Criterion rules the week with a much-needed 4K overhaul of Paper Moon and a very unnecessary 4K rehash (with a single new feature) of The Shape of Water, but the rest is a fascinating slate. Shout Factory’s 4Ks capitalize on the recent Luca Guadagnino fever and give a disc release to the beginning of Mike Flanagan’s pact with the devil Netflix, while Kino’s spotlight two stripped-down, late-period William Friedkin classics, both about the soul-poisoning of the American military; one expresses that with the role Michael Shannon was born to play, the other with knives and the coolest foot chase I’ve ever seen in a movie. There’s also one of Roman Polanski’s squirmiest movies (he might not be the worst person who’s directed a movie out this week, see if you can figure out who I’m referring to), Jeremy Saulnier’s no-budget splatter-comedy debut, and a features-packed special edition of Feardotcom. Most of all I want to spotlight Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, his second film to see U.S. release this year (I’ll be talking about the first in a few weeks). I understand the continued hesitance for people to watch movies revisiting the pandemic, but this one is special, a dream shifting in and out of a nightmare for a teenager bored in isolation and watching a glamorous YouTube influencer preaching determinism. It can be funny, terrifying, apocalyptic, and everyday sad from scene to scene, with a wide range of intended and not reference points: a little Lynch, a lot Schoenbrun, some Waking Life, a surprising amount of Unfriended, and a whole section I really hope Greta Gerwig has been made aware of at some point in the last two years. It feels like we may never escape the dull, overwhelming torment Bonello depicts here, but this is a movie for his daughter and as such he has to believe there’s some kind of silver lining coming, because no parent should ever believe (even with some good reason) that their child will see the end of the world.

Bones and All 4K (Shout Factory)
Bug 4K (Kino)
Coma (Film Movement)
Dario Argento’s Deep Cuts (Severin)
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story 4K (Shout Factory)
Feardotcom (Dark Star)
Harrison’s Flowers (Kino)
Humoresque (Warner Archive Collection)
The Hunted 4K (Kino)
Hush 4K (Shout Factory)
Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice: Volume 4 (Warner Archive Collection)
Mountains of the Moon (Kino)
Murder Party (Magnolia)
Must Love Dogs (Warner Archive Collection)
Paper Moon 4K (Criterion)
The Shape of Water 4K (Criterion)
The Snowtown Murders (IFC)
The Tenant 4K (Vinegar Syndrome)
That’s Entertainment (Warner Archive Collection)