New Releases for January 9 2024

BLOOD SIMPLE (1984) (Criterion Collection)

Joel and Ethan Coen’s career-long darkly comic road trip through misfit America began with this razor-sharp, hard-boiled neonoir set somewhere in Texas, where a sleazy bar owner releases a torrent of violence with one murderous thought. Actor M. Emmet Walsh looms over the proceedings as a slippery private eye with a yellow suit, a cowboy hat, and no moral compass, and Frances McDormand’s cunning debut performance set her on the road to stardom. The tight scripting and inventive style that have marked the Coens’ work for decades are all here in their first film, in which cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld abandons black-and-white chiaroscuro for neon signs and jukebox colors that combine with Carter Burwell’s haunting score to lurid and thrilling effect. Blending elements from pulp fiction and low-budget horror flicks, Blood Simple reinvented the film noir for a new generation, marking the arrival of a filmmaking ensemble that would transform the American independent cinema scene. (BLU-RAY and 4K ULTRA HD)

KING ON SCREEN (2022)

The Shining, Carrie, It, Misery, Stand by Me; More than 60 of Stephen King’s novels have been adapted into films. King on Screen pulls back the curtain and offers an intimate sit down with the filmmakers who brought King’s stories to life. (BLU-RAY)

ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW (1959)

Nerve-snapping suspense, gritty style and an unsparing look at racial tension unite this “thunderbolt of a film” (Los Angeles Examiner) from legendary director Robert Wise (The Set-Up, The Day the Earth Stood Still) and screenwriters Abraham Polonsky (Force of Evil) and Nelson Gidding (The Haunting), based on the novel by William P. McGivern (The Big Heat). Acting greats Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters, Ed Begley and Gloria Grahame deliver superb performances in this taut and absorbing crime melodrama, often cited as the first film noir to feature a black protagonist. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars, ready for the taking. It’s too much to resist for bigoted ex-con Earl Slater (Ryan). He agrees to take part in a bank robbery with former cop Burke (Begley)—but hesitates when he finds out that one of his partners (Belafonte) is black. As tensions mount and the men get closer to their biggest score ever, Earl’s hatred erupts, resulting in violent consequences for the heist...and their lives. (BLU-RAY)

LADYWORLD (2018)

Eight teenage girls are trapped at an endless birthday party after a massive earthquake. When one goes inexplicably missing, a menacing power struggle takes hold. Then, rumors of a male prowler push the girls' fragile psyches even further into a series of strange rituals and fierce delirium. (BLU-RAY and DVD)

SUITABLE FLESH (2023)

Professional intrigue drew psychiatrist Elizabeth Derby (Heather Graham) to the odd case of young dissociative identity patient Asa (Judah Lewis). She'd live to regret it, as his problems stemmed from a demonic force that allows human minds to swap bodies-and needs new victims. Steamy throwback shocker from director Joe Lynch and "Re-Animator" scripter Dennis Paoli, loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft's "The Thing in the Closet," co-stars Barbara Crampton, Bruce Davison, Johnathon Schaech. (BLU-RAY and DVD)