NEW RELEASES - January 3 HIGHLIGHTS

Broken Flowers (2005).

"Broken Flowers is Jarmusch's most conventionally entertaining film, but it's still visually rigorous, swimming in pregnant silences, and un-filled-in in a way that's tantalizing," writes David Edelstein at Slate. Part of what makes for conventional entertainment is an outstanding cast, including Jeffrey Wright, Sharon Stone ("impossibly delightful," writes Edelstein), Julie Delpy, Tilda Swinton, Jessica Lange, and of course, the main attraction: "This is the crowning performance in what I call Bill Murray's Loneliness Trilogy, which consists of Broken Flowers, Lost in Translation, and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. In his melancholy, he's funny; in his funniness, he's at sea: The ironic hipster clown has become God's loneliest man."

Wedding Crashers (2005).

"So many comedies today feel as if they've been made by tribunal, groups of elders who know what's best for us and who pretend to think they know what we'll find funny," wrote Stephanie Zacharek in Salon this summer. "But Wedding Crashers - in which Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn play not-quite-grown-ups who dive-bomb their way into weddings to which they haven't been invited, chiefly to pick up women - is that rare contemporary mainstream comedy that seems to have been made without parental supervision. The jokes sizzle and fly, with reckless disregard for propriety or for what the audience will 'get.'"

A Great Day in Harlem (1995).

Special edition of a wonderful doc "ostensibly about the shooting of a famous photograph for the January 1959 issue of Esquire magazine," wrote Stephen Holden in the New York Times when it appeared. "But it is really a loving remembrance of a loosely knit community of musicians, the majority of whom are now dead, who cherished one another and created a body of music that will live forever."

My Date with Drew (2003).

Brian Herzlinger is perpetually broke, but he's just won some money on a game show. So he "buys" a camera from Circuit City (he fully intends to return it, but if he doesn't within 30 days, it gets charged to his friend's credit card). His goal's spelled out in the title. And Drew, of course, is Drew Barrymore.

"Any film that can make you cringe at its honesty, laugh at its insanity and yet follow along hook line and sinker is something special," wrote Don R Lewis in Film Threat.

Tokyo Underground Volume 6: Return (2005).

Now that Rumina Asagi has discovered his magical powers - mastery of the wind! - what will he do with them?

Kyo Kara Maoh! God (?) Save Our King! Volume 5 (2005).

"I admit it, I absolutely loved this anime," wrote Battie after catching the first volume. "It really stomped along the line between shounen-ai and regular anime, and was so slashy, I giggled myself silly through half of it."

Mermaid Forest Volume 4: Unending Nightmare (2005).

"What this series lacks in quirky charm," writes Carlo Santos for the Anime News Network, "it makes up for with intense drama and richly imagined story and characters. Who knows, it might even get people to read the manga."

Girls Bravo Volume 4 (2004).

More adventures with Yukinari Sasaki and his little harem.

Browse the New Releases Archive for more recent arrivals.