It’s New Release Tuesday! This week we’ve got Criterion’s World of Wong Kar Wai set, Pixar in the afterlife, a vintage teenage romance, outer space horror, Tom Hanks in the old West, and more.  

2046 (2004) (CRITERION)

Wong Kar Wai’s loose sequel to In the Mood for Love combines that film’s languorous air of romantic longing with a dizzying time-hopping structure and avant-sci-fi twist. Tony Leung Chiu Wai reprises his role as writer Chow Mo-Wan, whose numerous failed relationships with women who drift in and out of his life (and the one who goes in and out of room 2046, down the hall from his apartment) inspire the delirious futuristic love story he pens. 2046’s dazzling fantasy sequences give Wong and two of his key collaborators—cinematographer Christopher Doyle and editor/costume designer/production designer William Chang Suk Ping—license to let their imaginations run wild, propelling the sumptuous visuals and operatic emotions skyward toward the sublime. (BLU-RAY)

ANNE OF THE THOUSAND DAYS (1969) 

Richard Burton plays randy, wily King Henry VIII, and Genevieve Bujold is seductive young Anne Boleyn, the woman whose royal romance would change English history forever. As Henry tries to rid himself of his “barren” wife, Catherine of Aragon (Irene Papas), clever Anne keeps the shockingly needy king on a string through machination after political machination, eventually causing a final break with the Pope and the Church of Rome. (BLU-RAY)

AS TEARS GO BY (1988) (CRITERION)

Wong Kar Wai’s scintillating debut feature is a kinetic, hypercool crime thriller graced with flashes of the impressionistic, daydream visual style for which he would become renowned. Set amid Hong Kong’s ruthless, neon-lit gangland underworld, this operatic saga of ambition, honor, and revenge stars Andy Lau Tak Wah as a small-time mob enforcer who finds himself torn between a burgeoning romance with his ailing cousin (Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, in the first of her iconic collaborations with the director) and his loyalty to his loose-cannon partner in crime (Jacky Cheung Hok Yau), whose reckless attempts to make a name for himself unleash a spiral of violence. Marrying the pulp pleasures of the gritty Hong Kong action drama with hints of the head-rush romanticism Wong would push to intoxicating heights throughout the 1990s, As Tears Go By was a box office smash that heralded the arrival of one of contemporary cinema’s most electrifying talents. (BLU-RAY)

BABY DONE (2020) 

BLACK CHURCH: THIS IS OUR STORY, THIS IS OUR SONG (2021) (2 DISKS)

Chronicles the rich history of an institution at the heart of the African American experience. Beginning with enslavement, traveling through Emancipation, Jim Crow, the Great Migration, the Civil Rights movement, and ending in the present-day, Gates takes viewers on a journey through time, focusing on the key events, charismatic figures, political debates, and musical traditions that have shaped, and been shaped by, the Black Church. (DVD)

BLOODHOUND, THE (2020) 

Francis (Liam Aiken, A Series of Unfortunate Events), a dispossessed young man, is summoned to the secluded home of his wealthy childhood friend, JP Luret (Joe Adler, The Maze Runner), who is suffering from a mysterious affliction. Upon his arrival, Francis realizes that JP and his ethereal twin sister Vivian (Annalise Basso, Ouija: Origin of Evil) are the sole surviving members of the privileged Luret family, whose legacy has been one of depression and self-destruction, and the only occupants of their family estate. As the old friends attempt to reconnect, a number of inexplicable incidents begin to occur within the house, and Francis finds himself drawn into a world of malaise and despair, where an act of betrayal might provide his only way out. (BLU-RAY)

BRAVADOS (1958) 

Eight years after their classic Western collaboration on The Gunfighter (1950), director Henry King and star Gregory Peck reunite for this chilling tale of obsession and revenge. Peck plays a rancher bent on avenging the rape and murder of his young wife; when the alleged perpetrators escape the hangman, he takes off after them with a nervous and inexperienced posse. Also starring Joan Collins, Stephen Boyd, Albert Salmi, Henry Silva, and Lee Van Cleef, and highlighted by stunning widescreen cinematography courtesy of the brilliant Leon Shamroy (Leave Her to Heaven, Cleopatra). (BLU-RAY)

CAGED (2021) 

CHUNGKING EXPRESS (1994) (CRITERION)

The whiplash, double-pronged Chungking Express is one of the defining works of 1990s cinema and the film that made Wong Kar Wai an instant icon. Two heartsick Hong Kong cops (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung Chiu Wai), both jilted by ex-lovers, cross paths at the Midnight Express take-out food stand, where the ethereal pixie waitress Faye (Faye Wong) works. Anything goes in Wong’s gloriously shot and utterly unexpected charmer, which cemented the sex appeal of its gorgeous stars and forever turned canned pineapple and the Mamas & the Papas’ “California Dreamin’” into tokens of romantic longing. (BLU-RAY)

CORLEONE: MAFIA AND BLOOD (2019) 

COSMOBALL (2020) 

CROSSED SWORDS (1977) 

From Richard Fleischer, the outstanding director of Armored Car Robbery, The Vikings, The New Centurions and The Don Is Dead, comes this swashbuckling adventure-comedy starring Oliver Reed (The Hunting Party), Raquel Welch (One Million Years B.C.), Mark Lester (Sudden Terror), Ernest Borgnine (Marty), George C. Scott (They Might Be Giants), Rex Harrison (Midnight Lace), Charlton Heston (The War Lord), David Hemmings (Juggernaut), Harry Andrews (The Internecine Project), Felicity Dean (The Whistle Blower) and Sybil Danning (Nightkill). Crossed Swords is a dazzling action film adapted from Mark Twain’s classic The Prince and the Pauper. Tom (Lester), a poor commoner, accidentally meets Edward, Prince of Wales (also Lester), and they are struck by their similarity of appearance. After switching clothes as a practical joke, they are unexpectedly separated and forced to take on the other’s life. Everything goes completely haywire when the King suddenly dies, leaving Tom to inherit the throne while Edward must convince the people that he is really the new King of England. (BLU-RAY)

CROSSFIRE (1947) (WARNER ARCHIVE)

DAYS OF BEING WILD (1991) (CRITERION)

The breakthrough sophomore feature by Wong Kar Wai represents the first full flowering of his swooning signature style. The initial entry in a loosely connected, ongoing cycle that includes In the Mood for Love and 2046, this ravishing existential reverie is a dreamlike drift through the Hong Kong of the 1960s in which a band of wayward twentysomethings—including a disaffected playboy (Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing) searching for his birth mother, a lovelorn woman (Maggie Cheung Man Yuk) hopelessly enamored with him, and a policeman (Andy Lau Tak Wah) caught in the middle of their turbulent relationship—pull together and push apart in a dance of frustrated desire. The director’s inaugural collaboration with both cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who lends the film its gorgeously gauzy, hallucinatory texture, and actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai, who appears briefly in a tantalizing teaser for a never-realized sequel, Days of Being Wild is an exhilarating first expression of Wong’s trademark themes of time, longing, dislocation, and the restless search for human connection. (BLU-RAY)

DOC (1971) 

When two-fisted gunslinger Doc Holliday (Stacy Keach, The Long Riders) rides into Tombstone, he’s ready and willing to help District Marshal Wyatt Earp (Harris Yulin, Narrow Margin) clean up the unruly town, just as they did in Dodge. But to Doc’s surprise, Earp has changed from a steely-eyed believer in law-and-order to a greedy opportunist who’ll do anything to be elected Tombstone’s sheriff. To ensure his victory, the unscrupulous Earp enlists Doc’s help in double-crossing the most vicious band of outlaws in the territory, the notorious Clanton Gang. It’s a dangerous scheme that leads to the infamous showdown at the O.K. Corral, where a bloody slaughter transforms villains into heroes… and heroes into American legends. (BLU-RAY)

DOLLY DEADLY (2016) 

EVENT HORIZON (1997) (Scream Factory) 

Its name: Event Horizon. The high-tech, pioneering research spacecraft mysteriously vanished without a trace on its maiden voyage seven years earlier. But a weak, persistent signal from the long-missing craft prompts a rescue team, headed by the intrepid Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne), to wing its way through the galaxy on a bold rescue mission. Accompanying Miller is his elite crew and the lost ship’s designer (Sam Neill). What they uncover is unimaginable interstellar horror. (BLU-RAY)

FALLEN ANGELS (1995) (CRITERION)

Lost souls reach out for human connection amid a glimmering Hong Kong in Wong Kar Wai’s hallucinatory, neon-soaked nocturne. Originally conceived as a segment of Chungking Express only to spin off on its own woozy axis, Fallen Angels plays like the dark, moody flip side of its predecessor as it charts the subtly interlacing fates of a handful of urban loners, including a coolly detached hit man (Leon Lai Ming) looking to go straight; his business partner (Michelle Reis), who secretly yearns for him; and a mute delinquent (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who wreaks mischief by night. Swinging between hard-boiled noir and slapstick lunacy with giddy abandon, the film is both a dizzying, dazzling city symphony and a poignant meditation on love, loss, and longing in a metropolis that never sleeps. (BLU-RAY)

FEAR (1994) (Vinegar Syndrome)

Richard is a college student who has decided to focus his attention on the study of fear and has invited a group of friends up to his family’s secluded mountain cabin for the weekend, during which they’ve agreed to participate in his project and share what terrifies them. While the experiment seems harmless at first, when it comes time for Richard to reveal what he’s afraid of, the answer comes in the form of a strange, lifelike, wooden carving of a man which has been in the cabin for generations and is named Morty. As the friends attempt to enjoy their wilderness seclusion, Morty comes to life and begins stalking and killing the youngsters in ways that go far beyond their most horrific nightmares. (BLU-RAY)

FLANNERY (2019) 

Explore the life and work of author Flannery O Connor, whose distinctive Southern Gothic style influenced a generation of artists and activists. Winner of the first ever Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film, Flannery includes conversations with Mary Karr, Hilton Als and others. Through neverbefore seen archival footage, examine the life and legacy of an American literary icon. (DVD)

HAPPY TOGETHER (1997) (CRITERION)

One of the most searing romances of the 1990s, Wong Kar Wai’s emotionally raw, lushly stylized portrait of a relationship in breakdown casts Hong Kong superstars Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing as a couple traveling through Argentina and locked in a turbulent cycle of infatuation and destructive jealousy as they break up, make up, and fall apart again and again. Setting out to depict the dynamics of a queer relationship with empathy and complexity on the cusp of the 1997 handover of Hong Kong—when the country’s LGBTQ community suddenly faced an uncertain future—Wong crafts a feverish look at the life cycle of a love affair that is by turns devastating and deliriously romantic. Shot by ace cinematographer Christopher Doyle in both luminous monochrome and luscious saturated color, Happy Together is an intoxicating exploration of displacement and desire that swoons with the ache and exhilaration of love at its heart-tearing extremes. (BLU-RAY)

HAUNTING (1999) 

In this special effects-filled version of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, Liam Neeson is professor David Marrow, who recruits three people for experiments which he claims will help cure their insomnia. Little do they know that the house is haunted and they’re in for the scariest evening of their lives! With Lili Taylor, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson, Virginia Madsen, and Bruce Dern; directed by Jan de Bont (Speed). (BLU-RAY)

HOW IT FEELS TO BE FREE (2021) 

How It Feels to Be Free takes an unprecedented look at the intersection of African American women artists, politics and entertainment and tells the story of how six trailblazing performers Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Diahann Carroll, Nina Simone, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier changed American culture through their films, fashion, music and politics. (DVD)

IDENTIFYING FEATURES (2020) 

Middle-aged Magdalena (Mercedes Hernández) has lost contact with her son after he took off with a friend from their town of Guanajuato to cross the border into the U.S., hopeful to find work. Desperate to find out what happened to him—and to know whether or not he’s even alive—she embarks on an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous journey to discover the truth. At the same time, a young man named Miguel (David Illescas) has returned to Mexico after being deported from the U.S., and eventually his path converges with Magdalena’s. From this simple but urgent premise, director Fernanda Valadez has crafted a lyrical, suspenseful slow burn, equally constructed of moments of beauty and horror, and which leads to a startling, shattering conclusion. Winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Audience and Screenplay Awards at the Sundance Film Festival. – New Directors/New Films. (DVD)

IMMA TATARANNI (2019) (3 DISKS)

Vanessa Scalera stars as deputy prosecutor Imma Tataranni, a workaholic with a prodigious memory who solves cases with unorthodox methods and attitude to spare. Loosely based on the novels by Italian author Mariolina Venezia and filmed in the stunning Basilicata region of southern Italy, the show is based in the city of Matera, famous for its Sassi district of ancient hillside cave dwellings. Matera was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993 and is the world’s oldest continually inhabited city. The cities and landscapes of this ancient land play an integral role in the stories viewers will learn about the region’s history and culture. Accompanying Imma on her investigations is Ippazio Calogiuri (Alessio Lapice), a shy young corporal with whom Imma becomes increasingly close. But Imma is a devoted wife to her husband, Pietro (Massimiliano Gallo, The Bastards of Pizzofalcone), and mother to their teenage daughter, Valentina (Alice Azzariti). She also struggles to deal with her own mother’s dementia and friction with her insufferably stuffy in-laws. With a special guest star turn by Cesare Bocci of Detective Montalbano fame, Imma Tataranni is sure to warm the hearts of mystery fans and Italophiles alike. (DVD)

IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (2000) (CRITERION)

Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Su Li-Zhen (Maggie Cheung Man Yuk) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite—until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate bond between them. At once delicately mannered and visually extravagant, Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments. With its aching soundtrack and exquisitely abstract cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping Bing, this film has been a major stylistic influence on the past two decades of cinema, and is a milestone in Wong’s redoubtable career. (BLU-RAY)

JEREMY (1973) 

Jeremy loves horses, New York, basketball, the cello… and Susan, the new girl at school. Before they teamed in the hit film Ode to Billy Joe, Robby Benson and Glynnis O’Connor gained fame in this honest and moving tale of first love in “Fun City”-era New York. Benson (The Chosen and One on One) is Jeremy Jones, a shy teenager who excels in all areas of his life save for romance. After a brief encounter with dance student Susan Rollins (O’Connor, TV’s The Boy in the Plastic Bubble and Baby Blue Marine) at school, Jeremy is smitten and suddenly everything else in the world seems inconsequential in comparison. All he can think of is winning Susan’s heart. But, as he soon learns, new relationships can be as fleeting as they are exhilarating. (BLU-RAY)

JOAN OF ARC (2019) 

In the 15th century, both France and England stake a blood claim for the French throne. Believing that God had chosen her, the young Joan (Lise Leplat Prudhomme) leads the army of the King of France. When she is captured, the Church sends her for trial on charges of heresy. Refusing to accept the accusations, the graceful Joan of Arc will stay true to her mission. (DVD)

KAISER OF CALIFORNIA (1936) 

On the surface, The Kaiser of California appears to be a cinematic anomaly: an epic Western produced under the state-controlled cinema of the Third Reich. But the film’s novelty value is quickly eclipsed by its dazzling visual aristry: striking compositions and stunning location photography worthy of John Ford (who was still three years away from making his signature Western, Stagecoach). In telling the story of German-born pioneer John Sutter, actor/director Luis Trenker returned to the awe-inspiring vistas and daring feats of rock-climbing that had made his “mountain films” such a sensation. The result is a film whose style is deeply Germanic and spectacularly American at the same time, virtually unseen in the United States, prior to this 2K restoration by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung. (BLU-RAY)

MINOR PREMISE (2020) 

Attempting to surpass his father’s legacy and pressured by an old colleague (Dana Ashbrook of Twin Peaks), neuroscientist Ethan Kochar (Sathya Sridharan) turns his experiment on himself and unwittingly fractures his consciousness into ten competing sections. Ethan is now trapped in his home with his ex-girlfriend Alli (Paton Ashbrook) and the two must navigate trauma, ambition, and missteps of the past. Diving headfirst into the uncharted equations of the brain, they realize there is more at stake than just their relationship or Ethan’s reputation. With time quickly running out, he is forced to face off against the darker sides of himself. (BLU-RAY)

MY COUSIN RACHEL (1952) 

Based on the best-selling novel by Daphne du Maurier (author of the peerless Rebecca), My Cousin Rachel (1952) weaves an eerie tale of Gothic romance, set against the backdrop of the wild, rock-ribbed Cornish coast. Richard Burton, in his first American film role, stars as an anguished young Englishman, torn between dark suspicion of and uncontrollable passion for his guardian’s widow, the alluring and mysterious Rachel (Olivia de Havilland). With atmospheric direction by Henry Koster (The Robe) and a darkly romantic score by Franz Waxman (Sunset Boulevard), My Cousin Rachel is a seductive entry in the annals of cinematic ambiguity. (BLU-RAY)

NAKED GIRL MURDERED IN THE PARK (1972) 

A Lost Giallo Shocker! Uncut! Remastered! From Italian exploitation film director Alfonso Brescia (WAR OF THE ROBOTS, THE BEAST IN SPACE) comes NAKED GIRL MURDERED IN THE PARK, a rarely seen 1972 giallo thriller filled with sex, nudity and style to burn. When a millionaire is found dead in a rickety amusement park ride, his less-than-savory family stands to inherit his vast fortune. Naturally, the insurance company investigates, setting forth a serpentine series of double-dealings, dark secrets revealed…and gruesome murders! Once the titular deceased (and indeed, naked) dame shows up, all bets are off as twists follow turns, throats are cut and bodies brutalized, climaxing in an outrageous carnage-filled carnival finale. (DVD)

NEWS OF THE WORLD (2020) 

Five years after the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Academy Award winner Tom Hanks) moves from town to town as a non-fiction storyteller, sharing the news from the far reaches of the globe. In the plains of Texas, he crosses paths with a 10-year-old girl taken in by the Kiowa people and raised as one of their own. Kidd agrees to deliver the child where the law says she belongs. As they travel hundreds of miles into the unforgiving wilderness, the two face tremendous challenges of both human and natural forces as they search for a place they can call home. (DVD and BLU-RAY)

RAPID FIRE (1992) 

The film that introduced Brandon Lee (son of the one and only Bruce) as an action star, Rapid Fire (1992) focuses on Jake Lo (Lee), a Los Angeles art student who unwittingly gets involved with a deadly Mafia drug distributor (the marvelous Nick Mancuso). He is then recruited by a police lieutenant (Powers Boothe) and his tough but attractive partner (Kate Hodge) to help nab both the Mafioso and his deadly associate, Kinman Tau (Tzi Ma).  (BLU-RAY)

REUNION (2020) 

A pregnant woman returns to her recently-deceased grandparents’ old family home to spend time with her estranged mother. What begins as a tenuous reunion slowly turns terrifying. (DVD)

SHOGUN’S JOY OF TORTURE (1968) 

From the outrageous imagination of cult director Teruo Ishii (Orgies of Edo, Horrors of Malformed Men) comes this infamous omnibus of three shocking tales of crime and punishment based on true-life documented cases set during the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate. (BLU-RAY)

SHOOT OUT (1971) 

From Henry Hathaway, the acclaimed director of The Shepherd of the Hills, Rawhide, The Sons of Katie Elder, Nevada Smith and True Grit, comes this western odyssey about an aging gunfighter (Gregory Peck, The Big Country, Billy Two Hats) who’s released from jail and looking for revenge. Clay Lomax (Peck) did seven years in Canyon City Jail after his partner, Sam Foley (James Gregory, Clambake), shot him in the back during a bank robbery. The ex-con is suddenly saddled with Decky Ortega (Dawn Lyn, Walking Tall), a six-year-old orphan whose mother was his old girlfriend. With no one else to care for the feisty little girl, Clay is forced to take her on the trail of ruthless vengeance that leads to the climactic shoot-out. The stellar cast includes Patricia Quinn (Zachariah), Robert F. Lyons (Platoon Leader), Susan Tyrrell (Flesh+Blood), Jeff Corey (Jennifer), Rita Gam (Night People), Paul Fix (Man in the Shadow) and Arthur Hunnicutt (Broken Arrow). (BLU-RAY)

SHOWDOWN (1973) 

Ken Marks (Kenn Scott, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze) finds a dangerous enemy on his first day at his new school; an enemy who makes his living as the champion of an illegal fighting operation. School janitor and ex-cop Billy Grant (Billy Blanks, The Last Boy Scout) trains Ken to defend himself. What Billy doesn’t know is that the man behind it all is the one man from his past who wants him dead. (BLU-RAY)

SOUL (2020) 

What is it that makes you…YOU? This November, Pixar Animation Studios’ all-new feature film “Soul” introduces Joe Gardner (voice of Jamie Foxx), a middle-school band teacher who gets the chance of a lifetime to play at the best jazz club in town. But one small misstep takes him from the streets of New York City to The Great Before, a fantastical place where new souls get their personalities, quirks and interests before they go to Earth. Determined to return to his life, Joe teams up with a precocious soul, 22 (voice of Tina Fey), who has never understood the appeal of the human experience. As Joe desperately tries to show 22 what’s great about living, he may just discover the answers to some of life’s most important questions. (DVD, BLU-RAY and 4K UHD)

SOULMATES: SEASON 1 (2020) (2 DISKS)

Soulmates is set fifteen years into the future, when science has made a discovery that changes the lives of everyone on the planet — a test that unequivocally tells you who your soulmate is. Nikki doubts her marriage, David has an affair, Libby loves both soulmate and husband, Mateo has a wild adventure, Kurt’s soulmate is dead, Caitlin questions if her match is good for her. (DVD)

TALKING HEADS (2020) (2 DISKS)

New versions of Alan Bennett’s much-loved monologues, with some of the best known British performers of their time. (DVD)

UNDOING, THE (2020) 

Life for a a successful therapist in New York begins to unravel on the eve of publishing her first book. (DVD and BLU-RAY)

WOMAN LIKE EVE (1979) 

Acclaimed actresses Monique van de Ven (TURKISH DELIGHT) and Maria Schneider (LAST TANGO IN PARIS) star alongside Peter Faber (SOLDIER OF ORANGE) in the groundbreaking film, A WOMAN LIKE EVE (1979), focused on a married woman’s affair with another woman. Directed by pioneering filmmaker Nouchka van Brakel, this acclaimed film was a major hit at LGBT film festivals and was the Dutch entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. (DVD)