The Children Act was shown at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and subsequent film festivals before finally being given a theatrical run in the U.K., France, and elsewhere in August 2018 and the U.S. in September. It has now been released on DVD only by Lionsgate with little fanfare, which is a pity because Emma Thompson’s award-worthy performance deserves to be seen by larger audiences.

Thompson plays a British High Court judge who deals with difficult cases involving children. In the opening segment, she’s dealing with an issue regarding the separation of conjoined twins. The doctors want to separate them which will cause immediate death to one of them. The parents want to keep both boys alive for as long as they can even though the life of the healthier one will be shortened if they remain together much longer.

The crux of the film, however, deals with a case involving a 17-year-old Jehovah’s Witness dying of leukemia whose parents are refusing to allow his doctors to provide him with a potentially life-saving blood transfusion on religious grounds. Before making her decision, she insists on visiting the boy, played by Dunkirk‘s Fionn Whitehead who also turns in an amazing performance.

Thompson bonds with the boy, ruling in the hospital’s favor setting up a complex emotional situation between the boy, his parents, and herself. Besides Thompson and Whitehead, there are fine performances as well from Stanley Tucci as Thompson’s perplexed professor husband and Jason Watkins as her devoted clerk. Richard Eyre (Notes on a Scandal) wrote the screenplay and directed from a novel by Ian McEwan (Atonement, On Chesil Beach).

Also new from the U.K., via Netflix and now on Blu-ray and DVD from Sony, is The Crown: The Complete Second Season featuring Thompson’s husband Greg Wise as Lord Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s uncle.

Wise’s best performance of the season was in Paterfamilias, the penultimate episode that won Stephen Daldry an Emmy for his direction. This one was all about Prince Philip, played by Matt Smith in the then early 1960s present and Finn Elliot as Philip in the 1930s flashback sequences. The series also won Emmys for Claire Foy as Elizabeth II, as well as the show’s casting, cinematography, and period costumes. It was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Smith), Supporting Actress (Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret), Guest Actor (Matthew Goode as Tony Armstrong-Jones), Outstanding Writing (Peter Morgan for the final episode), and Supporting Visual Effects.

Smith’s nomination in support was category fraud. He should have been nominated in the lead category. Among the numerous supporting players worthy of consideration were Victoria Hamilton as the Queen Mother, Jeremy Northam as Anthony Eden, Julian Baring as Prince Charles, and the aforementioned Wise and Elliot.

On the other hand, raspberries to Michael C. Hall and Jodi Balfour for their ludicrous portrayals of the Kennedys. Thankfully they’re only in one episode.

Although classic films given Blu-ray upgrades continue to be made, it’s getting tougher to find them on the day of their planned release. That’s because the number of duplicating plants going dark have increased because of the decline in demand for the product. Consequently, new releases are given priority. For example, Criterion’s new Blu-ray of Some Like It Hot was delayed from November 13th to the 20th and The Magnificent Ambersons scheduled for release on the 20th has been delayed at least until the 27th.

Making it through to recent releases have been Nothing Sacred, Made for Each Other, Single White Female, and The Glass House.

Kino Lorber’s brand new HD master from a 2K scan of the restored fine grain master of 1937’s Nothing Sacred is indeed a cause for celebration. The previous Blu-ray release from 2011 with its washed-out colors was quite an embarrassment. This release of William A. Wellman’s film of Ben Hecht’s hilarious screwball comedy does the property full justice at last.

Carole Lombard is at her best as the small-town gal given a false death sentence by her doctor (Charles Winninger) as are Fredric March and Walter Connolly as the newspapermen who exploit her. Standouts among the many supporting players are Margaret Hamilton and Hattie McDaniel who were two years away from their most prominent roles in The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind respectively. William Wellman Jr. provides a highly informative commentary.

Kino Lorber is also behind the release of 1939’s Made for Each Other also from a brand new HD master from a 2K scan of the restored fine grain master. This was one of Lombard’s greatest dramatic roles in breathtaking black-and-white. Her co-star is James Stewart, the same year as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Destry Rides Again. Charles Coburn and Lucille Watson co-star under John Cromwell’s assured direction. Commentary is by film historian Lee Gambin. Lombard also starred in Cromwell’s In Name Only opposite Cary Grant that same year.

Shout! Factory has provided Single White Female with a brand-new commentary by director Barbet Schroeder. This 1992 film was his first since his Oscar-nominated Reversal of Fortune two years earlier. A box-office hit, it was criticized at the time of its release as a rip-off of Martin Donovan’s superior 1988 film Apartment Zero with Colin Firth and Hart Bochner as the roommates. This time around, it’s Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh as their female counterparts. Fonda is the put upon one, Leigh is the psychopath she lets into her life. It’s all rather obvious with a couple of good scare scenes. Steven Webber, Peter Friedman, and Stephen Tobolowsky co-star.

Shout subsidiary Scorpion Releasing has released an HD transfer of the 1972 TV movie The Glass House for which director Tom Gries (Will Penny) won an Emmy. Tracy Keenan Wynn was nominated for adapting Truman Capote’s story of modern prison life. The transfer is of the non-U.S. release print with scenes deemed too violent for TV. Alan Alda, Vic Morrow, Clu Gulager, Kristoffer Tabori, Billy Dee Williams, and Dean Jagger as the warden head the cast. The still-working 90-year-old Gulager provides a lively on-camera interview reminiscing about the making of the film and his relationship with various cast members including the real-life prison inmates who worked as extras.

This week’s new releases include the Blu-ray releases of Crazy Rich Asians and Searching.