Beautiful awakening
Inside Out
Pixar, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99 Available on VOD on Tuesday
On paper, it sounds like Pixar in self-parody mode, applying the anthropomorphism of “Toy Story” and “Cars” to a movie about the wacky adventures of human emotions. But what makes this the studio’s best film in a decade — and one of the best of 2015 — is that co-writer-director Pete Docter actually tells a strong story with unusual stakes, following the colorfully cartoony Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust as they fight to keep their moody adolescent host from undergoing a personality change that could isolate her from her parents. As with Docter’s “Up” and “Monsters, Inc.,” the larger meaning of the adventure creeps up gradually, blossoming into a beautiful, funny, tear-jerking illustration of what growing up feels like — inside and out. The DVD and Blu-ray add a commentary track, deleted scenes and featurettes (some of them hosted by the Pixar team’s daughters).
The End of the Tour
Lionsgate, $19.98; Blu-ray, $24.99 Available on VOD on Tuesday
Comedy star Jason Segel takes a serious turn playing the late David Foster Wallace in director James Ponsoldt and screenwriter Donald Margulies’ re-creation of the days the cult novelist spent promoting his masterpiece “Infinite Jest,” accompanied by Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky. Based on Lipsky’s bestselling memoir, the picture isn’t really about Wallace. Although there’s a lot of discussion of the writer’s work and philosophy, the movie’s more about Lipsky, who as played by Jesse Eisenberg is a stand-in for every insecure person who’s ever wanted desperately to make friends with someone much cooler. The result is a finely honed look at a brief, strange relationship and an inquiry into what life, art and celebrity are all about. The DVD and Blu-ray include featurettes, deleted scenes and a commentary track.
Best of Enemies
Magnolia, $26.98; Blu-ray, $29.98
In 1968, ABC News invited two of America’s most prominent public intellectuals — conservative commentator William F. Buckley and libertine novelist Gore Vidal — to appear during the Republican and Democratic conventions to debate major issues facing the country. Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville’s absorbing, thought-provoking documentary is in part a parallel biography of two men who had similar backgrounds but very different ways of seeing the world. But even more than that, it’s about how televised political commentary evolved — or devolved — once networks realized viewers enjoyed tuning in to watch people tossing insults at each other.
Getting On
The Complete Second Season
HBO, $39.98; Blu-ray, $49.99
Season 2 of HBO’s quietly despairing hospital dramedy is even more pointed than the first, satirizing the way an underfunded geriatric ward fudges insurance forms and employs austerity measures to keep the lights on. Based on a British series, the show’s point-ofview on end-of-life care can be bleak, but it remains endurable because of the excellence of the cast — which includes Alex Borstein as an emotionally unstable head nurse, Laurie Metcalf as a shrill, ambitious academic, and Niecy Nash as the ward’s exhausted-but-dedicated employee. The interplay among the three leads makes this one of the humane shows on TV.