Intermission Theater vet John Crowley directs a black-hearted and hysterical Dublin comedy, performed by an ace ensemble cast (including Colin Farrell, Shirley Henderson, Colm Meaney, and Cillian Murphy). Mark O’Rowe’s screenplay is viciously quotable. R; $26.98.
Hellboy Absurd and entertaining: a superhero tale that delivers. PG-13; $34.95
Van Helsing Absurd and awful: a vampire flick that flopped. PG-13; $29.98.The Ultimate Oliver Stone Collection A boxed set that’s every bit as humble as the director himself collects twelve films, from Talk Radio and Salvador to Nixon and Any Given Sunday. Fourteen discs; R; $129.92.
The Up Series For this landmark group of documentaries of everyday life, Michael Apted picked fourteen English children in 1964, and began following their lives in compassionate detail, updating their stories at seven-year intervals—with the last check-in at age 42. Five discs; NR; $99.95.
To Be And To Have This documentary about ruminative French schoolteacher Georges Lopez, wrote New York’s Peter Rainer, is “one of the most gratifying films about teaching ever made; it recalls the best films of Frederick Wiseman.” NR; $29.95.
Eyes Without A Face The original extreme makeover: Georges Franju’s 1960 horror film, a perfect Halloween gift for plastic-surgery lovers. NR; $29.95.
OUR PICK
On a shot-for-shot basis, the most gorgeous boxed set of the year is The Wong Kar-Wai Collection. Packaged with surprisingly few extras, the set collects an earlier edition of his breathlessly romantic Chungking Express, along with remastered editions of Happy Together and Fallen Angels. His early features As Tears Go By and Days of Being Wild also appear, making their Stateside debuts (the latter will be screened at Film Forum in November), and catch the director on the cusp of creating his signature visual style, especially in his supersaturated collaboration with cinematographer Christopher Doyle. Five discs; $99.95. Extras: Buenos Aires Zero Degrees, a documentary about the director and the making of Happy Together; stills; filmographies; subtitles; trailers.