Numerous TV programs over the years have featured Paddington Bear who first appeared in a book by Michael Bond in 1958. Twenty-five books later he appears on screen in 2014’s Paddington.

An early Oscar favorite, the film opened in London in November 2014 and received BAFTA nominations for Best British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was not, however, given a U.S. release until January 2015 and was therefore ineligible for 2014 Oscar consideration.

The story is a simple but interesting one about the Peruvian bear who charms his way into the life of a British family, which is handled with a great deal of panache by director Paul King. The mixed media, CGI bear and human actors perform seamlessly. Nicole Kidman as a taxidermist who wants to stuff the bear is stiff and one-note, but the rest of the cast is marvelous, including Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins as the parents of young Madeleine Harris and Samuel Joslin. Julie Walters provides her now familiar brand of whimsy as an older relative. Ben Whishaw is first-rate as the voice of Paddington and Michael Gambon and Imelda Staunton do well with their all too brief voiceovers as his aunt and uncle bears. Jim Broadbent also contributes a nice bit.

Paddington is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s film of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice is only the second of the reclusive 78-year-old writer’s novels to be filmed, the first in English. Written in 2009, it is a memory piece set in 1970 about a drug-infused Los Angeles era private detective searching for his missing girlfriend. Originally intended by Anderson as a 2010 film starring Robert Downey, Jr., the film’s four year delay was recast with Joaquin Phoenix who starred in Anderson’s 2012 Oscar-nominated film The Master.

Despite generally negative reviews, Inherent Vice received two Oscar nominations, one for Anderson’s screenplay and another for Mark Bridges’ period costume design. The costume design nomination may be somewhat questionable, but the writing nomination makes no sense at all.

First the girlfriend (Katherine Waterston) runs away with a married man along with the man’s wife and the wife’s girlfriend. Then a body turns up, an LAPD detective (Josh Brolin) appears on the scene, various other characters including a lawyer (Benicio Del Toro), a horny dentist (Martin Short), an aging hippie (Eric Roberts) and an assistant D.A, (Reese Witherspoon) show up. Then Waterston (Sam’s daughter) returns, has a lengthy if gratuitous nude scene while Phoenix remains clothed and a drug deal goes bad. It all ends with Phoenix and Brolin confronting each other in an end scene that is sheer lunacy. Incoherent Mess might have been a more appropriate title.

Inherent Vice is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Blu-ray upgrades have been newly accorded The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Harry & Son and Little Man Tate.

Only moderately successful on its initial release, Peter Yates’ 1973 film The Friends of Eddie Coyle has grown in stature over the years to the point that it is now considered one of Robert Mitchum’s best films, ranking right up there with Out of the Past, The Night of the Hunter, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, Home from the Hill, The Sundowners, Ryan’s Daughter, and Farewell, My Lovely.

Mitchum plays a worn-out two-time loser who wants to snitch on his friends in order to avoid a long prison sentence for his latest petty crime, but the police obtain the information they need from a long-time snitch, a bartender who puts the word out to the mob that it was Mitchum who gave them up. The film boasts strong support from Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, Steven Keats, and Alex Rocco, but it’s Mitchum’s performance and Yates’ (Bullitt, Breaking Away superb direction that make it unforgettable.

The Criterion release includes all the extras from the previous standard DVD release including Yates’ 2007 commentary.

Harry & Son and Little Man Tate are the latest on Kino Lorber’s release schedule of films originally released by Orion Pictures.

Paul Newman’s fifth of six films he directed, 1984’s Harry & Son is the least regarded of those films which began with 1968’s multiple award-winning Rachel, Rachel and ended with the 1987 version of The Glass Menagerie, both starring his wife Joanne Woodward.

Newman himself is the star of Harry & Son, an occasionally interesting character study of a middle-aged man who loses his job and his supportive son, played by Robby Benson, who worships the ground he walks on. Ellen Barkin co-stars as Benson’s best friend, a young woman who has a baby she doesn’t know the father of. Woodward makes a brief appearance as Barkin’s former hippie mother.

The Blu-ray cover art is horribly faded, giving the impression that the film itself must be faded. Far from it, the film looks better than it ever has even if it’s not one of its star-director’s best.

Jodie Foster made her big screen directing debut with 1991’s Little Man Tate, the same year as The Silence of the Lambs for which she would win her second Best Actress Oscar.

Nine-year-old Adam Hann-Byrd made his acting debut as Foster’s son, a child genius. The film centers around Foster’s battles with psychologist Dianne Wiest over how to raise the boy. All three are outstanding.

Young Hann-Bird was nominated by the Chicago Film Critics for the year’s Most Promising Actor, losing to Ice Cube in Boyz N the Hood. He is now a writer and producer as well as an actor, having graduated from Connecticut’s Wesleyan University in 2004 with degrees in both Psychology and Film Studies.

This week’s new releases include Mr. Turner and Selma.