So we start another week with the latest home entertainment titles – apologies for the absence last week – we were at the Berlinale – and there are a few juicy movies to grab hold of on the physical formats this week. Let’s take a look.
House Of Gucci
I absolutely love this movie. Ridley Scott’s second film of 2021, House Of Gucci features an all-star cast that includes Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jared Leto and Jeremy Irons. It is released on DVD and Blu-ray and is also currently available on digital.
House of Gucci is inspired by the shocking true story of the family behind the Italian fashion empire. When Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga), an outsider from humble beginnings, marries into the Gucci family, her unbridled ambition begins to unravel the family legacy and triggers a reckless spiral of betrayal, decadence, revenge, and ultimately … murder.
There are a few bonus bits on this, which are as follows:
- The Rise of the House of Gucci: Making Of
- The Lady of the House
- Styling House of Gucci
King Richard
Next up is another big movie from the tail end of last year, the Will Smith-led King Richard. The film is actually nominated for no less than five Academy Awards in total, including the big one, Best Picture.
Aunjanue Ellis, Jon Bernthal, Saniyya Sidney, and Demi Singleton are also among the cast.
Armed with a clear vision and a brazen 78-page plan, Richard Williams is determined to write his daughters, Venus and Serena, into history. Training on Compton, California’s neglected tennis courts – rain or shine – the girls are shaped by their father’s unyielding commitment and their mother’s balanced perspective and keen intuition, defying the seemingly insurmountable odds and prevailing expectations laid before them.
I have no visibility of any bonus materials for this, but we’ll update the post as that becomes clear.
Young Guns 2
Here’s this week’s classic release – and it’s a modern one. Released in 1990, Young Guns II features an all star cast, and features an Oscar-nominated song from none other than Jon Bon Jovi. Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Christian Slater lead out the western, of course the sequel to Young Guns, released two years’ previous.
Good weather for hanging. Billy the Kid’s outlaw ingrates are penned like sows in a Lincoln County pit and the Kid is strapped in a nearby hotel. But the hangman will go home disappointed tonight. Billy cleverly breaks himself – then his gang – free. One of the West’s greatest legends lives on to ride another day.
No bonus bits on this one as far as I can see.
Shepherd
Next up is a recent genre release, Shepherd, which first made its debut at the BFI London Film Festival last year. Tom Hughes (Red Joan, Victoria), Kate Dickie (Game of Thrones, The Witch), Gaia Weiss (Vikings, Medici) and Greta Scacchi (The Player) lead out the film, which is directed by Russell Owen.
Running from grief after the mysterious death of his wife, Eric Black (Tom Hughes) takes a job as a shepherd. Trapped alone on a majestic weather-beaten island with an ominous secret. One man’s spiralling madness meets a vengeful supernatural force. What starts as the perfect wind-swept escape becomes a race to save his sanity and his life.
We reviewed this one back in November. We said: “An atmospheric setting does much of the heavy-lifting in this slowest of slow burns. Shepherd is hiding a couple of searing images within its foggy landscape, but the isolation of the piece becomes its undoing.” – Full review here.
Love Affair
Finally for this week is the classic 1939 movie Love Affair, which makes its debut on Criterion. Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer lead the cast of the classic, which has a bunch of bonus bits on the disc.
Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer are chic strangers who meet and fall in love aboard an ocean liner bound for New York. Though they are both involved with other people, they make a pact to reconnect six months later at the top of the Empire State Building—until the hand of fate throws their star-crossed affair tragically off course.
Bonus includes:
- New 4K digital restoration by The Museum of Modern Art and Lobster Films
- New interviews about the restoration and production history
- Radio adaptations featuring Dunne, Boyer, and William Powell
- Two shorts directed by McCarey
