Now available on 4k UHD and standard Blu-ray from Warner Home Video, and streaming on HBO Max, Sinners is the year’s most critically acclaimed film to date as well as the biggest box-office success thus far.

Directed by Ryan Coogler, the film is another showcase for Michael B. Jordan, who previously starred in Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, Black Panther, Creed, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Going into the film, I didn’t know anything about it except that it was about music and vampires. I knew that Jordan and veteran actor Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods) were in it but didn’t remember who else was in the cast. Lindo was the only one I recognized.

Well, not exactly, I also recognized Jordan but couldn’t figure out which of two brothers he was playing. It took me a while to realize that he was playing twins!

Set in 1932 Mississippi, The Smokestack Twins were named Elijah and Elias, but are now known by their nicknames, “Smoke” and “Stack”. They have returned to their hometown after a stint working for Al Capone in Chicago. Having amassed a considerable fortune there, they purchase an abandoned sawmill that they want to turn into a juke joint. They warn the seller that will defend their new property from the KLuK Lux Klan if necessary.

Recruited by the twins for the juke joint are their talented cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) and a well-known local musician (Lindo) as well as a doorman (Omar Miller).

Smoke also pays a visit to his estranged lover, Annie (Wunmi Mosaku). After paying his respects to their deceased daughter, he gives Annie a mojo bag she gave to him years ago for protection. After doing some hoodoo to strengthen its protective powers, Smoke asks Annie to come to the joint to help at the bar and to fry catfish. She agrees.

Meanwhile, in a small shack, married couple Bert (Peter Dreimanis) and Joan (Lola Kirke) are surprised when a man named Remmick with persuasive Irish charm (Jack O’Connell) comes to their door seeking shelter. He claims that he is being chased by Choctaw Indians.

After the couple hide the man, Joan drives off a group of Choctaws at gunpoint. Once they leave, she finds Remmick has turned her husband into a vampire and soon shares his fate.

Once the sun goes down, the juke joint opens. Joining in the merriment is Stack’s former white girlfriend (Hailee Steinfeld) who is something like 10% black, and the fun begins with Bert, Joan, and Remmick soon showing up as well.

There are twists and turns that follow in this one-of-a-kind action-horror film that could earn Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design and even a record six acting nominations for Jordan, Caton, Lindo, O’Connell, Musaku, and Steinfeld.

Extras include five documentaries on the making of the film and seven deleted scenes.

The Criterion Collection has released a 4K UHD upgrade of Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film, Brazil.

Brazil is a film that is better known for the controversy surrounding it than the film itself.

Shown at the Berlin Film Festival in February 1985 and released theatrically in the U.K. that same month, the Embassy film was distributed in Europe by Twentieth Century-Fox, but U.S. distribution rights belonged to Universal which refused to release the film unless director Terry Gilliam recut it to their specifications. He refused and Universal shelved the film.

The Los Angeles Film Critics came to Gilliam’s defense by giving his film its Best Picture award over such acclaimed films as Prizzi’s Honor, Ran, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Witness, and the L.A. runner-up, Out of Africa, another Universal release, which went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

Universal recanted and released the film in Los Angeles and New York for a one-week Oscar qualifying run. It did not win any further critics’ prizes but did receive Oscar nominations for Gilliam’s screenplay and the film’s art direction – set decoration.

A cut of the film, known as the “Love Conquers All” version was made by Universal between 1983 and 1984 but not shown anywhere until it appeared on television several years later to mass derision.

While the L.A. film critics’ support of the film was clearly in support of artistic integrity, not because the film was really the year’s best, it nevertheless has its supporters.

The film is a mad version of George Orwell’s 1984 which was itself made into a film, earlier in 1956 by Michael Anderson with Edmond O’Brien and Michael Redgrave, and later in 1984 by Michael Radford with John Hurt and Richard Burton.

Like the central character in 1984, Brazil is about one man against the world in a dystopian society, and as in Gilliam’s vision of the film, he is defeated in the end. Like both versions of 1984 and Gilliam’s unbutchered version of Brazil, we have a good movie, but not, at least in my estimation, a great one.

Jonathan Pryce, the protagonist in Brazil, lives in two worlds, a dream world in which everything is beautiful, and a nightmare world, his real life in which nothing goes right. Personally, I could have done with a lot less of the dream world, which is often repetitive and silly, while the real world is heartbreaking and sad despite dollops of irony throughout.

Pryce, a wonderful actor who finally received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Pope Francis in 2019’s The Two Popes, has given memorable performances throughout his career, and this is one of his best.

Standouts in support include Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin, Kim Greist, Katherine Helmond, and briefly, Robert De Niro.

Extras include the “Love Conquers All” cut of the film with commentary pointing out all the cuts that were made to the original.

Happy viewing.