‘Roofman’ and ‘One Battle After Another’ bring two criminal extremes to 4K

Here’s a look at a pair of films on the 4K disc format offering two radical looks at career criminals.

Roofman (Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment, rated R, 2.39:1 aspect ratio, 126 minutes, $31.99) — The real-life exploits of clever robber Jeffrey Manchester came to light in an inspired and entertaining crime drama from director Derek Cianfrance that now debuts in the 4K disc format.

Channing Tatum stars as Jeffrey, a divorced Army veteran who becomes a compassionate career criminal known as the “Roofman” for breaking into 45 fast-food restaurants through the roof to steal cash.

He eventually gets caught, escapes from a North Carolina prison, manages to live in a Toys “R” Us and even finds love with a store employee Leigh (Kirsten Dunst) before eventually going back to his old ways.

The story plays well against Mr. Tatum’s naturally likable persona, resulting in an oddly feel-good crime film about family, second chances and flawed ambition. The Toys “R” Us sequences also deliver a potent dose of nostalgia for viewers who grew up wandering the aisles of the now-defunct retailer.

The ultra-high-definition presentation offers an accurate visual portrait of life in North Carolina and includes a restrained color palette with natural skin tones. However, the image carries more grain than expected for a contemporary release, slightly undercutting the otherwise solid presentation.

Best extras: Viewers get five featurettes (roughly 40 minutes in total) with an overview of the production, a spotlight on the director’s vision, rebuilding an abandoned Toys “R” Us, and a look at rehearsals for the used car test drive and church choir scenes.

One Battle After Another (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, rated R, 1.85:1 aspect ratio, 161 minutes, $34.98) — Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson’s critically acclaimed savage satire of modern activism struggled at the box office but may find a more receptive audience in its 4K home-video disc release.

The story opens with the French 75, an imbecilic yet highly dangerous radical-left group of terrorists wreaking havoc across the United States. Their crimes range from raiding immigrant camps to bank robberies and bombings.

One of the group’s reckless leaders, Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), encounters Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) during a raid on a detention facility. Col. Lockjaw becomes obsessed with her violent sexuality, stalking her while quietly allowing her crimes to continue.

Perfidia is also romantically involved with munitions expert Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio). After she gives birth to her daughter, Charlene, Pat abandons the revolution to raise the child, while Perfidia sinks deeper into radical extremism.

Following a deadly bank robbery, Perfidia is arrested. Col. Lockjaw cuts a deal, pressuring her to expose the group’s members in exchange for witness protection. She later escapes his control by fleeing the country, disappearing entirely.

Sixteen years later, Pat lives off the grid as paranoid stoner Bob Ferguson, still caring for Charlene, now renamed Willa. Meanwhile, the Colonel’s ferocious anti-immigration stance earns him attention from the Christmas Adventurers Club, a secret White supremacist society.

Before he can join, Col. Lockjaw must erase his past. That hunt leads him back to Bob and Willa, setting the stage for Mr. Anderson’s bleak, mocking examination of fanaticism on all sides.

Mr. Penn’s consuming extreme performance of the sadistic and crazed colonel verges on cartoonish and should get him an Oscar, while Mr. DiCaprio fits comfortably into a role of a washed-up loser with a heart, as he did in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

Mr. Anderson definitely delivers an opus worth enjoying with plenty of food for thought.

He lays waste to the current climate of divisive politics centered around immigration battles while reminding the country that both its left and right sides can be equally ridiculous when they get lost in ideology and forget they are part of the human race.

The director has again created a visual masterpiece, partly by embracing the vibrant VistaVision film format and delivering a screen-filling IMAX-style presentation that looks fantastic in the UHD format.

Its crisp documentary style delivers a muted palette embracing tinged brown, red hues and icy blues and looking oppressive as though a filter clouds the lens.

Moments of richness and detail are as found with a helicopter flying over a green forest, a gorgeous Southwest mountain setting dominated by sand, and Pat escaping agents by running across the tops of buildings while a fiery riot plays out below him.

Best extras: Viewers get the over 2-hour-long movie, and that’s it. I find it almost impossible to believe there isn’t an exclusive director’s commentary track, at the very least, to tempt fans to want to buy the disc.

Those hoping to add the movie to their disc entertainment library should wait for future releases, hopefully from Criterion or Arrow Video, which should offer a substantial amount of extras.