Out on DVD: Brits, balls, classics, congressmen and the food chain

Whether you like your Brits stately, wacky or sexy, there's something for you in this week's crops of new DVDs, which include Brideshead Revisited and the TV shows Skins and Little Britain USA.

Find out more after the jump!

Previously adapted as a legendary TV miniseries starring Jeremy Irons, Evelyn Waugh's classic novel Brideshead Revisited was boiled down to two hours for a 2008 screen adaptation starring Matthew Goode (Match Point, the upcoming Watchmen) as Charles Ryder, a middle-class college student who becomes enraptured by sibings Sebastian (Ben Whishaw) and Julia Flyte (Hayley Atwell), romancing them both in turn. But the movie really belongs to Emma Thompson as the staunchly Catholic and socially ruthless Lady Marchmain.

Also new on DVD this week are two very different British TV shows: Skins, a sexy and queer-inclusive teen soap, and Little Britain USA.

Skins follows a group of high schoolers and their adventures with booze, drugs and sex, and the appealing cast includes Nicholas Hoult (from About a Boy, all grown up now), Mitch Hewer (above) as gay teen Maxxie and Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel.

Matt Lucas and David Walliams brought their unique brand of lunacy across the Atlantic for Little Britain USA, which combines the duo's classic characters ("only gay in the village" Daffyd, the "computer says no" lady) with some new ones for Yank audiences (an attention-starved former astronaut, two steroidal bodybuilders oblivious to the sexual tension between them).

If you missed the online photos of a porn-stached Seann William Scott in a jockstrap — I'll wait here while you open a new tab for Google Images — you can see the strapping Role Models and American Pie star flaunting it on the court in the comedy Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach, which debuts on DVD this week. It's a reunion of Scott and Danny Leiner, his Dude, Where's My Car? director, so there should be at least a few laughs to go with the beefcake.

DVD collectors looking to stock their library with Hollywood classics should check out the "Paramount Centennial Collection"; this week, its offerings include the immortal Sunset Blvd. — a movie with diva/kept boy queer subtext oozing out of every pore — along with four Audrey Hepburn favorites, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Roman Holiday, Sabrina and (my personal pick) Funny Face.

One of the more talked-about American features on the queer film festival circuit this past summer was Choosing Connor, about a bright young teenager (Alex Linz, the one-time child star of films like Home Alone 3 and Max Keeble's Big Move) who goes to work for an ambitious politician (Steven Weber), only to learn some harrowing truths about power and corruption. Escher Holloway turns in a moving performance as the politician's queer nephew who's seen way too much in his young life.

An arresting image from Our Daily Bread

And while there's nothing specifically queer about Our Daily Bread, it's a fascinating documentary worth tracking down, particularly since it didn't get a whole lot of theatrical play in the U.S.

The movie takes us behind the scenes to farms, factories, slaughterhouses and other stops along the road that the food we eat travels to get to the grocery store. Rather than use interviews or even voice-overs, director Nikolaus Geyrhalter weaves his long takes and arresting (and occasionally horrifying) images into a dreamlike tapestry. One critic called it a cross between Fast Food Nation and Koyaanisqatsi, which only begins to capture the film's uniquely haunting quality. Don't miss this one.