Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Disney, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, Cable VOD) has been touted by many fans as the best Marvel Universe superhero movie to date. Picking up where The Avengers left off, it’s a superhero adventure by way of a political conspiracy thriller that teams up Cap (Chris Evans in all-American integrity mode) with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) when S.H.I.E.L.D. is infiltrated by the evil Hydra. Anthony Mackie joins as Falcon, Cap’s sidekick in the comics in the late sixties through the seventies, and he gets a terrific origin story, and of course Samuel L. Jackson is also back as badass Nick Fury.
Evans is superb as the super square patriot who was frozen in a freak event during World War II and revived decades later, a man out of time and out of society, and Johansson expands the character of Black Widow now that she’s out of the shadow of The Avengers. Her flirtatious banter is more good-natured than seductive, as much a defense mechanism to keep emotions at arm’s length as a moment of playful collegiality. And when it comes to action, she proves herself a match for anyone in the boy’s club of superhero movies. Robert Redford has a terrific supporting role and Sebastian Stan plays the titular Winter Soldier.
Available in Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D special editions and single disc DVD, plus digital formats and VOD. No review copy as made available but all editions are supposed to include a featurette and deleted scenes, with more supplements on the Blu-ray editions.
Words and Pictures (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD, Cable VOD) is both a romantic drama, with Clive Owen as passionate but alcoholic English teacher at an expensive prep school and Juliette Binoche as the new art teacher who clashes with the brash Owen, and a pedagogical drama where a “war” between the written word and the image inspires the student body to engage in the arts.
The script is disappointingly pedestrian but the performances are superb, with Owen sinking his teeth into the charming arrogance of a former literary star crippled by doubt and drink and Binoche as the hard, emotionally brittle abstract artise suffering from a degenerative disease that has put an end to her ability to paint. A painter in her own right, Binoche brings a vivid physicality to the role as her character tries to find new ways to paint, throwing her whole body into the process. She communicates both the joy of expression and the pain of the effort in her performance. The sparring between these two actors and the maturity of their relationship makes it worth watching despite the inevitability of the story.
Features commentary by director Fred Schepisi and a 17-minute featurette. Danny Miller talks with director Fred Schepisi for Cinephiled here.
Borgman (Drafthouse, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD), from Dutch director Alex van Warmerdam (Grimm), is all kinds of screwed up, which is surely what attracted cult film specialist Drafthouse to the film. A psychodrama with a surreal sensibility and dark sense of humor, it’s part horror film and part dark fable with an enigmatic figure—the Borgman of the title (Jan Bijvoet)—as both devil and perverse guardian angel in the guise of a homeless man who lives in the Earth and emerges to stir the poison in the lives of a middle class family. What starts out like some kind of demented social retribution slips into far more ambiguous malevolence with hints of some kind of supernatural backstory that echoes through the precise details without ever explaining itself. It’s not so much scary as unsettling and disturbing, all the more so because the motivations remain opaque. Really, this is just plain creepy.
In Dutch (and some English dialogue) with English subtitles. Features deleted scenes and a 28-page booklet with interviews, film notes, and conceptual art painted by the director, plus a bonus digital copy.
The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (Zeitgeist, DVD, VOD) is one of those “stranger than fiction” documentaries, a real-life melodrama turned murder mystery set on a tropical island in the Galapagos in the 1930s. All is fine when a Nietzschean professor and his married lover run away from Germany to star their new life in paradise but as more runaways from civilization arrive (including a decadent countess with a retinue of lovers), the human ecosystem gets complicated with resentment, jealousy, and finally murder. It all gets a bit confusing, in part due to the film’s narrative structure, but the archival trove of letters and diary entries (read by the likes of Cate Blanchett, Thomas Kretschmann, Diane Kruger and others), the wealth of photos, and the rare home movies of the inhabitants (most taken by passing sailors) discovered by the filmmakers gives a vivid life to the true story. Surely a fictionalized drama is in the works. As history it’s a footnote but as a real-life human drama it is fascinating.
Includes 14 deleted scenes and a Q&A with the directors from the Telluride Film Festival screening.
Also new and notable: 
Willow Creek (Dark Sky, Blu-ray, DVD), directed by Bobcat Goldthwaite, applies the found footage / video diary-style so popular in the Paranormal Activity franchise to a Bigfoot horror film, with Alexie Gilmore and Bryce Johnson as filmmakers eager to make their mark by finding the elusive creature. Features filmmaker commentary and an
God’s Pocket (MPI, Blu-ray, DVD), directed by Mad Men star and episode director John Slattery and adapted from the novel by Pete Dexter, is an urban crime drama featuring one of the final performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman. Richard Jenkins, John Turturro, and Mad Men‘s Christina Hendricks co-star. Features commentary by director / co-screenwriter Slattery and deleted scenes.
Brick Mansions (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD, Cable VOD), the Luc Besson-produced American remake of his French action hit District 13, features Paul Walker in one of his final roles with David Belle (reprising his role from the original) and RZA.
Fed Up (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray, DVD), a documentary on the American food industry and the epidemic of childhood obesity and other food-related health issues, and Teenage (Oscilloscope, DVD, Cable VOD), a look at the culture of teenagers as it evolved over the 20th century around the world, are highlights in the week’s other non-fiction releases.
Also new this week is Korengal (Virgil, Blu-ray, DVD, Cable VOD), Sebastian Junger’s follow-up to Restropo, and Who Is Dayani Crystal? (Kino Lorber, DVD), produced and narrated by Gael Garcia Bernal.
Digital / VOD / Streaming exclusives:
Coming to Cable On Demand two weeks before disc is The Rover (Lionsgate, Cable VOD), David Michod’s follow-up to Animal Kingdom starring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson in the Australian outback, and the Polish drama Ida (Music Box, Cable VOD), directed by Pawel Pawlikoski and Agata Trzebuchowska as young novitiate in 1960s Poland who discovers a family secret that dates back to the Nazi occupation.
The horror film Honeymoon (Magnet, Cable VOD) will be available on Friday, September 12, same days as theaters.
They’re already on disc but now Belle (Fox, Cable VOD) and Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return (Fox, Cable VOD) are available On Demand.
A Million Ways to Die in the West (Universal, Digital HD), Seth McFarlane’s comic western, is available for digital purchase two weeks before disc. The 2000 comedy Sordid Lives (Wolfe, Digital) will also be available as a digital purchase on Friday, September 12.
More releases:
A Long Way Down (Magnolia, Blu-ray, DVD)
Louder Than Words (Arc, DVD)
Last Passenger (Cohen, Blu-ray, DVD)
My Man is a Loser (Lionsgate, DVD, Digital HD)
Refuge (Strand, DVD)
Shame the Devil (Olive, DVD)
Victim (Well Go, Blu-ray, DVD)
American Promise (Cinedigm, DVD, Digital, VOD)
Hornet’s Nest (High Road, Blu-ray, DVD)
Bee People (True Mind, DVD)
Project Wild Thing (Revolver, DVD)
Burning Blue (Lionsgate, DVD)
The Hunted (eOne, DVD, VOD)
Dead Within (Millennium, DVD, VOD)
Monika (Inception, DVD, VOD)
The Investigator (Screen Media, DVD)
I’m a Porn Star (Canteen Outlaws, DVD)
Richard Lewis: Bundle of Nerves (VCS, DVD, Digital HD)
Born to Race: Fast Track (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand)
Sabrina – Secrets of a Teenage Witch: A Witch and the Werewolf – The Movie (Lionsgate, DVD, Digital HD)
Thomas and Friends: Tale of the Brave – The Movie (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD)
TV on disc:
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Complete First Season (ABC, Blu-ray, DVD)
Supernatural: The Complete Ninth Season (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Fifth Season (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD)
Homeland: The Complete Third Season (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD)
Blue Bloods: The Fourth Season (Paramount, DVD)
The Midnight Special Collector’s Edition (11 discs) (StarVista/Time Life, DVD)
The Midnight Special Collection (6 discs) (StarVista/Time Life, DVD)
The Midnight Special (single disc) (StarVista/Time Life, DVD)
The Goldbergs: The Complete First Season (Sony, DVD)
Years of Living Dangerously: The Complete Showtime Series (FilmRise, DVD-R, Amazon exclusive)
Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Complete Season (Warner, Blu-ray)
Little House on the Prairie: Season Three (remastered) (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD)
Doctor Who: Deep Breath (BBC, Blu-ray, DVD)
Regular Show: Rigby Pack (Warner, DVD)
Sex in the Wild (PBS, DVD)
Secrets of Westminster (PBS, DVD)
Operation Maneater (PBS, DVD)
The World Wars (History, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Curse of Oak Island (Lionsgate / History, DVD)
Classics and Cult:
Star Trek: The Compendium (Star Trek / Star Trek Into Darkness) (Paramount, Blu-ray)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
Juggernaut (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
Across 110th Street (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
Cotton Comes to Harlem (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Killer Elite / Noon Wine (1966) (Twilight Time, Blu-ray)
Salvador (Twilight Time, Blu-ray)
The Dogs of War ((Twilight Time, Blu-ray)
Che! (Twilight Time, Blu-ray)
La Bamba (Twilight Time, Blu-ray)
Any Given Sunday (Warner, Blu-ray)
Godzilla 2000 (Sony, Blu-ray)
Godzilla, Mothra & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack / Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (Sony, Blu-ray)
Mothra Trilogy: Rebirth of Mothra / Rebirth of Mothra II / Rebirth of Mothra III (Sony, Blu-ray)
Pumpinkhead (Shout Factory, Blu-ray)
Prom Night (Synapse, Blu-ray, DVD)
Cinderella (1965) (Shout Factory, DVD)
The Slave (Mondo Macabro, Blu-ray+DVD Combo)
Graduation Day (1981) (Vinegar Syndrome, Blu-ray+DVD Combo)
Seizure (Scorpion, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Crow: Salvation (Lionsgate, DVD)
Crazy Dog (One 7, DVD)
Prince of the Night (One 7, DVD)
Top Model (One 7, DVD)
Prisoner of Paradise (Vinegar Syndrome, DVD)
Peekarama: Cry For Cindy / Touch Me / Act of Confession (Vinegar Syndrome, DVD)
Peekarama: Mail Lin vs. Serena / Oriental Hawaii (Vinegar Syndrome, DVD)
Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD
‘Words and Pictures’