Howl
(Oscilloscope Laboratories, $30)
Howl is an “apt celebration” of Allen Ginsberg’s life and work, said The Washington Post. Turning a poem into a film is a challenging task, but the reading of Ginsberg’s epic is here interspersed with scenes from the obscenity trials that surrounded its publication. James Franco, playing the poet in re-created interviews, “conveys all of Ginsberg’s revelatory honesty.”
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Catfish
(Universal, $30)
Dubbed the “other Facebook movie,” Catfish is a “pretty perfect companion piece to the Internet-versus-reality meditations of The Social Network,” said The Wall Street Journal. This “underdog documentary” explores a Facebook friendship that goes horribly awry. Shot with consumer-grade HD cameras, it should feel “at home” on the small screen.
Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends: The Complete Series
(Vivendi, $100)
“This is one of the few animated series that gets better with age—yours and the show’s,” said the Fresno, Calif., Bee. The misadventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle first aired in 1959, but, as this 18-disc collection proves, a squirrel and a moose can slip a lot of “smart jokes” into a loud barrage of silliness.
