New to View: Jan. 7

By Bob Bloom
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, Jan. 7, unless otherwise noted:
Joker (Blu-ray + DVD + digital)
Details: 2019, Warner Home Video
Rated: R, graphic, bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language, sexual images
The lowdown: The Joker may be the most iconic villain in pop culture because he touches a nerve that is dormant within us all — the urge to commit the unspeakable, to create chaos and to instill fear for its own sake.
These all are dark notions we, as humans, harbor in our deepest recesses. They are mostly held in check by the mores of civilization, the environment in which we grow up and the influences — be it parents, teachers, coaches or religious affiliations — that set our paths on a righteous trajectory.
The version presented by Joaquin Phoenix in “Joker” reflects today’s fractured landscape that is filled with resentment of the very rich few who seem to float above the vast majority of people who live, as many politicians like to continually say, “from paycheck to paycheck.”
And director Todd Phillips’ reiteration of the Joker taps into that divisive society, even though the movie’s setting is more reminiscent of 1970s’ New York City, when the Big Apple was rotting at the core.
Phillips and co-screenwriter Scott Silver are trying to make “Joker” a Martin Scorsese-like supervillain origin story. They create situations that recall moments from “Taxi Driver” and “The King of Comedy,” going so far as to cast Robert De Niro as Murray Franklin, a late-night entertainment host patterned on Johnny Carson, who also served as the template for Jerry Lewis’ Jerry Langford in “King of Comedy.”
“Joker” has some shortcomings, but most are obscured by Phoenix’s fearless and dedicated performance. It is mesmerizing. You can’t take your eyes off Phoenix and can’t wait to see the mayhem he inspires when he finally reveals his true nature.
Many moments in Joker are pretentious and derivative, but when Phoenix turns his dead eyes toward you, all you see is him and the nightmare scenario surging in his heart and mind.
A majority of critics were impressed by Phoenix’s acting, helping raise the movie to a 69 percent fresh rating at Rottentomatoes.com.
Technical aspects: Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English Dolby Atmos TrueHD, English and English descriptive audio 5.1 Dolby digital and French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles; DVD: 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English, English descriptive audio, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include a making of featurette a look at the creation of the movie, Phoenix’s alternate takes, costume tests and a “Joker: A Chronicle of Chaos” featurette.

Holiday: Special Edition (Blu-ray)
Details: 1938, The Criterion Collection
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn star, George Cukor directed and Donald Ogden Stewart and Sidney Buchman adapted Philip Barry’s stage play for this delight comedy romp about Johnny Case (Grant), a free spirit who, after a whirlwind romance and engagement, finds himself tumbling into the lives of his fiancée’s aristocratic Seton family.
Case’s carefree values clash with those of the staid Seton’s patriarch. His only ally is his fiancée’s younger sister, Linda (Hepburn), the brash black sheep of the family.
The movie is a captivating tribute to nonconformity and dreamers worldwide. It’s also a study of what it means to live a well and full life on your own terms.
Grant is at his most charming and acrobatic, while Hepburn brings a zest and spunk to her Linda Seton.
Two years later, Grant, Hepburn and Cukor would reunite to bring another Barry play to the screen, the classic, “The Philadelphia Story.”
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English LPCM monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus offerings include a 1930 film adaptation of the play, excerpts from an American Film Institute oral history with Cukor recorded in 1970 and ’71 and a conversation between filmmaker Michael Schlesinger and film critic Michael Sragow about the movie.

Cobra Woman (Blu-ray)
Details: 1944, Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: “Cobra Woman” is the fourth of six Technicolor adventure movies produced in the early and mid-1940s by Universal Pictures that starred Jon Hall and Marie Montez. Most were set in exotic locales or were centered around historical fables, such as those from the Arabian Nights.
In “Cobra Woman,” Montez plays a dual role as twin sisters — one good, one evil.
Tollea, the good sister, has been kidnapped by her twin, Naja, the Cobra Woman, who rules an island paradise with an iron hand. She also has decreed that all strangers to the island be killed on arrival.
That does not deter Tollea’s fiancé, Ramu (Hall) who, with his friend, Kodo (Sabu), sets out to rescue his beloved.
Naja, of course, falls for Ramu and decides to eliminate her sister so she can have him for herself.
It’s all rather silly, but also exciting. The film, directed by Robert Siodmak, also features Edgar Barrier, Lois Collier, Mary Nash and Lon Chaney Jr.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: The major extra is a commentary track by film historian Phillipa Berry.

Girl on the Third Floor (Blu-ray)
Details: 2019, Dark Sky Films
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A do-it-yourselfer husband convinces his wife that he can renovate the old Victorian home they have purchased.
But bursting pipes, rotting walls and an unknown slime are not what hubby signed up for in this horror-thriller.
It seems the house may have a mind of its own, as well as some dark secrets and a sordid history that it wants to keep intact.
The film stars WWE legend Phil “CM Punk” Brooks as the husband who takes on more than he realizes.
The movie, besides being creepy, offers some perverse humor.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: A commentary track is the major bonus component.

Wrinkles the Clown
Details: 2019, Magnolia Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This dark documentary is a combination of chills, creepiness and some humor that also is a testament to the influence of YouTube.
The phenomenon began with the release of a YouTube video showing a child peacefully sleeping and a man in a clown suit emerging from under her bed. The video’s description claims the clown’s name is Wrinkles, that he lives in Florida and that he was hired by the child’s parents to punish her for misbehaving.
After the video went viral, others began appearing online, showing Wrinkles pushing a cart through a parking lot, waving alongside a highway and holding balloons outside a suburban home.
The videos made Wrinkles an infamous celebrity. Soon stickers with phone numbers began appearing on telephone poles and in public restrooms throughout Florida, with offers to terrify misbehaving children.
It is disturbing that more than 1 million voicemails were left for Wrinkles.
The movie shows how imagination can spread wildly in the Internet age. And it also makes you wonder what kind of person would undertake such a job.
Technical aspects: 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English closed-captioned.
Don’t miss: Deleted scenes comprise the major extras.

Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
Agent Jade Black (DVD & VOD) (High Octane Pictures)
Baltic Tribe (DVD & digital) (High Octane Pictures)
Blood Bound (DVD & digital) (High Octane Pictures)
Dark Encounter (DVD & digital & VOD) (Shinehouse Group)
Inner Ghosts (DVD & digital) (Uncork’d Entertainment)
Legend of the Carpathians (DVD & digital) (High Octane Pictures)
The Mercenary (DVD & digital) (Uncork’d Entertainment)
Primal (Blu-ray + digital & DVD) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Reality Queen (DVD & digital) (High Octane Pictures, Jan. 10)

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
Countdown (Universal Studios Home Entertainment)
The Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park: Episode 1 (Sundance Now)
Summer Days with Coo (Shout!-GKids)
The Gulf: Episode 6 (Sundance Now, Jan. 8)
Wisting: Episode 4 (Sundance Now, Jan. 8)
Ackley Bridge: Series 3 (Acorn TV, Jan. 13)
The Brokenwood Murders: Series 6, Episode 2 (Acorn TV, Jan. 13)
Murdoch Mysteries: Series 13, Episode 5 (Acorn TV, Jan. 13)

I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook. My movie reviews also can be found at Rottentomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.