DVD previews: 'A Most Violent Year,' 'The Immigrant'

Here's a look at DVDs coming out Tuesday, April 7:

"A Most Violent Year" (R, 125 minutes, Lionsgate): Set in New York's outer boroughs in 1981 - a year of record crime rates in the city - J.C. Chandor's absorbing urban drama is about honor, ambition, loyalty and ethical calculations, all set against the improbably action-packed backdrop of the home heating oil industry. With its shimmering, faraway skyline, Manhattan beckons throughout this atmospheric chamber piece, but Chandor pays homage to boot straps, elbow grease and alert, opportunistic self-makers while keeping a wary eye on the moral slippage that they exploit. Its protagonist, Abel Morales, is a man on the move. A businessman who started out as an oil truck driver, he now owns the company and is trying to buy a crucial piece of land alongside the East River. Played by Oscar Isaac in a watchful, thoughtfully paced performance, Morales is determined to bring personal pride and his own brand of striver's politesse to the competitive industry: Even when his drivers are brutally hijacked, he refuses to allow them to arm themselves. But when things get ugly, his wife, Anna (Jessica Chastain), asks her husband if he wants her to call in reinforcements from her mobbed-up family. Chandor ("Margin Call," "All is Lost") gracefully evokes the tone and atmosphere of 1980s New York, working with the fabulous cinematographer Bradford Young to create a washed-out palette and brutalist visual style that evokes Sidney Lumet at his most gritty and unadorned. Contains language and violence. Extras include commentary with Chandor and producers Neal Dodson and Anna Gerb, a conversation with Chastain and Isaac, a making-of featurette, deleted scenes, "Inner City Crew" outtakes and a public service announcement.

"The Immigrant" (R, 120 minutes, Radius-TWC): Signaling the nature of its story from the very first frame, James Gray's drama shows the Statue of Liberty with its back turned to us, blind to the hardships its title character, a young Polish woman, will suffer. But Gray directs this handsome and evocative film with emotional restraint, making its archetypal title character a living individual whose moral journey is never simple. Marion Cotillard plays Ewa, who arrives at Ellis Island in 1921 with her tubercular sister. Officials quarantine Magda, as the sisters feared, but they deny entry to Ewa as well. Frightened and confused, Ewa finds help from a mysterious, well-dressed stranger. Bruno (Joaquin Phoenix), who knows how to circumvent bureaucracy, gets her off the island and to the Lower East Side, where he seems to be a prince of the tenements. The arrival of Bruno's cousin Emil (Jeremy Renner), a Houdini-like illusionist who woos Ewa, fuels a rivalry. The movie's re-creation of 1921 New York feels lived-in, its saloons and street life as period-specific as, say, those in "Once Upon a Time in America," without straining to impress. Cotillard's performance is similarly unshowy: Bottled-up Ewa doesn't advertise her desperation or weep over necessary sins; she does what her situation requires. Contains sexual situations, nudity and language.

"The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death" (PG-13, 98 minutes, Fox): Schoolchildren fleeing World War II London for a remote country estate discover a ghostly presence in this horror sequel. Contains some disturbing and thematic elements. With Phoebe Fox, Helen McCrory and Jeremy Irvine. Extras include a locations featurette and deleted scene. Also, on Blu-ray: "Pulling Back the Veil: The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death."

Also: "Pelican Dreams," "The Voices," "Home Sweet hell," "The Invisible Front," "Happy Valley," "Monk With a Camera," "The Simon Wiesenthal Collection" (box set of documentaries exploring Jewish history), "Killers" (Indonesia/Japan), "Massacre Gun" (1967, Japan), "Singles," "Empire Records" and "Detroit Rock City."

Television series: "Manhattan: Season One," "Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways," "The Book of Negroes" (Canadian miniseries), "Frasier: The Complete Series," "Matlock: The Complete Series" and "King of the Hill: Season 9."