"Director: Gus van Sant"

• Good Will Hunting | DVD | (17/04/2011) from £5.66   |  Saving you £14.33 (253.18%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From highly acclaimed director Gus Van Sant this triumphant story was nominated for 9 Academy Awards - winning Oscars for Robin Williams and hot newcomers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and also features nominee Minnie Driver. Will Hunting (Damon) is a headstrong working-class genius. After one too many run-ins with the law Will's last chance is a psychology professor (Williams). Experience this powerful and unforgettable movie.

• Drugstore Cowboy | DVD | (16/09/2002) from £19.10   |  Saving you £-3.11 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Drugstore Cowboy was the breakaway change of pace and success for a number of those involved in its making. Principally, Gus Van Sant became a director of immediate notability winning multiple international Festival awards and acclaim. It also allowed Matt Dillon to stretch his acting abilities well outside of the teen rebel pigeonhole he'd become associated with in the 1980s and provided far meatier roles for Kelly Lynch and Heather Graham. Adapted from James Fogle's novel, the broad strokes of the plot are simple enough; a junkie foursome led by Dillon's headstrong Bob, move around the Pacific Northwest in the early 70s scoring pharmaceutical drugs in a series of robberies. The finer details, created with the sense of family developing between the principals, and how they are not portrayed as either victims or "bad" criminals. Van Sant occasionally slips into the surreal depicting Bob's drug-addled thinking like a James Bond title sequence, along with a questionable in-joke cameo with Williams S Burroughs, dish out advice and temptation to Bob. In one simple way, it's little more than a road movie. Yet on another level there's a cautionary tale of the life of a junkie that has relevance well beyond the film's timeframe. On the DVD: A stereo track and a grainy print in 1.85:1 usually does a movie little favours, but here they add to the overall gritty atmosphere surprisingly well. The only extra is unfortunately the original trailer. --Paul Tonks

• Milk | Blu Ray | (08/06/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Gay Rights Activist. Friend. Lover. Unifier. Politician. Fighter. Icon. Inspiration. Hero. His life changed history, and his courage changed lives.

• Good Will Hunting | DVD | (22/01/2001) from £13.50   |  Saving you £2.49 (18.44%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Robin Williams won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck nabbed one for Best Original Screenplay, but the feel-good hit Good Will Hunting triumphs because of its gifted director, Gus Van Sant. The unconventional director (My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy) saves a script marred by vanity and clunky character development by yanking soulful, touching performances out of his entire cast (amazingly, even one by Williams that's relatively schtick-free). Van Sant pulls off the equivalent of what George Cukor accomplished for women's melodrama in the 1930s and 40s: He's crafted an intelligent, unabashedly emotional male weepie about men trying to find inner-wisdom. Matt Damon stars as Will Hunting, a closet maths genius who ignores his gift in favour of nightly boozing and fighting with South Boston buddies (co-writer Ben Affleck among them). While working as a university janitor, he solves an impossible calculus problem scribbled on a hallway blackboard and reluctantly becomes the prodigy of an arrogant MIT professor (Stellan Skarsgård). Damon only avoids prison by agreeing to see psychiatrists, all of whom he mocks or psychologically destroys until he meets his match in the professor's former childhood friend, played by Williams. Both doctor and patient are haunted by the past and, as mutual respect develops, the healing process begins. The film's beauty lies not with grand climaxes, but with small, quiet moments. Scenes such as Affleck's clumsy pep talk to Damon while they drink beer after work, or any number of therapy session between Williams and Damon offer poignant looks at the awkward ways men show affection and feeling for one another. --Dave McCoy

• Finding Forrester | DVD | (06/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Sean Connery and Rob Brown star as an eccentric, reclusive novelist and a talented young scholar & athlete. As the young man gets to know his mentor he must face up to a tough decision about his dreams to write and play sport.

• My Own Private Idaho | DVD | (01/12/2008) from £4.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (60.12%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Wherever whatever have a nice day... River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star in director Gus Van Sant's haunting tale of two young street hustlers: Mike Waters (Phoenix) a sensitive narcoleptic who dreams of the mother who abandoned him and Scott Favor (Reeves) wayward son of the mayor of Portland and the object of Mike's desire. Navigating a volatile world of junkies thieves and johns Mike takes Scott on a quest from the grungy streets to the open highways to the Pacific Northwest in search of an elusive place called 'home'. Groundbreaking and visually dazzling 'My Own Private Idaho' is a stirring look at unrequited love and life at society's margins.

• Good Will Hunting | Blu Ray | (19/09/2011) from £12.13   |  Saving you £12.86 (106.02%)   |  RRP £24.99

  For the first time on Blu-ray. From highly acclaimed director Gus Van Sant this triumphant story was nominated for 9 Academy Awards - winning Oscars for Robin Williams and hot newcomers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and also features nominee Minnie Driver. Will Hunting (Damon) is a headstrong, working-class genius. After one too many run-ins with the law, Will's last chance is a psychology professor (Williams). Experience this powerful and unforgettable movie.

• Milk | DVD | (08/06/2009) from £7.55   |  Saving you £10.44 (138.28%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Gay Rights Activist. Friend. Lover. Unifier. Politician. Fighter. Icon. Inspiration. Hero. His life changed history, and his courage changed lives.

• Psycho | DVD | (01/01/1999) from £4.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (100.20%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Marion Crane is a Phoenix, Arizona working girl fed up with having to sneak away during lunch breaks to meet her lover, Sam Loomis, who cannot get married because most of his money goes towards alimony.

• To Die For | DVD | (10/09/2007) from £6.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (85.84%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Suzanne Stone (Nicole Kidman) has always dreamed of being on TV - and she's dead-set on making that dream come true. But there is just one obstacle: Larry Maretto her husband (Matt Dillon). So Suzanne convinces a love-struck teenager (Jaoquin Phoenix) to get Larry out of the way - for good.

• Elephant | DVD | (26/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From acclaimed filmmaker Gus Van Sant comes the moving story of a violent incident that rocks the students and faculty at a high school in Portland, Oregon.

• To Die For | Blu Ray | (11/05/2015) from £12.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (36.40%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Featuring a career-best, award-winning performance from Nicole Kidman as a relentless, malevolent news anchor with delusions of grandeur, this highly stylised neo-noir from Oscar-nominated Gus Van Sant won multiple awards including a Golden Globe. A blackly comic tale, To Die For is featured here in a stunning High Definition transfer from original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio. Fifteen minutes of fame was never going to be enough for Suzanne. Married to small-town restaurateur Larry Maretto, all she ever wanted was to be a high-flying anchorwoman on network TV. Blessed with more determination than ability, she plans her way to the top and will do absolutely anything to achieve her goals but as Suzanne's ambition grows, her grip on reality starts to slide... SPECIAL FEATURES Original theatrical trailer Image galleries (including deleted scenes) TV spots Promotional material PDFs

• To Die for | DVD | (08/03/2004) from £11.45   |  Saving you £-2.47 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Suzanne Stone (Kidman) has always dreamed of being on TV - and she's dead-set on making that dream come true. But there is just one obstacle: Larry Maretto her husband (Dillon). So Suzanne convinces a love-struck teenager (Phoenix) to get Larry out of the way - for good. To Die For is the most critically acclaimed comedy of the year and Nicole Kidman struts her stuff with enough come-on carnality to singe the screen! (Peter Travers Rolling Stone)

• Finding Forrester | DVD | (20/08/2001) from £10.96   |  Saving you £-4.97 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Sean Connery and Rob Brown star as an eccentric, reclusive novelist and a talented young scholar & athlete. As the young man gets to know his mentor he must face up to a tough decision about his dreams to write and play sport.

• Promised Land | DVD | (13/01/2014) from £2.70   |  Saving you £13.29 (492.22%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In Promised Land Matt Damon stars as Steve Butler a corporate salesman whose journey from farm boy to big-time player takes an unexpected detour when he lands in a small town where he grapples with a surprising array of both open hearts and closed doors. Gus Van Sant helms the film from an original screenplay written by John Krasinski and Matt Damon from a story by Dave Eggers. Steve has been dispatched to the rural town of McKinley with his sales partner Sue Thomason (Academy Award winner Frances McDormand). The town has been hit hard by the economic decline of recent years and the two consummate sales executives see McKinley's citizens as likely to accept their company's offer - for drilling rights to their properties - as much-needed relief. What seems like an easy job and a short stay for the duo becomes complicated - professionally by calls for community-wide consideration of the offer by respected schoolteacher Frank Yates (Academy Award nominee Hal Holbrook) and personally by Steve's encounter with Alice (Rosemarie DeWitt). When Dustin Noble (John Krasinski) a slick environmental activist arrives suddenly the stakes both personal and professional rise to the boiling point.

• Dead Poets Society / Good Will Hunting | DVD | (15/05/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Dead Poets Society (1989): Academy Award winner Robin Williams delivers a brilliant performance in one of Hollywood's most compelling and thought-provoking motion pictures. Williams portrays passionate English professor John Keating who in an age of crew cuts sport coats and cheerless conformity inspires his students to live life to the fullest exclaiming... ""Carpe diem lads! Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary!"" The charismatic teacher's emotionally charged challenge is met by his students with irrepressible enthusiasm - changing their lives forever. Magnificently directed by Peter Weir (The Truman Show) Dead Poets Society earned unparalleled praise among audiences and critics alike. Discover for yourself what all the cheering's about. (Dir. Peter Weir Cert. PG) Good Will Hunting (1997): Will Hunting (Damon) is a headstrong working-class genius. After one too many run-ins with the law Will's last chance is a psychology professor (Williams). Experience this powerful and unforgettable movie. From highly acclaimed director Gus Van Sant this triumphant story was nominated for 9 Academy Awards - winning Oscars for Robin Williams and hot newcomers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and also features nominee Minnie Driver. (Dir. Gus Van Sant Cert. 15)

• Gerry | DVD | (27/07/2009) from £4.39   |  Saving you £11.60 (72.50%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Two friends both named Gerry become stranded in the desert during a hiking on a wilderness trail.

• Finding Forrester (Dual Format) (Blu-ray & DVD) | Blu Ray | (27/02/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Finding Forrester is a very accomplished example of the sentimental melodrama that Gus Von Sant has made his own--issues like integrity and snobbery are presented with just enough simplification to the set pieces that no-one feels challenged. Brilliant baseball player Jamal gets the chance to move from a sink school in the Bronx to a private academy where his real intellectual and artistic talent will be nurtured along with his sporting skills. This is an American film about class and race, but one that makes the real issue Jamal's unsuspecting need to defend himself against accusations of plagiarism. His artistic mentor is a reclusive novelist, whose whereabouts he keeps secret even when he stands to lose everything. Rob Brown is extraordinary as the boy, conveying the sensitivity, genius, obstinacy and physicality of a character written as a paragon; Sean Connery turns in a predictably fine performance as Forrester, using his authority to make the part credible; F Murray Abrahams is, as always, an effective villain--he brings an observed creepy snobbery to the film; Anna Paquin makes a good impression in the minor part of Jamal's white schoolfellow and supporter. On the DVD: The disc includes two powerful deleted scenes of school choirs, a "making-of" documentary and a short film about the auditions process which found Rob Brown. It has fine sound--Dolby Digital 5.1--that brings out the film's jazz score perfectly. The anamorphic 2.35:1 aspect ratio, enhanced for 16:9 TVs, looks just fine. --Roz Kaveny

• Even Cowgirls Get The Blues | DVD | (06/04/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  From the director of Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho comes a star-studded comedy based on the best-selling novel by Tom Robbins. Uma Thurman Lorraine Bracco and Keanu Reeves star in this magical road movie about a hitchhiker in search of the ultimate ride.

• My Own Private Idaho | DVD | (27/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Mapping the spaces between fortune and degeneracy, Shakespeare and street cant, Europe and the Pacific Northwest, and gay and straight, My Own Private Idaho is the 1991 masterpiece by director Gus Van Sant. River Phoenix gave the most generous and memory-searing performance of his tragically shortened career as Mike Waters, a narcoleptic street hustler in search of his mother. His best friend, Scott, played by Keanu Reeves, is a son of privilege who fosters plans of rejoining the moneyed world of his father after gallivanting with assorted urchins and ne'er-do-wells. The beautifully symmetrical story that emerges between the two is one of friendship, yearning for lost time, and sexual identity conveyed with a poet's eye for landscape. The camera lingers on abandoned houses in golden fields and time-lapse clouds, providing what T.S. Eliot called "the objective correlative"--external representations of interior emotional states. We're treated to striking iconic sequences like a barn falling from the sky and still-life scenes of carnal entanglement. The supporting cast is a rogues' gallery that includes Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Udo Kier, director William Richert, and a variety of "nonactors" pulled literally off the street to provide documentary veracity to a film that gleefully careens into riffs on Henry IV. It's beautiful. What's also beautiful is the Criterion Collection's treatment of the film's DVD debut. The director-approved transfer successfully conveys the warmth of the film's palette of oranges and browns, and preserves the whimsical atmospherics of the yodeling country music soundtrack. Many members of the original crew contribute their fond memories to the documentary features, which include a conversation between Phoenix's sister Rain and producer Laurie Parker. There are also two lengthy audio-only conversations--one between Van Sant and Velvet Goldmine director Todd Haynes, and another between author J.T. Leroy and filmmaker Jonathan Caouette about their experiences on the street. The deleted scenes mostly suggest alternate endings that Van Sant wisely left on the cutting room floor. A superb example of a beloved film on DVD. --Ryan Boudinot, Amazon.com