Recommended June DVD Releases

Clint Eastwood stars in this drama, which he also directed and produced. Eastwood plays cantankerous retired autoworker Walt Kowalski, whose pride and joy is a 1972 Gran Torino, a car he helped build when he worked at Ford. He lives alone in a house in a Detroit neighborhood that is becoming rundown and filling up with immigrants. The family next door is Hmong, a mountain people from Southeast Asia, and Walt refers to them using various racial epithets. But when their teenage boy starts getting pulled into a gang, Walt takes matters into his own hands to try to set things right.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet portray a married couple in this drama directed by Sam Mendes. The story, adapted from Richard Yates' celebrated 1961 novel, is about conformity and alienation. The movie takes place in 1955, and the Wheelers, Frank (DiCaprio) and April (Winslet), live in a suburban house in Connecticut. Frank works at an office-machines company in Manhattan, while April takes care of the house and their two kids. But the Wheelers are suffocating, and they struggle with their feelings of being trapped. The film received three Oscar nominations.

Joaquin Phoenix gives a strong performance in this subtle, intense romantic drama co-written and directed by James Gray. Set in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, the story may sound conventional in summary form, but the film's treatment of it is nontraditional. The protagonist is the tormented Leonard Kraditor (Phoenix), whose middle-class parents hope he will marry a nice, attractive woman (Vinessa Shaw) who likes him and seems perfect for him. But he is drawn to a troublesome blonde (Gwyneth Paltrow) who has a married boyfriend and a drug problem.