With the Blu-ray release of Oliver Hermanus’ Living, all but two of the 2022 Oscar nominees in the top 8 categories representing Best Picture, acting, Directing, and Writing have been released for home viewing via either physical media or streaming. The two exceptions are Triangle of Sadness, which is being released on 4K and regular Blu-ray by Criterion next week, and Avatar: The Way of Water, which will be released soon.

Living is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s acclaimed 1952 Japanese film Ikiru. The remake still takes place in the early 1950s, but the locale has shifted from Tokyo to London with Best Actor nominee Bill Nighy as the diplomat whose humdrum existence takes a turn for the better as he approaches the end of his life. Nighy (Love Actually, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) has the role of his career as the stuffy executive whose end of life has more meaning for him than anything that came before.

The only problem I had with the film is that, like Ikiru, the film reaches its peak two thirds of the way through and everything after that is anti-climactic. Still, though, it’s worth seeing, particularly for Nighy’s performance.

Criterion has released Terry Gilliam’s 1991 film The Fisher King on 4K Blu-ray, an upgrade from its previous Blu-ray release.

Jeff Bridges has the lead role as a once-arrogant radio disc jockey whose putdown of a frequent caller leads to an unimaginable tragedy. His life hits a downward spiral in which he is supported by his newest girlfriend (Mercedes Ruhl), a video store manager. He finds renewed hope after meeting a delusional homeless man (Robin Williams) who sees himself on a quest to find the holy grail.

Although the film was well received at the time, its awards recognition came mainly for the performances of Williams and Ruehl, both of whom were Oscar-nominated with Ruehl securing the film’s only win. Many in retrospect feel it should have also been nominated for Best Picture, Director, with Bridges more than deserving of an additional Best Actor nomination. Watch or rewatch it and see if you don’t agree. All three actors, as well as Amanda Plummer as Williams’ eventual love interest, turn in career high performances.

Criterion has also recently released a 4K Blu-ray upgrade of Michael Curtiz’s 1945 film Mildred Pierce.

Mildred Pierce was both a suspense film and a woman’s picture with the emphasis on the former.

Based on the novel of the same name by James M. Cain (Double Indemnity), Mildred Pierce was Joan Crawford’s comeback role, the first one she accepted under her Warner Bros. contract after being let go by MGM four years earlier. Crawford played the hardworking title character, a single mother with an ungrateful child (Ann Blyth), to the hilt, earning the first of her three Oscar nominations and her only win. She is ably supported by Blyth and Eve Arden as her wisecracking friend, both of whom received Oscar nominations, along with Bruce Bennett as Mildred’s wandering first husband, Zachary Scott as her seedy second husband, and Jack Carson as a duplicitous business partner of both Bennett and Scott.

The film opens with a bang, that of Scott’s murder. Did Crawford do it or didn’t she? See it to find out if you haven’t. If you have, watch it again for Curtiz’s taut direction and the performances, particularly Crawford’s.

Kino Lorber has released three lesser-known films from the early 1950s through the mid-1960s on sparkling new Blu-rays.

Like Mildred Pierce, Mervyn LeRoy’s 1965 film Moment to Moment is both a suspense film and a woman’s film with an emphasis on the former. It, too, opens with a bang.

Jean Seberg, midway between 1960’s Breathless and 1970’s Airport, has apparently just shot her lover (Sean Garrison). In flashback, just like in Mildred Pierce, we get to see what actually happened and just like in LeRoy’s 1942 classic Random Harvest, there is a twist involving amnesia leading into the third act.

Granted, Seberg and Garrison are no Greer Garson and Ronald Colman, but unlike the stars of Random Harvest, they have the gorgeous shot-on-location color scenery of the French Riviera to take full advantage of. Second-billed Honor Blackman as Seberg’s flirty neighbor and Arthur Hill as Seberg’s doctor husband lead the supporting cast in what turned out to be LeRoy’s last film.

This one is better than the critics of the day considered it.

Also from 1965, Richard Thorpe’s The Truth About Spring co-stars Hayley Mills and her father John Mills along with Helen Hayes’ son James MacArthur.

This one is a far cry from 1964’s The Chalk Garden, the first film Hayley and her dad made together. In that one, she was an emotionally disturbed teenager set right by her new governess (Deborah Kerr). He was her grandmother’s (Edith Evans) butler. This film is closer in tone to Hayley’s earlier adventure film, 1962’s In Search of the Castaways.

This time around, Hayley is a young tomboy living on a boat in the Caribbean with her real-life father. MacArthur is the young lawyer who joins them in fighting the skullduggery of Lionel Jeffries and Harry Andrews in this slight but enjoyable little film.

Rudolph Maté’s 1953 film The Mississippi Gambler was a surprise hit that received an Oscar nomination for Best Score.

Tyrone Power had the title role of a New Yorker who made his living on the riverboats along the Mississippi River. Set in 1854, Power’s character is also a fencing expert, allowing for several scenes in which one of the screen’s most noted fencers (The Mark of Zorro) gets to show his stuff.

The story, a sort of poor man’s Gone with the Wind, co-stars Piper Laurie as a strong-willed Scarlett O’Hara type who both loves and hates Power. Julie Adams is the woman who loves Power but is pursued by Laurie’s brother (John Baer) to the chagrin of the sister and brother’s noble father (Paul Cavanagh). John McIntire costars as Power’s friend and mentor.

This one is better than it sounds. The production and costume design, the cinematography, and that Oscar-nominated score are all first-rate.

Happy viewing, everyone.