Pick of the Week:
Fantastic Planet (Criterion)
If it wasn’t obvious at the time, it’s now clear there were few periods richer in thoughtful, often dark, science fiction films that reflect turbulent times as the early 1970s. It’s an era that was ushered in by Planet of the Apes and 2001: A Space Odyssey and more or less ushered out by Star Wars in 1977, which helped create a different sort of sci-fi golden age. It stretched beyond Hollywood, too. Released in 1973, when it won a special jury prize at Cannes, the French-Czech co-production Fantastic Planet uses cut-out animation — think South Park but with blue aliens and tiny, naked humans — to tell an allegorical story about haves and have-nots on a distant planet. It’s surreal and psychedelic, and consequently became a midnight movie staple, but it’s also thought-provoking in ways that transcend a mere stoner movie. It’s also one-of-a-kind in ways both fascinating and disheartening. Pierre Laloux was never able to match its success. Few others even tried. This new Criterion edition includes documentaries on director Laloux, artist Roland Topor, and more.
Also New:
Midnight Special (Warner Bros.)
Jeff Nichols has emerged as one of the most reliably intriguing and unpredictable directors working today, via films like Take Shelter and Mud. This sci-fi family drama starring Michael Shannon, who’s become a sort of muse to the director, earned rave reviews and comparisons to Close Encounters of the Third Kind and other classics.
The Crush (Shout! Factory)
Two ’90s trends combined with this 1993 thriller: The Fatal Attraction-inspired unexpected psycho thriller (see also The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, many others) and the ascent of Alicia Silverstone, then best known for appearing in Aerosmith videos. It’s not good, exactly, but the film has its own dumb charm.
Embrace of the Serpent (Oscilloscope)
This striking film from Crio Guerra follows two trips up the Amazon taken by two German scientists in the company of the same native guide, journeys of discovery that take unexpected twists. Shot in widescreen black-and-white, it’s at once visually stunning and bleakly compelling, finding no easy answers to the collision of cultures.
Knight of Cups (Broad Green)
Terrence Malick’s latest is a puzzler. It’s beautiful, of course, but also, despite being told almost entirely from the perspective of its central character, frustratingly opaque. Malick makes films like nobody else, but it’s starting to feel like some are strictly for the converts.
Appointment With Crime (Olive Films)
Stagecoach (Olive Films)
Cornbread, Earl And Me (Olive Films)
Olive Films continues its habit of giving the HD treatment to half-forgotten films with its latest batch of releases. Released in 1946, the crime drama Appointment With Crime is notable for featuring future Doctor Who star William Hartnell. Stagecoach is not the John Ford classic but a 1966 remake starring Ann-Margret, Bing Crosby, and others. Upon its release, Fox tried to keep the original out of circulation to avoid comparison. It’s pretty obvious which one won in the long run. Cornbread, Earl and Me is a 1975 basketball drama starring a young Laurence Fishburne and NBA star Jamaal Wilkes.
