New to View: Dec. 2
Changes abound in this HBO series that follows the lives and challenges of members of New York's high society in the late 19th century. Read about it and other new releases in New to View at ReelBob.
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, Dec. 2, unless otherwise noted:
The Gilded Age: The Complete Third Season (DVD)
Details: 2025, HBO Home Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Changes abound for the Russell and Brook households in the third season of this HBO series set in the New York of the 1880s — a period enormous economic and social change.
While George Russell (Morgan Spector) works to secure a railroad deal that would link the nation from coast to coast, Bertha (Carrie Coon) continues to finagle to increase her influence in the city’s high society, especially since arranging a marriage between the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb) and her daughter, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga).
Across the street, the hierarchy has shifted in the Brook household as Ada (Cynthia Nixon), now a widow, who inherited a fortune from her late husband, has taken over from her sister, Agnes (Christine Baranski), whose family fortune was lost by her son, Oscar (Blake Ritson).
Meanwhile, Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), Agnes’ secretary, is being wooed by a successful doctor, whose snobbish mother takes a dislike to Peggy.
Many other subplots that involve the staffs of both households also are touched upon in the season’s eight episodes.
This is an interesting look at late-19th century New York high society, where manners and norms outweigh decency and common sense.
Technical aspects: 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus options include a featurette on “The Black Elite of New York” and a behind-the-scenes look at designing the elaborate Newport ball.
Anemone (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + digital)
Release date: Nov. 25
Details: 2025, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: R, language
The lowdown: “Anemone” marks the welcome return to the screen of Daniel Day-Lewis since his appearance in “The Phantom Thread” in 2017.
The movie was directed by Day-Lewis’s son, Ronan, making his debut behind the camera. Ronan Day-Lewis also co-wrote the screenplay with his father.
“Anemore” is a slow moving, subdued story of brothers, their troubled past, and family.
Day-Lewis portrays Ray Stoker, who left his family to live as a recluse in the forest. His brother, Jem (Sean Bean), goes to retrieve Ray at the behest of Nessa, Jem’s wife, who was formerly married to Ray before he deserted her and their unborn son.
It is because of that son, Brian, that Ray needs to return. Brian has been sent home from the army for brutally hurting one of his colleagues.
In the course of the movie, we learn of Ray’s trauma and why he was discharged from the service.
With its long monologues, the feature plays more fitting for the stage than the screen. It is the performance of Day-Lewis that keeps “Anemone” afloat.
The movie earned a 54 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
The Blu-ray is available at www.moviezyng.com or other online sellers.
Technical aspects: 4K: 2160p ultra-high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English Dolby Atmos; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles; Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English Dolby Atmos; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Eleanor the Great (Blu-ray)
Release date: Nov. 25
Details: 2025, Sony Pictures Classics
Rated: PG-13, thematic elements, language, suggestive references
The lowdown: Ninety-six-year-old June Squibb portrays 94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein, who is witty and proudly troublesome.
Her life changes after the loss of her best friend with whom she lived with for 12 years in Florida. Eleanor moves in with her daughter in New York City, where, because of a mix-up, joins a group at the local Jewish Community Center where, to fit in, she assumes the Holocaust family story of her late friend.
Eleanor’s ruse is discovered and revealed by her daughter, causing ripple effects that embarrass her family, hurt her new friends at the JCC and, most of all the betrayal of Nina (Erin Kellyman), a New York University student who had become a close friend, who included Eleanor’s story in a paper for her journalism class.
Events become more complicated when Nina’s father, newscaster Roger Davis (Chiwetel Ejiofor), reports the story on his local news show.
“Eleanor the Great,” which garnered a 66 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, marked the directorial debut of Scarlett Johansson. You can find the Blu-ray at www.moviezyng.com or other online dealers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH, English and French subtitles.
The Long Walk (Blu-ray + digital)
Release date: Nov. 25
Details: 2025, Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Rated: R, strong bloody violence, grisly images, suicide, language, sexual references.
The lowdown: “The Long Walk” is adapted from Stephen King’s first written novel and directed by Francis Lawrence, who helmed “The Hunger Games” franchise.
The movie is set in an alternate American dystopian 1970s ruled by a totalitarian regime. It follows 50 boys in an annual televised competitive walking marathon. The rules state that each boy must maintain a pace so 3 mph on nonstop walking. Failure to do so — after three warning shots — results in death.
The central characters are Ray, Pete and The Major, played by Mark Hamill, who oversees the death squads, is in charge of the walk.
King’s “The Long Walk” was published in 1979 under his pseudonym of Richard Bachman. It feels as if the movie was a touchstone for Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games” books and movies, as both involve young people living in totalitarian states who participate in life-or-death contests.
“The Long Walk” earned an 88 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 (16x9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English Dolby Atmos and descriptive audio and French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: The main extra is a making of multi-part documentary.
Tom and Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology 1940-1958 (Blu-ray)
Details: 1940-58, Warner Archive Collection-Allied Vaughn
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A six-disc set featuring all 114 cartoons featuring that rambunctious, battling cat and mouse, Tom and Jerry.
William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were the creative force behind the animated shorts. To kids growing up in the late 1950s and 1960s, the pair were known for such characters as Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Top Cat as well as The Flintstones and The Jetsons.
The basic premise of the Tom and Jerry cartoons was that the mischievous Jerry would start trouble, setting off Tom, who would try to stop him, catch him and hopefully have him for dinner. Most of the time the quick-witted Jerry outsmarted the futile mouse hunter.
The cartoons were popular and critically received — winning seven Academy Awards for best short subject (cartoon). Their very first cartoon, “Puss Gets the Boot,” released in 1940 — in which Tom as named Jasper — earned the pair’s first Oscar nomination. The 1943 cartoon, “Yankee Doodle Mouse,” was their first to win an Oscar.
The shorts also were known for their violence and, at times, sadistic behavior as the characters used weapons such as axes, explosives, hammers and firearms against each other.
Of course, no one is really injured in these cartoons because they keep coming back for more.
The cartoons are presented in their original, uncut and uncensored versions, which means the character of Mammy Two Shoes, the maid who tries to keep the cat and mouse from wrecking the home, are included. Be mindful the Mammy character is a stereotypical product of her era.
The set can be found at www.moviezyng.com or other online sellers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen and 1.75:1, 2.55:1 and 2.35:1 widescreen pictures; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include a featurette Mammy and the legacy of Lillian Randolph, who voiced her; a look at other characters, including the bulldogs Spike and Tyke and the alley cats Butch and Toodles Galore; nine vintage featurettes, including excerpts from “Anchors Away” with Gene Kelly and “Dangerous When Wet” with Esther Williams; 20 commentary tracks; and three bonus shorts, “Good Will to Men” (1955), “Give and Tyke” (1957) and “Scat Cats” (1957).
Manhattan Melodrama (Blu-ray)
Release date: Oct. 28
Details: 1934, Warner Archive Collection-Allied Vaughn
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Real-life events always have overshadowed “Manhattan Melodrama,” namely that it was the movie public enemy John Dillinger viewed at the Biograph Theater in Chicago before he was killed by federal agents after leaving the theater.
Putting the Dillinger episode aside, “Manhattan Melodrama” is a first-rate movie, using the reliable plot line of boyhood friends whose lives diverge as the grow up. Jim Wade (William Powell) goes to law school, becomes an assistant district attorney and ultimately governor.
Blackie Gallagher (Clark Gable) becomes the owner of a fancy, though, illegal casino and pays off police officers to stay in business.
Myrna Loy is Eleanor, Blackie’s girlfriend, who wants him to give up his dangerous life, go straight and marry her.
Jim and Eleanor meet when Blackie, who can’t attend Jim’s celebration after being elected district attorney, asks her to take his place.
Months later Jim and Eleanor re-connect, fall in love and eventually marry.
Eventually, Jim runs for governor. His former chief assistant, whom he fired for corruption, threatens to lie to the press to hurt Jim’s election chances. Blackie, to protect Jim, kills the man.
Later, Blackie is captured, convicted and sentenced to death. Eleanor tells Jim why Blackie killed the man, but he is not swayed and, as governor, refuses to commute Blackie’s conviction to life in prison.
Having a change of heart, Jim visits Blackie in prison, but his longtime friend, tells him that it is for the best that he be executed.
At the end, Jim resigns as governor and he and Eleanor reconcile.
This was the first of 14 pairings of Powell and Loy — their next feature together would be a memorable one that impacted their careers for years to come, “The Thin Man.”
The Blu-ray can be found at www.moviezyng.com or other online retailers.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 (16x9 enhanced) full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a couple of MGM shorts and a 1940 “Lux Radio Theater” broadcast adaptation of the movie featuring Powell and Loy.
The House With Laughing Windows: Limited Edition (4K Ultra HD)
Details: 1976, Arrow Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This Italian giallo thriller is more understated and less lurid than many movies in the genre.
It’s protagonist is Stefano (Lino Capolicchio), an art restorer who arrives in an isolated Italian village to repair a fresco depicting the martyrdom of St. Sebastian.
The original painter was a death artist — a madman so obsessed with mortality that, according to rumors, he tortured his models in their last moments of life.
When people begin to turn up dead, Stefano is forced to consider the possibility that the artist has returned to continue his infamous career. To complicate matters, Stefano believes he is the killer’s main target.
The movie offers an eerie twist on giallo genre, which culminates in an unforgettable finale that you will remember long after the final credits roll.
Technical aspects: 2160p ultra-high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; Italian LPCM monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include two commentary tracks; a documentary on the film featuring interviews with its writer-director, co-writer, assistant director, Capolicchio and actor Francesca Marcia; visual essays by critics Chris Alexander and Kat Ellinger; and a booklet about the movie.
Other titles being released in the coming week include:
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
All Saint’s Day (One Tree Entertainment)
All’s Fair: Episode 7 (Hulu)
Savage Hunt (Radial Entertainment-Shout! Studios)
Tapawingo (Indican Pictures)
Tron: Ares (Disney)
Vanguard: Episode 4 (Viaplay)
DEC. 3
Down Cemetery Road: Episode 7 (Apple TV+)
The Hunt (Traqués) (Apple TV+)
Loot: Season 3, Episode 9 (Apple TV+)
My Secret Santa (Netflix)
Palm Royale: Season 2, Episode 4 (Apple TV+)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Episodes 1 & 2 (Disney+)
DEC. 4
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (Kino Film Collection)
Murdering Love: Episodes 1 & 2 (Viaplay)
Radical Wolfe (Kino Film Collection)
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Season 3 Reunion Special (Hulu)
DEC. 5
Adrianne & the Castle (Intuitive Pictures)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw (Disney+)
The First Snow of Fraggle Rock (Apple TV+)
Frontier Crucible (Well Go USA Entertainment)
Hunting Season (Samuel Goldwyn Pictures)
Jay Kelly (www.netflix.com/JAYKELLY) (Netflix)
The Last Frontier: Episode 10 (Apple TV+)
Man Finds Tape (Magnet Releasing)
Muzzle: City of Wolves (RLJE Films)
The Nipple Talk: Episode 5 (Film Movement+)
Pluribus: Episode 6 (Apple TV+)
Reflection in a Dead Diamond (Shudder)
Universal (Subspin Productions)
Until Tomorrow (Film Movement+)
The Wailing (Film Movement)
I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, 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 X @ReelBobBloom, on Facebook at ReelBob and on Bluesky at @bobbloom1948@bsky.social or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.
I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, 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 X @ReelBobBloom, on Facebook at ReelBob and on Bluesky at @bobbloom1948@bsky.social or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.