Australian filmmaker David Michôd follows up his acclaimed Animal Kingdom with The Rover (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD), a post-apocalyptic drama starring Guy Pearce as a loner survivalist in the outback and Robert Pattinson as his captive. Scoot McNairy, David Field, Anthony Hayes, and Gillian Jones co-star.
“Tipping its hat to George Miller’s Mad Max trilogy while striking a more somber, introspective tone, Michôd’s sophomore feature isn’t exactly something we’ve never seen before, but it has a desolate beauty all its own, and a career-redefining performance by Robert Pattinson that reveals untold depths of sensitivity and feeling in the erstwhile Twilight star,” writes Variety film critic Scott Foundas. “Pearce is fiercely impressive here as a man who gave up on the human race even before the latest round of calamities, and if there are occasional glimpses of the kinder, gentler man he might once have been, we are more frequently privy to his savage survival instincts. But it’s Pattinson who turns out to be the film’s greatest surprise….”
Blu-ray and DVD with the featurette “Something Elemental: Making The Rover.” The Blu-ray also features a bonus Ultraviolet Digital HD copy.
We Are the Best! (Magnolia, Blu-ray, DVD) – “There is hardly a shortage of movies about rock ’n’ roll, but there are few as perfect — which is to say as ragged, as silly, as touching or as true — as We Are the Best!, Lukas Moodysson’s sweet and rambunctious new film,” proclaims A.O Scott in The New York Times. It’s the story of three misfit girls in early 80s Stockholm who proudly proclaim themselves punks and decide to start an all-girl punk band, despite not being able to actually play any instruments. That’s how the third member, a shy Christian girl who plays classical guitar, turns the rebellious duo into a trio.
In Swedish with English subtitles. No supplements.
Ida (Music Box, Blu-ray, DVD), the first Polish-language production from the previously British-based filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski, follows the odyssey of an 18-year-old orphan and novitiate nun in 1962 Poland who, days before she takes her vows, discovers a family secret that dates back to the Nazi occupation. It sends her on a journey to find out what happened to her parents. “Riveting, original and breathtakingly accomplished on every level, Ida would be a masterpiece in any era, in any country,” writes Godfrey Cheshire for RogerEbert.com.
Polish with English subtitles, with two video interviews with the director and an accompanying booklet with essays and notes. Also on Cable VOD.
The Last of the Unjust (Cohen, Blu-ray, DVD) sends filmmaker Claude Lanzmann, the director of Shoah, back to investigate the Holocaust through the story of Benjamin Murmelstein, the last surviving Jewish elder of the “model ghetto” Theresienstadt. Lanzmann explores his complicated legacy in this nearly four-hour documentary. French and German with English subtitles, with a director interview and a booklet with stills. It’s a two-disc set. Reviews here.
Also new and notable:
Neighbors (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD, Cable VOD) pits young parents Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne against the frat house that sets up next door in a battle that relocates Animal House to suburbia. Zac Efron leads the college rebels in the comic war of wills and pranks and takes his shirt with surprising frequency. Directed by Nicholas Stoller, director of Get Him to the Greek and Forgetting Sarah Marshall and co-writer of the recent Muppet movies. Reviews here.
The Signal (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD, Cable VOD) sends a trio of friend on the search for a legendary computer hacker that lands them in a mysterious top-secret facility where they seem to be the objects of study. Laurence Fishburne stars in this science fiction thriller. Reviews here.
Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen are Very Good Girls (Well Go, Blu-ray, DVD) determined to lose their virginity in this indie drama. After (Virgil, DVD) is an indie family drama starring John Doman, Diane Neal and Kathleen Quinlan.
More foreign imports: Paris-Manhattan (Strand, DVD) is French romantic comedy with Alice Taglioni as a young woman obsessed with Woody Allen movies, That Girl in Yellow Boots (IndiePix, DVD)
Digital / VOD / Streaming exclusives:
Lines of Wellington (Film Movement, Cable VOD) is credited to director Valeria Sarmiento, the widow of Raoul Ruiz and the editor of many Ruiz features, who completed this film that Ruiz had left unfinished when he died in 2011. It’s now available on most cable systems.
Gregg Araki’s White Bird in a Blizzard (Cable VOD), starring Shailene Woodley as a teenage girl who tries to cope with the sudden disappearance of her enigmatic mother (Eva Green), comes to pay-per-view on Thursday, September 25 before hitting theaters.
Good People (Cable VOD), a thriller starring James Franc and Kate Hudson, arrive on pay-per-view on Friday, September 26, same day as theaters.
Fox is still pushing the digital market by making X-Men: Days of Future Past (Fox, Digital HD) and Mr. Peabody and Sherman (Fox, Digital HD) available for virtual purchase weeks before their respective releases. Starz, meanwhile, is selling the romantic comedy Hollidaysburg (Starz, Digital VOD) direct to consumers before theaters.
More releases:
Fort McCoy (Monterey, DVD, Digital, VOD)
The Calling (Sony, DVD)
Free the Mind (Alive Mind, DVD)
My Name is A By Anonymous (Wild Eye, DVD)
Rise Up Black Man (KJ, DVD)
Firestorm (Well Go, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital)
Game of Assassins (Lionsgate, Digital HD, Digital VOD)
Found (XLrator, DVD)
Hellinger / Holy Terror Double Feature (MVD, DVD)
Legend of the Hillbilly Butcher (MVD, DVD)
Daisy: A Hen in the Wild (Olive, DVD)
TV on disc:
Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Season One (Universal, DVD)
Reign: The Complete First Season (Warner, DVD)
Mom: The Complete First Season (Warner, DVD)
The 100: The Complete First Season (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD)
Scandal: The Complete Third Season (ABC, Blu-ray, DVD)
Modern Family: The Complete Fifth Season (Fox, DVD)
Nashville: The Complete Second Season (ABC, Blu-ray, DVD)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: The Fifteenth Year (Universal, DVD)
Defiance: Season Two (Universal, DVD)
Royal Pains: Season Five (Universal, DVD)
Necessary Roughness: Season Three (Universal, DVD)
L.A. Law: Season Three (Shout Factory, DVD)
Daniel Boone: The Complete Series (Fox, DVD)
Key & Peele: Season Three (Paramount, Blu-ray, DVD)
Denver the Last Dinosaur: Complete Series (Cinedigm, DVD)
Johan Falk: Season One (MHz, DVD)
In the Face of Crime (MHz, DVD)
Don Matteo: Set 7 (MHz, DVD)
Don Matteo: Set 8 (MHz, DVD)
Classics and Cult:
Halloween: The Complete Collection – Deluxe Edition (Anchor Bay / Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
Halloween: The Complete Collection (Anchor Bay / Scream Factory, Blu-ray)
The Exorcist: The Complete Anthology (Warner, Blu-ray)
Macbeth (1971) (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Innocents (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Slave (Mondo Macabro, Blu-ray+DVD Combo)
Run Silent, Run Deep (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
Elmer Gantry (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Young Savages (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
Taras Bulba (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
Flesh + Blood (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
Bloody Mama (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
Stage Fright (Blue Underground, Blu-ray)
Distant Drums (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
South of St. Louis (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Big Sleep (1978) (Timeless Media, DVD)
Bill Morrison: Collected Works (1996-2013) (Icarus, DVD, VOD)
Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD