BUY

Blue Valentine
When I finally got a chance to see this film in January (sadly too late for the year-end top ten lists), it promptly rose into my top five of 2010 – it’s a raw, heartbreaking film, yet mixed with an incredible bitter sweetness as Cianfrance jumps back and forth between the courtship and dissolution of a marriage. Great performances from both Gosling and Williams anchor the film.
2010 USA. Director: Derek Cianfrance. Starring: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams.
Amazon DVD | Amazon Blu-ray | Netflix

The Illusionist
The director of the charming Triplets of Belleville working from a never-produced script by Jacques Tati sounds like a match made in heaven, and it is. The Illusionist tells the story of a vaudville magician (modeled on Tati’s Hulot character) whose magic is too old-fashioned for modern audiences – except for one little girl who follows him. Quiet and delightful.
2010 France. Director: Sylvain Chomet. Starring: Jean-Claude Donda, Edith Rankin.
Amazon Blu-ray/DVD combo | Netflix

Some Like It Hot Blu-ray
Has Some Like It Hot not been on Blu-ray before? If not, definitely a good buy here, especially if you don’t already have the DVD. Simply one of the funniest films ever made, with arguably Monroe’s best performance.
1959 USA. Director: Billy Wilder. Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon.
Amazon Blu-ray | Amazon DVD (previously released) | Netflix (DVD only)

Alien and Aliens Blu-ray
I’m no expect on the Alien films, and am in fact looking forward to rewatching the first and watching the second for the first time, but I believe that the quadrilogy has only been in Blu-ray as a whole set before now? And now it’s coming individually? Is that right? In any case, the first two for sure are worth your time from what I hear; the others are also releasing.
1979 USA. Director: Ridley Scott. Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt.
Amazon Blu-ray | Netflix (DVD only)
1986 USA. Director: James Cameron. Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn.
Amazon Blu-ray | Netflix (DVD only)

RENT

Black Death
A solid little genre film with a bunch of mercenaries and one priest seeking out a village they think may hold a demon responsible for the bubonic plague. It gets more complex than that, and gives a lot more to chew on than you’d expect. Netflix says streaming coming soon, so you might want to wait for that.
2011 UK. Director: Christopher Smith. Starring: Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Carice Van Houten.
Amazon DVD | Amazon Blu-ray | Netflix

Something Wild Criterion Collection
I’d never heard of this film until a local rep cinema showed a trailer for it before a double feature of Wild at Heart and True Romance. My reaction at the time was WTF was that, but the next thing I know, Criterion is putting it out, and now I’m rather curious. Also on Instant Watch.
1986 USA. Director: Jonathan Demme. Starring: Jeff Daniels, Melanie Griffith.
Amazon DVD | Amazon Blu-ray | Netflix

Cropsey
This documentary about a Staten Island urban legend plays with acting like a bona-fide horror film, but also investigates the way communities can shift blame for unexplained events in potentially dangerous ways. It got a good bit of press when it came out (John’s review), but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Also on Instant Watch.
2009 USA. Directors: Joshua Zeman & Barbara Brancaccio. Starring: Greg Cusick.
Amazon DVD | Netflix

Budrus
This documentary I haven’t heard of at all, but looking it up for this post has me a bit intrigued – the Palestine village of Budrus is about to be split in half by Israel’s Separation Barrier, but one family works to unite both men’s and women’s groups from both Israeli and Palestinian factions in nonviolent protests against the Barrier.
2009 Israel/Palestine/USA. Director: Julia Bacha. Starring: Ayed Morrar, Iltezam Morrar.
Amazon DVD | Netflix

I Saw the Devil
I’m skipping this, but it might very well be on the rent list for a lot of people. From everything I’ve heard (and I’ve heard a lot, as I had a friend who saw it tell me the whole thing in lieu of watching it myself), it’s a revenge flick on the extreme end of extreme. I can take a lot, but I have a limit – on the other hand, it does sound like it explores the “and the devil is me” side of revenge as well. Streaming soon.
2011 South Korea. Director: Ji-Woon Kim. Starring: Byung-Hun Lee, Gook-Hwan Jeon.
Amazon DVD | Amazon Blu-ray | Netflix

SKIP

No Strings Attached
As middle-of-the-road romantic comedies go, I doubt this one is among the worst, but there are so many other better things to be watching this week.
2011 USA. Director: Ivan Reitman. Starring: Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Kline.
Amazon DVD | Amazon Blu-ray | Netflix

WATCH INSTANTLY

Double Indemnity
One of the quintessential noir films, and a damn good film of any genre. Barbara Stanwyck has rarely been better, and that’s saying a lot for someone I think is pretty much tops all the time. Can’t get enough of this film.
1944 USA. Director: Billy Wilder. Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson.

Blue Velvet [5/15]
To be honest, this is one of my least favorite Lynch films – I love the first part, but then it devolves a bit too much into sadism for me. That said, I ought to give it a rewatch at some point, now that I’m a bigger Lynch than I was the first time I saw it.
1986 USA. Director: David Lynch. Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper.

Doctor Who: Season 5
With Season 6 just kicking off a few weeks ago, Netflix has added Season 5 to the rest of the reboot series (which is already streaming). For my money, Season 5 is the best of the bunch, thanks to Moffat’s strong vision and continuity.
2010 UK. Showrunner: Stephen Moffat. Starring: Matt Smith, Karen Gillan.

Sherlock: Series 1
I missed this modernized take on Sherlock Holmes when it was on, but I’m stoked to check it out now, as I am anything Moffat has his hands on. It got high marks from all my British TV-watching friends.
2010 UK. Showrunner: Stephen Moffat. Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman.

Family Plot
Hitchcock’s final film doesn’t enjoy that great a reputation, at least in comparison with the rest of his outstanding filmography, but it’s a solid little thriller from what I remember.
1976 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: Bruce Dern, Barbara Harris.

Y tu mamá también
The film that really brought attention to Alfonso Cuaron (though he’d already done a few English-language films), a coming-of-age-road-trip story that also made stars of Luna and Bernal.
2001 Mexico. Director: Alfonso Cuaron. Starring: Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal.

Howl [5/15]
A biopic of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, whose poem “Howl” had the establishment doing just that. I haven’t seen this yet, but it does have one of my favorite posters of the year. So there’s that.
2010 USA. Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman. Starring: James Franco, John Hamm, Jeff Daniels.

The Navigator / Go West / Seven Chances [5/15]
Three Buster Keaton films hit Instant on the 15th – I’m pretty sure I’ve seen one or two of these before, but I wouldn’t swear to it. Be sure I will, though, once they go live. Keaton is simply brilliant.
1924/1925/1925 USA. Director: Buster Keaton. Starring: Buster Keaton.

The Secret of NIMH
I haven’t seen this film since I was a kid, but I sure did love it then. Definitely looking forward to revisiting it and seeing if it holds up.
1982 USA, dir Don Bluth, stars Elizbaeth Hartman, Dom DeLuise.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
I never did catch this documentary, despite all of the hype about it as both a heartwrenching story and as a unusually stylistic take on the documentary genre. Definitely should get around to it this time.
2008 USA. Director: Kurt Kuenne.

True Lies
Spy Schwarzenegger’s cover identity gets blown, putting his family in danger from international terrorists. It’s big blockbuster fun, plus there’s a Harrier. I love Harriers. It’s a thing.
1994 USA. Director: James Cameron. Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Eliza Dushku.

The Blue Angel [5/15]
One of the last films von Sternberg and Dietrich made before both heading to American (and several more films together), with Dietrich as the nightclub entertainer who seduces professor Emil Jannings’s students, much to his consternation – until he falls under her spell, too. It’s really Jannings’ movie rather than Dietrich’s, and he gives his role a quiet despair that’s quite moving.
1930 Germany. Director: Josef von Sternberg. Starring: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich.

The Last Laugh [5/15]
Widely considered one of Murnau’s best films, starring German silent superstar Emil Jannings as an aging doorman demoted to washroom attendant, an action that sends him wandering the city in despair, having lost all meaning in his life. Sounds simple, but in Murnau’s hands, I know it won’t be.
1924 Germany. Director: F.W. Murnau. Starring: Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft.

Faust [5/15]
For Murnau’s last film before leaving Germany for Hollywood, he brings Goethe’s masterwork to life, with Jannings as the devil Mephisto, to whom Faust sells his soul.
1926 Germany. Director: F.W. Murnau. Starring: Emil Jannings, Gosta Ekman, Camilla Horn.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand [5/13]
This is the first season of Starz’s series on the Spartacus story, which has been off Instant for a few months. Now both it and the existing episodes of season two are both on Instant, so it’s a good time to catch up before Starz decides to take them off again. I actually haven’t seen it myself, but DeKnight is a Buffy person, so I’m curious to check it out.
2010 USA. Creator: Steven S. DeKnight. Starring: Andy Whitfield, Lucy Lawless, John Hannah.

EXPIRING SOON FROM INSTANT WATCH

A lot of stuff drops off on May 22nd, so check out both this section and the lower one for those – I didn’t even notate all the TV series that are dropping, which look to include pretty much all the Comedy Central and Nickelodeon shows. Check Instant Watcher for the full list.

Hover over an image to see title and date of expiration.

Other Releases

MOVIES AND TELEVISION
Chobits: The Complete Series (2002 Japan, stars Rie Tanaka, Tomokazu Sugita; Blu-ray, Netflix)
Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries) (2010 India, dir Kiran Rao, stars Aamir Khan, Monica Dogra; Netflix)
The Hit List (2011 USA, dir William Kaufman, stars Cuba Gooding Jr, Cole Hauser; Blu-ray, Netflix)
Home Improvement: 20th Anniversary Complete Collection (1991-1999 USA, creator Carmen Finestra, stars Tim Allen, Patricia Richardson; Netflix)
How I Ended This Summer (2010 Russia, dir Aleksei Popogrebsky, stars Grigory Dobrygin, Sergei Puskepalis; Netflix)
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011 USA, dir John Chu, stars Justin Bieber; Blu-ray; Netflix)
Now & Later (2009 USA, dir Philippe Diaz, stars Shari Solanis, James Wortham; Netflix)

NEW ON BLU-RAY
Alien 3 (1992 USA, dir David Fincher, stars Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton)
Alien Resurrection (1997 USA, dir Jean-Pierre Jeunet, stars Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder)

INSTANT WATCH
Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002 USA, dir Jay Roach, stars Mike Myers, Verne Troyer)
A Christmas Carol (2009 USA, dir Robert Zemeckis, stars Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman)
Don Juan DeMarco (1994 USA, dir Jeremy Leven, stars Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway) [5/15]
Family Ties (1982-1983, creator: Gary David Goldberg, stars Michael J. Fox) [5/15]
Flow: For Love of Water (2008 USA, dir Irena Salina) [5/15]
Howard the Duck (1986 USA, dir Willard Huyck, stars Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones, Tim Robbins)
The Jetsons: The Movie (1990 USA, dir Joseph Barbera, William Hanna, stars George O’Hanlon)
Last Man Standing (1996 USA, dir Walter Hill, stars Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken)
Little Miss Marker (1980 USA, dir Walter Bernstein, stars Walter Matthau, Julie Andrews)
Lonesome Dove (1989 USA, stars Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones)
Mortal Kombat: The Movie (1995 USA, dir Paul Anderson, stars Christopher Lambert, Robin Shou)
The Paper (1994 USA, dir Ron Howard, stars Robert Duvall, Michael Keaton, Marisa Tomei)
Pinocchio (2002 Italy, dir Roberto Benigni, stars Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi) [5/14]
Sgt. Bilko (1996 USA, dir Jonathan Lynn, stars Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd)
The Shape of Things (2003 USA, dir Neil LaBute, stars Paul Rudd, Rachel Weisz)
Tremors (1990 USA, dir Ron Underwood, stars Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward)
Working Girl (1988 USA, dir Mike Nichols, stars Harrison Ford, Melanie Griffith)

EXPIRING SOON FROM INSTANT WATCH
Brewster’s Millions (1985 USA, dir Walter Hill, stars Richard Pryor, John Candy) [5/11]
Corrina, Corrina (1994 USA, dir Jessie Nelson, stars Whoopi Goldberg, Ray Liotta) [5/12]
Bicentennial Man (1999 USA, dir Chris Columbus, stars Robin Williams, Sam Neill) [5/15]
Dogtown and Z-Boys (2002 USA, dir Stacy Peralta) [5/18]
Seven Years in Tibet (1997 USA, dir Jean-Jacques Annaud, stars Brad Pitt, David Thewlis) [5/21]
Beavis and Butt-head (1993-1994 USA, creator Mike Judge) [5/22]
Blue’s Clues (1996-2002 USA, stars Steve Burns) [5/22]
Dora the Explorer (2000-2003 USA, creators Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh, Eric Weiner) [5/22]
Drawn Together (2004-2006 USA, creators Dave Jeser, Matthew Silverstein) [5/22]
iCarly: Season 1 (2007 USA, stars Miranda Cosgrove) [5/22]
Important Things with Demetri Martin (2009 USA, stars Demetri Martin) [5/22]
Ren & Stimpy (1991-1993 USA, creator John Kricfalusi) [5/22]
Reno 911! (2003-2009 USA, creators Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney, Thomas Lennon) [5/22]
Rugrats (1991-2003 USA, creators Gabor Csupo, Paul Germain, Arlene Klasky) [5/22]
The State: Complete Series (1993 USA, stars Kerri Kenney, David Wain, Michael Showalter) [5/22]
Strangers with Candy (1999-2000 USA, stars Amy Sedaris) [5/22]

Disclaimers

• Amazon links use my affiliate account, and will kick a small percentage of your purchase back to me. You pay the same price you would anyway.
• Not all new releases are available on Netflix immediately. Some studio films have a 30-day release window before Netflix can rent them, and some smaller releases are not picked up by Netflix immediately. Add them to your “saved” queue if you’re interested; that tells Netflix there is demand for the disc.
• Not all new Blu-ray releases are available on Netflix – Netflix usually buys both DVD and Blu-ray editions of new releases, but if a DVD has already been released, they don’t always get the Blu-ray when it comes out later.
• Instant Watch releases are not always 100% accurate – often the data from the API is not fully accurate until the actual day of release. I always check on release day to make sure things actually do hit Instant Watch, but for things that come out later than Tuesday when I publish this post, I won’t be able to tell.
• Instant Watch expirations are not always 100% accurate – sometimes they don’t expire after all, sometimes things expire with little advance warning. I always check to make sure the data is accurate to the best of my knowledge when I publish the post, but things could still change, especially since I’m giving expiration warnings up to two weeks in advance.
• I rely on Box Office Mojo and InstantWatcher for the majority of the data for these posts, so thank you to them for the work they do.