New Releases for November 14 2023

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971) (Criterion Collection)

One of the key films of the American seventies cinema renaissance, The Last Picture Show is set in the early fifties, in the loneliest Texas nowheresville to ever dust up a movie screen. This aching portrait of a dying West, adapted from Larry McMurtry’s novel, focuses on the daily shuffles of three futureless teens—enigmatic Sonny (Timothy Bottoms), wayward jock Duane (Jeff Bridges), and desperate-to-be-adored rich girl Jacy (Cybill Shepherd)—and the aging lost souls who bump up against them in the night like drifting tumbleweeds. Featuring evocative black-and-white imagery and profoundly felt performances, this hushed depiction of crumbling American values remains the pivotal work in the career of invaluable film historian and director Peter Bogdanovich. (4K ULTRA HD and BLU-RAY)

Also includes the 1990 sequel TEXASVILLE on BLU-RAY

THE MARQUIS DE SADE'S JUSTINE (1969)

Romina Power (18-year-old daughter of Tyrone Power) stars as Justine, a nubile young virgin cast out of a French orphanage and thrust into a depraved world of prostitution, predatory lesbians, a fugitive murderess (Mercedes McCambridge), bondage, branding, and one supremely sadistic monk (an outrageous performance by Jack Palance). It's a twisted tale of strange desires, perverse pleasures and the ultimate corruption of innocence as told by the Marquis de Sade. (4K ULTRA HD and BLU-RAY)

BLUE STEEL (1989)

When rookie cop Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis) kills a convenience store robber, she does not notice when psychopathic commodities trader Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver) takes the dead man's gun. With no weapon at the crime scene, the police hold Turner accountable for killing an unarmed man. Meanwhile, Hunt uses the stolen weapon to go on a killing spree. Turner teams up with detective Nick Mann (Clancy Brown) to clear her name and catch the killer. An unexpected romance complicates matters. (BLU-RAY)

DUEL (1971)

Steven Spielberg directs this high-velocity thriller about a motorist terrorized by an evil truck. Spielberg's first full-length movie, Duel, helped jumpstart the director's big-screen career, with a gripping, action-packed story hailed by critics as a film that "belongs on the classics shelf reserved for top suspensers" (Daily Variety). Dennis Weaver stars as the traveling salesman waging a desperate battle for survival after he is mysteriously singled out.

Praised for its deft use of relentlessly mounting psychological tension, Duel features one of the most uniquely terrifying "characters" in movie history: a massive, roaring, 40-ton truck with sheer menace. A few years later, the action of Spielberg's blockbuster hit Jaws would echo Duel's tale of a lone hero in a heart-stopping fight to the finish against a monstrous, inhuman foe. (4K ULTRA HD)