New Releases for May 20 2025

HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING (1989) (Criterion Collection)

Writer-director Bruce Robinson and star Richard E. Grant, the cracked comic geniuses behind the cult favorite Withnail and I, reteamed for this diabolically dark satire of runaway capitalism in Margaret Thatcher–era England. Grant gives a virtuosically crazed performance as an ambitious advertising exec whose latest assignment—devising a campaign for a pimple cream—has him on the edge of a nervous breakdown. When he sprouts an enormous boil on his shoulder—one that not only talks but has evil ambitions of its own—a twisted battle of wills ensues. With fantastically fleshy body-horror effects and flourishes of gonzo surrealism, this tour de force of verbal jousting and physical comedy is a caustic Jekyll-and-Hyde tale for the greed-is-good 1980s. (BLU-RAY)

PRESENCE (2024)

It moves through the house, uneasy and unseen, a witness to the most painful and unguarded moments of the troubled family within. And with a growing urgency, the Presence gradually pieces together what it needs to do. An unusual, unnerving, and emotional thriller from writer David Koepp and director Steven Soderbergh. (4K ULTRA HD and DVD)

PROPHECY (1979) (2 DISCS)

When a dispute occurs between a logging operation and a nearby Native American tribe, Dr. Robert Verne (Robert Foxworth) and his wife, Maggie (Talia Shire), are sent in to mediate. Chief John Hawks (Armand Assante) insists the loggers are poisoning the water supply, and, though company man Isley (Richard Dysart) denies it, the Vernes can't ignore the strangely mutated wildlife roaming the woods. Robert captures a bear cub for testing and soon finds himself the target of an angry mutant grizzly. (4K ULTRA HD)

IRON ROSE (1973)

Having built his reputation with a quartet of eccentric erotic vampire tales, Jean Rollin surprised audiences with The Iron Rose (Le Rose de fer), an atmospheric detour into the realms of the fantastique.

When a couple – played by Françoise Pascal (Burke and Hare) and Hugues Quester (Je t'aime moi non plus) – stumble across an old cemetery, they begin to explore its gravestones and crypts. But, as night falls, they find that they are unable to leave... (BLU-RAY)

SEA OF LOVE (1989) 

Troubled New York City detective Frank Keller (Al Pacino) investigates a serial killer who finds victims using personal ads in a magazine and leaves the song "Sea of Love" playing at his crime scenes. With the help of his partner, Sherman Touhey (John Goodman), Frank concocts a plan to find the killer using his own personal ads. But when Frank falls for one of his chief suspects, Helen Cruger (Ellen Barkin), he struggles to reconcile his personal life and his professional duty. (BLU-RAY + 4K)