1. I’M NOT THERE (Weinstein)
As if his reckless take on Bob Dylan weren’t wild enough, Todd Haynes piles on extensive outtakes, biographies, time lines, karaoke-style lyrics, and even praise of Charlotte Gainsbourg’s sex appeal: “When I first met her, I never wanted to be straight more.”
More Bob: Don’t Look Back, The Last Waltz.
2. THE THREE STOOGES COLLECTION, VOL. 2: 1937–1939 (Sony)
Catch Larry, Moe, and Curly (no Shemp!) in classics like their Egyptian farce We Want Our Mummy.
More Old Comedy: Saturday Night Live: The Complete Third Season.
3. THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (Criterion)
This 1940 effects fantasia is a gobsmacking adaptation of The Arabian Nights—and the sharp two-disc set packs in an A-list extra: a commentary track from Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.
More New Criterion Discs: The Fire Within, The Lovers.
4. LA CHINOISE (Koch Lorber)
Forty years after its release and just in time for the 2008 Olympics, Jean-Luc Godard’s audacious activist parable thrusts idealistic students into a fervent romance with Maoist politics and political violence.
Another Political Parable From 1968: Night of the Living Dead.
5. STEEL CITY (Peace Arch)
Brian Jun’s underrated blue-collar drama introduces a family rocked by the return of an ex-con father and features Tom Guiry in a breakthrough performance. Opposite America Ferrera, his soulful understatement is unexpectedly mature.
More Indie Melancholy: Grace Is Gone, Delirious.
… and the rest …
6. Inglorious Bastards The bloody World War II cult favorite of Tarantino. 7. Dario Argento Boxed Set The bloody cult films of the Italian horror icon. 7. Teeth Yuck! A real vagina dentata. 8. The Business of Being Born Yuck! Ricki Lake gives birth. 9. The Night They Raided Minsky’s Lower East Side camp. 10. The 2007 Academy Award–Nominated Short Films In West Bank Story, the Israeli Kosher King gang fights Palestinians from Hummus Hut. 11. Fox Western Classics Rawhide, The Gunfighter, and The Garden of Evil. 12. Come Drink With Me More Shaw-brothers chop-socky. 13. Youth Without Youth Coppola without an editor.