Playdurizm
2022 has been a year of surprising home video releases. Even as the vast majority of films seem to be keyed into streaming exclusively (not to mention the truly ghoulish way that the HBO/Warner empire keeps disappearing completed works of art for tax purposes), there are some enterprising boutique labels (or bigger studios who understand the devotion with which the physical media market operates) who have been working overtime. So if you have someone in your life who gets overly annoyed by the way streaming seems to have steamrolled all other home video experiences, perhaps something in this assemblage might make for a good gift.
Playdurizm(Artsploitation Blu-ray)
This indie was on my Top 10 for 2021, and its Blu-ray debut is worth celebrating for anyone who digs innovative and forward-thinking queer science-fiction. Demir (director/star/co-writer Gem Deger) finds himself in a Day-Glo fantasy world of intrigue and violence, on the run from something he can’t completely remember, somehow rescued from the oncoming menace by Andrew (Austin Chunn, in one of 2021’s best performances) and his mysterious lady friend Drew (Issy Stewart). As things get weirder and reality starts to glitch, secrets are revealed, and allegiances are questioned like you wouldn’t believe. You can experience Playdurizm as a mystery or an exorcism, or even a meditation on the positive side of fandom, and the many ways that we as viewers experience and care for works of art. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and I’m glad that a work this distinctive, visionary and heartfelt doesn’t simply get shunted off to the streaming void. It starts like horny cotton candy, finishes like lysergic communion.
Medusa (Music Box Blu-ray)
Medusa is a sleek and visceral indictment of Christian fascism, mean-girl mentalities and Bolsonaro-era Brazil that becomes a weird and elusive dive from viral (trending) bondage into viral (infectious) liberation. This looks like a collaboration between the cinematographers Romano Albani in the ’80s and Miami Vice-era Dion Beebe. This played Nashville for two days, and I was literally begging people to watch it. Now, in the comfort of your own home, you can experience it (and several interesting supplements, including some perceptive words from writer-director Anita Rocha da Silveira) and be deeply troubled. It actually pairs very well with Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spiderin depicting the damages of fundamentalism in unconventional ways.
Medusa
Earth Girls Are Easy (Vestron/Lionsgate Blu-ray)
Occasionally streaming in a cropped aspect ratio, this candy-colored (with Angelyne cameo) romantic sci-fi musical gives us the glory days of Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum, early turns from Damon Wayans and Jim Carrey (before In Living Color), and maximum Julie Brown! Aliens land in the San Fernando Valley and save a manicurist from what could be a loveless marriage, with songs by The B-52s, Depeche Mode and The Jesus And Mary Chain. This new, long-awaited Blu-ray features an essential commentary from co-star/co-writer Brown, and it is an essential listen for an enduring classic of 1980s musicals.
Freeway (Vinegar Syndrome 4K/Blu-ray)
Previously available on a nonanamorphic DVD that lurked in Walmart $5 DVD bins like time-delayed grenades of gloriously trashy shock, this meth-y riff on Little Red Riding Hood is unquestionably Reese Witherspoon’s finest hour. As runaway teen Vanessa Lutz, she matches wits with serial killer Bob Wolverton (Kiefer Sutherland) in a genuinely transgressive film from writer-director Matthew Bright. Now restored (including two minutes that had to be cut in 1995 to get an R rating) in 4K by the lovable freaks at Vinegar Syndrome, it’s ready to breathe new life and shock the hell out of people all over again.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Complete Adventure (Paramount 4K)
All three extant versions of the best Star Trek film (fight me, Wrath of Khan stans) are gathered in new 4K restorations. This is a suitably lavish (lots of ephemera and extras, including reproductions of original Trek memorabilia) but questionably packaged (discs should not be tucked into pockets in a fold-out paperboard assemblage) box set. If you’ve been waiting for the best way to experience The Motion Picture — whether its Original 1979 Theatrical version, the 1983 Special Longer Version or the 1999 Director’s Edition — it’s not going to get better than this. This is 1970s sci-fi at its finest.
The Osterman Weekend (Imprint Blu-ray)
Sam Peckinpah’s 1984 film maudit swan song of intrigue, espionage and cocaine has languished on home video, with a series of attempts at DVD and Blu-ray that did what they could with what they had. But Imprint Video in Australia has stepped things up across the board with a sumptuous region-free box set with three HD transfers of the film: the original theatrical cut in a stellar restoration and also in a direct scan from a 35 mm print, and then Peckinpah’s rejected director’s cut directly scanned from his recently discovered personal print. If you love The Osterman Weekend, or just want to trip out on Bloody Sam getting crazy with a Robert Ludlum novel, this is your chance.
Ghostwatch (101 Blu-ray)
Legendary and scandalous in equal measures, this 1992 BBC broadcast was an energetic and unconventional ghost story that was aired in a nonfiction context, traumatizing a not insignificant number of U.K. viewers who thought that what they were watching was actually happening. Never aired again in the U.K., and only surfacing on home video there a decade later, Ghostwatch is finally coming to American home video thanks to the new domestic arm of legendary British exploitation video distributor 101 Films. Maybe it feels weird to watch one of the great underground tapes of the ’90s in such a nicely upscaled package (with a feature-length doc about the film and its legacy included), but this is still scary, and it reigns among the best found footage entries ever made.
