School of Rock
Jack Black delivers one of the best wild-man performances in recent memory as a goofy, hard-rocking substitute teacher in this smart and big-hearted comedy, written by Mike White and directed by Richard Linklater. PG-13; $29.99
Duplex
This stale dud, starring Drew Barrymore and Ben Stiller, somehow manages to get everything about New York wrong. PG-13; $29.99
In This World
Michael Winterbottom’s harrowing, intimate tale tracks two cousins on their way from a Pakistani refugee camp to London. R; $26.99
Cold Creek Manor
A suggestion for Sharon Stone, Dennis Quaid, and cynical director Mike Figgis: Don’t offer an alternate DVD ending when what’s needed is an alternate movie—it just makes you look focus-grouped. R; $29.99
Halfaouine: Boy of the Terraces
Férid Boughedir’s funny, subtle coming-of-age drama about a lusty Tunisian boy is one of three landmark works recently released in Kino’s Arab Cinema Series. Also out: Michel Khleifi’s Wedding in Galilee and Fertile Memory. NR; $29.95
Our Pick
Any serious DVD aficionado will have to buy The Chaplin Collection: Volume 2. Remastered editions of undisputed classics The Kid, City Lights, and The Circus are essential, and Monsieur Verdoux, A Woman of Paris, A King in New York, and the stitched-together Chaplin Revue are worthy complements. The set also piles on the extras, from screen tests and newsreels to an extended, brilliant shot of Chaplin the star as he crowd-surfs a human wave of adoration in Vienna. One quibble: the simple DVD production (menus, chapter headings, and so on) is too inelegant for such historic material. 12 discs; NR; $99.92; interviews; archival photographs; screen tests; Richard Schickel’s new documentary, Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin.