Weeks like this kind of tear me up inside. You see, I’m often torn between whether to present a Top 5 list that represents my personal feelings about the Blu-ray discs being released or whether to outline the most popular new titles of the week. I know…first-world problems. Anyway, as usual, I’ve followed my own passions and assembled this weeks list based on the films that excite me the most. As a result, it’s four-fifths catalogue releases, with potentially popular recent Hollywood fliks like the I Spit on your Grave remake, Paranormal Activity 2 and the rom-com, Life as We Know It not making the cut.

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1. AMARCORD

Any week that brings another Fellini film to Blu-ray is a pretty good week. And you just know that any Fellini film released on Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection is a worthwhile purchase, sight unseen. Amarcord is no exception.

“This carnivalesque portrait of provincial Italy during the fascist period, the most personal film from Federico Fellini, satirizes the director’s youth and turns daily life into a circus of social rituals, adolescent desires, male fantasies, and political subterfuge, all set to Nina Rota’s classic, nostalgia-tinged score. The Academy Award–winning Amarcord remains one of cinema’s enduring treasures.”

For those who don’t already own Amarcord on DVD this new Blu-ray edition should be a blind-buy. You won’t regret it. Those with the DVD already in your collection will find this a beautiful upgrade, with richer colours and more detail. Gone are the digital artifacts of standard-def, replaced here with a beautiful film-like grain structure. The original Italian audio is presented in a full, resonant lossless track. Special features are carried over from the previous DVD edition and are, as you’d expect from Criterion, fantastic.

Highly recommended!

Special Features:

• All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Audio commentary by film scholars Peter Brunette and Frank Burke
• American release trailer
• Deleted scene
• Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• New 45-minute documentary, Fellini’s Homecoming, on the complicated relationship between the celebrated director, his hometown, and his past
• Video interview with star Magali Noël
• Fellini’s drawings of characters in the film
• “Felliniana,” a presentation of ephemera devoted to Amarcord from the collection of Don Young
• Audio interviews with Fellini, his friends, and family by Gideon Bachmann
• New restoration demonstration
• PLUS: A book featuring a new essay by scholar Sam Rohdie, author of Fellini Lexicon, and the full text of Fellini’s 1967 essay, “My Rimini"

AMAZON: $27.99

2. STILL WALKING

It’s another two-Criterion Blu-ray week to break the bank! The second title is one of the premiere Japanese films to be released in 2008, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (After Life, Air Doll).

“The lyrical, profoundly moving Still Walking (Aruitemo aruitemo) is contemporary Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda’s most personal work to date. Created as a tribute to his late mother, the film depicts one day in the life of the Yokoyamas, gathered together for a commemorative ritual whose nature only gradually becomes clear. Rather than focus on big dramatic moments, Kore-eda relies on simple gestures and domestic routines (especially cooking) to evoke a family’s entire life, its deep regrets and its daily joys. Featuring vivid, heartrending performances and a gentle naturalism that harks back to the director’s earlier, documentary work, Still Walking is an extraordinary portrayal of the ties that bind us.”

Special Features:

• New high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Hirokazu Kore-eda and director of photography Yutaka Yamazaki (with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
• New video interviews with Kore-eda and Yamazaki
• Making “Still Walking”
• Trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Dennis Lim and recipes for the food prepared in the film

AMAZON: $27.99

3. TAMARA DREWE

Tamara Drewe is an odd duck. Both the character and the film. It’s an adaptation of the comic book by Posy Simmonds, which, in turn is something of an adaptation of Thomas Hardy‘s nineteenth century novel Far from the Madding Crowd. Having not read either book, I entered into the film version with only my expectation of seeing new work by Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons, The Queen) and all that entails. Well, this is like no Frears film I’ve ever seen. It is witty but plays very much like a soap-opera, with selfish, deceitful characters who are difficult to empathize with. When the credits rolled, I felt like I had just sat through a new episode of Coronation Street, or something of its ilk. But I have to admit, it stuck with me. The more I think back on Tamara Drewe, the more affection I have for this strange little country film, with it’s collection of quirky, needy, duplicitous characters. I have a feeling that this is a Blu-ray disc that’ll see a few more spins in my player.

As we’ve all come to expect from Sony, the Blu-ray disc looks spectacular. This studio can do no wrong, when it comes to transfers these days. It’s a crisp, clean, bright image that’s a pleasure to look at from beginning to end. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 is no slouch either, but given the conversational nature of the film, there are few bells and whistles to impress here. Stars Gemma Arterton and Luke Evans provide a fun, if not lite commentary track and there are a couple of decent, short featurettes.

AMAZON: $26.99

4. THELMA & LOUISE: 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

“Directed by action master Ridley Scott (Hannibal, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down) from an Oscar-winning screenplay by Callie Khouri, Thelma & Louise is an “exhilarating” (The Washington Post), full-throttle adventure hailed as one of the best road movies of all time! Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis star as accidental outlaws on a desperate flight across the Southwest after a tragic incident at a roadside bar. With a determined detective (Harvey Keitel) on their trail, a sweet-talking hitchhiker (Brad Pitt) in their path and a string of crimes in their wake, their journey alternates between hilarious, high-speed thrill ride and empowering personal odyssey even as the law closes in.”

I love the films of Ridley Scott but couldn’t bring myself to see Thelma & Louise when it was released. I’m older now, and somewhat wiser, but still haven’t seen the film. Much like my recent experience with the Dances with Wolves: 20th Anniversary disc, I’m looking forward to discovering a gem on this new Blu-ray release.

AMAZON: $13.99

5. UNCLE BUCK

It’s John Candy starring in one of his finest, funniest rolls! Uncle Buck is one the great John Hughes films of the 80s and if you haven’t seen it you really owe it to yourself to hunker down with a big bowl of popcorn and dig in (to both the corn and the flik). I haven’t seen the disc itself but, c’mon, it’s only ten bucks on Amazon. Can’t really lose with this one!

AMAZON: $9.99

ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY THIS WEEK
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