‘The Lovers’ make room for happiness
Love is strange. That’s the theme of “The Lovers” (2017, Lionsgate, R, $20), a dark comedy about a dispassionate married couple (Debra Winger, Tracy Letts) who are entangled in affairs with other partners.
But just as they’re on the brink of calling it quits, a spark unexpectedly ignites between the pair.
Even when “The Lovers” falls short of greatness, it exerts a strong pull, making you care about two characters in late bloom who are determined to make room for happiness. Extras: featurettes and commentary by director Azarel Jacobs.
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Gifted (2017, Fox, PG-13, $30): The rare crowdpleaser that doesn’t go in for schmaltz, this lovely dramedy from Marc Webb (“The Amazing SpiderMan”) looks at a single man (Chris Evans) who’s in danger of losing custody of his niece (McKenna Grace) after her grandmother (Lindsay Duncan) discovers the youngster is a math prodigy. It could have gone the sentimental route but one tearjerking scene aside, the movie is a bracingly cleareyed look at the ways that families cope with conflict. The simple strength of “Gifted” is its characters, all of whom seem vibrantly alive from the first scene to the last. Extras: deleted scenes and featurettes. Amnesia (2017, Film Movement, unrated, $25): Nearly fifty years after making his film debut with the Ibiza-set “More,” Swiss helmer Barbet Schroeder (“Barfly”) returns to the Spanish island for an engrossing drama about solitude, romance and the importance of facing up to your demons. 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The Hunter’s Prayer (2017, Lionsgate, R, $20): Go ahead and scoff at yet another movie about a hitman-with-a-heart-of-gold. But this B-movie is a surprisingly effective thrill machine that tracks a junkie assassin named Lucas (Sam Worthington) as he bounces around Europe. Lucas is on the run with a teenager (Odeya Rush) after he finds himself unable to carry out a mobster’s contract to kill her. Soon, they both wind up marked for death. Director Jonathan Mostrow (“Breakdown”) over-edits the action sequences but he does a nice job giving the standard relationships between the characters surprising spins. Extras: featurettes. The Breaking Point (1950, Criterion, unrated, $30): The second adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not” charts a riveting course through the saga of a cash-strapped skipper (John Garfield) who makes one compromise too many. 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Peckinpah, juggling drama, broad comedy, romance and even musical interludes, strikes gold. Rarely revived, the new-to-Blu western ranks alongside the filmmaker’s best work. Extras: commentaries and featurette. Teen Wolf - Collector’s Edition (1985, Shout Factory, PG, $35): Who would have thought that this amiable teen comedy about a high-schooler (Michael J. Fox) who discovers he has the ability to morph into a werewolf would age so well? Now on Blu-ray, the flick is so charmingly unpretentious and so earnestly acted by Fox that it works from start to finish. Director Rod Daniel doesn’t aim for scares but rather treats “Teen Wolf” simply as a coming-of-age comedy in which Fox must learn to be true to himself. And the lo-fi special effects never overwhelm the plot; they’re effective without being distracting. Extras: featurettes and all-new making-of doc. Inferno 3D (1953, Twilight Time, unrated, $30): One of the most underrated actors from Hollywood’s Golden Age, Robert Ryan gives a terrific, mostly solo, performance as an crusty millionaire left alone to die in the desert by his unhappy wife (Rhonda Fleming) and her lover (William Lundigan). A desire to exact revenge on the pair keeps Ryan alive as he learns to build fires and subsist on cactus meat. Directed by Roy Ward Baker, “Inferno” is a taut survival thriller which generates plenty of crackling suspense. But it’s really Ryan who supplies the heat. He instills what could have been a onenote role with unexpected rawness and complexity. Extras: featurette and commentaries. Silkwood (1983, Kino, R, $30): For her followup to “Sophie’s Choice,” Meryl Streep starred in this underrated look at Karen Silkwood, a nuclear power plant worker who tried to blow the whistle of her employers before dying in car accident, under suspicious circumstances. 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