Oscar winners and nominees continue to roll out on home video this week.
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In a year filled with biopics, many actors went to great physical lengths to become those who they were portraying. But not all biographical roles demand such transformations, as Benedict Cumberbatch proved with his excellent work as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. The future Dr. Strange was always a dark horse to win the Best Actor Oscar, but he definitely earned his nomination. The blu-ray release features commentary from the film’s director Morten Tyldum and Oscar-winning screenwriter Graham Moore, deleted scenes, a featurette and excerpts from Q&A sessions with the cast and crew.
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Christopher Nolan’s space-time epic was hyped up like crazy last year, which could be why it seemed to leave a lot of people feeling disappointed. With its release on home video, viewers will be able to get a second or third viewing under their belt to determine if it was as bad or as good as they originally thought. However, unless you have your own IMAX sized screen at home, it will be hard to replicate the 70mm, ultra high resolution format that the Oscar-winning visual spectacle was originally released in. An hour long documentary and 14 short featurettes are included in the home release, but the lack of commentary by Nolan or supervising theoretical physicist Kip Thorne is a little disappointing.
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Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée set himself a high bar with Dallas Buyers Club, but he was able to match that film’s quality with Wild. Reese Witherspoon, the film’s lead actress and producer, puts the film on her shoulders like a hiking pack and delivers one of the best performances of her career. Vallée has a knack for shooting character driven dramas, and after helping Matthew McConaughey win an Oscar and Witherspoon earn another nomination, actors will be lining up to work with him for years to come. Special features include deleted scenes with optional commentary by Vallée, ten featurettes, and commentary by Jean-Marc Vallée and producers Bruna Papandrea and David Greenbaum.
Also available:
20,000 Days on Earth
Criterion Collection: Hoop Dreams
Gemma Bovery
Island of Lemurs: Madagascar
Outcast
Wild Card
