Watch at Home: Eighth Grade & Old Man and the Gun

What's newly available for home viewing? Herewith a quick survey of new releases andgreat deals

DVD/Blu-Ray
• Halloween -  Jamie Lee Curtis returns to battle her star-making demons in this monster hit
• Madeline's Madeline - While it wasn't quite an arthouse hit, this experimental film has obsessive fans. 
• Mid90s -Jonah Hill's directorial debut
• Monsters & Men - John David Washington is up for a Spirit Award for his supporting role in this well reviewed race drama
• Old Man and the Gun - Robert Redford charms, and Sissy Spacek and Casey Affleck provide soulful support in this mellow but pleasing bank robbery movie...

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Criterion Teases 2019

Chris here. One of the cinematic treasures of the new year is always the Criterion Collection's annual animated tease of what they have coming for us cinema hounds. And dare I say that this year's puzzle is as confounding as ever - or maybe, eek, I'm drawing a blank on some of the more rarified blind spots here. One film we can count on: John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig and the Angry Inch, already teased by the filmmaker last year. Might that be this drawing's owl and earthworm? Can you spot any other film's in the drawing?

Watch at Home: Eighth Grade, Bad Times at the El Royale

What's newly available for home viewing? Herewith a very quick survey of new releases and/or great deals. Links go to reviews.

DVD/Blu-Ray
• Bad Reputation a doc for Joan Jett fans
• Bad Times at the El Royale seven strangers, each with "a secret to bury" meet at a hotel. So like Clue + 1 only noirish?

Also new: AXL, Love Gilda, Night School, and White Boy Rick

iTunes 99¢ Deals of Note This Week
• Eighth Grade -Bo Burnham's inspired you-are-there comedy about everyone's favourite existential horror: middle school
• 12 Angry Men - the legendary courtroom drama was nominated for 3 Oscars including Best Picture of 1957 (pssst. it's also available right now on Prime)
• The Apartment -1960's big Oscar winner starring Jack Lemmon & Shirley Maclaine and an over-extended bachelor pad.
• Fargo -This freezing cold comic noir is still the best Coen brothers movie, right? Best Actress winner 1996 Frances McDormand.
• Platoon - Oliver Stone's bracing 1986 Vietnam war drama and Best Picture winner

Streaming
ICYMI What's new on Netflix & Amazon Prime

Watch at Home: Dumplin', Searching, and Leave No Trace

What's newly available for home viewing these past few weeks? We've neglected to keep you updated of late in the rush to awards season  but this is important since there are several awards contenders that are newly available.

DVD/Blu-Ray
[links to to reviews]
• The Little Stranger - Lenny Abrahamson (Room) returns with a ghost story costume drama.
• Lizzie - Kristen Stewart and Chloe Sevigny star in this lesbian drama about the infamous ax wielding Lizzie Borden
• McQueen - the acclaimed documentary about the fashion designer - it's eligible for the Oscars.
• Mission: Impossible - Fallout - the latest installment in Tom Cruise's evergreen franchise with death defying stunts, double crossing, and (this time) Henry Cavill's moustache and muscles.
• Searching - John Cho is nominated for Best Actor at the Spirit Awards for this sleeper hit about a man searching for clues online when his daughter goes missing

ALSO NEWISH: Peppermint, Smallfoot, The Equalizer 2, The Nun, The Happytime Murders, and Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days.

Great rental deals and streaming options after the jump...

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Watch at Home: The Children Act, The Rider, Puzzle

What's newly available for home viewing this week? 

DVD/Blu-Ray
• Alpha - Kodi Smith-McPhee (The Road, X-Men Apocalypse) stars in this prehistoric adventure film about a boy and his wolf friend
• Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings -Marc Chao reprises his popular Detective Dee role. The previous title started with "Young Detective Dee" but I guess now that Chao is 34 they feel "Young" is pushing it? The previous film was ... bonkers. 
• Juliet, Naked  -Rose Byrne & Ethan Hawke star in this well-reviewed romcom
• The Meg -the campy giant-shark flick was a sleeper hit
• Mile 22 -Another gun-loving actioner from Peter Berg & Mark Wahlberg
• Puzzle - Two of our most reliable but underappreciated screen actors Kelly Macdonald and Irffan Khan star in this story about a woman who discovers a passion for solving puzzles

New iTunes 99¢ Deals
• Death of Stalin -Armando Iannucci (of In the Loop and Veep fame) is back with another political comedy. This one was up for Best British Independent Film Awards last year but released in the US this year.
• The Rider  -Chinese director Chloé Zhao made one of the most celebrated debut films of the past two years. It was up for Indie Spirit prizes last year and is nominated for Best Film this year (when it was released) at the Gothams.
• Diner -Barry Levinson's beloved 1982 debut was a Golden Globe Best Picture nominee and an Oscar nominee for Best Screenplay in its time. The cast is a who's who of then rising stars: Ellen Barkin, Kevin Bacon, Steve Guttenberg, and Paul Reiser.

-What do they call you? Your Highness? Your Excellency? Your Honourable Something?
-In court it's "My Lady"

Brand New Streaming
• The Children Act -Amazon Prime has the Emma Thompson film about a no-nonsense judge whose marriage is faltering while she's working on a case involving a teenager (Fionn Whitehead) who refuses a blood transfusion that could save his life.
• Green Room - Netflix is streaming this brutal neo-nazi thriller from summer 2016 starring the late Anton Yelchin and Sir Patrick Stewart.