Great week for classic movie lovers this week. Everything from Criterion releases of Jean-Pierre Melville to new editions of Hitchcock’s best to Alice Faye musicals. In new releases, there’s less of interest, but let’s see what we’ve got.

New Releases

The big mainstream releases are M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening and Adam Sandler’s You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, but I’ve got about as little interest in either of them as is physically possible. I quit Shyamalan after The Village, and from what I hear, The Happening is not a comeback. And I generally avoid everything Sandler does. So let’s turn to the indie side of the coin instead. Both are also coming on Blu-ray, but if you really want to buy these in Blu-ray, you can search Amazon yourself.

I’ve been hearing good things about Boy A, about a young man recently released from prison, getting a new, anonymous start in life after having committed a crime (murder?) as a child. It’s apparently based on a true story, something that doesn’t matter to me, but I find that some people care more about things that are “real.” Dunno what that’s about. Anyway. The other major indie release is Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park, which I’m curious about. Critics have rightly pointed out Van Sant’s dual nature, producing mainstream stuff like the Psycho remake alongside idiosyncratic indies like Elephant, suggesting that if you like his idiosyncratic side, you’ll like Paranoid Park. I think that’s what I’ve heard, anyway, and it makes sense. I happen to have hated Elephant (pretentious drivel), but for some reason I want to check out Paranoid Park. Maybe because I enjoyed his unassuming (for him) short in Paris, je t’aime and I’m ready to give him another chance.

Also releasing: The Visitor, Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (which looks to be entertaining if you like B-movie, cult-style horror comedies), and Michael Moore’s Slacker Uprising

Classics

So many good choices here, but I gotta go with the two Melville Criterions for picks, if only because I haven’t seen them and I really want to. French director Jean-Pierre Melville specialized in crime films and was an ancillary figure in the New Wave. On a shallower note, another great set of covers from Criterion. I swear, I’d use these things as art.

Sleeping Beauty gets the Platinum DVD treatment, and also Blu-ray. I had this on video back when I was a kid, then we lent it to a friend and I never saw it again. :( I didn’t snag it last time it was on DVD. Maybe this’ll be the time. Or maybe not. We’ll see.

Also releasing: New special editions of Hitchcock’s Psycho, Rear Window, and Vertigo – three of his absolute best films. Also, new special edition of Watership Down, the scariest animated movie about rabbits you’ll ever see. And a box set of Alice Faye musicals from the 1930s and 1940s. These movies aren’t good per se, but if you like happy-peppy music-filled films, you’ll enjoy these: Hello, Frisco, Hello, Hollywood Cavalcade, On the Avenue, The Rose of Washington Square, The Great American Broadcast.

Television

30 Rock is one of the best TV series currently on the air, despite being a sitcom. It’s maddening having to wait until October 30th for the new season to start, but in the meantime, here’s Season 2 to hold us over. Everyone by now knows Tina Fey is a genius for her uncanny impersonation of Sarah Palin, but those of us watching 30 Rock (and Weekend Update on SNL before that) have know for years that she’s a genius. As is co-star Alec Baldwin, sharper than he’s been in…ever.

Also releasing: How I Met Your Mother Season 3, The Simpsons Season 11.