Jason Bailey
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’re watching.
PICK OF THE WEEK:
Godzilla:What’s surprising about Ishiro Honda’s 1954 monster movie is how talky it is—more than you’d expect, and certainly more than in the many sequels that followed. The iconography mostly comes in the second half: the big guy stomping around, pulling power lines, roaring and wreaking havoc (“Godzilla’s leaving a sea of flames in his wake”). But all of it is compelling, particularly in this crisp new 4K edition from Criterion; the acting is strong (you don’t go casting Takashi Shimura, of Toho’s other big 1954 release Seven Samurai, for nothing), the effects stand up, and the conclusion is surprisingly and affectingly melancholy. (Includes audio commentaries, interviews, featurette, audio essay, trailers, essay by J. Hoberman, and the “Americanized” version, Godzilla, King of the Monsters.)
ON MUBI:
The Substance: One of the year’s most divisive movies, and it’s not hard to see why; writer/director Coralie Fargeat’s heady brew of body horror and show-biz satire is deliriously, deliciously over the top, making its points (in terms of commentary and imagery) with the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the temple. There’s something invigorating about watching a filmmaker really and truly going for it, and the degree to which stars like Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley are willing to throw caution to the wind and go right along. It’s disgusting, it’s hilarious, it’s upsetting, and it’s one of the best movies of the year—if you’ve got the stomach for it.
ON NETFLIX:
Focus: In this stylishly entertaining caper from directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy Stupid Love), Will Smith is funny, quick-witted, and cool as a cucumber as a peerless con artist. And he works up a considerable smolder opposite Margot Robbie, in one of her first roles after The Wolf of Wall Street, proving her star power there was no fluke. Make no mistake, if you’re prone to resisting the fake-outs and change-ups of con man and heist pictures, you’ll find Focus plenty annoying. But for those of us who love these little capers, it’s pure catnip.
ON AMAZON PRIME:
Party Girl: Parker Posey had appeared in a few films before this 1995 indie gem, and made plenty after, but this may still be the definitive Posey picture, the one that best captures her unique persona, charisma, and flair. She plays the title character, a club-hopping, clothes-horsing, dizzy ‘90s dame who begins working as a librarian to pay the bills and finds herself unexpectedly drawn to the work. Co-writer/director Diasy von Scherler Mayer moves at a slapstick clip, juggling memorable characters, distinctive New York scenes, and quotable dialogue (“He-he-helloooo!”). It’s so of its moment that it could’ve dated badly; instead, it feels like a dispatch from what might’ve been the city’s last great era.
ON 4K:
Scarface: New to the Criterion Collection, this Howard Hawks favorite (remade, very loosely, by Brian De Palma in 1983) is the very definition of a good-time pre-Code crime picture. Ben Hecht’s rough-and-tumble screenplay broadly aped the story of Al Capone—it’s title was drawn from the kingpin’s nickname —but the violence and brutality of their collaboration was so extreme (for the time, anyway) that producer Howard Hughes had trouble getting it past national and local censorship boards. (Astonishingly, it wasn’t even released in New York and Chicago).Though it ended with Capone avatar Tony Camonte (Paul Muni, terrific) being punished with a hail of police bullets, that conclusion followed 90 minutes of wickedly enjoyable bad behavior. Hughes shot a more explicitly punishing conclusion, but the film still caused trouble; he ended up going around the censors and releasing, in its original form, what became one of the most iconic gangster pictures ever made. (Includes alternate ending, interviews, and essay by Imogen Sara Smith.)
White Christmas: This 1954 musical comedy romance from director Michael Curtiz (who also helmed a pretty good little movie called Casablanca) jumps off of the title tune, which star Bing Crosby first sang in Holiday Inn. The story concerns two Army-buddy entertainers doing a Christmas week gig at their old commanding officer’s resort, and falling in love, and getting into trouble, etc. But look, nobody watches White Christmas for the plot; queue it up for Crosby and Kaye’s chemistry, the unforgettable “Sisters” number by Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, and the general good vibes. Paramount’s new 4K captures the picture in all of its bright, shiny, Technicolor glory. (Includes sing-along version, audio commentary, and featurettes.)
Drag Me to Hell: This pulpy 2009 treat (new to 4K from Scream Factory) marked Sam Raimi’s welcome return to his specialty, comic horror; after 1993’s Army of Darkness, he made a Western and a series of dramas before spending the better part of the following decade directing the Spiderman trilogy. Here, he’s clearly having a great time making a loose, funky B-movie; you can almost hear him cackling off-screen. This man is intoxicated by movies, and by this point in his career, could play an audience like a piano, pushing them to scream and yell and jump and talk to the screen at his will. Drag Me To Hell has no trouble providing that particular brand of a good time. (Includes theatrical and unratd versions, featurettes, new and archival interviews, TV spots and theatrical trailer.)
ON BLU-RAY:
Topkapi: American-born-filmmaker-turned-French-expatriate Jules Dassin’s 1955 film Rififi basically set the template for the entire heist movie genre—assemble a team of lovable rogues, establish an impossible plan, detail their problem solving, and end with the job going wrong and right in proportions of your choosing—so he didn’t fix what wasn’t broke for this 1964 return to the caper form (new on Blu from KL Studio Classics). It’s a leisurely effort, where you’re never quite sure how it will all fit together until late in the game, but it’s tons of fun, with colorful characters, crackling complications, charming dialogue, and a breathless climax that was a crystal clear inspiration for the Langley sequence in the first Mission: Impossible picture. (Includes audio commentary and trailer.)
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Other Holiday Hallucinations: The screeching 1964 family movie Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is so cloying and awful that it was not only riffed by Mystery Science Theater 3000, but two more times by that show’s alumni-fronted spin-offs Cinematic Titanic and Rifftrax. Wait, you might think. Is any movie so bad that you can make fun of it in three different ways? Well, yes, this one is. From its bananas storyline to the nuttiness of its Santa to the Martian “comic relief” character of Droppo (the most repugnant film character this side of Casper in Kids), it is really and truly an insufferable motion picture. So why recommend it here? Because (as they’re prone to do) AGFA and Something Weird have gone all out, presenting the picture in a “roadshow” version that includes opening bumpers, shorts, and ephemera, and throwing in a delightful, hour-long “Santa Claus Conquers the Drive-In” bonus compilation of more of the same. It’s a good disc to have, if for no other reason than to put on when it’s time to clear out your Christmas parties. (Also includes 14 Christmas shorts and an essay by Lisa Petrucci.)
Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical: This 2005 made-for-Showtime production went the Little Shop of Horrors route, from no-budget exploitation movie to cult favorite to stage musical to film adaptation. It’s a hoot, unsurprisingly; there’s a good reason Reefer Madness is cinematic shorthand for over-the-top scare-mongering, and its core story of a good girl and boy gone straight to seed after a couple puffs of the devil’s weed makes the transition into musical camp with ease. The entire cast shines, but the standouts are Alan Cumming as the know-it-all narrator and Kristen Bell (in one of her first big roles) as Mary Lane, the wide-eyed-innocent-turned-bad-girl. (Includes trailers.)
