This week, a pair of potential Oscar nominees hit Blu-Ray and DVD, along with a bunch of other varied titles. It’s not an extraordinarily good day of releases, but it’s hardly a bad one either, which is a victory early on in any year. There’s also a few TV movies worth mentioning…a rarity in this column, but it makes sense this time around, trust me. My top pick isn’t an amazingly hard choice, but I did contemplate going in another direction. In the end, my PICK OF THE WEEK is one of the more divisive flicks of 2012, and one that is hoping to score an acting nomination on Thursday. Many of you know the title already, but for those not on to it yet, here is what it is:

Compliance

I remain blown away by Ann Dowd’s performance in this hard to like but impossible to turn away from indie. Some have responded incredibly viscerally to what filmmaker Craig Zobel puts on the screen, but I maintain that it’s a really good little flick. It’s far from a happy one, and it can be frustrating or downright maddening at times, but Dowd brings you to the finish line. On the strength of her performance, this is an easy one to recommend. Since she very well might be a Best Supporting Actress nominee in a couple of days, now is the perfect time to check the movie out and see what we’re all abuzz over!

-Coming in the #2 spot this week is Tim Burton’s animated film Frankenweenie. The first thing I’ve liked by Burton in some time, it’s a cute little film that is looking good for an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. It won’t blow your mind, but especially classic horror movie fans should like what the filmmaker has on display here.

-The other titles I’m comfortable recommending? They’re the fun if dirivative comic book reboot Dredd and the beautiful documentary Samsara. I’m not in love with either, and probably like both less than their average fans, but they still are good enough to get the thumbs up from me. Neither made much of a mark at the box office, so pick them up and see why their fan base is so over the moon for…

-Also out today, we have the mediocre comedy The Inbetweeners Movie, the flawed horror flick House at the End of the Street, the dumb Nicolas Cage action movie Stolen, the disappointing drama Jack & Diane, and the forgettable comedy That’s What She Said. We also have the action comedy Hit & Run, but I never got around to it so I can’t say much about it. None of these movies are bad, and they likely will appeal to at least some of you, but I can’t say that they did enough for me to recommend them to you. Perhaps try one or two, but keep your expectations in check…

-As mentioned above, I rarely get into HBO movies and the like, but a pair of TV films are worth taking note of. One is the brilliantly acted political drama Game Change, which I loved, and the other is the “other” Bin Laden movie, known as Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden. I haven’t seen that one, but I can’t imagine it comes anywhere near the genius of Zero Dark Thirty. Most of you have seen the former, but if you haven’t caught the latter, at least now you know that it’s out, right?

-My Vintage pick, in honor of this week’s release of Gangster Squad, is Ruben Fleischer’s last film. It’s Zombieland, an inspired horror comedy hybrid that brought a welcome dose of wit and intelligence to the genre. Everything about it just worked and I’ll admit to having actually considered it for that year’s Top 10 list (as I also did the similarly titled and equally great Adventureland, which incidentally also starred Jesse Eisenberg). I’ll be seeing Fleischer’s period piece on Wednesday, so this is the perfect way to get yourself psyched up for his newest work. I once thought it was an Oscar player, but now I’m just hoping to enjoy it. At least with his last flick, I already know that I will, and I hope you take this opportunity to do the same as well…

-What will you be watching on Blu-Ray/DVD this week? Discuss in the comments!

About Joey Magidson

When he’s not obsessing over new Oscar predictions on a weekly basis, Joey is seeing between 200 and 300 movies a year. He views the best in order to properly analyze the awards race/season each year, but he also watches the worst for reasons he mostly sums up as "so you all don't have to". In his spare time, you can usually find him complaining about the Jets or the Mets. Still, he lives and dies by film. Joey's a voting member of the Internet Film Critics Association as well. Today the IFCA, tomorrow the world!

• View all posts by Joey Magidson →
• Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook

Related Stories:

6 Comments

Comments RSS