DVD Gift Guide: From Buster to 'Bustin

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me... a collector's edition DVD (or more likely a Blu-ray, but that doesn't rhyme)

Feature by Jamie Dunn | 24 Nov 2016

Ghostbusters

(for the MRA in your life)

For a culture so used to reboots, the apoplectic online vitriol that met the announcement of an all-female Ghostbusters from men who felt their childhood memories were being destroyed was downright bizarre. Paul Feig’s comedy has many delights (Kate McKinnon’s nutty gear-head Holtzman, for example), but the chief one is the glee with which the film takes on its detractors by making every man in the movie a moron, from their modestly-brained secretary Kevin (Chris Hemsworth) to the YouTube commenters who react to their video: “Ain’t no bitches gonna fight no ghosts.” As Lesley Jones’s Yates says, “You’re not supposed to be listening to what crazy people say online.”

On Blu-ray and DVD from Sony

Donnie Darko

(for that weirdo kid in your life who needs a hero)

”Donnie Darko! What the hell kind of name is that? Sounds like a superhero or something.” 15 years after its release, it’s clear that Richard Kelly’s wry mix of sci-fi and coming-of-age is a keeper. This shiny new Blu-ray release should be pressed into the hands of any kid who feels, like Donnie does, that their family and teachers don’t understand them. It may change their life. And who knows, like Donnie, they may also save the world.

On Blu-ray from Arrow

The Jacques Rivette Collection

(for that cinephile in your life with lots of time on their hands)

Jacques Rivette makes extremely long films that feel like their characters are making up their own story as they go along, giving them the feeling that anything could happen. None were longer or more freewheeling than Out 1, which is the centerpiece of this essential box set. The Paris-set mystery following two theatre troupes, two conspiracy nuts and a shady organisation called the Thirteen takes over 13 head-scratching hours to unfurl. Is there a better time to get pulled into Rivette's odyssey than over the Christmas break?

On dual format from Arrow

Buster Keaton Shorts Collection

(for the cinephile in your life with little time on their hands)

If 13-hour films are too much to handle in your post-Christmas dinner stupor, how about some of the most hilarious short films ever made? This new collection sees 32 of Buster Keaton's sublime shorts presented together on one box set, from 1917’s The Butcher Boy to 1923’s The Love Nest, and the deadpan comic's mini-masterpieces have never looked better.

On Blu-ray from Eureka

Twilight’s Last Gleaming

(for that person in your life who’s still not worried about Trump as president)

If you’re of the mind that our post-truth politics is a relatively new phenomenon, you’ve not been watching enough cinema from the 70s. This gem from Robert Aldrich is one of the decade's angriest. It centres on Burt Lancaster at his gruff best as a Vietnam-vet who breaks into a nuclear missiles bunker and threatens World War Three unless the President releases the true reason his generation was thrust into war.

On dual format from Eureka

Sing Street

(for that millennial in your life who wants to know about the 80s)

This sharply detailed coming of age musical follows a group of schoolboys in mid-1980s Dublin who decide to put a band together – the chief inspiration being that one of the lads wants to impress a girl. It’s written and directed by John Carney, who brought us the twee Once and Begin Again. Don’t let that fact send you reaching for the mute button. This has all the sweet sentimentality of those two films, but the 80s setting also adds some spiky edges.

On DVD and Blu-ray from Lionsgate

Nerve

(for the Gen Xers in your life who want to know about millennials)

This social media thriller plays like a younger, less cynical cousin to Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror. It tells the story of two pretty young things (Emma Roberts and Dave Franco) caught up in a voyeuristic game streamed on the dark web that requires participants to do increasingly edgy dares, from kissing a stranger to murdering one. It’s all quite ridiculous, but you won’t want to take your eyes off the engaging leads or Michael Simmonds’ neon drenched night-time photography.

On DVD and Blu-ray from Elevation Sales

The Shallows

(for that cinephile in your life considering spending Christmas by the beach)

Since making his debut with 2005's House of Wax, Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra has made a string of modest thrillers that display a flair for lucid action and inventive set-pieces. The Shallows, a fat-free survival thriller, shows off all his skills to the max. Some of you might daydream about spending Christmas alone at the beach, leaving your family to bicker over the remote, but this nailbiter starring Blake Lively and a great white shark will surely give you pause.

On DVD and Blu-ray from Sony

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