Vampires, Spider-Man and horny Mexican teenagers, oh my! It’s not quite a The Wizard of Oz chant, but it’s the week in home entertainment!
We’ve got Andrew Garfield slinging webs in The Amazing Spider Man 2, Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as vampires in Only Lovers Left Alive (above), and a Criterion release of a homoerotic classic, Y Tu Mama Tambien! Now read on!
($45.99 3D Blu-ray, $30.99 DVD; Sony)
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
This second installment of Marc Webb’s franchise reboot sees Andrew Garfield’s teenage superhero go up against a medley of villains including Jamie Foxx’s Electro, Dane DeHaan’s Green Goblin, and, briefly, Paul Giamatti’s Rhino. It’s total summer comic book movie blockbuster fun, and while followers of the comic series’ continuity will see a big plot point or two coming, there are enough surprises, twists, fun performances (we love Emma Stone as girlfriend Gwen Stacy) and 3D spectacle, plus a really creepy Goblin makeover for DeHaan, to keep things fresh and worth repeat plays. Extras include deleted and alternate scenes, a commentary, a feature-length making-of, an Alicia Keys music video and more.
($35.99 Blu-ray, $30.99 DVD; Sony)
Deadpan director Jim Jarmusch tries his hand at a vampire film starring Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as jaded Detroit-based bloodsuckers whose lives and centuries-old relationship are disrupted by the arrival of a relative. Let this fill a Sunday night after True Blood wraps things up next week! Extras include deleted and extended scenes, a behind the scenes with Jarmusch, and a music video.
($39.99 Blu-ray, $29.99 DVD: Criterion Collection)
The 2001 film that put Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron and stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna on the international map – the pair play horny teenage friends who bond, famously via a hot queer threeway, over an older Spanish woman — gets a spiffy new Criterion edition with new and improved English subtitles. Extras include making-of featurettes with new interviews, an on-set documentary from the 2001 shoot, deleted scenes, a 2002 short film by Cuaron titled You Owe Me One, and more. Speaking of extras, another international LGBT classic that launched several international careers, Pedro Almodovar’s Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! starring Antonio Banderas and Victoria Abril, also goes Criterion-ed this week.
ALSO OUT:
Fading Gigolo
The Quiet Ones
Lefty
Has Tilda Swinton ever been in a film that didn’t suck shit through a straw?