DVD Reviews

Critics' Picks: The dark prince of postwar Italy

Paolo Sorrentino's dazzling, daring "Il Divo" brings the cinematic bravado of Coppola and Scorsese back home

By Andrew O'Hehir Oct 28, 2009

Have an alt-horror Halloween!

Forget the sequels, formulas and pointless gore -- at the low-rent, freaky fringes, horror movies are still alive

By Andrew O'Hehir October 29, 2009
DVDs you should have seen -- but didn't

Let's dance! "Adventureland" and "Last Days of Disco" bring the coke, "Audition" brings the sexual terror

By Andrew O'Hehir October 20, 2009
Rape, power and Polanski's "Chinatown"

What are the real lessons in the filmmaker's neo-noir classic?

By Andrew O'Hehir October 13, 2009
Kurosawa's "Kagemusha" on DVD

How George Lucas and Francis Coppola helped the Japanese master create the greatest spectacle of his late career

August 27, 2009

Critics' Picks: The Holy Grail of "Dollhouse"

The first season DVD of Joss Whedon's drama offers an extra episode -- the show's darkest and most promising yet

By Mary Elizabeth Williams August 7, 2009
Critics' Picks: Roman Polanski's homicidal madness

A young Catherine Deneuve stars in "Repulsion," a shocking early film from the notorious director, out on a new DVD

By Andrew O'Hehir July 30, 2009
Critics' Picks: The original time-traveling cop

The DVD of the British version of the TV series "Life on Mars" cuts a window into another world

By Stephanie Zacharek July 27, 2009
Dirty jokes, hot witches and a chess game with Death

Dour philosophy lecture or Scando-horror-comedy? Seen afresh, Bergman's early masterpiece is full of surprises

By Andrew O'Hehir July 9, 2009
Still more DVDs you should have seen (but didn't)

Trumbo's antiwar parable, Maddin's gorgeous weirdness, a children's film by Tarkovsky, arty French erotica, more.

By Andrew O'Hehir May 28, 2009
DVDs you should have seen, but didn't: Buñuel, Visconti, Hitchcock, Chris Marker and more

Two of Buñuel's weirdest, Chris Marker's magnum opus, Riviera Hitchcock, the original "Odd Couple" and more.

By Andrew O'Hehir May 21, 2009
Why the original "Star Trek" still matters

Cheap, sexist and nerdy? Check, check and check. But the original Kirk and Spock offered an erotic, Apollonian beacon of hope amid the darkness of '70s culture.

By Andrew O'Hehir May 13, 2009
The best DVDs of 2009 (so far)

Douglas Sirk's "Magnificent Obsession," Patrick McGoohan in "The Quare Fellow," Rossellini takes on Louis XIV, new reissues of Audrey Hepburn's best-loved films and more.

By Andrew O'Hehir February 4, 2009
DVDs you should have seen in 2008, but didn't

Eddie Albert in "1984," the best of MST3K, an even sexier "Lady Chatterley," classic Brit-horror, and Donald vs. Chip 'n' Dale.

By Andrew O'Hehir January 14, 2009
Drinks, dancing, dinner, self-loathing

Director William Friedkin talks about revisiting his pre-Stonewall lightning rod "The Boys in the Band" -- and his peculiar role in the history of gay film.

By Andrew O'Hehir November 24, 2008
What's behind the "WALL-E" cult?

Is Pixar's Chaplin-meets-Kubrick robot romance really the best animated film ever? Plus: Answers to our "Sukiyaki Western Django" quiz revealed!

By Andrew O'Hehir November 20, 2008
"Greatest film ever" or a cream cake?

Mocked on initial release and long unavailable, Max Ophüls' wide-screen spectacle "Lola Montès" returns in a lustrous restoration. So what's the big deal?

By Andrew O'Hehir October 10, 2008
Torture porn, made beautiful

Pasolini's "Salò" blends fascism, de Sade and upscale art cinema into the most notorious film in the medium's history. Watch it at home!

By Andrew O'Hehir October 8, 2008
Television without shame

The deliciously naughty "Shameless" -- starring a young James McAvoy -- is one of the best comedies ever made about urban poverty.

By Thomas Rogers July 29, 2008
Awesome Kids' Video Project: The sequel!

As requested, the also-rans in our reader poll of family summer flicks. Also: Is this list racist? Is Hannibal Lecter right for your family? And more!

By Andrew O'Hehir July 15, 2008
The ultimate family DVD list

We asked; you answered. Here's the most-awesome-ever summertime list of offbeat, kid-friendly movies available on DVD -- as chosen (mostly) by Salon readers.

By Andrew O'Hehir July 12, 2008
Good night and good TV

"The Newsroom" does for the talking heads what "The Office" does for cubicle dwellers -- and may be the funniest TV show ever made about the news business.

By Thomas Rogers July 1, 2008
City kids

Brazilian TV series "City of Men" explores the hardships of growing up among guns and gangsters in Rio's slums.

By Megan Doll June 3, 2008
Charlie Wilson's unfinished war

The legendary Texas congressman talks about his secret 1980s Afghan war (and its blowback), the Obama campaign and being better-looking than Tom Hanks.

By Andrew O'Hehir April 22, 2008
French cinema's prickly stepmom

A new DVD box set captures the puzzling genius of Agnès Varda, maybe the least-appreciated great filmmaker of Europe's golden age.

By Andrew O'Hehir April 8, 2008