Now on DVD & Bluray: "Another Year", "True Grit", & More

I don't always get the chance to catch films while they're in theaters, either by choice or by unfortunate circumstance. The ignorance of today's modern culture scorning the theatrical experience as something lesser is something I've commented on numerous times. Yet there is merit in the home viewing experience as well, because it's the ultimate test for any film. While blockbusters are usually better suited to the big screen, they often are diminished by the transition to the small, as Inception fell most victim to this past year. So, I introduce this weekly segment where I bring in the DVD/Bluray releases that are most worth checking out.

On the top of my list is Another Year, which is one that I had the unbelievable good fortune of seeing before it came to home video. However, I still feel a stroke of bad luck for having not seen it in time to slide it into my "Best of 2010" list, because the way things are stacking up, it would've landed somewhere near the top. It's a film that devastated me in the theater, and that continues to affect me upon renewed viewings. This is something you should make an effort to see.

A film that did make it on my end of year list for 2010, much higher than it should have been in retrospect, is True Grit. Joel and Ethan Coen are two of the best working directors out there right now, and they're work as a duo has been immaculate thus far, for all I know. I haven't seen Ladykillers, so that's probably the biggest gap in my knowledge of the two. This one, after months of recall, sits proudly below A Serious Man in terms of excellence. That may sound bad since I like Burn After Reading and No Country for Old Men better, but it's still a badge of honor, and an aesthetically pleasing film I'd gladly see again.

Then there's the films that most people wait to see on DVD for a specific reason. On the higher spectrum of them, and I did see this one in theaters, is The Company Men. I never mounted a review, but I found it to be a more than competently mounted drama with rock solid performances from Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper. It's more worth checking out than Just Go With It or Sanctum, two films I share little to no interest in seeing.