New DVD releases: June 2013

New British Cinema Quarterly: Issue 3

(Soda, cert 15, DVD £24.99)

Strawberry Fields, Patience (After Sebald), The Gospel of Us, and the collection of short films Joy of Six – the NBCQ is abreast of the zeitgeist with this collection of intelligent, challenging films available on Amazon for around £15 – a steal.

Hitchcock
(Fox, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD)

Unsure if it’s for Psycho ghouls, Hitchcock know-alls or lovers of a good biopic, Sacha Gervasi’s drama about Alfred Hitchcock would be Dial M for Mediocre without Anthony Hopkins (as lascivious Hitch) and Helen Mirren (as his steely wife Alma).

Accused
(Arrow, cert 15, DVD)

This Danish film from 2005 about a man accused of sexual abuse by his daughter has been released to capitalise on the popularity of Sofie Gråbøl, who plays the dutiful wife. It’s taut, brilliantly acted, remarkable.

To The Wonder
(StudioCanal, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD)

Terrence Malick replays the Garden of Eden story as relationship drama, with Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko as sun-dappled lovers drifting wordlessly through Malick-ian meadows etc. It’s beautiful, it’s extraordinary, just don’t expect much of a plot.

Warm Bodies
(Entertainment One, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD)

Nicholas Hoult plays a handsome zombie getting it on with a living human. He’s called R, she’s called Julie, there’s a balcony scene. Got it? This rom-zom full of tasty nuggets is fresher than a zombie corpse has any right to be.

Mama
(Universal, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD)

Spanish haunted-house atmospherics meets the supernatural gotcha of The Exorcist meets the spooky-kids vibe of The Innocents as Jessica Chastain plays stepmom to feral kids with a supernatural guardian. Very impressive.

The Fall
(Acorn, cert 15, DVD)

Still on iPlayer now but gone by Monday, the grim but brilliant five-parter saw supercool Gillian Anderson become TV’s most effective lone female copper since Helen Mirren. And didn’t she do wonders for six blouse sales?

No
(Network, cert 15, DVD/VOD)

Gael Garcia Bernal plays the advertising honcho brought in to defeat President Pinochet of Chile in the 1988 plebiscite. So on the one side we have a torturing dictator, on the other a purveyor of Coca Cola-style beaming moronic happiness. Which one’s the bad guy? Yes, No is a very hard sell.

Parks and Recreation Season 1 and 2
(Fabulous, cert 12, DVD £39.99)

Parks and Rec to its fans, the Amy Poehler comedy that started out as a rip-off of The Office, then found its feet in series two as it became faster, badder, funnier.

Children’s Film Foundation Collection: Weird Adventures
(BFI, cert U, DVD £19.99)

Three films from the vaguely propagandistic CFF, including A Hitch in Time, which saw former Dr Who Patrick Troughton playing a time traveller, and The Boy Who Turned Yellow, the final collaboration of genius duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

The Man in Room 17
(Network, cert 12, DVD £39.99)

Oddity of the week is this fascinating high-concept cult detective series from 1965, about a couple of guys who solve crimes using the Holmesian method of deduction and logic, while never leaving Room 17.

Zero Dark Thirty
(Universal, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD)

After The Hurt Locker, another expertly procedural war movie from Kathryn Bigelow, with Jessica Chastain as the nerdy CIA operative on a one-woman crusade against Osama Bin Laden. Meaty and involving.

Beyond the Hills
(Artificial Eye, cert 12, Blu-ray/DVD)

An austere and remarkable Romanian drama from Cristian Mungiu – of 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days – which examines the religious mindset remarkably impartially in a story about an exorcism gone badly wrong.

Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope
(Soda, cert 15, DVD)

Covering the San Diego convention which started in 1970 as a gathering of maybe 500 dweebs and became a global phenomenon. King nerds – among them Stan Lee, Joss Whedon, Edgar Wright, Guillermo Del Toro – give this affectionate portrait some welly.

Diaz: Don’t Clean up this Blood
(Universal, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD)

A dramatic reconstruction of what happened at the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, when belligerent police stormed a school full of protesters. Angry, partisan and gruesomely effective.

Chasing Ice
(Dogwoof, cert E, Blu-ray/DVD)

This documentary about James Balog follows the intrepid photographer and former climate-change sceptic as he documents the world’s disappearing glaciers. A reminder that, whatever the cause, the climate is changing, and quickly.

For Love’s Sake
(Third Window, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD)

Takashi Miike, most famous for Japanese horror classic Audition, goes over the top in a different direction with this high school musical, a sugar rush of moist emotion, Grease-style musical numbers and biffbangtastic fights.

A Good Day to Die Hard
(Fox, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD)

Bruce Willis’s John McClane heads to Moscow for slaughter, carmageddon and touching dialogue with his long lost son (Jai Courtney). And if that is the sound of a spin-off franchise being warmed up, then, on the basis of this outing, this would be a good day to call the whole thing off.

Boss: Season 1
(Lionsgate, cert 15, DVD £24.99)

Another attempt to escape Dr Frasier Crane by Kelsey Grammer, here playing the corrupt Chicago mayor whose brain is on the fritz. Sadly, season one is all we’ll get – this dark, dirty and excellent portrayal of politics in the raw has unfortunately been canned.

House of Cards
(Sony, cert 18, DVD £29.99)

Netflix flexed a muscle by bypassing the TV broadcasters entirely, hiring director David Fincher and actor Kevin Spacey for this remake of the political thriller, then streamed it direct. The show itself? Brilliant, possibly even better than the original starring Ian Richardson.

Arne Dahl Season 1
(Arrow, cert 15, DVD £34.99)

For lovers of Scandi-crime and strong central female characters, five densely plotted thrillers (ten x 90 minute episodes) following the escapades of the A Unit (don’t call them the A Team) of Swedish detectives specialising in transnational crime.

Wreck-It Ralph
(Disney, cert PG, Blu-ray/DVD)

John C Reilly provides the voice for the Shrek-alike arcade-game villain who leaves his Super Mario-style world for a Wacky Races/Wizard of Oz adventure in a candy-coloured racing game. Remarkably conceived, brilliantly animated, a near classic.

Smashed
(Sony, cert 15, DVD)

The excellent Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays a hard-partying teacher who gives up the booze. But her other half doesn’t. A “disease of the week” TV movie lifted by great acting and an exceptional script with the ring of truth about it.

Flight
(Paramount, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD/download)

Captain Denzel Washington (brilliant as ever) flies the plane upside down – woohoo – and is then caught out as a terrible boozer and drug user. Two films for the price of one here – first the heartstopping action, then the endless breastbeating. An oxygen mask may deploy during viewing.

Bullet to the Head
(Entertainment One, cert 18, Blu-ray/DVD)

Two coats of Ronsonol for Sylvester Stallone as he shoots for 1980s glory in a mismatched-buddy actioner directed by Walter Hill (see his 48 Hours for the template). Big bangs, big breasts, lots of car(nage) and growling, lots of growling. Subtitles useful.

I Give it a Year
(StudioCanal, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD)

Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne as the married couple working their towards break-up in an anti-romcom from Dan Mazer (of Sacha Baron Cohen pedigree). Probably the funniest terrible film you’re ever likely to see.

For Ellen
(Soda, cert 15, DVD)

Anyone for a drama about a mopey, slightly useless dad trying to have one last moment of tenderness with his daughter before divorce separates them for ever? Paul Dano’s eye-opening performance makes it worth the slog.

Blood for Irina
(Autonomy, cert 18, DVD)

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Vampire is the big idea behind the debut by Chris Alexander, of fright-mag Fangoria, a languid work of arthouse emo in the lesbian/surreal tradition of Jesus Franco and Jean Rollin.

Breaking Bad Season 5
(Sony, cert 15, DVD £29.99)

Bryan Cranston as the chemistry teacher who goes into fulltime crystal meth production in what is probably the best TV series since The Wire. For reasons beyond the wit of man, it has been criminally ignored by UK broadcasters. Fill your boots.

Veep Season 1
(HBO, cert 15, DVD £24.99)

Armando Iannucci’s transatlantic port of The Thick of It, with Seinfeld’s Julia Louis Dreyfuss as the US vice president eager/desperate to mean something. Very funny, though it parries where the Brit original stabbed.

Die Hard Quadrilogy
(Fox, cert 18, Blu-ray £39.99)

You just have time to watch the first four Die Hards – Bruce Willis taking on a succession of swivel-eyed loons (action hero division) – before the fifth one pops onto DVD next week.