New DVD releases: February 2013

The Substance
(Soda, cert 15, DVD)

It’s 70 years since Albert Hoffmann first synthesised LSD and this well-researched, unsensational documentary tells the drug’s story — from cure for psychosis to Cold War mind-control agent to hippie freak-out blotter to born-again psychiatric wonder-drug.

Hit & Run
(Momentum, cert 15, DVD/download)

A cross-country road movie in which writer/director/star Dax Shepard and co-star Kristen Bell are pursued by men out to do them harm. There’s cars and girls, dialogue shouted to camera, quizzically raised eyebrows and a man getting hit full in the face by a number nine golf iron to no ill effect. It’s a Burt Reynolds movie, in other words. Welcome to 1973.

Love (High Fliers, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD)

Alt-rock supergroup Angels & Airwaves provide entirely appropriate Pink Floyd-y noodlings on the soundtrack of this dreamy sci-fi about an astronaut losing his mind out in space. Duncan Jones's Moon is the nearest reference point – no insult intended.

Petit Nicolas (Soda, cert PG, Blu-ray/DVD)

Lots of Tati-esque humour – ie the inconvenience of modern conveniences – in this French comedy about young Nicolas and his gaggle of schoolboy friends. It’s live action but is based on a comic by Goscinny (of Asterix fame), so you probably know whether you’re up for the avalanche of Gallic twee.

Africa (2entertain, cert PG, DVD £24.99)

Though Africa has been done to death when it comes to wildlife documentaries, David Attenborough’s series smacks gobs all over again with fighting giraffes, a dying elephant and hi-def image-making bordering on the magical.

Gossip Girl Season 1-6 (Warner, cert 15, DVD £59.99)

Made from genetic material left over from The OC, Gossip Girl is the classic example of top-quality airhead glitter that forces its characters through so many hoops that the show eventually drops dead from exhaustion.

White Collar Season 2 (Fox, cert 15, DVD £24.99)

Reformed white-collar criminal helps FBI nail similar – 16 episodes of the fun, character-driven TV series which actually comes into its own in Season 2, for those missing Hustle.

Beasts of the Southern Wild
(StudioCanal, cert 12, Blu-ray/DVD)

A 21st-century Huckleberry Finn drama set below the New Orleans levees, a waterworld of hard-scrabble existence brought to the screen with what looks like documentary veracity. Nine-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis has been nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in this poignant one-off.

Elena
(New Wave, cert 12, Blu-ray/DVD)

The great Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev specialises in non-Hollywood thrillers, like this gripping, frugally told story of a former nurse, now the patronised wife of a rich older guy, and her feckless son and grandson back in the Soviet-era tower blocks.

The House I Live In
(Dogwoof, cert E, DVD)

“Kill the poor — that’s what the war on drugs has become.” David Simon, creator of The Wire, is one talking head among many in this well researched, passionate documentary that should be compulsory viewing for governments everywhere.

Ginger & Rosa
(Artificial Eye, cert 12, Blu-ray/DVD)

Sally Potter’s quiet, small drama set in the bohemian London of duffel coats and Aldermaston marches engages with the “what did the Sixties ever do for us?” debate. You might not particularly like the answer but the performances by leads Elle Fanning and Alice Englert are beyond question.

Stitches
(Kaleidoscope, cert 18, Blu-ray/DVD)

A low-budget slasher movie played for laughs, benefiting from Ross Noble as a nasty undead clown ripping out teenagers’ viscera, eyeballs, whatever. Very funny.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
(Entertainment One, cert 12, Blu-ray/DVD)

Emma Watson, cautiously emerging from Harry Potter’s shadow, is a support player in this sweet coming-of-age drama full of ohmigod teenagers. It’s Breakfast Club in feeling, with the Smiths, Bowie and Dexys all present on the soundtrack.

Sinister
(Momentum, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD/Download)

Ethan Hawke sprinkles stardust on this upscale horror — haunted house meets Spanish gothic — which though not particularly frightening (okay, there are a couple of jumps) is all about the atmosphere, and there’s tons of that.

Untouchable
(EV, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD)

A rich white guy in a wheelchair gets lessons in life from a virile black guy off the streets. It’s not hard to see why this vastly entertaining feelgood drama, the most successful French film ever, has generated as many accusations of racism as rave reviews.

Anna Karenina
(Universal, cert 12, Blu-ray/DVD)

Keira Knightley has never looked lovelier than in this Tom Stoppard/Joe Wright adaptation of Tolstoy’s tale of a woman ruined by wild, inappropriate love. It’s gorgeous, delirious, theatrical and intelligent.

Ballroom Dancer
(Dogwoof, cert E, DVD)

A documentary about “Slavik” Kryklyvyy, a onetime champion ballroom dancer on the comeback road in spite of his extreme age – he’s 34. Insights into the demands of the discipline are what make this worth a tango, plus the guilty pleasure of watching an ego in distress.

Everything or Nothing
(Fox, cert 12, DVD)

“I only remember Goldeneye, the rest is a blur.” Pierce Brosnan joins his fellow 007s (Connery excepted) for a clearly authorised yet fascinating documentary covering the Bond phenomenon from Ian Fleming’s gestation of the idea in the Fifties right up to Skyfall.

Taken 2
(Fox, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD)

The rooftops of Istanbul, as seen in Skyfall, turn up again in a sequel in which Liam Neeson’s family is once again monstered by bad guys, forcing him into medieval payback mode. Neeson, once again, is excellent in a film aimed at fans of the car-up-a-ramp action sequence.

The Woodsman and the Rain
(Third Window, cert 12, Blu-ray/DVD)

Japanese comedy about a 60-year-old lumberjack and his odd-couple relationship with a nervous 25-year-old director shooting a zombie movie. A warm, Ealing-esque slow-burner.

The Complete Above Suspicion
(Acorn, cert 18, DVD, £39.99)

Smouldering Kelly Reilly and shouting Ciaran Hinds in all four of Lynda La Plante’s latest cops-n-crazies thriller.

Borgen Seasons 1 and 2
(Arrow, cert 15, Blu-ray, £54.99)

Along with The Killing and The Bridge, the third major hit for DR, Denmark’s BBC, starring Sidse Babett Knudsen as the brilliant politician who becomes (Series 1) Denmark’s first female prime minister and then struggles (Series 2) to stay there.

Girls Season 1
(Warner, cert 18, DVD, £29.99)

Refusing to be Sex and the City Mark II, Lena Dunham’s ahead-of-its-time comedy about twentysomething women wobbling through life has a degree of confessional angst that makes it through-the-fingers viewing.