New Releases for May 6 2025

THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (2024)

Shot entirely in secret, Mohammad Rasoulof's award-winning thriller, THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG, centers on a family thrust into the public eye when Iman is appointed as an investigating judge in Tehran. As political unrest erupts in the streets, Iman realizes that his job is even more dangerous than expected, making him increasingly paranoid and distrustful, even of his own wife Najmeh and daughters Sana and Rezvan. (BLU-RAY)

UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (1964) (Criterion Collection)

The angelically beautiful Catherine Deneuve was launched to stardom by this dazzling musical heart-tugger from Jacques Demy. She plays an umbrella-shop owner’s delicate daughter, glowing with first love for a handsome garage mechanic, played by Nino Castelnuovo. When the boy is shipped off to fight in Algeria, the two lovers must grow up quickly. Exquisitely designed in a kaleidoscope of colors, and told entirely through lilting songs by the great composer Michel Legrand, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is one of the most revered and unorthodox movie musicals of all time. (BLU-RAY + 4K)

INTENSELY INDEPENDENT: THE MICRO-BUDGET FILMS OF BLACK ECKARD (2011-2017)

Fierce, gritty and micro-budget, the films of Blake Eckard are also incredibly controlled, intensely personal and genuinely disturbing expressions of true independent cinema. Guaranteed to agitate the viewer's soul are Bubba Moon Face (2011) and Coyotes Kill for Fun (2017), two amazing feature films in Eckard's oeuvre.

After a newborn baby is dumped in his lap, Horton Bucks (Tyler Messner) finds himself at the center of a tangled web of familial malevolence in Bubba Moon Face. Shot in a scant five days, with Eckard's own child at its center, the film manages to create an oppressively authentic atmosphere of rural rancidity where love and kindness are in short supply. But a sliver of hope comes with the character of Horton, leading to what might be the least-awful resolution to an impossibly bleak situation.

In Coyotes Kill for Fun, a backwoods babysitter agrees to help an abused mother of two escape her dangerous boyfriend, but his brother is headed back to the area and he has vengeance on his mind. In contrast to the swift production of this disc's companion feature, Coyotes Kill for Fun was filmed over three years in Missouri, Montana and L.A., with a trio of cinematographers shooting various chunks (Eckard, Bubba cinematographer Cody Stokes, and indie legend Jon Jost). But despite its on-again, off-again production, the film maintains a totally consistent - and utterly nightmarish - vision. (DVD)

THE EMPIRE (2024)

In a quiet and picturesque fishing village in Northern France, a very special child is born, unleashing a secret war between extraterrestrial forces of good and evil. In an attempt to restore their empires, two opposing forces from the depths of outer space, One and Zero, unleash an apocalyptic conflict on Earth. The villainous Zero forces secretly take over the bodies of village locals in order to foster pandemonium on our planet. At the same time, a new species engineered by the One is working towards a new, harmonious evolution. While waiting for the final battle, the imperial legions struggle to win humanity over to their cause. If that all sounds a bit out there, that's because this slapstick space opera comes from the singular mind of Bruno Dumont (France, Slack Bay). Featuring wonderfully bizarre performances from French stars like Fabrice Luchini, Camille Cottin, and Anamaria Vartolomei, this gonzo sci-fi spectacle is part Star Wars, part Spaceballs, and 100% Dumont. (BLU-RAY and DVD)

CLEAN AND SOBER (1988)

Academy Award winners Michael Keaton and Morgan Freeman star in this gritty and critically-acclaimed drama, directed by Glen Gordon Caron (Moonlighting) . Keaton portrays Daryl Pointer, a hustling Philadelphia real estate agent with a serious cocaine addiction and a life that is quickly unraveling. He has embezzled and lost $100,000 from his employer. And then he wakes up with a girl dead of a drug overdose in his bed. Daryl checks himself into a substance abuse program, intending only to hide for a while. Plans change when he meets Craig (Freeman), a counselor who has already heard every excuse Daryl can offer, and develops a relationship with a recovering alcoholic and battered wife named Charlie (Kathy Baker, in an unforgettable performance). The story unfolds as Darryl's life begins to change...hopefully for the better. Keaton's portrayal of Daryl Pointer earned him a Best Actor award from the National Society of Film Critics, and the film itself won critical praise. More than 35 years after its premiere, CLEAN AND SOBER is a film ripe for rediscovery. (BLU-RAY)