dvd/vod/streaming

See it: • 28 Weeks Later [buy it]. From my review: Call it 28 Weeks Later, but it’s the five years on from the horrifying 28 Days Later that have made all the difference: we are all immeasurably more anxious and on edge post-Katrina, mired in Iraq, nervous about tainted spinach and poisoned pet food … more…

Used to be, movies that invited us to titter about poopy and pee-pee and nosepicking were aimed at the demographic that finds that kind of thing hilarious: nursery school attendees. But a decade ago, the Farrelly Brothers, blots on the face of humanity, decided that adults were really just rugrats in disguise, and they brought … more…

See it: • 1408 [buy it]. From my review: Sure, this is pretty much an episode of The Twilight Zone, but it’s a really, really good episode of The Twilight Zone, largely because of the magic of Cusack, who shucks his usual irresistible gosh-darn charm for a mellow but muscular intensity that his fans may … more…

See it: • Bug [buy it]. From my review: Where Bug succeeds, it does so by inducing in you the same kind of on-edge, constant low level of terror Agnes lives with on a daily basis, the kind of ordinary distress with modern living that afflicts way too many people. Agnes drinks too much. She … more…

See it: • Death Proof: Extended and Unrated [buy it]. From my review: [T]he last 40 minutes or so of Death feature some amazing stuntwork and stunt driving, seat-of-the-pants filmmaking that is as fresh and organic as anything Roger Corman would have done, and like we hardly ever see at the movies these days. This … more…

When The Brave One opens on Friday, audiences will see Jodie Foster in the same position she’s finds herself in onscreen an awful lot: alone. Sans man. In this new flick, for instance, she goes on a vigilante rampage through the streets of New York City after her financé is brutally murdered by street thugs. … more…

See it: • Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee [buy it]. From my review: The worst of it are the attitudes of the white men in charge, like President Ulysses Grant (played, oh ho!, by actor-turned-right-wing-politician-turned-actor-maybe-about-to-turn-right-wing-presidential candidate Fred Thompson), ostensibly a friend to the red man, who avers that “setting the Indian on the course … more…

See it: • The Astronaut Farmer [buy it]. From my review: To say that they don’t make movies like this anymore — splendidly, quietly angry in a folksy, old-fashioned kind of way — is to prove its point, that we seem to have lost something in the American spirit in our era of overlording corporatism … more…

See it: • Red Road [buy it]. From my review: This prickly sketch of a vengeance born out of loneliness and alienation carries the weight of horror of the everyday — it’s not a thriller and there’s nothing Hollywood-exaggerated about it, which makes it all the more disturbing, and all the harder to dismiss. • … more…

With the witty Death at a Funeral now playing and Mr. Bean’s Holiday, which is practically a silent movie in the style of Charlie Chaplin, opening this week, the multiplex is a suddenly a treat for fans of British comedy. Need more? You’ve got lots of choices on DVD. Be warned: this is not a … more…