Ripped from the headlines, Gavin Hood’s drone warfare thriller Eye in the Sky is a white-knuckled, suspense-filled exercise from beginning to end as it focuses on one day in the life of an international team of military specialists.

Helen Mirren, excellent as usual, is the no-nonsense British Colonel who is thwarted in her steely determination to have a drone take out two British and one American terrorist and their Kenyan counterparts before they can blow up a local market. The late Alan Rickman, to whom the film is dedicated, is also excellent as her superior, a General who must get the acquiescence of the British Attorney General, the British Foreign Minister, the U.S. Secretary of State, and even the British Prime Minister before proceeding. After all the approvals have been gotten, the U.S. pilot controlling the drone (Aaron Paul) spots a young local girl entering an area just outside the kill zone where she sets up a table to sell bread. This sets up a moral dilemma in which all the British participants behave badly, showing more concern about how they will look as opposed to what the right thing to do would be. Recent Oscar nominee Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) proves his versatility by playing a good guy this time around.

Eye in the Sky is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Bob Nelson, the Oscar-nominated writer of Nebraska, makes his directorial debut with The Confirmation, which he also wrote.

A character study about a weekend in the life of a recovering alcoholic (Clive Owen) and his son (Jaeden Lieberher), the title of The Confirmation refers to the kid’s impending First Communion and Confirmation after having made a confession in which he had no sins to report. After a day with his estranged father he will have plenty to confess. The plot basically revolves around the theft of Owen’s tools which he needs to take the job he has been offered starting the following Monday. More of a tribute to Vittorio de Sica’s masterful Bicycle Thieves than an outright steal, the film features interesting performances from Maria Bello as the mother, Matthew Modine as the stepfather, Patton Oswalt as Owen’s quirky friend, Robert Forster as Owen’s mentor, Tim Blake Nelson as a petty thief, Quinn Dubois as Nelson’s kindly son, and Scott Patey as his nasty one. Owen, Lieberher (fresh from Midnight Special), and Dubois are the standouts.

The Confirmation is available on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Stanley Donen’s 1978 gem Movie Movie finally returns to home video for the first time since the VHS release went out of print in the early 1980s. Critics loved this one-of-a-kind film which was a treat for classic movie lovers, but one that general audiences didn’t get and consequently was not the hit it should have been.

The film satirizes three movie genres of the 1930s, boxing films and backstage Broadway musicals in segments just short of an hour each, and aviation dramas in coming attractions. Dynamite Hands, the first segment, was filmed in color but printed in black-and-white. It was done this way so that it could be sold to TV as a color film. The old VHS release was printed in color. It was not, as many assumed, colorized after the fact.

The new Blu-ray and DVD release presents Dynamite Hands in black-and-white as it was shown in theatres. George C. Scott as a veteran fight manager and Harry Hamlin (in his film debut) as his protégé are the standouts in that segment. Barry Bostwick is the standout as an accountant who wants to be songwriter in the second segment, Baxter’s Beauties of 1933, which has always been shown in color. An unbilled George Burns introduces both segments, which more or less feature the same actors playing different parts in both. Kathleen Beller, Trish Van Devere, and Art Carney are among the other players. Hamlin, Bostwick, and Beller provide on-camera reminiscences of the making of the film. Hamlin’s is the lengthiest and juiciest as he spills quite a few backstage secrets.

Criterion has released a new Blu-ray and standard DVD edition of Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which at this point must hold the record for the most DVD releases of any non-public domain title, there have been so many. This one has a lot more special features than previous releases including interviews with Kubrick scholars, and artisans who worked on the film, as well as numerous archival materials including interviews with Kubrick himself.

Kubrick, who developed the satirical Cold War comedy over the course of several years in the early 1960s, took multiple takes of his actors, so many in fact that the actors were positively giddy in many of the takes that he used. Not just Peter Sellers, who was often giddy on screen anyway, but the usually deadly serious George C. Scott and Sterling Hayden as well. Contrary to popular belief, Sellers did not improvise his lines, but he did improvise his delivery of them.

The real genius of the film lies in the tight editing done by Anthony Harvey, later the director of The Lion in Winter, and Kubrick himself. It was during this process that Kubrick tightened the storyline, throwing out what didn’t work and strengthening what did.

Peter Sellers, who received one of the film’s four Oscar nominations for his performance, was supposed to play four characters, but ended up playing three, with Slim Pickins replacing him as Major “King” Kong. The other three nominations went to Kubrick for Best Picture, Direction, and Screenplay, the latter shared with Terry Southern.

Criterion has also released a Blu-ray edition of Olivier Assayas’ 2014 film Clouds of Sils Maria, previously available on standard DVD only. Extras include separately filmed interviews with Assayas and his stars, Juliette Binoche as the aging actress, and Kirsten Stewart as her put-upon assistant. Binoche and Stewart seem to talk as much about making the film as they did acting in the film. The film’s unacknowledged third star, the unique cloud formations in the Swiss Alps, is also given its due. The 1924 documentary, Cloud Phenomena of Malaga, excerpts of which are seen in the film, is also included as an extra.

Paramount has released Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years, previously available only as an import, on both Blu-ray and standard DVD. Charlotte Rampling shines in her Oscar-nominated performance as a woman dealing with the discovery of the preserved body of husband Tom Courtenay’s long ago lover from before their marriage who disappeared years before they met. She is able to keep it together until their anniversary dance to “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” through which she can see clearly now. It’s a welcome, albeit bare-bones release with no commentary and no extras at all other than the theatrical trailer.

This week’s new releases include I Saw the Light and The 42nd Anniversary Edition of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.