Home Theater: Christopher Nolan’s bold, offbeat ‘Interstellar’

Interstellar

Paramount, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.99

Available on VOD Tuesday

When Christopher Nolan was promoting this film last fall, the “Dark Knight”/”Inception” director promised a more heartfelt, less cerebral movie than his usual brainy blockbusters. There’s definitely a lot of talk about love and family in this story of a NASA pilot (played by Matthew McConaughey) who agrees to travel through a wormhole to save humanity. But “Interstellar” is also highly wonky and philosophical, filled with speculative science and deep considerations of whether mankind can ever be selfless enough to survive. In short: This is another bold, offbeat and entertaining genre film from modern Hollywood’s most consistently visionary mainstream director. The DVD and Blu-ray come with featurettes that cover everything from the magnificent special effects to the extensive research that went into the project.

Wild

20th Century Fox, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.99

Screenwriter Nick Hornby, “Dallas Buyers Club” director Jean-Marc Vallée and producer-star Reese Witherspoon bring a rare sensitivity to this adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s inspirational memoir. Witherspoon plays Strayed, a woman who reacts to her mother’s death by plunging into heroin and sex addiction before deciding to right herself by hiking more than 1,000 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail. “Wild” follows Strayed’s progress from frightened novice to lean, hardened adventurer, and Witherspoon gives her all to a role that requires her to be prickly in the flashback sequences and a plucky feminist heroine in the wilderness. The film is engineered for maximum uplift but so well crafted that the shamelessness is forgivable. The DVD and Blu-ray add a commentary track, deleted scenes and featurettes.

Silicon Valley: The Complete First Season

HBO, $39.98; Blu-ray, $49.99

“Office Space” creator Mike Judge applies his dry satirical style to California’s computer culture in this HBO sitcom, a smart and funny look at how the kind of misfits who develop apps for a living have built their own cutthroat corporate culture. Taking on everything from the sweatshop conditions for coders to the way ruthless bosses are treated like gurus, “Silicon Valley” has a keen awareness of the interpersonal challenges, innate misogyny and aggressive hucksterism that results when hordes of sweaty nerds gather and try to impress one another. The second season will begin soon; until then, the eight-episode first season is available on DVD and Blu-ray, with commentary tracks and featurettes.

Cries and Whispers

Criterion, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.95

By the early 1970s, Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman was recognized worldwide as important and influential, but his movies weren’t being seen or talked about as much as they once were. And then he made another masterpiece, 1972’s “Cries and Whispers,” and had one of his biggest hits. Set in the 19th century at an elegant country mansion, the film follows a woman who’s dying of cancer as her two sisters and her maid struggle to comfort her in her last days. Bergman contrasts the classy surroundings with the ugly realities of the human body, creating a movie that has the complicated structure of a novel, the intimate drama of theater and the vivid light and color of great cinema. Criterion’s new DVD and Blu-ray edition include new and vintage interviews, plus a video essay.

And…

The Imitation Game

Starz/Anchor Bay, $29.98; Blu-ray, $34.99

Available on VOD on Tuesday

Outcast

E1, $29.99; Blu-ray, $29.99

The Rewrite

Image, $29.96; Blu-ray, $29.97

Veep: The Complete Third Season

HBO, $39.98; Blu-ray, $49.99

Wild Card

Lionsgate, $19.98; Blu-ray, $24.99

calendar@latimes.com