It’s easy to take Steven Spielberg for granted until he proves once again that he might be the single most technically gifted American filmmaker working. Even if you don’t think his West Side Story fully makes a case for its existence, there’s no denying the sheer craftsmanship on display, where every shot, no matter how banal-seeming, is designed to make full use of every spatial plane and inch of the frame while never being cluttered or distracting. Nobody’s making movies at this intersection of classicism and maximalism, god help the film world when he passes.
Aside from West Side, we’ve got Sean Baker’s Red Rocket (one of several A24 potential awards movies from the last few months they decided to not even bother with) and a wealth of classic titles coming to 4K, including The Apartment, Le Cercle Rouge, American Werewolf in London, and the Mark Wahlberg vehicle Shooter. Shooter continues Paramount’s run of having the most “sure, why not?” catalog releases in the business, this week’s slate bringing the incredible quadruple-feature of The Accused, the Karyn Kusama Aeon Flux movie, and two of the theatrical Peanuts movies.
The Accused (Paramount)
Aeon Flux (Paramount)
American Pimp (Sandpiper)
An American Werewolf in London 4K (Arrow)
The Apartment 4K (Kino)
Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don’t Come Back!) (Paramount)
Le Cercle Rouge 4K (Criterion)
Dream a Little Dream (Lionsgate)
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (Strand)
It’s My Party (Sandpiper)
John and the Hole (IFC)
Man’s Favorite Sport? (Kino)
Nightmare (Shout Factory)
Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (Paramount)
Red Rocket (Lionsgate)
Rifkin’s Festival (MPI)
Shooter 4K (Paramount)
The Sword and the Sorcerer 4K (Shout Factory)
West Side Story (Disney)