It’s a pretty busy day on the new release shelf, with one of the summer’s biggest hits and most acclaimed movies making the most noise. But there are plenty of off-beat bets as well, from a drama about two writers to a documentary about two writers to a throwback screwball comedy to a welcome re-release of “the most dangerous movie ever made.”
ON BLU-RAY/DVD/VOD
Inside Out : Things have been a little bumpy for Pixar lately, quality-wise, thanks to a run that’s included the enjoyable but uninspired Monsters University, the unfortunate bait-and-switch Brave, and the who-the-hell-wanted-another-one-of-these Cars 2. But their latest, from co-writer/director Pete Docter (Up) is a welcome return to form, mixing character comedy, ingenious celebrity voice work (Lewis Black may never find a better vehicle) and a tender story about coming of age, with all its complexities. It’s a delightful piece of work — almost enough to preemptively make up for the forthcoming Cars 3. (Includes featurettes, short films, deleted scenes, audio commentary, and trailers.)
The End of the Tour : Making a movie about David Foster Wallace, a figure who means so much to so many people, so close to his untimely death, is (to put it mildly) a tricky proposition. But James Ponsoldt’s genial two-hander is neither mythology nor biopic; he makes it less about these two specific people (author Wallace and profile writer David Lispky) than about their personality types, awkward wordsmiths on either side of fame and fortune, each defensive about which side of that slope they’re on. Jesse Eisenberg finds new dimension in his signature brittle intellectual, while Jason Segel digs out the insecurities and questions that now underline everything we read and know about this unique talent. (Includes audio commentary, deleted scenes, featurette, and interview.)
Best of Enemies : Simply put, Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville’s film does what the best documentaries do: It tells a fascinating story that most of us don’t know, it shades in the contours of that story with context of the time and place, and it provokes thought on how that past relates to our present. In this case, they tell the story of the televised debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr., aired by ABC as a cost-cutting measure during the tumultuous 1968 political conventions, that proved unfortunately prescient for the kind of bloodsport that dominates televised political discourse today. Wickedly funny, brutally intelligent, fascinating viewing. (Includes director interviews, bonus interviews, and trailer.)
She’s Funny That Way : The great Peter Bogdanovich hadn’t made a theatrical feature in a good long while, and it’s good to have him back at the helm of an old-fashioned screwball comedy, filled with kooky characters, clockwork convergences, and improvised half-truths. His whole ensemble (Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots, Will Forte, Jennifer Aniston, Ryhs Ifans, Richard Lewis, and onetime on- and off-screen partner Cybill Sheperd) is on point, but the MVP here is the wonderful Kathryn Hahn, whose no-nonsense style and rat-tat-tat line readings have the rich, heavenly goodness of vintage Katharine Hepburn. It’s not quite up to the level of his ‘70s classics, but good lord, few things are. (Includes audio commentary and featurette.)
Roar : At risk of overselling it, this 1981 adventure movie (recently resurrected and re-released by the specialists at Drafthouse Films) is, quite likely, one of the most bananas movies you’ll ever see. Shot over five years among dozens of untrained wild felines and reportedly resulting in the injuries of 70 cast and crew members, it plays like as a cross between a nature special, a home movie, a snuff film, and a key exhibit at a sanity hearing, with star/co-producer Tippi Hedrin (The Birds) and daughter/co-star Melanie Griffith doing their very best to sustain a narrative while seeming perpetually on the verge of getting murdered. In other words, fun for the whole family! (Includes featurette, cast and crew Q&A, photo gallery, and audio commentary.)