What can one say about Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity that hasn’t already been said? The film, which was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won seven, was by far the most commercially successful good film released last year. It’s certainly a technical marvel even if the director didn’t set out to make it that way.

Originally conceived as a two-character study with minimal effects, Cuaron’s simple little film evolved into the special effects extravaganza audiences now know and love. What he expected would take a couple of months to put together ended up taking four and a half years. Ironically the making-of feature that accompanies the film on 3-D Blu-ray, 3-D Blu-ray and standard DVD runs longer than the film itself, which is a fast 91 minutes including credits.

The film is, like Cuaron’s previous masterwork, 2006’s Children of Men, is essentially a film about hope and faith. In Children of Men it was hope and faith in the future of the human race; in Gravity it’s hope and faith in the fate of a single human being, the sole survivor of an accident in space.

Sandra Bullock has always been a competent actress, but she was more lauded for her innate charm than her acting chops until 2006’s Infamous made critics sit up and take notice and 2009’s The Blind Side solidified her newfound reputation by bringing her an Oscar for her no-nonsense portrayal of a fierce Southern mom. In Gravity she is on screen by herself most of the time holding audiences spellbound with her intensity. It may not be the greatest performance out there, but it’s a perfect fit for actress and role. You can’t do better than that.

As the only other character in the film, George Clooney is affable, striking all the right notes as her mission commander who floats off into outer space never to be heard from again except in Bullock’s hallucinations.

The special effects add to the movie-watching experience but do not detract from Bullock’s performance. Best seen on a large theatre screen, home video viewing is not a problem, although you may have to squint a little to take it all in.

Nominated for six Academy Awards, Alexander Payne’s Nebraska is latest road picture from the director of About Schmidt and Sideways. Lushly filmed in gorgeous black and white, the film chronicles the exploits of a dutiful son (Will Forte) who drives his elderly father (Bruce Dern) from Wyoming to Nebraska ostensibly to teach him a lesson about sweepstakes giveaways and ends up getting a lesson in life himself.

77 year-old Dern delivers the performance of his life as Woody Grant, a retired former repair shop owner in the early stages of Alzheimer’s who insists that he has won a million dollars in a magazine sweepstakes. No one can tell him he hasn’t read the small print. He has to go and find out for himself. Dern touches all the right notes as the old man whose mind wanders in and out of coherence. Forte does a good job as the son and veteran character actress June Squibb is a hoot as Dern’s abrasive wife.

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

Criterion has released the much talked about French film, Blue Is the Warmest Color separately on both Blu-ray and standard DVD as opposed to one package containing both versions as they have mostly been doing of late.

Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, most of the discussion about the film since its debut at last year’s Cannes Film Festival has centered on the graphic sex scenes between the film’s stars, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux as lesbian lovers. Exarchopoulos also has a less graphic heterosexual scene. Anyone looking to the film for prurient reasons, however, should be forewarned that the sex scenes make up less than ten percent of the film’s three hour running time. On the other hand, anyone looking for a beautifully wrought coming-of-age story need look no further.

19 year-old Exarchopoulos, 17 at the time of filming, has a beautiful, open face that the camera loves. Whether talking to classmates, meeting and falling in love with an older art student (Seydoux) or later teaching young children, she is fascinating to watch. Her performance is remarkable for one so young, especially in the later scenes where she is playing a twenty-something woman with a strong sense of the world and her place in it. The final scene in which she quietly sneaks out of a gallery opening party and walks purposefully down the street toward her apartment is heartbreaking in its sense of loss and what might have been.

The film is based on a graphic novel (comic book) in which one of the two women dies. The film changes that for the better, leaving both women alive and well but having gone their separate ways.

To find a comparable actress who made such an impression on audiences at such a young age you would have to go back to Nastassja Kinski, who was also 17 when she made Roman Polanski’s 1979 film, Tess from Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Coincidentally or not, Criterion has just released Tess in dual format Blu-ray and standard DVD. The exquisite transfer features Kinski in all her glory, ably supported by Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson and tons of DVD extras.

Also from Criterion in dual format Blu-ray and standard DVD, Steven Soderbergh’s first major studio film, 1993’s King of the Hill makes its U.S. DVD bow in a stunning transfer.

Soderbergh’s depression era coming-of-age story stars Jesse Bradford as a stand-in for A.E. Hotchner in this film made from his memoir. Jereon Krabbe and Lisa Eichhorn co-star as Bradford’s parents.

A big cause for celebration, Warner Archive has finally released the first U.S. DVD of the definitive 1936 version of Show Boat directed by James Whale with a cast headed by Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan, Hattie McDaniel, Charles Winninger and Helen Wesley, all of them except Westley reprising roles they had played in either the original 1927 Broadway version or later touring versions of the instant classic. Westley was a replacement for Edna May Oliver who had other commitments.

The film has many classic moments including Robeson’s immortal rendition of “Ol’ Man River” and Morgan’s equally thrilling version of “Bill”. Another highlight is Dunne, Morgan, Robeson and McDaniel singing and dancing to “Can’t Help Loving Dat Man”.

This week’s new releases include Oscar winner 12 Years a Slave and Oscar nominee The Grandmaster.