New Releases for December 12 2023

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM (2023)

After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O'Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them. (BLU-RAY and DVD)

STELLA MARIS (1918)

Stella Maris was a major advancement in filmmaking. Mary Pickford plays dual roles in a film that is very different from anything she had ever done before. It tells the story of two very different young women; a beautiful, rich, but crippled Stella Maris and Unity Blake, a deformed and abused orphan. Director, Marshall Neilan, and cinematographer Walter Stradling created some trick photography for Mary to play both roles, using double exposure photography and complex editing which made it possible to present both characters on screen simultaneously. (DVD and BLU-RAY)

GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S PINOCCHIO (2022) (Criterion Collection)

A classic tale is reborn through the inspired imagination of cinematic dream-weaver Guillermo del Toro, directing alongside Mark Gustafson. Realized through boundary-pushing, breathtakingly intricate stop-motion animation, this dark rendering of the fable of the puppet boy and his maker—which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature—daringly transfers the story to Fascist Italy, where the irrepressible Pinocchio gradually learns what it means to be human through his experiences of war, death, and sacrifice. Featuring the voices of Ewan McGregor, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, and Christoph Waltz, this Pinocchio imbues the oft-told tale with a bold new resonance about living with courage and compassion. (DVD, BLU-RAY, and 4K ULTRA HD)

PASSAGES (2023)

Celebrated filmmaker Ira Sachs (Love is Strange) makes a breathtaking return with Passages, a fresh, honest and brutally funny take on messy, modern relationships, starring Franz Rogowski (Great Freedom), Ben Whishaw (Women Talking) and Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue Is the Warmest Colour). (BLU-RAY and DVD)

eXistenZ (1999)

In the near future, video games have evolved to a point where they are able to biologically interact with players through the use of an electronic umbilical cord. Allegra Geller has created eXistenZ, a highly anticipated virtual reality game which has come under fire for its potential ability to effectively warp players' perceptions of reality. When an anti-game zealot attempts to murder Allegra during a demo, she narrowly escapes with the help of her publicist, Ted Pikul. However, Allegra discovers that the only master copy of the game might have been damaged during the attack and convinces Ted to test it with her. After Ted reluctantly agrees, the pair enter the virtual world of eXistenZ, but it's not long before they start becoming uncertain as to where the violent gameplay ends and reality begins… (BLU-RAY and 4K ULTRA HD)