New to Rent By Mail for December 29 2023

AFTER HOURS (1985) (Criterion Collection)

Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman (Rosanna Arquette). So begins the wildest night of his life, as bizarre occurrences—involving underground-art punks, a distressed waitress, a crazed Mister Softee truck driver, and a bagel-and-cream-cheese paperweight—pile up with anxiety-inducing relentlessness and thwart his attempts to get home. With this Kafkaesque cult classic, Martin Scorsese—abetted by Michael Ballhaus’s kinetic cinematography and scene-stealing supporting turns by Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, Catherine O’Hara, and John Heard—directed a darkly comic tale of mistaken identity, turning the desolate night world of 1980s SoHo into a bohemian wonderland of surreal menace. (BLU-RAY and 4K ULTRA HD)

THE IRON PREFECT (1977)

Based on the true story of the Iron Prefect, Cesare Mori, who was sent to Sicily for an Eliot Ness-in-The Untouchables style clean up of the mafia. Mori approaches organised crime on the island with uncompromising force even in the face of mass murders designed to scare him off. Pasquale Squitieri (The Climber) directs this stunning period piece which won the David di Donatello award for best film and features spaghetti western icon Giuliano Gemma brilliantly playing against type as the titular hero, winning him an award for his performance at the prestigious Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Alongside Gemma are the cream of international film from the period with co-stars Claudia Cardinale (The Day of the Owl) and Francisco Rabal (Sorcerer), the key surveyor of Italy's civic cinema screenwriter Ugo Pirro (The Working Class Goes to Heaven) and legendary composer Ennio Morricone (Once Upon a Time in America). (BLU-RAY)

FUNNY HA HA (2002)

Marnie is 23 and "wandering the earth," perhaps in search of romance, or employment - or perhaps just avoiding both. Mostly she's just trying to keep her sense of humor as a constellation of friends and would-be lovers engage in their own post-collegiate flailing around her. Rarely have the loose, shaggy rambles of young adulthood felt so alive and uncanny onscreen. Shot on 16mm and originally released in 2002, Funny Ha Ha is a simple film, straightforwardly composed, but its peculiar rhythms and unexpected cross-currents will always reward repeat viewings. (BLU-RAY)

SISU (2023)

During the last desperate days of WWII, a solitary prospector (Jorma Tommila) crosses paths with Nazis on a scorched-earth retreat in northern Finland. When the Nazis steal his gold, they quickly discover that they have just tangled with no ordinary miner. While there is no direct translation for the Finnish word "sisu", this legendary ex-commando will embody what sisu means: a white-knuckled form of courage and unimaginable determination in the face of overwhelming odds. And no matter what the Nazis throw at him, the one-man death squad will go to outrageous lengths to get his gold back – even if it means killing every last Nazi in his path. (BLU-RAY and 4K ULTRA HD)

SHIN ULTRAMAN (2022)

There's never a dull day on Japan's newly established SSSP Kaiju defense taskforce, led by Kimio Tamura, played by DRIVE MY CAR's Hidetoshi Nishijima. After a particularly challenging encounter, a silver giant descends from the sky to rescue the planet. Dubbed Ultraman, this giant's identity and purpose are a mystery. SHIN ULTRAMAN is a delightful reimagining of one of Japan's classic superheroes, full of cosmic twists, charismatic villains, and giant Kaiju. (BLU-RAY)