From big-budget reboots (Godzilla) to award-winning Singaporean dramas (Ilo Ilo) male stripper documentaries (I’m A Stripper Too!) to a classic queer title (Short Eyes), this week’s home entertainment rundown is a mixed bag indeed! Read on!
($44.94 3D Blu-ray, $35.99 Blu-ray, $28.98 DVD; Warner)
The iconic Japanese kaiju franchise gets a strong English-language reboot from director Gareth Edwards. Although Godzilla himself is seen way too little this go around (and co-star Bryan Cranston, for that matter), and we see wayyyy too much of Aaron Taylor-Johnson running around in pursuit, there is still plenty of giant-ass monster stuff and an amazing climactic smackdown. A promising (re) start! Extras include a bunch of featurettes.
(Film Movement)
A moving character study set in recession-plagued 1990s Singapore, director Anthony Chen’s Cannes award-winner (the first Singaporean feature to win a prize at the renowned festival) sees a Filipino live-in maid, Teresa, struggle with a difficult child, Jiale, as his parents begin to have their own meltdown. Truly magnificent filmmaking, with a final act and credits sequence that will touch and haunt you long after. DVD includes a nine-minute animated Dutch short, Blik.
($24.99 DVD; Border2Border)
Charlie David (of last week’s documentary I’m A Porn Star) again puts on his director’s hat while a bunch of male strippers from across North America — aka, the real Magic Mikes — take off pretty much everything else in this follow-up to last year’s documentary/reality show, I’m A Stripper.
($19.99 DVD; Kino Lorber)
This 1977 movie adaptation of late, queer playwright/poet Miguel Pinero’s most famous play, sees tensions erupt in a NY prison when a man convicted of child molestation (Bruce Davison) is added to the prisoners’ ranks. Extras include new interviews with Davison and director Robert M. Young, and a commentary with Young and Pinero biopic director Leon Ichaso.
ALSO OUT:
The Fault In Our Stars
Eraserhead (Criterion)
Arrow: The Complete Second Season
Found
I'm Black, and HiV-positive.
Well, the stripper documentary looks promising.