 13 failed years of trying to clean up his act, Willie Stokes (Billy Bob Thornton) is ready to grab the safecracking tools and Santa suit again when ex-partner/”elf” Marcus (Tony Cox) asks him to help separate a Chicago charity home from its donations. Besides having to cut his reprobate mom (Kathy Bates) in on the job, and being saddled with now-grown ward Thurman (Brett Kelly), what happens when he falls for the charity’s administrator (Christina Hendricks)? Long-awaited follow-up to the dark seasonal farce co-stars Ryan Hansen, Jenny Zigrino, Jeff Skowron.
Director Mel Gibson’s harrowing World War II drama tells the true story of Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), the first and only conscientious objector to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. After enlisting in the U.S. Army, Doss is ostracized and labeled a coward due to his refusal to carry a weapon, forcing him to prove his worth as he serves with bravery and distinction as a combat medic during the Battle of Okinawa. Vince Vaughn, Sam Worthington, Teresa Palmer, Rachel Griffiths, and Hugo Weaving also star.