Best New Blu-rays, DVDs, and 4K Movies in October 2024

‘The Long Good Friday’ (Criterion, Blu-ray, 4K)

Image Credit: ©Embassy Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

Director John Mackenzie’s 1980 crime film was dubbed the greatest British gangster movie of all time by Empire earlier this year, and Criterion’s new 4K upgrade convincingly supports the magazine’s claim. The script by former journalist Barrie Keefe is a marvel of both literary pleasures and anthropological detail; Keefe’s story of a scrappy criminal (Bob Hoskins in his first great film role) having the worst day of his life beautifully captures London in the early days of Thatcher and uses the setting to both define and deepen the film’s ambitious and doomed protagonist. Going against the grain of cool customers like Michael Caine in “Get Carter” and James Fox in “Performance,” Hoskins plays aspiring capitalist Harold Shand — a crook looking to get into legitimate real estate development because, after all, how different is it from what he already does? — with all his emotions on his sleeve. He’s as threatening and propulsive as he is vulnerable and eager to please, and when his plans come crashing down it’s impossible not to be horrified — even though he’s inflicted no shortage of horror himself over the course of the movie. Criterion’s disc is loaded with special features, including documentaries on the movie itself and production company Handmade Films, an audio commentary by Mackenzie, and illuminating interviews and analyses. —JH

Now available.
‘First Love’ (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray)

Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection

Kino Lorber continues its work of rescuing essential overlooked films from the studio vaults with a glorious new edition of Joan Darling’s debut feature, a Paramount release from 1977 that hasn’t looked or sounded this good since it came out. A sexy and sensitive relationship dramedy starring William Katt (then hot off of “Carrie”) and Susan Dey (“The Partridge Family”) as college students stumbling through a new romance, it’s a modest, idiosyncratic personal film that would be almost unthinkable from a major studio today. Darling never really took off as a movie director, but in television she was a legend; among her credits were pilots and key episodes of shows like “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” “M*A*S*H,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Taxi,” “Magnum PI,” and many others. Her eye for casting and her ability to create a productive environment for actors are on full display here, with knockout performances not only from Katt and Dey but a deep supporting cast that includes John Heard, Beverly D’Angelo, and Swoosie Kurtz in early roles. Kino’s Blu-ray includes a commentary track by Katt in conversation with the late film historian Lee Gambin to go along with a flawless transfer scanned from the original negative. —JH

Now available.
‘The Prince & Me’ (Paramount, Blu-ray)

Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

This has been a good year for Martha Coolidge fans, with Criterion’s superb release of her previously obscure debut feature “Not a Pretty Picture” and an abundance of accompanying repertory screenings all around the world, culminating in a career retrospective at the American Cinematheque. “Not a Pretty Picture,” an unsettling and audacious account of the filmmaker’s own sexual assault, wouldn’t seem like a calling card for a career as a comedy-oriented director with a light romantic touch, but that’s exactly what it led to when Coolidge followed it up with the charming “Valley Girl” in 1983. 21 years later she returned to the romantic comedy genre for “The Prince & Me” and proved that she hadn’t lost a bit of her knack for expertly timed comic set pieces, sensitive direction of actors, and expertly curated needle drops — it’s the kind of “effortless” Hollywood filmmaking that only emerges as a result of rigorous discipline and craft. Coolidge smoothly calibrates the fairy tale conventions, providing the traditional satisfactions of the genre while infusing them with humanity and nuance, and the movie is gorgeous to look at — never more so than on Paramount’s Blu-ray reissue. —JH

Now available.
‘Words and Music’ (Warner Archive, Blu-ray)

Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection

This 1948 biopic of songwriting team Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart is short on historical accuracy, but as an example of the classical studio system firing on all cylinders it’s irresistible. The story is essentially just a pretext to motivate a barrage of musical numbers based around Rodgers and Hart’s work, and those set pieces really deliver; the cast of guest performers who lend their talents to the film include Gene Kelly, Lena Horne, Mel Tormé, Perry Como (in his only movie before, rumor has it, being blackballed from the film industry after drunkenly insulting MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer at a party), and most significantly, Judy Garland in her final screen pairing with her “Andy Hardy” costar Mickey Rooney. The new Blu-ray from Warner Archive boasts an exquisite transfer that flawlessly showcases the movie’s eye-popping Technicolor, and there are some terrific extra features including an information-packed audio commentary by film historian Richard Barrios. Another songwriter musical, “Three Little Words,” which tells the story of Bert Kalmar (Fred Astaire) and Harry Ruby (Red Skelton), is also newly available from Warner Archive and highly recommended. —JH

Now available.
‘Death Becomes Her’ (Shout Factory, 4K UHD)

Image Credit: ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection

Shout Factory makes Robert Zemeckis’ campy cult classic “Death Becomes Her” (1992) available on 4K UHD for the first time, working from a new scan of the original camera negative. Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn play divas warring for the attentions of Bruce Willis, and for a beauty serum that holds the key to eternal life at a great price. Zemeckis’ satirical bitchfest featured pioneering in-camera practical (including a round mirror famously used to evoke the gunshot hole in Hawn’s torso) and digital effects with an eventual Academy Award win. That means “Death Becomes Her” is perfect for the 4K treatment. —RL

Available October 22.
‘Gummo’ (Criterion, Blu-ray, 4K UHD)

Image Credit: ©Fine Line Features/Courtesy Everett Collection

Long before he was the grandmaster behind such audience-alienating experiments as “Aggro Dr1ft” and “Baby Invasion,” Harmony Korine made his audacious debut with 1997’s “Gummo.” Shooting in his native Nashville meant to represent Ohio, Korine stares into the underbelly of the American Midwest in following the everyday anarchies of impoverished youths engaging in a life of petty crimes that grow increasingly more disturbing. The new Criterion release features a new 4K digital restoration supervised by Korine, plus a new interview with the filmmaker. —RL

Now available.
‘Demon Pond’ (Criterion, Blu-ray, 4K UHD)

Image Credit: Criterion

Masahiro Shinoda’s 1979 synth-scored filmed kabuki performance “Demon Pond” is now available for the first time in the U.S. on home video courtesy of Criterion. Tsutomu Yamazaki plays a traveling man who’s sucked into a supernatural world via a pond that holds the spirits of many of its dead townsfolk. Kabuki legend Tamasaburo Bando plays dual roles as one half of a pair of ill-fated lovers as well as the princess who resides over the water. Director Shinoda and actor Bando supervised the new 4K digital restoration, which is supplemented on this release by new interviews and a program about the film’s special effects. —RL

Now available.
‘In a Violent Nature’ ( RLJE Films, Blu-ray)

Image Credit: Courtesy IFC Films

Chris Nash’s brilliantly disturbing and even avant-garde serial killer tale follows the formula of a typical slasher movie — undead killer wreaks mayhem on a bunch of cluelessly naive campers — but from the murderer’s point of view. Nash’s camera is ever fixed directly behind Johnny almost as if in a video game, but here the viewer has no control over the blood this deranged killer (who’s very upset about his precious locket being stolen) is about to spill. IFC Films released “In a Violent Nature” to arthouse success earlier in the year; now, you can own what IndieWire has described as a “comfort movie” for some at home. —RL

Now available.

The 8 Best New Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Releases This October

‘The Long Good Friday’ (Criterion, Blu-ray, 4K)

‘First Love’ (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray)

‘The Prince & Me’ (Paramount, Blu-ray)

‘Words and Music’ (Warner Archive, Blu-ray)

‘Death Becomes Her’ (Shout Factory, 4K UHD)

‘Gummo’ (Criterion, Blu-ray, 4K UHD)

‘Demon Pond’ (Criterion, Blu-ray, 4K UHD)

‘In a Violent Nature’ ( RLJE Films, Blu-ray)

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