New to Rent By Mail for November 13 2024

TO DIE FOR (1995) (Criterion Collection)

The all-American obsession with celebrity turns monstrous in this deliciously subversive (and disturbingly prescient) satire of our television-mediated, true-crime-obsessed age. In a career breakthrough, Nicole Kidman delivers a diabolical deconstruction of the girl next door as a local TV weather reporter whose perfectly perky facade belies a murderous heart, as her ruthless pursuit of fame ensnares three disaffected teens in a sordid, tabloid-ready scandal. Deftly deploying shifting perspectives, faux-documentary interviews, and a supporting cast featuring Joaquin Phoenix, Matt Dillon, and Casey Affleck, director Gus Van Sant adds provocative layers of meaning to this darkly funny examination of suburban sociopathy. (BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)

THE BEEKEEPER (2024)

Jason Statham stars in "The Beekeeper," a heart-pounding action-thriller about a mysterious Beekeeper. Adam Clay (Statham), a former operative of a powerful organization known as Beekeepers, upends his covert life and embarks on a brutal revenge mission to dismantle corruption at the highest levels of our society. (BLU-RAY)

I AM CUBA (1964) (Criterion Collection)

Both a landmark of radical political cinema and one of the most visually ravishing films ever made, this legendary hymn to revolution shimmers across the screen like a fever dream of rebellion. The result of an extraordinarily ambitious collaboration between the Soviet and Cuban film industries, director Mikhail Kalatozov’s I Am Cuba unfolds in four explosive vignettes that capture Cuban life on the brink of transformation, as crushing economic exploitation and inequality give way to a working-class uprising. Backed by Carlos Fariñas’s stirring score, the dazzling camera work by Sergei Urusevsky—an inspiration for generations of filmmakers to follow—gives flight to the movie’s message of liberation. (BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)

SUPER MARIO BROS. (1993) 

Buckle up and hang on tight-the discovery of a parallel universe launches you into the adventure of a lifetime! Mario and Luigi, two wacky plumbers, undertake a daring quest to save a princess in "Dinohattan"- a hidden world where the inhabitants evolved from dinosaurs. Mario (Bob Hoskins, Who Framed Roger Rabbit) and Luigi (John Leguizamo, Regarding Henry) face deadly challenges from a diabolical lizard king (Dennis Hopper, Hoosiers) and must battle giant reptilian goombas, outwit misfit thugs and undermine a sinister scheme to take over the world. (4K ULTRA HD)

VELVET SMOOTH (1976) 

The slinky Ms. Smooth (Johnnie Hill) is the head of a private detective agency specializing in protecting the unprotectable. Her current client is in deep with a murderous numbers racket. So, Velvet Smooth goes undercover -- and occasionally under covers -- to smash the ring. An "R" rating hardly covers it. (BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)