Green Border

(2024 — Poland) Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, the film immediately drew controversy from the Polish government for its depiction of the European migrant crisis on the Poland-Belarus border. Shot in stark black-and-white, this riveting thriller explores the intractable conflict from multiple perspectives: a Syrian family fleeing ISIS caught between cruel border guards in both countries; young guards instructed to brutally reject the migrants; and activists who, at great risk, aid the refugees. Director Agnieszka Holland (“Europa Europa”) brings an unflinching eye and deep compassion to this blistering critique of a humanitarian calamity that continues to unfold. Vitals: Director: Agnieszka Holland. Stars: Jalal Altawil, Maja Ostaszewska, Behi Djanati Atai, Tomasz Wlosok, Al Rashi Mohamad, Dalia Naous. CC, MPAA rating: NR, 152 min., Drama, Theatrical release date: , North American box office gross: $.797 million, worldwide $4.180 million, Kino Lorber. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray. Extras: Q&A with director Agnieszka Holland, DP Tomasz Naumiuk, and stars Behi Djanati Atai & Joely Mbundu; theatrical trailer. Read more here.

---

This Week’s Highlight:

Trailblazing filmmaker Martha Coolidge made her feature debut with “Not a Pretty Picture” (1975), an unflinchingly personal hybrid of documentary and fiction. Centered on an intense reenactment of Coolidge’s experience of rape in her adolescence, the film casts Michele Manenti (also a survivor) as the director’s younger self, and observes the actor and her castmates as they engage in a profound dialogue about what it means to recreate these traumatic memories, and about their attitudes concerning consent and self-blame. A high-stakes experiment inmetacinema that broke new ground with its uncompromising examination of date rape, “Not a Pretty Picture” brings a stunning immediacy to questions about the on-screen representation of sexual violence and the limits of artistic catharsis. Formats: Blu-ray, DVD with new 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Martha Coolidge, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack. From The Criterion Collection. Read more here.

Buzzin’ the ‘B’s:

In “Death to Smoochy” (2002), starring Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener and Danny DeVito, DeVito takes the rhino by the horn to direct and co-star in this gleefully twisted skewering of children’s television. A kids’ show host, Rainbow Randolph, is fired in disgrace while his replacement, Sheldon Mopes, A.K.A. Smoochy the Rhino, finds himself a rising star. Unfortunately for Sheldon, the business of kids’ television isn’t all child’s play. Robin Williams, his famed wit set at warp, plays ranting Randolph. Edward Norton is the high-minded goodnik whose righteous rhino creation, Smoochy, becomes a sensation, and Catherine Keener portrays a jaded TV exec who likes kid-show hosts in, let’s say, a grown-up way. Say nite-nite, rhino! New 2K restoration from the interpositive. On Blu-ray from Shout! Studios.

On the Indie Front:

Patrick, a strange and lonely resident, lives in a mobile home at the back of an isolated caravan park in “You’ll Never Find Me” (2024), starring Brendan Rock, Jordan Cowan, Elena Carapetis, Angela Korng and Finn Watson. After a violent thunderstorm erupts, a mysterious young woman appears at his door, seeking shelter from the weather. The longer the night wears on and the more the young woman discovers about Patrick, the more difficult she finds it to leave. Soon she begins to question Patrick’s intentions, while Patrick begins to question his own grip on reality. On Blu-ray from RLJ Entertainment.

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.