NEW RELEASES - FEBRUARY 28 HIGHLIGHTS

Walk the Line (2005).

"Johnny Cash's work requires no explanation or justification, but pop icon biopics do. So we get the artistic creation myth as moral allegory: a wayward soul saved by the true love of a good woman," writes Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times. As you've no doubt heard, Joaquin Phoenix plays Cash in this award-magnet, and Reese Witherspoon plays the good woman who loves him, June Carter Cash, and, as Chocano notes, it's "their emotional connection which carries the movie and transcends the material."

The Ice Harvest (2005).

Harold Ramis directs John Cusack as Charlie, who decides to place his trust in his friend Vic, played by Billy Bob Thornton - which is the first sign of trouble right there.

"The Ice Harvest, which unfolds with faultless ease over 12 increasingly hectic hours in Charlie's life, is a classic guilty pleasure," writes Kevin Thomas in the Los Angeles Times, "a wholly amoral tale in which the viewer is so charmed by the witty and not unkindly Charlie that one pulls for him to escape the escalating danger into which he has plunged and perhaps even hope he gets away as well, with the loot and the lady, who, in this case, is Connie Nielsen's sultry Renata, the improbable but deliciously elegant proprietress of a strip club."

Pride & Prejudice (2005).

"Jane Austen would surely approve of the lesson I've learned," wrote David Edelstein when he was still at Slate, "that one can't judge a filmmaker by the vulgarity of his distributor's marketing, any more than one can judge a daughter solely by the vulgarity of her mother or a gentleman solely by his hauteur (or, for that matter, an actor solely by his auteur). So, let me propose my own tagline: 'Sometimes the last movie on earth you expect to like is the one that seduces you utterly.'"

The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2004).

"An incendiary documentary," wrote Stephen Holden in the New York Times last August. "As you watch the film, which weaves televised coverage of the atrocity and interviews with surviving relatives and the victim's mother, Mamie Till Mobley, it is impossible not to be stirred by sadness and outrage."

Werckmeister Harmonies (2000).

"In Béla Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies, a nameless European town is the center of a cosmic struggle," writes Ed Gonzalez at Slant. "Tarr's precise yet effortless command of the long take is so transcendent as to suggest the presence of God. Every stoppage point within each shot becomes a heavenly composite of the film's collective whole."

Goto, Island of Love (1968).

Though it's gone under-reported here in the US, the news of Walerian Borowczyk's death shocked film-lovers earlier this month. You can read more about this innovative director of animated and live action works in an entry and the comments that follow at GreenCine Daily.

This week sees the releases of two of his features for the first time on DVD. Goto, Island of Love is "Borowczyk's mid-career masterpiece is at once a political allegory, a comic tragedy, and a bold work of formal experimentation," notes Facets.

Love Rites (1989).

"Walerian Borowczyk's final feature-length film is an adaptation of an André Pieyre de Mandiargues novel, and follows a similar fairy tale format, as in Borowczyk's nutty & naughty 1975 film, The Beast," writes Mark R. Hasan for KQEK. "Love Rites, however, is more about role playing: both lead characters meet in the subway, and after a lengthy long-distance exchange across opposing station platforms, they adopt personas and form their own erotic play, of which only the superficially submissive woman knows the true ending."

Taxi, an Encounter (2001).

"Like the recent Michael Mann film Collateral, much of the drama in Taxi, an encounter centres on a cab driver working at night who picks up a mysterious passenger," writes Martyn Bamber for Close-Up. "However, whereas Collateral felt like a retread of Mann's film Heat, the situation in Taxi, an encounter feels fresh and spontaneous... What starts out as a thriller slowly changes into a romantic tale of redemption."

Natural City (2003).

"Whilst I wouldn't call Natural City a direct remake of Blade Runner, I would say that it heavily borrows ideas from it," notes Kevin Gilvear in DVD Times. "I can also say that this actually isn't a bad thing because the film has a great look to it with sprawling cityscapes that are very reminiscent of Scott's visionary masterpiece, as are the flying police cars and neon-lit, rainy streets. Credit when credit's due, Natural City is the finest looking South Korean science fiction film to date, even if it does tend to get carried away with itself by overindulgence at times."

Tokyo Psycho (2004).

More low-budget digital video J-Horror thrills from Ataru Oikawa, director of Tomie.

Network (Special Edition) (1976).

"Peter Finch was mad as hell and wasn't gonna take it anymore, but the whole cast excelled in this brilliant satire," writes underdog.

The extras on this new special edition include a retrospective documentary the Los Angeles Times calls "inspired" and commentary from director Sidney Lumet.

Lady and the Tramp (1955).

It's been fifty years since Lady and the Tramp found themselves sucking on the same noodle. Reason enough for Disney to release a two-disc special edition of a true classic. When was the last time you let your heartstrings get plucked?

In the New York Times, Dave Kehr calls Lady and the Tramp "the most beautifully rendered and emotionally resonant of the postwar Disney features" and notes that this DVD "does full justice to this classic of hand-drawn animation."

Browse the New Releases Archive for more recent arrivals.