Animal Plagues, Good vs. Evil, and the Underground Railroad | Coming Attractions

Upcoming DVD and Blu-rays to watch include Hollywood It Girl Sydney Sweeney as a devout young nun, Japanese students sheltering from a typhoon, and a plague that turns humans into animals.

The Animal Kingdom (“Le règne animal”). 127 min. In French w/English subtitles. Thomas Cailley, Magnolia. 2023. DVD UPC 876964018197. $26.98; Blu-ray UPC 876964018203. $29.98. HORROR

A plague that turns humans into animals afflicts the wife of François (Romain Duris), whose teen son (Paul Kircher) also shows signs of morphing. Meanwhile, society ostracizes the stricken in this allegorical tale about plague sufferers in general.

Chinatown. 2 discs. 130 min. Roman Polanski, Paramount. 1974. 4K Ultra HD UPC 191329262573. $39.99. Rated: R. FILM NOIR

The classic film noir inducted into the National Film Registry gets an ultra-HD release to fete its 50th anniversary, with a standard Blu-ray of its sequel The Two Jakes as a bonus. Jack Nicholson stars as a jaded private eye. A core title for 4K collections.

Immaculate. 89 min. Michael Mohan, Decal/Neon. 2024. DVD UPC 843501042588. $18.99; Blu-ray UPC 843501042595. $20.99. Rated: R. HORROR

Hollywood It Girl Sydney Sweeney (Anyone but You; Euphoria; The White Lotus) stars as Cecilia, a devout young nun who’s being groomed for a maternal role at an Italian convent. A Rosemary’s Baby for the modern horror crowd.

Macbeth. 2 discs. b/w. 119 min./85 min. Orson Welles, Kino Lorber. 1948. Blu-ray UPC 738329266783. $29.95. DRAMA

The director of Citizen Kane adapts, produces, directs, and stars as Shakespeare’s tragic Scottish lord who’s undone by his own overweening ambition. This special edition includes both the original edit and the shorter, more widely shown version.

Never Open That Door. b/w. 158 min. In Spanish w/English subtitles. Carlos Hugo Christensen, Flicker Alley. 1952. Blu-ray UPC 617311688591. $41.99. FILM NOIR

Adapting from a pair of short stories by Cornell Woolrich (author of The Bride Wore Black and the source material for Rear Window), Argentine filmmaker Christensen proffers a cross-cultural suspense thriller that explores the common theme of good versus evil. Restored with extras.

The Old Oak. 113 min. Ken Loach, Zeitgeist Films, dist. by Kino Lorber. 2023. DVD UPC 738329266653. $19.95; Blu-ray UPC 738329266660. $29.95. DRAMA

The owner of the last pub in a fading northern England mining town forges a bond with a new Syrian immigrant, while most other townsfolk resent the arrival of refugees. This is the final film from Loach, the esteemed 87-year-old director of many socially critical dramas.

Orlando, My Political Biography. 102 min. Paul B. Preciado, Janus Films, dist. by Criterion. 2023. DVD UPC 715515298315. $24.95; Blu-ray UPC 715515298216. $29.95. DOCUMENTARY

Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando: A Biography, academic-cum-director Preciado has fashioned “a personal essay, historical analysis, and social manifesto” based on the gender-fluid hero/heroine in a genre-bending biography.

Querelle. 108 min. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Criterion. 1982. DVD UPC 715515297516. $29.99; Blu-ray UPC 715515297417. $39.99. Rated: R. DRAMA

For his final film, prolific German wunderkind Fassbinder (1945–82) adapts Jean Genet’s novel into a theatrically stylized drama about a queer sailor (Brad Davis) who deals in opium while docked at a French seaport town. Restored with extras.

Typhoon Club. 115 min. In Japanese w/English subtitles. Shinji Sōmai, Cinema Guild. 1985. DVD UPC 881164001870. $29.99; Blu-ray UPC 881164001887. $34.99. DRAMA

Inhibitions drop and pent-up passions rise when a group of junior-high students in a rural town take shelter in their school during a storm. Winner of the first Tokyo International Film festival, this teen-angst drama rates as one of Japan’s best films. Restored.

The Underground Railroad. 4 discs. 585 min. Barry Jenkins, Criterion. 2021. DVD UPC 715515297912. $59.99; Blu-ray UPC 715515297813. $79.99. Rated: TV-MA. DRAMA

The director of Moonlight offers a 10-episode series, based on the Colson Whitehead novel, about a young Black woman (Thuso Mbedu) who finds support in her quest to escape enslavement. Magical realism vies with historical fiction in an epic saga.

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