New to Rent By Mail for May 29 2024

MY LUCKY STARS (1985)

Longtime friends Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao—who had worked together since childhood as part of a Beijing opera troupe—join forces for this rollicking blend of action thrills and lunatic humor, which sees Chan’s undercover agent recruiting his band of outlaw buddies to travel to Japan in order to help him catch a rogue cop who has stolen millions in jewels. Though not the main star, Chan lights up the screen in the film’s most exhilarating set pieces: a kinetic amusement-park-set opening and a surreal haunted-house finale, both stylishly and creatively staged by director-star Hung. (BLU-RAY)

CONTEMPT (1963)

Weaving provocative storylines with a stunning visual style, Jean-Luc Godard's landmark film is a movie within a movie. On the surface, the film is about a director (Michel Piccoli) whose wife Camille (screen legend Brigitte Bardot) falls out of love with him while he rewrites an adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey for an American producer (Jack Palance). But underneath this tale of a doomed romance lies Godard's true subject: the commercial film industry, which he skewers in an unforgettable tour de force that is subversive, darkly comic, and completely original. (BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)

SHOWING UP (2022)

A sculptor preparing to open a new show must balance her creative life with the daily dramas of family and friends, in Kelly Reichardt's vibrant and captivatingly funny portrait of art and craft. (BLU-RAY)

BLOODSUCKING FREAKS (1976)

Sardu, with the help of his dwarf servant Ralphus, operates New York's most controversial theatre, Sardu's Theatre of the Macabre, where each performance is an expertly staged display of gruesome acts of torture. Divisive as his take on "entertainment" might be, arrogant theatre critic, Creasy Silo, is having none of it and makes it his mission to put an end to Sardu's grisly "dramas." However, what audiences and critics alike do not realize is that each of these shocking shows is completely real; with innocent nude women being maimed and murdered live on stage! When Sardu sets his eyes on beautiful ballerina Natasha, he's immediately smitten and determines that she must "star" in his next production, whether she wants to or not, and that her stage partner will be none other than Creasy Silo… (BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)

CAT CITY (1986)

Unflappable and unstoppable mouse secret agent Nick Grabovsky (László Sinkó) with his deadpan voice, baggy pants and a big "G" on his shirt, goes up against the criminal cat gang run by the sinister, metal-pawed Mr. Teufel (Miklós Benedek), in Hungarian director Béla Ternovszky's surreal, animated sci-fi treasure. Set in the year 80 AMM ("After Mickey Mouse") on Planet X where cats and rats have banded together to eliminate mice, the film features a show-stopping series of musical numbers including a deranged Euro-disco song ("Just purr with me / Touch me with tender paws") and a bizarre chorus of Mexican vampire bats named Los Vampiros who inhabit an ancient Mayan temple. A cross between 1980s Don Bluth-style animation (THE SECRET OF NIMH) and the British TV series "Danger Mouse" (clearly an inspiration here), CAT CITY has long been a beloved cult favorite in Eastern Europe. (BLU-RAY)