Joey Magidson
Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, we have one of the best films of 2026 so far and one of the best films of 2025 hitting shelves, making for a potent one-two punch. On the one hand, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is coming home, while on the other, Sentimental Value debuts with the Criterion Collection. This week also features lots of 4K re-releases, Lenny joining Criterion, and other new releases like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. Curious about the full list? Read on to find out…
Joey’s Top Pick
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Nothing can really prepare you for what Matt Johnson is able to accomplish with Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. It’s hard to still be going in blind, but if you can, just take my repeated recommendations and watch this film. It’s brilliant, insane, and brilliantly insane. Need more convincing? Well, I spoke to Johnson and Jay McCarrol about the flick here, which you should definitely listen to. Plus, we have my rave review here, which begins like so:
I can not believe that this movie exists. There has never been a film quite like Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, which is saying something considering how it’s directly riffing off of a cinematic classic. This one of a kind flick is the kind of genius lunacy that independent cinema can produce at its best. Will it be for everyone? No. Is it still the most creative thing I’ve seen in a very long time? For sure chutzpah and cinematic bravery, as well as just crafting an instant cult classic, this is the pinnacle of 2026 releases for me so far.
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie defies easy description (you can hear me slowly hook Myles Hughes with a bit of a tease, before revealing more here on the latest episode of the Awards Radar Podcast). You literally could tell someone the entire plot of the film and it would spoil nothing, because seeing is believing here. Then again, even after seeing the movie, I can’t believe they got away with it, let alone that it turned out as phenomenal as it did. Am I being vague up front? Sure. Below, I’ll get into more. However, if just shouting from the rooftops that this is a must-see is good enough for you, stop reading now and check this one out. You can thank me later.
Recommended Movies
Sentimental Value (Criterion)
As a huge fan of The Worst Person in the World, I went into Sentimental Value with very high expectations. Given that, it wouldn’t have been a shock to have the movie let me down, even a little bit. That it at least met my expectations was really worth praising. I spoke about the flick with co-stars Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas here and Stellan Skarsgård here. I also had a chat with filmmaker Joachim Trier and his co-writer Eskil Vogt here. Back at TIFF, my rave review of the film here kicked off with the following bit:
After how blown away I and many others were by The Worst Person in the World (raved about here), it would be easy for Joachim Trier‘s follow up to be a letdown. The fact that Sentimental Value is pretty much just as good is quite the achievement. Again tackling heady themes in a massively appealing and even entertaining manner, Trier has a deft handle on tone that allows him to go places others would not dare. Not only is this one of the best movies playing at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, it’s one of the better works of 2025, overall.
Sentimental Value is so good, it almost appears effortless for all involved. There’s less of a sense of discovery or being blown away than there was with The Worst Person in the World, but there’s still a clear feeling that you’re watching a master filmmaker emerge. The sense that Trier could still just be getting excited is kind of mind-boggling, given how well realized and effective his latest flick already is.
Also Available This Week
Billy Joel: The 100th – Live at Madison Square Garden – The Complete Concert (Blu-ray)
Dracula
Dreams
Faces of Death (1978) (4K)
The Great Outdoors (4K)
Harry and the Hendersons (4K)
Heel
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Parenthood (4K)
Rambo: The Complete Collection (4K)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (4K)
The Snowman (4K)
Criterion Corner
Lenny
From The Criterion Collection: “Director Bob Fosse’s nervy, freewheeling showbiz drama tells the real-life story of taboo-shattering comedian Lenny Bruce, the counterculture prophet whose unfiltered style opened up new frontiers in self-expression. Dustin Hoffman brings a live-wire intensity to his portrayal of the motormouthed Bruce as he goes from small-time strip-club emcee to free-speech lightning rod, while Valerie Perrine lends the film its soul with her deeply affecting performance as his wife, Honey, an innocent lost on the dark side of bohemia. A complex portrayal of one iconoclast by another, Fosse’s film makes deft use of stark monochrome photography and kinetic editing to vividly capture Bruce’s smoky, seedy backstage world.”
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Sentimental Value
From The Criterion Collection: “Joachim Trier, one of contemporary cinema’s great humanists, excavates layers of history and memory—both national and personal—for this rich, ineffably moving story of one family’s attempts to come to terms with generations of trauma and healing. After the death of their mother, two sisters must contend with the return home to Norway of their estranged father, celebrated filmmaker Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård). In the case of Nora (Renate Reinsve), an actor, he hopes to reconnect by casting her in his new film—a project that both inflicts fresh wounds and reopens old ones. With a virtuoso ensemble cast that also includes Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (in a breakout performance) and Elle Fanning, Trier’s film delicately balances each moment of humor and hurt, conducting a stunning emotional exploration of how the past echoes in the present and art can transform pain into catharsis.”
Stay tuned for more next week…
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