Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalogue titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This twice-monthly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you\u2019re watching.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n PICK OF THE WEEK: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n All the Beauty and the Bloodshed<\/em><\/strong><\/a>:<\/strong> Laura Poitros\u2019s chronicles of the protest actions of artist and icon Nan Goldin make for gripping documentary material, recalling the in-the-moment danger of her earlier Citizenfour<\/em>. But the film\u2019s biographical sections, detailing her fascinating early years, are just as riveting; Godlin is a tremendous storyteller, and she intersected with several of the most notorious scenes of the late 20th century (Boston in the \u201870s, John Waters\u2019 Dreamlanders, \u201880s downtown NYC, early AIDS art and activism). She\u2019s matter-of-fact but evocative, and sentimental though she doesn\u2019t sentimentalize. All the Beauty<\/em> (a new and welcome addition to the Criterion Collection) could be either the protest movie or the bio-doc and be great; that it is both, and that they intertwine so delicately and devastatingly at its conclusion, made it the finest film (documentary or otherwise) of 2022. (Includes interviews and trailer.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n ON MAX<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wonka<\/em><\/strong><\/a>:<\/strong> One of 2023\u2019s least promising movies turned out to be one of its most delightful<\/a>. Director Paul King (Paddington, Paddington 2<\/em>) manages to skillfully leap-frog most of the landmines typical of this sort of craven IP exploitation. There are, to be sure, little easter eggs spread throughout, sly shout-outs to the original 1971 film, and to Gene Wilder\u2019s iconic origination of the character; some are cutsier than others. But King isn\u2019t just winking or cashing in. He\u2019s doing something much more difficult (and honorable): attempting to recreate the style and spirit of the \u201971 picture, without falling into the beat-by-beat mirroring of something like Mary Poppins Returns<\/em>. Indeed, Wonka has less in common with Tim Burton\u2019s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory<\/em> than James Bobin\u2019s The Muppets<\/em> \u2014 the work of a filmmaker who has clearly studied and understood why a beloved film works, and follows a similar playbook without resorting to slavish imitation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ON BLU-RAY \/ DVD \/ VOD \/ HULU:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Poor Things<\/em><\/strong><\/a>: <\/strong>Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019s\u00a0latest<\/a>\u00a0is a bit of a one-joke movie, though to be fair, it\u2019s an awfully good joke. It\u2019s built around an Oscar-winning Emma Stone performance that\u2019s by turns funny, sexy, off-putting, and melancholy; she\u2019s basically asked to age from toddler to sophisticated woman-about-town in the space of the picture\u2019s two hours and change, and she\u2019s always convincing, even when Tony McNamara\u2019s script thrusts her into the most wildly improbable situations.\u00a0Mark Ruffalo has an absolute blast playing a dithering nitwit, and Willem Dafoe adds the mixture of smug intelligence and unhinged unpredictability that he does so well. Lanthimos ends up painting himself into a bit of a corner, narratively and dramatically, which is a shame \u2014 had he worked out a few more variations, this might have been one for the books. As it is, it\u2019s an enjoyably gonzo work, and a genuine testament to Ms. Stone\u2019s considerable range.\u00a0(Also streaming on Hulu<\/em><\/a>.) (Includes featurette and deleted scenes.)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n