This Week’s Best Bets

Neither a conventional biopic nor a traditional concert film, “Joan Baez: I Am a Noise” (2023) is a raw and intimate portrait of the legendary folk singer and activist that shifts back and forth through time as it follows Joan on her final tour and delves into her extraordinary archive, including newly discovered home movies, diaries, artwork, therapy tapes, and audio recordings. Baez is remarkably revealing about her life on and off stage – from her lifelong emotional struggles to her civil rights work. On DVD, Blu-ray, from Magnolia Pictures. Read more here … A keen observer of America’s social fabric, writer-director John Sayles uncovers the haunted past buried beneath a small Texas border town in “Lone Star” (1996), a sprawling neowestern mystery. When a skeleton is discovered in the desert, lawman Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper), son of a legendary local sheriff, begins an investigation that will have profound implications both for him personally and for all of Rio County, a place still reckoning with its history of racial violence. Sayles’s masterful film — novelistic in its intricacy and featuring a brilliant ensemble cast, including Joe Morton, Elizabeth Peña, and Kris Kristofferson — quietly subverts national mythmaking and lays bare the fault lines of life at the border. On Blu-ray, 4K UHD + Blu-ray combo edition. New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director John Sayles and director of photography Stuart Dryburgh, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features. Extras: Read more here. From The Criterion Collection.

Buzzin’ the ‘B’s:

Cultural icon, anti-establishment statement, sadistic lord of carnival horror. With his long fingernails, top hat and cape, Coffin Joe was the creation of Brazilian filmmaker José Mojica Marins, who wrote, directed and starred in a series of outrageous movies from 1964 to 2008. Newly restored from the best available elements and packed with extras, “Inside the Mind Of Coffin Joe [Limited Edition]” (1964-2008 — Brazil) (1964-2008 — Brazil) is a love letter to one of the great iconoclasts of horror who forged his films in the face of military dictatorship and religious censorship to become Brazil’s national Boogeyman. Six-disc set with brand new 4K restorations of all his films: “At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul,” “This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse/The Strange World of Coffin Joe,” “The Awakening Of The Beast/The End of Man,” “When The Gods Fall Asleep/The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures,” “Hellish Flesh/Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind,” “Embodiment of Evil.” In a six-disc Blu-ray set, with a collector’s book featuring new writing by Tim Lucas, Carlos Primati, Jerome Reuter, Amy Voorhees Searles, Kyle Anderson, and Paula Sacramento. From Arrow Video US/MVD Entertainment. Read more here … Director/actor Buchanan (best known as Uncle Joe on “Petticoat Junction”) appears in this supernatural thriller about an old codger trying to reclaim his youth, employing black magic to lure a woman away from his rival. Made in 1958, “The Devil’s Partner” (1961), starring Buchanan, Jean Allison, Richard Crane and Ed Nelson, languished with no release date until it was picked up and distributed by Roger Corman’s The Filmgroup, becoming a steady presence on the drive-in circuit, often appearing in tandem with “Creature from Haunted Sea” (1961), another Corman classic from the golden age of drive-in schlock — included here. This spoof of spy/gangsters/monster movies stars Anthony Carbone as a gangster and smuggler who decides to kill members of the ship’s bungling crew and blame their deaths on a legendary sea creature. What he doesn’t know is that the creature is actually out there! Also starring Betsy Jones-Moreland and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Robert Towne (Chinatown) under the pseudonym Edward Wain. The film was conceived when Corman finished shooting “The Last Woman on Earth” in Puerto Rico and discovered he had enough stock left over to make another film. He enlisted long-time associate Charles B. Griffith, who — legend goes — had six days to write the script. Ever the pragmatist when it came to budget, Corman recruited locals to appear in this film as extras. Both films are presented with a theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, as well as in a 1.37:1 television format. The televised version of “Creature From the Haunted Sea” includes an additional 15 minutes of footage shot years later to extend the film for a sale to Allied Artists. On DVD, Blu-ray from Film Masters … “Journey to Bethlehem” (2023), starring Fiona Palomo, Milo Manheim, Antonio Banderas, Omid Djalili, Rizwan Manji, Geno Segers and Joel Smallbone, features a young woman carrying an unimaginable responsibility, a young man torn between love and honor and a jealous king who will stop at nothing to keep his crown. This live-action Christmas musical celebration for the entire family weaves classic Christmas melodies with new pop songs in a music-infused retelling of the greatest story ever told, the story of Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus. On DVD and Blu-ray, from Sony. Read more here … The original, uncut version of “Blood Feast” (2016) makes its home video debut on 4K UHD and Blu-ray. An ultra-gory homage to the original H.G. Lewis 1963 classic, “Blood Feast” was directed by Marcel Walz, and stars Robert Rusler, Caroline Williams, Sophie Monk, Sadie Katz, Max Evans and Roland Frietag. After moving his family to France and running a struggling American-themed diner, Fuad Ramses (Rusler) takes on a second job as the night security guard at a museum of Egyptian culture. During his long shifts, Fuad is drawn to the statue of the goddess Ishtar and soon begins to have visions that compel him to embark on a murderous spree of cannibalistic sacrifices to appease the Goddess. Not even Fuad’s own family members (Williams and Monk) are safe from the rampage. In Blu-ray and 4K UHD editions, from Synapse Films/MVD Entertainment.

Foreign Films:

In a desperate attempt to secure funds for his mother’s surgery, an amateur boxer searches for the wealthy estranged father he’s never met in “The Childe” (2023 — South Korea), starring Kim Seon-ho, Kim Kang-woo and Kang Tae-ju. But after a lead takes him from the Philippines to Korea, he is relentlessly pursued by a quirky yet highly dangerous man. As additional entities join in his pursuit and cause chaos, he will be forced to confront a shocking truth that may cost him his life. On Blu-ray from Well Go USA.

For the Family:

In “Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” (2023), Ernest and Celestine return in this delightful and joyous follow-up to their first Academy Award-nominated animated adventure in 2014, where the bear and mouse became the unlikeliest of friends. When Celestine accidentally breaks the beloved violin of her grouchy companion, they embark on a journey to Gibberitia, home to the only artist who can repair it as well as Ernest’s family. But when the duo arrives, they are shocked to discover that all forms of music have been banned for many years and the land once known for its incredible musicians has fallen silent. It’s up to Ernest and Celestine and their new friends, including a mysterious masked outlaw, to bring music and happiness back to the land of bears. On Blu-ray from GKIDS/Shout! Factory.

From TV to Disc:

“Billions: The Final Season” (2023)is a four-disc set with all 12 episodes. It takes one to break one in a final season like no other. Bobby Axelrod and Chuck Rhodes have been adversaries and they’ve been allies but when the stakes escalate beyond Wall Street, their game of one-upmanship threatens to topple empires as Axe returns with a score to settle. It’ll be a triumph for some, and a tumble for others. On DVD, Blu-ray, from Paramount.

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.