Sadly, There Are No Major Theatrical Releases Coming Home This Week

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This Week’s Best Bets

In 1968’s tumult, a Nigerian student in San Francisco experiences clashing cultures and elucidates society’s ineptitude at living humanely. 1968: Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, and Bobby Hutton are among the recent dead. In Nigeria, the Civil War is entering its second year with no end in sight. In San Francisco, the adventures of Gabriel, a young Nigerian reflect tribal, personal, and racial frictions during the tumultuous sixties. Truth is stranger than fiction in “Bushman” (1971), a rare sort of film portrait, part document, part imagined – poetic in its approach to real events. In 1968, Paul Okpokam came to America and David Shickele wanted to make a film of his Nigerian friend’s experience coming to teach at San Francisco State College. A docudrama of Okpokam’s experience as the “other” in a tumultuous time of cultural revolution, he is seen through the prism of American racism and exoticism. But the film turns on astonishing real-life events as Okpokam is falsely accused of terrorism during events at the San Francisco State College strike of that year, thrown in prison for a year, and then deported as an undesirable.A “lost film” restored by the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and The Film Foundation. From Milestone … Mathieu Kassovitz took the film world by storm with “La haine” (1995 – France), a gritty, unsettling, and visually explosive look at the racial and cultural volatility in modern-day France, specifically the low-income banlieue districts on Paris’s outskirts. Aimlessly passing their days in the concrete environs of their dead-end suburbia, Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Hubert (Hubert Koundé), and Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui)—Jewish, African, and Arab, respectively—give human faces to France’s immigrant populations, their bristling resentment at their marginalization slowly simmering until it reaches a climactic boiling point. A work of tough beauty, “La haine” is a landmark of 1990s French cinema and a gripping reflection of its country’s ongoing identity crisis. Formats: 4K UHD + Blu-ray combo. New 4K digital master, supervised by director of photography Pierre Aïm and approved by director Mathieu Kassovitz, with 2.0 and 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks. One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features. Read more here. From The Criterion Collection.

Buzzin’ the ‘B’s:

In “Easter Bloody Easter” (2024), a series of bloody murders has the locals on edge for the upcoming “Easter-palooza”in a small Texas town. The Mayor refuses to cancel the festivities and argues that the famous “Egg Hunt” only happens once a year. Jeanie wakes to find her husband is missing, and his wrecked car covered in blood and fur. Sam, the Itown’s conspiracy theorist, steers Jeanie and her best friend Carol, to the legend of the killer Jackalope that ravaged the town 150 years ago. Like a werewolf, the Jackalope is a shapeshifter – human one moment, a giant horned rabbit the next. t’s up to Jeanie and Carol to follow the bunny tracks and uncover the fluffy truth and protect their small town from the Jackalope and his army of devilish bunnies. On DVD, Blu-ray, from Gravitas Ventures. Read more here … In “Exploited” (2022, starring Colin Bates, Sierra McCormick, Makenzie Vega, Leah Pipes, Spencer List and Will Peltz, a college freshman becomes obsessed with the previous owner of his school issued laptop. On DVD, Blu-ray, from Gravitas Ventures … In “The Reaper Man” (2023), starring K.J. Baker, Jeff Haltom and Kenon Walker, after the sudden passing of her husband, Jessica is left alone with more questions than answers and swallowed by grief. Out of mindless desperation, Jessica seeks the help of a local woman with an infamous reputation for performing witchcraft in hopes she could return her husband, Joseph, back to her. After the ritual is performed, Joseph returns from the grave with only an insatiable desire for revenge. On DVD, Blu-ray, from Gravitas Ventures.

Foreign Films:

After being suspended from their agency due to a rules violation, two highly skilled teenage assassins are forced to get “real” jobs to make ends meet in “Baby Assassins 2” (2023 — Japan), starring Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa, Atomu Mizuishi, Tomo Nakai and Tsubasa Tobinaga. But while the elite duo is forbidden from executing targets or enemies under any circumstances, two aspiring rival hitmen decide toeliminate the competition while they’re vulnerable—leading to a lightning-fast showdown between trained killers. On Blu-ray, from Well Go USA. Read more here … In “Vampiras: The Brides” (2022 — Spain), starring Olga Aguilar, Conchita Alonso, Anderson Ballesteros, Pedro Cayuela and Leonardo Daniel, Dracula’s brides must reunite to stop a diabolical of threats from their past, their sister Mina. With the help of a powerful cartel leader and an army of drug lords under her command, Mina throws Los Angeles into utter chaos, raging for blood. From Allied Vaughn.

From TV to Disc:

“Inside Man” (2022) is a two-disc set with all four episodes of the British mini-series staring David Tennant, Stanley Tucci and Dolly Wells. A prisoner on death row in the US and a woman trapped in a cellar under an English vicarage, cross paths in the most unexpected way. On DVD, Blu-ray, from BBC.

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All DVDs and Blu-rays are screened on a reference system consisting of an Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray Disc Player w/SACD & DVD-Audio, a Rotel RSX-972 Surround Sound Receiver, and Phase Technology 1.1 (front), 33.1 (center), and 50 (rear) speakers, and Power 10 subwoofer.