This week's DVD Releases

Click on title to see the film’s trailer

Hard to Be a God ***½ Directed by Aleksey German. The vividly realized squalor, cruelty, and ugliness engulf everything, including the narrative.

While We’re Young *** Directed by Noah Baumbach. Comedy really is hard. So it's a kick when a filmmaker gets it right, as Baumbach does in this stingingly funny take on aging.

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter *** Directed by David Zellner. Rinko Kikuchi manages to make Kumiko interesting company no matter how far the character recedes into herself, using subtly expressive body language that would have been at home in silent movies to create a very strange self-imposed social outcast.

The Gunman *½ Directed by Pierre Morel. With no fun to be had, The Gunman also lacks essential thrills. If Sean Penn is winging for an action-hero renaissance like Liam Neeson's, he'll be in need of material a lot more compelling than this.

Get Hard *½ Directed by Etan Cohen. It's not easy hanging talents like Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart out to dry. But Get Hard gets the job done. It's one limp noodle.

Last Knights * Directed by Kazuaki Kiriya. This ponderous drama quickly gets weighed down by its own blood-drenched armor.