Sex and the City: The Complete First Five Seasons
Remember when people used to buy illuminated gold-leafed editions of Shakespeare’s collected works? We don’t either. Then again, Charlotte and Samantha aren’t really so different from Taming’s Bianca and Kate—and gold leaf or no, those Great Books sets sure didn’t include an interview with designer Patricia Field. Thirteen discs; R; $239.92.
The War at Home
A sharp, crucial chronicle of sixties and seventies protests, released in 1979, and a timely companion to Errol Morris’s The Fog of War. NR; $24.95.
Radio Bikini
After you’ve watched those two films, revisit an earlier American WMD controversy with Robert Stone’s Oscar-nominated 1987 documentary: a harrowing history of Bikini Atoll, the (inhabited) islands where the U.S. tested early hydrogen bombs. NR; $24.95.
So Close
Pure Hong Kong action fun, directed by Corey Yuen and starring Shu Qi, who’s also in Millennium Mambo, opening this week. NR; $24.96.
Anything Else
Noting Christina Ricci and Jason Biggs, New York’s Peter Rainer said this dud staged “the same old Allenisms in youth drag.” R; $26.99.
OUR PICK
A brash Palme d’Or winner at Cannes in 1995, Emir Kusturica’s unbridled tragicomic epic Underground is a dissonant junk-orchestra symphony of Yugoslav life, told through the long friendship of two hard-drinking, hard-living buddies. Shots of Nazi air raids on a quiet zoo—and the big lie at the film’s core, in which refugees are convinced that World War II never ended—are equal parts absurd, indelible, and sad. In his Cannes acceptance speech, Kusturica said, “I wish I was Sid Vicious to sing my favorite song, ‘My Way’ ”—and the brash, curious punk-rock–Rat Pack conflation of that quote captures the rough brio of his film. NR; $29.95. Extras: theatrical trailers; scene selections; interview with director Emir Kusturica.