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The Lost Weekend (Kino Lorber Blu-ray)
Don (Ray Milland) is desperate for his next fix and his drug is whiskey. He’ll use every wile to evade the best efforts h by his brother and his devoted girlfriend Helen (Jane Wyman) . Director and cowritter Billy Wilder’s 1945 film remains harrowing in its snake pit, alcohol ward scenes and moving in its small details. Don is a novelist who pawns his typewriter to buy booze. The screenplay includes witty exchanges and moments that rise to poetry as Don describes the calming anesthetic of his high. The Lost Weekend is remarkable and more emotionally complex than expected from Wilder’s skillful navigation through Hollywood censorship and conventions of melodrama. Milwaukee-born film historian Joseph McBride delivers audio commentary on the Blu-ray release. (David Luhrssen)
Mallrats (Arrow Video Blu-ray)
It’s become nostalgic, not only because Amazon has eaten into their business but because malls don’t seem to be safe zones in the shooting gallery of contemporary America. The 25th anniversary Blu-ray edition of Mallrats includes the director’s as well as the theatrical cut plus the broadcast TV version (safe for your kids—it’s cleansed of profanity!). Extras include deleted scenes and loads of commentary by director Kevin Smith and company. The story hasn’t entirely lost its humor value with funny exchanges, slapstick and preposterous scenarios. Suffice to say that if you thumped TS (Jeremy London) and Brodie (Jason Lee) on the head, you’d hear a hollow echo. The girls in this teen comedy are definitely brighter than the boys. Ben Affleck is among the costars. (David Luhrssen)
Summerland (IFC Films Blu-ray)
Alice (Gemma Arterton) is an irascible woman living alone in small-town England during World War II. Naturally, the townies think she’s a witch, which her prickly (and even cruel) temperament does nothing to ameliorate—not to mention that she’s the author of Golden Bough-like folklore studies. She’s appalled when forced to take in a good-natured boy evacuated from London to escape the air raids. Summerland pursues a more or less predictable course, completed with the expected surprises, as the boy softens Alice’s icy hostility, and she learns some life lessons. Beautifully filmed and well-acted, the 2020 picture is out on Blu-ray. (David Luhrssen)
Uncle Frank (Streaming November 25 on Prime Video)
During the 1970s, 14-year-old Beth (Sophia Lillis) is fascinated by Uncle Frank (Paul Bettany), the black sheep of her South Carolina family. A teacher at NYU, Frank advises Beth to follow her passion. Several years later, Beth turns up at Frank’s apartment. She’s introduced to Frank's long-time roommate Wally (portrayed by Peter Macdissi, who is writer-director Alan Ball’s life-partner). Now a student at NYU, Beth joins Frank and Wally for a road trip home where she and Uncle Frank hope to reckon their past with the present. Vividly expressed characters and lived-in locations, conjure unexpected pleasures from this sentimental ode to family—for better or worse. (Lisa Miller)
Superintelligence (Streaming November 26 on HBO Max)
Teaming with her husband-director, Ben Falcone, Melissa McCarthy is Carol Peters, an ordinary, corporate worker bee. Carol is stunned when an all-powerful superintelligence (voiced by James Corden) chooses to study her in order to determine whether humanity should be enslaved, destroyed or saved. With nothing to lose, Carol pursues George (Bobby Cannavale), the man she’s always loved. McCarthy confidently steers this romantic comedy along a familiar, yet comforting path. (Lisa Miller)
