Out on DVD this week:
Leviathan
A small-scale feud in rural Russia stands as a symbol of the man-versus-state battles that still endure there. Kolya (Andrei Serebryakov) owns a small auto-repair business and lives in a house next door with his teenaged son and second wife. The town plans to seize it, aided by corrupt mayor Vadim (Roman Madianov), but Kolya is a holdout, and with the help of an old army-buddy-turned-lawyer (Vladimir Vdovichenkov) manages to dig up dirt on the mayor guaranteed to bring him down. “My whole life is here,” says Kolya, who has been on the land for generations. Things escalate unimaginably as Vadim and his goons fight back, with the police and even the priest in their pocket. It’s a gritty and harrowing David and Goliath tale, expertly shot and realized. Special features on the standard disc include commentary with director Andrey Zvyagintsev and producer, a making-of extra, trailer and previews.
Selma
Post “I Have a Dream” there was still much work to be done and “the next great battle,” according to Martin Luther King (David Oyelowo) was equal voting rights. The film focuses specifically on a bloody three-month period in the south, 1965, when a frustrated King saw his bill shelved by President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) and derided by notoriously racist Alabama governor George Wallace (Tim Roth), who famously announced “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever!” He’s the man who authorized the violence on Selma’s Edmund Pettus bridge, where armed police mowed down 600 peaceful marchers with charging horses, tear gas and nightsticks bound with barbed wire. All was caught on the evening news, which forced Johnson’s hand and resulted in the signing of the Equal Voting Rights act of 1965. There are a wealth of special features on the Blu-ray disc including commentary by director Ava DuVernay and Oyelowo and a separate commentary with DuVernay, the director of photography and editor. In The Road to Selma, Oyelowo talks about the journey to get the film made, from way back when he read the script in 2007. There’s a making-of extra, deleted and extended scenes, a music video of the Oscar-winning song “Glory” and historical newsreels and images. Also included is a feature on the 300,000 plus student tickets that were distributed, a look at the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, and a Discussion Guide to better appreciate the film.
Masters of Sex
Season two of Masters of Sex picks up where season one left off, with William Masters dripping wet on Virginia Johnson’s doorstep, proclaiming fidelity (or something close to it). There are repercussions of their sex study going public: Virginia (Lizzy Caplan) gets propositioned by leering doctors a dozen times a day, and the custody of her two children is up for discussion. Meanwhile, Bill (Martin Sheen) weighs new fatherhood against his relationship with Virginia. But it’s all about the work, which is ever-changing thanks to the burgeoning civil rights movement and sexual revolution. A special feature, The History of Sex, talks with actors and filmmakers about layering the history of the period into the story.
Parenthood
And you can now own every season of Parenthood, from Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, in Parenthood: the Complete Series. The six-season set follows the trials and familial tribulations of the tight-knit Beaverman family and their broods, and stars Craig T. Nelson, Peter Krause, Lauren Graham, Dax Shepard and Erika Christensen. The special features include a 100th anniversary special on the Farewell Season DVD, as well as audio commentaries, deleted scenes, a page-to-screen featurette, a Get To Know Your Parents bonus, behind-the-scenes extra with cast and crew, and more.
Mr. Turner
Mike Leigh’s biopic about the life of J.M.W. Turner is so richly drawn that we can almost smell the soot, sweat and grime, the oils and the salt air from the seascapes Turner painted. Britain’s famed Romantic painter was notoriously cantankerous: he created masterpieces but abused his submissive maid (Dorothy Atkinson); he denied his family, setting up a second home with a widow (Marion Bailey) and barely tolerated his contemporaries. His career spanned the era of the slave trade and the advent of a railway and the camera obscura. Leigh doesn’t judge his subject, played brilliantly by Timothy Spall. After all, the artist did turn down an offer of 100,000 pounds, instead planning that his collection would be bequeathed to Britain. There’s commentary with Leigh among the film’s special features. The Many Colours of Mr. Turner focuses on the inspiring cinematography courtesy of Dick Pope. Deleted scene, trailer and previews complete the features on the standard disc.
The Gambler
Mark Wahlberg is electric in The Gambler, playing an unsatisfied English professor by day, self-destructive high-stakes gambler by night. Jim borrows from unsavoury characters (a campy John Goodman) in the hopes of keeping his streak going, but ends up putting his entire family – and his reluctant relationship with a student (Brie Larson) – in jeopardy. From writer William Monahan (The Departed) and director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), and co-starring Jessica Lange, owning the best scene of the film as Jim’s end-of-her-rope mom. Extras on the Blu-ray disc include a making-of featurette that includes a look at the 1974 James Caan-Lauren Hutton film; Dark Before Dawn looks at the subtle colour palette of the film; there deleted scenes, plus extras on costume design, locations and how the film was adapted for a 2014/2015 audience.
Covert Affairs
The final season of Covert Affairs may be CIA agent Annie Walker’s (Piper Perabo) most intense yet. Thwarting terror operations is all in a day’s work, as Annie takes on bad guys in Instanbul, Buenos Aires, Venezuela and Azerbaijan. As always, loyalties shift and power struggles get in the way of saving the U.S. from bad guys. Extras include a blooper reel and deleted scenes. And the sharpest-dressed lawyers in town are back, going toe-to-toe in season four of Suits. Harvey and Mike (Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams) go in a huff, make up and spar again as they fend of hostile takeovers, illegal deals and long-buried secrets. Special features include deleted scenes, a gag reel and making-of extra Suits Recruits.
