Outlaws on the run in the propulsive ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’
“Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”
Available on VOD beginning Aug. 23
Writer-director David Lowery’s film is like a mash-up of the best of ‘70s American cinema, a story of outlaws on the run that recalls both the lushness of Terence Malick’s work and the funkiness of Robert Altman’s. Casey Affleck plays an escaped convict who heads back to Texas to be reunited with the mother of his child; Rooney Mara plays the mother, who’s been dealing with the romantic attentions of a local lawman (Ben Foster) while struggling with her culpability in her lover’s incarceration. The story, though, is less important than how Lowery tells it, with pretty pictures and a propulsive rhythm that makes the whole movie feel like a cinephile’s dream. It’s a film that announces Lowery as a director to watch.
PHOTOS: Hollywood backlot moments
“Amour”
Sony, $30.99; Blu-ray, $35.99
Available on VOD beginning Aug. 20
One of director Michael Haneke’s most accessible and wrenching films stars Jean-Louis Trintignant as an octogenarian music teacher whose love and compassion for his wife (played by the Oscar-nominated Emmanuelle Riva) is tested when she has a stroke and her quality of life drops precipitously. The winner of this past year’s foreign language Oscar — and also a nominee for screenplay, director and best picture — “Amour” is heartbreakingly realistic about how even lifelong love affairs come to an end through our collective mortality, but it’s also strangely life-affirming. The DVD and Blu-ray come with a featurette and a Haneke interview.
“The Big City”/”Charulata”
Criterion, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.95 (available separately)
The work of Indian director Satyajit Ray has been sadly under-available on DVD and Blu-ray, given that he’s one of the greatest auteurs in the history of world cinema. But Criterion has been working to remedy that injustice, and now issues separate releases of two of Ray’s most acclaimed ‘60s films: 1963’s “The Big City,” starring Madhabi Mukherjee as a housewife who shakes up her family when she gets a job, and 1964’s “Charulata,” starring Mukherjee as a housewife tempted to have an affair. The movies are set in different eras and among different classes, but both deal sensitively with social expectations and how they affect the lot of Indian women. Criterion’s discs add interviews (including a new one with Mukherjee and an archival one with the late Ray); and “The Big City” throws in another full Ray feature film: 1965’s Mukherjee-starring chamber drama “The Coward.”
“Leviathan”
Available on VOD beginning Aug. 24
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel’s avant-garde documentary turns a typical night aboard a commercial fishing vessel into a wild, psychedelic nightmare, immersing the viewer in darkness and chaos. The filmmakers eschew voice-overs and explanation, instead strapping cameras all over a ship (and on some of the crew), to show the process of catching, sorting and gutting fish as grueling, gory labor. It’s not an easy movie to watch, but the you-are-there approach inspires some one-of-a-kind images, such as the recurring shot of seabirds flocking so close to the shipside camera that it looks as if they’re upside-down.
And…
“Epic”
20th Century Fox, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.99/$49.99
Available on VOD beginning Aug. 20
“No Place on Earth”
Magnolia, $26.98; Blu-ray, $29.98
Available on VOD beginning Aug. 20
“Scary Movie 5”
Starz/Anchor Bay, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.99
Available on VOD beginning Aug. 20
Only good movies
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