New Releases for December 3 2024

JAY REATARD: BETTER THAN SOMETHING (2011)

For Jimmy Lee Lindsay, known to his fans and detractors as Jay Reatard, life was a race against time. After growing up fast among Memphis crack addicts, he managed to blaze a path through the rough-and-tumble underground rock scene of the early aughts, releasing over 100 singles, EPs and full-length records in fourteen years. Then on January 13, 2010, not yet 30, he died.

With their feature documentary BETTER THAN SOMETHING, filmmakers Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz let Jay tell his own story: a poverty-stricken childhood, teen years spent as a two-fisted tunesmith battling fans and band mates alike, and a short-lived adulthood of focused and relentless productivity. Jay said "I just try to make as much as I can with the time that I have." By any measure, that is exactly what he did. BETTER THAN SOMETHING is both a testament to Jay Reatard's indisputable legacy and a tribute to his vital, thrilling, and all-too-brief life. (BLU-RAY)

SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS & OTHER HOLIDAY HALLUCINATIONS (1945-1964)

Walking in a winter weirdoland! SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS & OTHER HOLIDAY HALLUCINATIONS is a blizzard of mid-century kitsch that will make your holiday dreams come true—especially if you're a Martian. Preserved from Something Weird's colorful 16mm print and presented in a brand new "roadshow" edition with ads and trailers, SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS (1964) is the infamous, ultra-cheap mindmelter starring young Pia Zadora (HAIRSPRAY) that follows the kidnapping of Santa and two Earth children by Martians. From there, our visit to the North Pole continues with SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE DRIVE-IN (60 minutes of snipes and trailers) and over two hours of delirious shorts. (BLU-RAY)

RED ROOMS (2023) 

Kelly-Anne wakes up every morning by the courthouse to secure a seat at the high-profile trial of Ludovic Chevalier, a serial killer she is obsessed with. As days go by, the young woman bonds with another friendly groupie, which momentarily breaks her out of her loneliness. But as the proceedings drag on and she spends more and more time in the courtroom with the victims’ families, Kelly-Anne finds it increasingly difficult to maintain her psychological balance and assume her morbid fixation with the killer. She will then do whatever it takes to get her hands on the final piece of the puzzle: the missing video of a murdered 13-year-old girl, to whom Kelly-Anne bears a disturbing resemblance. (BLU-RAY)

ALIEN: ROMULUS (2024)

While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young colonizers come face-to-face with the most relentless and deadly life form in the universe. (DVD, BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)

PARIS, TEXAS (1984) (CRITERION) 

New German Cinema pioneer Wim Wenders brings his keen eye for landscape to the American Southwest in Paris, Texas, a profoundly moving character study written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Sam Shepard. Paris, Texas follows the mysterious, nearly mute drifter Travis (a magnificent Harry Dean Stanton, whose face is a landscape all its own) as he tries to reconnect with his young son, living with his brother (Dean Stockwell) in Los Angeles, and his missing wife (Nastassja Kinski). From this simple setup, Wenders and Shepard produce a powerful statement on codes of masculinity and the myth of the American family, as well as an exquisite visual exploration of a vast, crumbling world of canyons and neon. (BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)