Fresh from its success at the Academy Awards, The Favourite comes to DVD and Blu-ray this week. And its not alone. There’s a variety of great new releases that are now available — everything from Sylvester Stallone‘s final appearance as Rocky Balboa to classics from the Warner Archive Collection. Take a look at these terrific Blu-rays and DVDs!:
In the early-18th century, sickly British monarch Queen Anne (Best Actress Oscar-winner Olivia Colman) engages in a secret affair with Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz), a trusted adviser with a great deal of influence over matters of state. Their relationship is threatened by the arrival of Sarah’s cousin–former aristocrat Abigail Masham (Emma Stone)–who attempts to position herself close to the Queen in an effort to work her way back into society’s upper crust. Lavish mix of comedy and drama co-stars Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn.
The meteoric rise through the world boxing ranks of Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) didn’t go unnoticed by Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren)–the Russian bruiser who’d killed Creed’s father in the ring decades ago–and who was now lobbying to get a redemptive title shot for his no-less-intimidating son Viktor (Florian Munteanu). Can Donnie push through family crises, and a falling out with mentor Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), to keep his belt? Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Brigitte Nielsen co-star.
Spoiled socialite Diana Merrick (Greta Garbo) wanted to wed lifelong crush Neville Holderness (John Gilbert), but his disapproving family wouldn’t have it. Her rebound marriage to shady David Furness (Johnny Mack Brown) ended with his financial ruin and suicide. Will she be able to pay his debts and stave off scandal, or is further heartbreak ahead? Melodrama drawn from Michael Arlen’s “The Green Hat” co-stars Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Lewis Stone, Dorothy Sebastian.
On their parents’ divorce seven years earlier, Stephanie Hale (Lyn Wilde) had a educationally rigorous upbringing with psychologist mom Mary (Gail Patrick), while identical twin Terry (Lee Wilde) knew a more everyday lifestyle with journalist dad Jeff (Preston Foster). Finally reunited, the teen sibs resolve to secretly swap places and see how the other half lives… What could possibly go wrong? Fun vehicle for the singer/dancer sister act co-stars Marshall Thompson, Jimmy Lydon, Jean Porter.
With a reform-minded colleague (Lewis Stone) dogging his steps, a corrupt Manhattan jurist (Walter Huston) was trying to scrub all evidence of his lavish lifestyle. Too bad, then, that his mistress’s neighbor (Anita Page) got a glimpse of his bankbook…as he proceeded to frame the innocent woman for prostitution and arrange a shanghai for her furious husband (Phillips Holmes). Fact-inspired pre-Code potboiler also stars Mary Carlisle, Noel Francis, Tully Marshall, Jean Hersholt.
Her otherwise happy marriage having gotten somewhat dull, Kathy (Harley Jane Kozak) wonders what it would have been like to sleep with her high school sweetheart, Tom (Ken Wahl). She enlists friend Emily (Elizabeth McGovern) to have sex with Tom and tell her all about it. But when Emily does just that, all sorts of comedic complications ensue. Bill Pullman, Brad Pitt, Larry Miller also star in this sophisticated romantic story.
In her heyday, she was a legitimate rival to Normand and Dressler as queen of screen comedy, and the surviving silent slapstick shorts of frizzy-coifed funnywoman Alice Howell are collected here. Included are “Shot in the Excitement” (1914), “Father Was a Loafer” (1915), “Under New Management” (1915), “How Stars Are Made” (1916), “Neptune’s Naughty Daughter” (1917), “In Dutch” (1918), “Distilled Love” (1920), “His Wooden Leg-Acy” (1920), “Her Lucky Day” (1920), “Cinderella Cinders” (1920), “A Convict’s Happy Bride” (1920), and “Under a Spell” (1920).
The day came when once happily childless house-flippers Pete and Ellie Wagner (Mark Wahlberg, Rose Byrne) took a hard look at their lives, and chose to open home and hearts to a foster kid. They found the troubled teen (Isabela Moner) they settled on was a package deal with two no-less-challenged younger sibs (Gustavo Quiroz Jr., Julianna Gamiz)…and they had to dog-paddle fast in the deep end of parenting. Sean Anders’ amiable farce co-stars Octavia Spencer, Tig Notaro, Margo Martindale.
Recent widow Jan Stewart (Greer Garson) was looking for new challenges, and she’d find them when–despite no experience–she was appointed the first female teacher at an ultra-exclusive boys’ prep school. Will her tough-love approach manage to win over her pampered and frosty charges, much less her condescending colleagues? Engaging comedy-drama that marked Garson’s M-G-M farewell also stars Robert Ryan, Barry Sullivan, James Arness, Richard Haydn, Barbara Lawrence.
Suburban mom Holly Burns (Julia Roberts) came home on Christmas Eve and found a gift she met with as much dread as joy: her troubled teenage son Ben (Lucas Hedges), excused from drug rehab to spend the holiday. The tense few days that follow, as the sundry demons of Ben’s past come to trouble–and even imperil–his wary family, are uncompromisingly chronicled in Peter Hedges’ intense domestic drama. Courtney B. Vance, Kathryn Newton, Michael Esper, Rachel Bay Jones also star.
Since the mid-’00s, California rock climber Alex Honnold has steadily built his repute for the “free solo”–ascending alone, without benefit of ropes, safety gear, or equipment of any kind. In 2017, he elected to tackle the formidable face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, and this dizzying, Oscar-winning documentary from Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (“Meru”) captures the experience from his prep and personal misgivings through its astounding, record-breaking execution.
In 1999, Staten Island school shooting survivor Celeste Montgomery (Raffey Cassidy) used song to work through her trauma…and found her effort becoming an anthem, and herself with an improbable springboard into pop stardom. Today, the weight of career tests the fragile Celeste (Natalie Portman) as she tries to rebound from scandal, as well as deal with a rebellious daughter (Cassidy, again). Brady Corbet’s compelling showbiz saga co-stars Jude Law, Stacy Martin, Jennifer Ehle; Willem Dafoe narrates.
In 1968, British entrepreneur, inventor, and recreational seaman Donald Crowhurst (Colin Firth) seized upon participation in an upcoming round-the-globe yacht race as a means of promoting his directional finder. From his desperate and ill-considered rush to launch his trimaran to the mental strain and ultimate disaster that awaited at sea, a true-life tragedy is memorably chronicled in this adventure from director James Marsh. Rachel Weisz, David Thewlis, Mark Gatiss, Ken Stott also star.
In an unnamed Eastern European country, in the aftermath of World War II, a Roman Catholic cardinal (Alec Guinness)–locally revered for his convictions and his resistance to the Nazis–is jailed by the state for sedition. Seeking to discredit him. the government tasks a shrewd interrogator (Jack Hawkins) with obtaining a forced confession to trumped-up charges…and a harrowing war of wills results. Impressive and intense drama propelled by the lead performances also stars Wilfred Lawson, Kenneth Griffith, Ronald Lewis.
Ben (Stephen Dorff) and Hazel Slater (Melissa George) are coping as best they can with the recent death of their daughter, Molly (Grace Farrell). But as Ben starts to encounter the phrase “seas the day” an inordinate number of times, a recurring dream that seems to be able to affect the waking world begins to make him believe he can change the past and save Molly, forcing Hazel to question his sanity. Powerful, emotionally charged thriller from Ireland co-stars Simon Delaney, Aoibhinn McGinnity.
Click here for a complete overview of all of this week’s new releases.