new on home video This week’s DVD releases

Available Tuesday:

“Adam” (PG-13, 97 minutes): Preschool teacher Beth Buchwald (Rose Byrne) has moved into a new apartment, and she’s interested in the cute guy on the second floor (Hugh Dancy). But he seems just a little bit off — nervous and lost during casual conversation but able to expound rapturously on astrophysics. Adam has Asperger’s syndrome, which affects his capacity to empathize or to understand what other people are feeling. At its best, the film makes the viewer understand the frustration of living in a world in which everyone is a stranger — not least by making us work as hard to understand its hero’s feelings as Adam himself must work to understand Beth’s. Contains thematic material, sexual content and language. DVD extras: deleted and alternate scenes; behind-the-scenes featurette; commentary with director and producer.

“Amelia” (PG, 111 minutes): As the film opens, Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank) is about to set off on what was to be her last global adventure. The proto-feminist flier had to overcome enormous sexism just to be taken seriously in the cockpit. Would that the film had taken as many risks as Earhart. When it comes to some of the wild speculation that has arisen over the years about what happened to Earhart during that final flight, the movie doesn’t even go out on a limb, opting instead for the sort of vague, open ending that is historically safe and cinematically dull. But who can blame Swank for being drawn to Earhart’s life? It’s an inspiration to little girls everywhere. Contains a couple of mild vulgarities, brief sensuality, smoking and dangerous flying. DVD extras: deleted scenes; featurettes.

“New York, I Love You” (R, 110 minutes): New York is the sort of city where a man can approach a woman during a cigarette break outside a restaurant and in three minutes flat have her deep in sex talk. Thus, a writer, played by Ethan Hawke, approaches an attractive woman in this compendium of short films, woven into a light but enjoyable souffle of erotic vignettes. The New York installment of Emmanuel Benbihy’s “Cities of Love” series attracted a starry cast of actors and an intriguing cross section of edgier directors. Natalie Portman makes her directing debut in perhaps the weakest of the 11 shorts, but she appears to better effect as an actress in Mira Nair’s touching film about a Hasidic woman and a Jain man coming together for an erotic, cross-culture moment while haggling in New York’s Diamond District. Contains language and sexual content.

“Zombieland” (R, 83 minutes): Directed by Ruben Fleischer, the film finds our hero on the run from zombies. These zombies are humans who’ve been infected with a virus (swine flu gone apocalyptically wrong) that makes them search for human flesh on which to feast. Our hero (Jesse Eisenberg) meets a highway cowboy (Woody Harrelson), and the oddball pair travels on together. The two are quite adept at killing zombies. They run into a pair of nonzombie sisters, played by Abigail Breslin and Emma Stone, and set off for an amusement park that’s purportedly zombie-free. It is sometimes funny. But those of us who jump every time something goes bump in Zombieland might have a hard time relaxing for long enough to really enjoy ourselves. Contains violence, gore and language. DVD extras: director and cast commentary; deleted scenes; featurettes; theatrical trailers.

Also: “Doctor Who: The Complete Specials,” “Love Happens,” “More Than a Game,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show: The Complete Sixth Season” and “The Wolfman: Collector’s Edition.”

—The Washington Post