New on DVD

Cheri

(Miramax, $29.99)

In “her best role in quite some time,” Michelle Pfeiffer proves an actress over 50 can be both sexy and serious, said the Los Angeles Times. She plays a courtesan carrying on with a younger man in Stephen Frears’ “examination of life and love among the professionally heartless.”

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I Am Because We Are

(Virgil Films, $19.95)

Because Madonna produced it, critics expected this documentary about poverty and AIDS in Malawi to be an “indulgent vanity piece,” said the London Times. But director Nathan Rissman created a “completely absorbing film” about the persistence of optimism in a desperate situation.

Black Adder, Remastered

(BBC Warner, $79.98)

In this classic BBC series, Rowan Atkinson played a comically self-regarding aristocrat who pops up at points in English history to­ “generally screw things up,” said The Kansas City Star. Co-stars over the years included Hugh Laurie, Robbie Coltrane, and “a who’s who of British comedy acting.”