In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week 

In Chris Sivertson’s tantalizing but frustrating horror flick, Christina Ricci gives it her all beautifully as a woman who, escaping an abusive husband, takes her young son to try and start a new life—but the monster her son sees, and her own unsettling visions, make her question whether she can.

 

 

Siverton and writer Carol Chrest have made an unusually intimate thriller that measures a woman’s instability in the face of grief but too often takes half-measures that are only intermittently powerful.

 

 

 

 

 

Pleasure 

Sofia Kappel is sensational as Bella Cherry, a budding porn performer who arrives in southern California willing to do anything to become an adult-film star, in director Ninja Thyberg’s provocative character study of a young woman who discovers the misogynistic reality of the porn industry.

 

 

Although Thyberg has made sure to make this as authentic as possible without crossing the line into hardcore—we see Kappel gamely simulating several sex scenes—she loses her nerve about halfway through, and the film becomes a tried-and-true cautionary tale. The abrupt ending, however, properly ends Bella’s bumpy ride in more ways than one.

 

 

 

 

 

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

Victor Fleming (Gone with the Wind) directed this gripping 1941 adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel about the good doctor who turns into a frightening killer, with plenty of chillingly atmospheric sequences throughout this “duality of man” parable.

 

 

Spencer Tracy is in top form as both doctor and vicious alter ego, preying on the two women in his life/lives: Lana Turner at her most glamorous as Jekyll’s fiancée and Ingrid Bergman at her most seductive as the Hyde’s luckless mistress. The B&W film looks splendid in hi-def.

 

 

 

 

 

The Funeral 

Japanese director Juzo Itami’s anarchic style, perfected in the gloriously unkempt comic adventures Tampopo and A Taxing Woman, first came to vivid life in this 1984 black comedy satirizing the use of traditional Japanese funerals in modern society. Itami (who died suspiciously in 1997) was fond of his characters even though he delivered swift kicks to their backsides, and balancing of the hilarious and the heartfelt was something he was especially adept at, even in this occasionally choppy and overlong debut feature.

 

 

The film looks terrific on Blu-ray; extras include new interviews with his wife and muse, actress Nobuko Miyamoto, and his son, actor Manpei Ikeuchi; a featurette on Itami’s films; and a selection of commercials he directed.

 

 

 

 

 

Pushing Hands 

Ang Lee’s first film, this 1991 drama about the difficulties of assimilating for Mr. Chu, an elderly Chinese man who comes to the U.S. to stay with his son Alex and American daughter-in-law Martha, has its charms and insights yet is essentially a rough blueprint for the superior The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman.

 

 

Happily, there’s a lovely performance by Sihung Lung as Mr. Chu, which partly compensates for the weak acting of Bo Z. Wong (son) and Deb Snyder (daughter-in-law). The restored transfer looks quite good on Blu-ray; lone extra is an hour-long interview with co-writer/producer James Schamus, co-producer Ted Hope and co-editor Tim Squyres.

 

 

 

 

 

DVD Release of the Week

This compelling and hilarious series continues chugging along, as the tension between the media corporation’s founder, Logan Roy, and his adult children, all of whom are in one way or another unworthy to succeed him—sons Kendall, Roman and Connor as well as daughter Shiv—reaches heights of tragicomedy worthy of Shakespeare.

 

 

The superb writing is complemented by the magisterial acting, from Brian Cox’s Lear-like Logan to Jeremy Strong (Kendall), Kieran Culkin (Roman), Sarah Snook (Shiv) and the scene-stealing J. Smith-Cameron as the shrewd associate Gerri. All nine episodes are included, along with several on-set featurettes and interviews, but it's too bad that so few TV series (all shot in hi-def) are released on Blu-ray.