Second generation director Jason Reitman began his film career like a house-afire with his first film, 2005’s Thank You for Smoking which earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor – Musical or Comedy, Aaron Eckhart. His second film, 2007’s Juno earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy; Best Actress – Musical or Comedy (Ellen Page) and Best Screenplay (Diablo Cody). It then received Oscar nominations for Best Picture; Actress; Screenplay and Director (Reitman). His third film, 2009’s Up in the Air did even better, appearing on most critics’ ten best lists; earning nominations left and right from various precursor organizations and receiving six Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture – Drama; Actor – Drama (George Clooney); two Supporting Actresses (Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick); Director (Reitman) and Screenplay (Reitman and Sheldon Turner), winning for the latter. It went on to earn six Oscar nominations as well, for Best Picture; Actor; the same Supporting Actresses; Director and Screenplay. Reitman’s name appeared on three of the ballots including Best Picture, which he co-produced with Daniel Dubiecki and his father, Ivan Reitman.

Reitman’s fourth film, 2011’s Young Adult received precursor recognition here and there but its only Golden Globe nomination was for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy (Charlize Theron). It received no Oscar nominations. His fifth film, 2013’s Labor Day received even less precursor recognition and only one Golden Globe nomination, for Best Actress – Drama (Kate Winslet). It, too, received no Oscar nominations.

What went wrong? Was Labor Day a dud or just poorly marketed? I’d say the latter, though the film may not be for all tastes. Reitman’s first straight dramatic film was marketed as a thriller with the emphasis on a brooding, mysterious escaped convict (Josh Brolin) holding hostage an agoraphobic woman (Winslet) and her young son (Gattlin Griffith) when it’s really a romantic memory piece in the style of the megahit The Notebook. Would it have sold more tickets if it were properly marketed? Who knows, but romantics have a chance to discover it now in its newly released Blu-ray and standard DVD incarnations.

Winslet gives one of her best performances as the woman who is all but afraid of her own shadow and Brolin matches her as the sensitive man convicted of the murder of his wife, though as he says, “that isn’t what happened”. The stand-out, though, is young Griffith, one of the best child actors in the business. The film is shown through the eyes of his character, both through Griffith’s performance and the narration of Tobey Maguire as his older self.

Newly released on Blu-ray, Alan J. Pakula’s 1982 film of William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice has been released with Pakula’s moving and illuminating narration, originally done for the 1996 laser disc, intact. He provides insight for the performances of Meryl Streep; Kevin Kline and Peter MacNicol beyond what is apparent on screen.

Streep, who, earlier this year, received her 18th Oscar nomination, has never been better than in this one for which she received her fourth nomination and second win as the Nazi concentration camp survivor with a terrible secret. Kline as her schizophrenic lover and MacNicol as their impressionable boarding house neighbor are also first-rate.

Styron took seven years to write his famous novel and Pakula two years to adapt the screenplay. Both men’s widows, along with Streep and Kline are interviewed in an excellent newly recorded forty-five minute documentary presented as a Blu-ray extra.

One of the most sought-after Blu-ray upgrades of all, the The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection, has been released by Fox Home Video. The collection includes all the films from the 2006 standard DVD release except the 1962 remake of State Fair which is odd because the extras on the 1945 version, captured form the DVD release, provides a generous amount of clips from the film.

All discs include generous amounts of supplemental material. Oklahoma! is shown in two versions, both the Todd-A-O and Cinemascope versions which were filmed together with different cameras. Oklahoma!; Carousel and The King and I have never looked as good as they do here. The same care went into the upgrades of these films as went into the previously released South Pacific and The Sound of Music, which are also included here.

A Blu-ray upgrade has also been given Richard Eyre’s 2006 film, Notes on a Scandal which provided tour-de-force Oscar nominated roles for Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett.

Dench was/is one of the most formidable actresses on stage and television where she has played characters as varied as Sally Bowles and later, landlady Fraulein Schneider, in Cabaret and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. On screen she has played mostly nice old ladies, five of which have earned her Oscar nominations. Her sixth nomination, fifth chronologically, for playing evil Barbara Covett to Blanchett’s seemingly nice Sheba Hart is the only one in which she wasn’t nice at all. Both actresses are fascinating, Dench especially so.

Universal has released Francis the Talking Mule: Complete Collection on standard DVD. A previous release include only the first four films in the seven film series released theatrically once a year beginning in 1950. The first six films which starred Donald O’Connor and Chill Wills as the voice of the mule are no great works of art, but they are harmless, amusing fun. The seventh, with Mickey Rooney and Paul Frees as the voice of the mule was a failed attempt at continuing the series after the gifted O’Connor and Wills left.

Film Chest has released a re-mastered version of Edgar G. Ulmer’s 1946 film, The Strange Woman. Film-noir great Ulmer’s film is a curious mixture of film-noir; thriller and drama, co-directed by an uncredited Douglas Sirk. Hedy Lamarr, in one of her better performances, plays a sort of northern version of Scarlett O’Hara, looking uncannily like Vivien Leigh throughout.

Lamarr’s character is strange indeed, a generous benefactor to the poor one minute; a scheming murderess the next. George Sanders; Louis Hayward; Hillary Brooke and Gene and Kathleen Lockhart co-star. Gene Lockhart plays Lamarr’s first husband, while his real-life wife Kathleen plays his housekeeper.

This week’s new releases include Blu-ray upgrades of The Bridges of Madison County and The Women.