In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week 

If you’re expecting this to be a risible takedown of Donald Trump—after all, the poster tagline is “An American Horror Story”—think again: director Ali Abbasi and writer Gabriel Sherman have, with some success, made an amusingly and terrifyingly entertaining ride through the beginnings of Trump World, when Donald hitched his wagon to the revolting Roy Cohen, eventually outfoxing the master himself.

 

 

There’s an authentic ’70s “NYC is dying” vibe whenever the material degenerates to mere melodrama or rom-com parody, but front and center are three on-target performances. Maria Bakalova is a razor-sharp Ivana, Sebastian Stan a surprisingly sympathetic Donald and Jeremy Strong an outsized, wonderfully villainous Cohn.

 

 

 

Omni Loop 

Mary-Louise Parker is her usual delightful self in this otherwise aggressively dull sci-fi fantasy by writer-director Bernardo Britto, who steals brazenly from Groundhog Day to create a silly story of a dying scientist with a black hole in her chest who hopes that time travel with cure her. (No—seriously.)

 

 

Parker and Ayo Edebiri (who’s so good in The Bear) have terrific chemistry, and Harris Yulin contributes a fun bit as an ornery old professor, but the movie spins its wheels in a desperate attempt to find Meaning, when simply lowercase coherence would be enough.

 

 

 

4K/UHD Release of the Week 

Wes Craven’s 1983 horror entry has gained stature over the past four decades despite being mainly a crudely effective horror film about a teenage girl’s nightmares getting intruded on by the now-legendary Freddy Krueger, who enters the real world and starts a killing spree.

 

 

Craven directs with a sledgehammer, but it works for the most part, particularly the ending, which makes up for many other shortcomings (mainly the script and acting). Both the theatrical and uncut versions look excellent in UHD; extras are two commentaries, interviews, three featurettes and alternate endings.

 

 

 

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

Writer-director Ti West and actress Mia Goth reunite for another go-round, this time following porn actress Maxine (from their 2022 collaboration X) looking for legitimate stardom as the lead in a Hollywood horror flick, circa 1985.

 

 

There’s an intriguing if contrived premise here, yet the problem is that West and Goth are so busy trying to evoke a specific era that there’s rarely room for anything original—it’s a jumble of nods to VCRs, pornos and slasher flicks, with amusing overacting by Kevin Bacon, Michelle Monaghan, Lily Collins, Elizabeth Debicki and Goth herself. There’s a fine hi-def transfer; extras include three featurettes and a West Q&A.

 

 

 

Meeting the Beatles in India 

Canadian director Paul Saltzman retraces his steps back to 1968 India, when he there at the same time as the Beatles during their legendary stay with the Maharishi—he took a series of intimate photographs of them that were forgotten for decades until his daughter discovered them, leading to this documentary about the importance of that earthshaking visit musically and in the world of meditation.

 

 

Saltzman interviews several individuals related to India (Patti Boyd) or meditation (David Lynch), and it comes across as self-indulgent, real Beatles fanatics (like me) will eat it up. The film looks quite good in hi-def; extras include nearly an hour of extra footage. 

 

 

 

The West Wing—Complete Series 

When Aaron Sorkin was on, there was no better dialogue writer in TV, the movies and theater in the 1990s (remembering that his breakthrough play, A Few Good Men, opened on Broadway in 1989), as the first four seasons of this beloved series about a liberal White House filled with progressive idealism demonstrates.

 

 

Sorkin left after the fourth season, and the final three seasons get less interesting, even if Sorkin’s sanctimony is toned down—luckily, the complete series set has been packaged so that Sorkin’s seasons and the other three are in separate boxes. The buzzy cast is led by Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford and Rob Lowe. The series, whose 154 episodes are included on 28 discs, looks good in hi-def; extras include interviews, deleted scenes, making-of featurettes and commentaries.

 

 

 

Blu-ray/CD Release of the Week 

British rockers Def Leppard return to their stomping grounds for a 2023 benefit concert at the Leadmill nightclub in Sheffield, where they began more than 45 years earlier, for a raucous hour-plus set surprisingly heavy on earlier tunes—especially from their 1981 release High ’n’ Dry—alongside their anthemic MTV-era hits.

 

 

This version of the band still has four members from its late-’80s heyday, led by vocalist Joe Elliott, still in fine voice; vets Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen make up the blistering two-guitar attack. Best songs of the night are the pair of slow burners, “Too Late for Love” and “Bringing on the Heartbreak.” The entire concert is included on CD as well; the hi-def video and audio are topnotch.

 

 

 

DVD Release of the Week

After 12 seasons over a quarter-century, Larry David’s irascible alter ego finally rode off into the sunset, always getting into as much trouble as he possibly can—nearly always self-inflicted, of course, but David was always self-aware enough not to care. For me, at least, a little of David’s clever but narrow observational comedy goes a long way, so most viewers’ comic mileage will obviously vary widely.

 

 

Still, there are many priceless moments throughout: the ultimate highlight for me will always be the first episode of the penultimate season 11, when Larry ruins Albert Brooks’ “living funeral” by discovering that Brooks has been (oh horror of horrors!) an unrepentant COVID hoarder of hand sanitizer and toilet paper. The 24-disc set includes all 120 episodes; the many extras include a gag reel, interviews and featurettes.

 

 

 

CD Releases of the Week 

German composer Walter Braunfels (1882-1954) is best known for his playful opera The Birds (1913-19), based on ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes’ play—along with other music by the half-Jewish Braunfels, it caused enough of a stir that the Nazis banned it. This opera, composed in 1938-43, is an often gripping account of Joan of Arc: war hero, convicted heretic burned at the stake, and eventual Roman Catholic saint.

 

 

The most memorable writing is for the chorus, especially in the final scenes of Joan’s death, while other sequences of Joan with the men she leads to battle and those who condemn her for heresy, are intelligently but conventionally written. This excellent recording is from a 2013 Salzburg production, with Juliane Banse as a strong Joan, the Salzburg Bach Chorus is in impressive form and Manfred Honeck conducts the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in a fine reading of Braunfels’ serious, sober score.

 

 

 

Woolf/Vavrek—Jacqueline 

British cellist Jacqueline du Pre was legendary for her intensely emotional performances until multiple sclerosis cut her down in her prime—she died at age 42, in 1987. In Canadian-American composer Luna Pearl Woolf’s 2020 chamber opera, du Pre is represented by two performers, a soprano and a cellist, both embodying fractured aspects of Jacqueline’s life and artistry in an effective conceit captured by Royce Vavrek’s libretto.

 

 

In this captivating recording, soprano Marnie Breckenridge sings with honesty and intimacy, while Matt Haimovitz’s cello equals her in musical strength, making for quite a powerful duet. The main problem is that an audio recording presents only half the opera, as it were; video would allow us to see as well as hear the fascinating intertwining of singer and musician.