2019 - Holiday Gift Guide - Part III - Limited Releases, Classics, Foreign Imports

December 16, 2019

The first two installments of our Holiday Gift Guide had plenty of first-run releases and several TV on DVD releases. This installment includes limited releases and foreign imports. The list of classics isn’t up to the usual standards for the same reasons the TV on DVD list was rather short. Streaming is taking over that part of the market. Did you know The Criterion Collection has their own streaming service? So does Magnolia Pictures. On the one hand, that’s a lot of amazing movies for one price. On the other hand, as a fan of physical media, I’m not happy streaming is becoming so popular. There are still some great smaller titles worthy of the season.

Limited Releases: Dramas
There have been many amazing dramas to open in limited release this year; however, most of them are still in theaters hoping to earn Awards Season recognition, so the choices for gifts is a little more limited. For example, Pain and Glory (Buy from Amazon) doesn’t come out till January. Judy (Buy from Amazon) would make a great gift, except it comes out on Christmas Eve. Why?!

As for films you can actually get on DVD / Blu-ray now, The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Buy from Amazon) is one of the best dramas of the summer and it did very well in theaters. The Peanut Butter Falcon (Buy from Amazon) is one of the biggest limited release hits of the year and it comes out on the home market this week. Gloria Bell (Buy from Amazon) isn’t as good as the original was, but that is hardly a major complaint. The Mustang (Buy from Amazon) is another critically acclaimed limited release that did well with moviegoers. Wild Rose (Buy from Amazon) didn’t do as well in theaters, which explains why it only got a DVD release, but it would certainly make a great gift. Little Woods (Buy from Amazon) lived up to its hype with critics, but flopped in theaters, so it is a nice undiscovered gem of a film.

Limited Releases: Comedies
There were not nearly as many comedies this year, but there were a few gems. The Farewell (Buy from Amazon) is one of the best comedies of the year and it is even earning some Awards Season buzz. I was going to put Brittany Runs a Marathon and Sword of Trust, two Jillian Bell films that wowed critics this year, but neither are out on DVD / Blu-ray yet. Chained for Life (Buy from Amazon) is technically a “comedy”, but it is a dark satire, so not really made to make you laugh. If you know someone who likes their satire with a dark edge, then this could be for them.

Limited Releases: Documentaries
It was another great year for documentaries, even if we didn’t have as many break into mainstream success as we did last year. If you are going for a musical documentary, I would suggest Amazing Grace (Buy from Amazon) and it is Echo in the Canyon (Buy from Amazon), if you are looking for a more informational documentary. There were many political documentaries that wowed critics this year, including Raise Hell: The Life And Times of Molly Ivins (Buy from Amazon). There are some inspirational documentaries like Apollo 11 (Buy from Amazon) and Maiden (Buy from Amazon). Hail Satan? (Buy from Amazon) is an irreverent documentary about the Satanic Temple, which has done more to protect religious freedoms in its short history than almost any other organization.

Foreign-language Films
There were a ton of great foreign-language films to come out this year, too many to list even a fraction of them. Let’s go on a world tour, starting in Japan with One Cut of the Dead (Buy from Amazon). A Japanese filmmaker is trying to make a low-budget zombie movie, when a real zombie outbreak happens. He decides to keep filming, because hey, its free special effects. You can only get the Japanese import on Blu-ray, but it does have English subtitles. Ash is Purest White (Buy from Amazon) is a Chinese film about romance and organized crime. 3 Faces (Buy from Amazon) is an Iranian film about an actress, who sees a video by a girl whose family refuse to let her study drama, so the actress quits her movie production to find this girl. We move to Iceland for Woman at War (Buy from Amazon), which is about an environmental terrorist whose dedication to stopping the local aluminum industry comes into conflict with her desire to adopt a child. Birds of Passage (Buy from Amazon) is a Colombian movie about an indigenous man who gets involved in the drug trade. Moving north, we end in Mexico with The Chambermaid (Buy from Amazon), which is about a chambermaid working in a fancy hotel and her life. All of the films on this list would make great gifts.

Classics
Classics took a major hit this year, as streaming services have overtaken physical media as the prime way to distribute films like this. I do want to mention The Thin Man (Buy from Amazon) because it is an awesome movie and I want the rest of the franchise to come out on Blu-ray. Interestingly, there have been two recent Alfred Hitchcock Boxsets to come out. There were about a dozen other recent releases like Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (Buy from Amazon); Big Trouble in Little China (Buy from Amazon); The Stuff (Buy from Amazon); Alice, Sweet Alice (Buy from Amazon); and others. Then I looked closer at the list and realized half of them were from Shout!Factory and the other half were from Arrow Video. You could probably head to either of their official sites, buy something they released in the past year at random, and still get a terrific gift for someone. Their track record has been incredible.

And with that, this year’s installment of the Holiday Gift Guide comes to an end.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Filed under: Holiday Gift Guide, Big Trouble in Little China, Amazing Grace, The Stuff, The Peanut Butter Falcon, Pájaros de verano, The Mustang, Judy, Little Woods, Dolor y gloria, Se Rokh, Kona fer í stríð, Kamera o tomeru na!, Maiden, Gloria Bell, Chained for Life, Wild Rose, Jiang hu er nv, Echo in the Canyon, Hail Satan?, La Camarista, Apollo 11, The Farewell, Brittany Runs a Marathon, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Sword of Trust, Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins, The Thin Man, Alice, Sweet Alice, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, Alfred Hitchcock, Jillian Bell