For the week of August 1st, IFC Films will release a Blu-ray for Andrea Arnold's documentary Cow (2021).
Description: Academy Award winner Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, American Honey) returns with an intimate portrait of one dairy cow's life. The film highlights the beauty and challenges cows face, and their great service to us all.
Also new this week from RLJE Films is a Blu-ray for Jesse V. Johnson's action thriller White Elephant (2022), starring Michael Rooker, Bruce Willis, Olga Kurylenko and John Malkovich.
Description: When an assassination attempt is witnessed by two cops, Gabriel Tancredi, an ex-marine turned mob enforcer (Michael Rooker), is ordered by his ruthless mob boss (Bruce Willis) to eliminate any and all threats. With an eager underling out to prove himself, rival gangs making moves and a rising body count, every step Tancredi makes threatens lives…including his own.
RLJE Films have not included any extras on the Blu-ray of White Elephant. For a full disc breakdown, read Randy Miller's Blu-ray review.
New this week from Cohen Media Group is a Blu-ray for Christos Nikou's Apples, starring Aris Servetalis, Sofia Georgovassili, and Anna Kalaitzidou.
Description: Amidst a worldwide pandemic that causes sudden amnesia, middle-aged Aris (Aris Servetalis) finds himself enrolled in a recovery program designed to help unclaimed patients build new identities. Prescribed daily tasks on cassette tapes so he can create new memories and document them on camera, Aris slides back into ordinary life, meeting Anna (Sofia Georgovasili), a woman who is also in recovery. Through images deadpan, strange and surreal, Greek writer-director Christos Nikou posits a beguiling reflection on memory, identity, and loss, exploring how a society might handle an irreversible epidemic through one man's story of self-discovery. Are we the sum of the images we compile and display of ourselves, or are we something richer, and deeper?
Cohen's Blu-ray of Apples contains two extras: Taika Waititi in conversation with director Christos Nikou and a conversation with Nikou and executive producer Cate Blanchett moderated by journalist Anne Thompson. Trailers are also included.
Finally for new releases, Cinema Guild will release a Blu-ray Rodrigo Reyes' documentary 499.
Label description: To reflect on the 500-year anniversary of the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 2021, director Reyes offers a bold hybrid cinema experience exploring the brutal legacy of colonialism in contemporary Mexico. Through the eyes of a ghostly conquistador, the film recreates Hérnan Cortés' epic journey from the coasts of Veracruz to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, the site of contemporary Mexico City. As the anachronistic fictional character interacts with real-life victims of Mexico's failed drug wars and indigenous communities in resistance, the filmmaker portrays the country's current humanitarian crisis as part of a vicious and unfinished colonial project, still in motion, nearly five hundred years later.
Extras for Cinema Guild's Blu-ray of 499 include audio commentary, a five-part making of, the film's trailer and a booklet with a note from Jim Jarmusch and an essay by critic Carlos Aguilar.
Turning to catalog titles, Synapse Films have a 4K UHD upgrade for Dario Argento's Tenebrae (1982), starring Anthony Franciosa, Christian Borromeo, Mirella D'Angelo, Veronica Lario, and Ania Pieroni. Produced in association with Arrow Video (who released the film on Blu-ray and 4K UHD in the UK), Synapse's new 4K UHD edition is a three-disc, limited edition dual format affair, with the film remastered from its original camera negative and given Dolby Vision HDR grading on the 4K UHD disc. Audio is lossless original mono in English (with optional English SDH subtitles) or Italian with optional English subtitles, while the film can also be viewed with either English or Italian titles and insert shots. A second 4K UHD disc (exclusive to this Limited Edition) contains a Dolby Vision HDR presentation of Unsane, the re-edited 90-minute US version of Tenebrae which has been re-created from the 4K master of the uncut version, and comes with lossless English mono audio and optional English SDH subtitles. Extras include three audio commentaries, the feature-length documentary Yellow Fever: The Rise and Fall of the Giallo archival interviews and featurettes, and much more. A third 1080p Blu-ray contains the remastered feature and all of the content on the first 4K UHD disc. Packaging includes a slipbox, reversible cover art, illustrated booklet, fold-out poster and six double-sided lobby cards.
Coming to 4K UHD and remastered Blu-ray this week from Arrow Video is Joel Schumacher's Flatliners (1990), starring Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin, and Oliver Platt. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative which was approved by director of photography Jan de Bont, Arrow's 4K UHD disc presents the film with Dolby Vision HDR and optional 2.0 or 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio tracks. Extras include new interviews with de Bont and chief lighting technician Edward Ayer, screenwriter Peter Filardi, composer James Newton Howard and orchestrator Chris Boardman and others, along with a new audio commentary by critics Bryan Reesman and Max Evry, trailers and an image gallery. Limited Edition packaging includes an illustrated collector's booklet and reversible artwork.
Also this week, Kino Lorber has a trio of Chuck Norris movies coming to Blu-ray:
Ted Post's Good Guys Wear Black (1978), starring Chuck Norris, Anne Archer, Lloyd Haynes, Dana Andrews, and Jim Backus. Kino's Blu-ray is sourced from a new 2K master and contains a new audio commentary with critics Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. Archival extras include a making of featurette, TV and radio spots and the film's theatrical trailer. Collectible packaging includes reversible art and a limited edition slipcover.
Paul Aaron's A Force of One (1979), starring Jennifer O'Neill, Chuck Norris, Clu Gulager, Bill Wallace, and Eric Laneuville. Kino's Blu-ray is sourced from a new 2K master and contains a new audio commentary with action film historians Brandon Bentley and Mike Leeder. Archival extras include a director's audio commentary, making of featurette, TV and radio spots and the film's theatrical trailer. Collectible packaging includes reversible art and a limited edition slipcover.
Eric Karson's The Octagon (1980), starring Chuck Norris, Lee Van Cleef, Karen Carlson, Art Hindle, and Carol Bagdasarian. Kino's Blu-ray is sourced from a new 2K master and contains a new audio commentary with action film historians Brandon Bentley and Mike Leeder. Archival extras include a director's audio commentary, making of featurette, TV and radio spots and the film's theatrical trailer. Collectible packaging includes reversible art and a limited edition slipcover.
But Kino isn't done, because they also have a Blu-ray for Joel Silberg's Catch the Heat (1987), starring Tiana Alexandra, David Dukes, Rod Steiger, Brian Thompson, and Jorge Martínez. Kino's Blu-ray includes the film's theatrical trailer.Collectible packaging includes reversible art and a limited edition slipcover.
Also this week, Scorpion Releasing has a Blu-ray for Harry Falk's High Desert Kill (1989), starring Anthony Geary, Marc Singer, Micah Grant, Chuck Connors, and Vaughn Armstrong. Sourced from a new 2K master, Scorpion includes both 1.33:1 and 1.78:1 presentations of this made-for-TV film, along with trailers.
Finally this week, Oscilloscope Laboratories has a Blu-ray for John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus (2006), starring Sook-Yin Lee, PJ DeBoy, Peter Stickles, Paul Dawson, and Lindsay Beamish. Sourced from a new 4K master, Oscilloscope's Blu-ray contains a new audio commentary with Mitchell and producer Howard Gertler, as well as a filmmaker and cast commentary, deleted scenes, a making of featurette, a conversation between Mitchell and John Waters, recorded at the Toronto International Film Festival and theatrical trailers.