There's an ample amount of new material coming to your digital retailer of choice. I just haven't heared of 90% of it. So, my blind stab in the dark would be to recommend "Godland" and "Other People's Children" based on their distribution (Criterion and Music Box Films). I'm curious about "Wonderwell," the final film to feature Carrie Fisher. "I Am T-Rex" just sounds bonkers until you realize it's animated. There are also numerous horror options. "The Ones You Didn't Burn" is a fantastic title.
It's a completely different story for this week's Blu-ray and DVD titles. You might have heard of "Avatar: The Way of Water." You should (but likely aren't) familiar with "Polite Society," a incredibly entertaining romp from Nida Manzoor("Lady Parts"). If you're in a more serious mood, "Guy Ritchie's The Covenant" is an interesting war drama that devolves into a Rambo film.
For me, the excitement comes via the Criterion Collection's release of "The Servant," a toff-kilter thriller from playwright Harold Pinter.
The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
Studio Synopsis: Vicaria is a brilliant teenager who believes death is a disease that can be cured. After the brutal and sudden murder of her brother, she embarks on a dangerous journey to bring him back to life. Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, THE ANGRY BLACK GIRL AND HER MONSTER thematically challenges our ideas of life and death. Bomani J. Story, the film's writer and director, crafts a thrilling tale about a family that, despite the terrors of systemic pressure, will survive and be reborn again.
Clean
Studio Synopsis: Trauma cleaners clean spaces that no one else will touch – hoarder sites, meth-labs, murder scenes, deaths and suicides. They clean the homes of some of society’s most vulnerable people – the neglected, the lonely, the addicted, and the mentally unwell. When illness forces her away from her beloved trauma cleaning business, Sandra Pankhurst faces up to her traumatic past and begins a search for her birth mother. Meanwhile, her workers approach this difficult work with camaraderie and humor, bringing hope to their clients despite carrying trauma of their own. Clean shows us that life is more fragile than we might think, but there is hope and reassurance in human connection.
Coyote
Studio Synopsis: A story of forbidden love in a dystopian future where teleportation technology enables two refugees to escape genocide. When they trust the wrong back-alley teleporter, Ekaterina (Therica Wilson-Read) and Anya (Borisalava Stratieva) are separated. In a desperate attempt to be reunited, our heroines are entwined in an insidious human trafficking ring involving corrupt politicians.
Godland
Studio Synopsis: The struggle between the strictures of religion and our own brute animal nature plays out amid the beautifully forbidding landscapes of remote Iceland in this stunning psychological epic from director Hlynur Pálmason. In the late nineteenth century, Danish priest Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove) makes the perilous trek to Iceland’s southeastern coast with the intention of establishing a church. There, the arrogant man of God finds his resolve tested as he confronts the harsh terrain, temptations of the flesh, and the reality of being an intruder in an unforgiving land. What unfolds is a transfixing journey into the heart of colonial darkness attuned to both the majesty and terrifying power of the natural world.
I Am T-Rex
Studio Synopsis: After a power-hungry dinosaur from outside the valley attacks the king of dinosaurs by surprise, a young T-Rex escapes and begins to train, vowing never to return until he is the biggest and bravest in all the land—and finally strong enough to challenge the evil Fang and restore peace to Green Valley. (Also available on Blu-ray and DVD)
I'll Show You Mine
Studio Synnopsis: An author who has made a career by examining her own trauma sits down to interview her beguiling pansexual nephew Nick, whose liberated approach to libido, gender, and personal boundaries both captivates and unsettles her. As the wine flows and the past unfurls, Priya and Nick find themselves in an increasingly tangled web of intrigue and morality. Over the course of a weekend, the two engage in a game of conversational cat and mouse, each challenging the other to confront and reveal their most buried secrets.
The Ones You Didn't Burn
Studio Synopsis: After the death of his father a young man returns to the family home to prepare it for sale where he meets two women who claim the property was stolen from their ancestors after they were accused of being witches. He soon finds himself at the centre of an occult conspiracy that led to his fathers demise and now threatens to destroy him.
Other People's Children
Studio Synopsis: When dedicated high school teacher Rachel (Virginie Efira) falls in love with Ali (Roschdy Zem), it's not long before she also falls for his daughter Leila. The lustful giddiness of Rachel and Ali's late-night rendezvous evolves into the familiar warmth of family picnics and after-school pickups. Although she feels like a mother, Rachel is not allowed to forget that Lelia is another woman's daughter. She begins to long for a child of her own, but as a forty-something woman, she is abundantly aware that she has limited time to begin a family. Rachel must decide whether to embrace the inherent entanglements of her current situation, including co-parenting with Ali's ex-wife Alice (Chiara Mastroianni), or strike out again on her own. Other People's Children becomes a soulful, sexy, and resolutely grown-up story of the elusive quest for agency and belonging.
Sheroes
Studio Synopsis: Isabelle Fuhrman, Sasha Luss, Wallis Day, and Skai Jackson star in an adrenaline-fueled thriller from a producer of Spring Breakers. When four thick-as-thieves friends arrive in Thailand for a hedonistic adventure, they quickly find themselves in over their heads when one of them is kidnapped by a notorious drug lord. As they fight to stay alive and protect each other, they'll employ their unique set of skills and unleash their fierce loyalty in a heart-pumping battle for survival.
The Unheard
Studio Synopsis: A woman suffers from auditory hallucinations related to the mysterious disappearance of her mother. WARNING: This film contains extended sequences of flashing lights that may impact people with photosensitive epilepsy.
Wonderwell
Studio Synopsis: At 12 years old, Violet (newcomer Kiera Milward) is living in Italy with her American parents and her beautiful older sister, Savannah (Nell Tiger Free). When Savannah is selected to be the face of world-renowned designer Yana’s (Rita Ora) fashion label, the family travels to an enchanting medieval village for a photo shoot. Neglected and bored, Violet wanders from the ancient Tuscan town into a nearby forest where she meets the enigmatic Hazel (Carrie Fisher), who may be the fabled witch of the woods Violet was warned about by Yana’s beleaguered stepson, Daniele (Sebastian Croft). Guided by Hazel to a mysterious portal, Violet is offered a glimpse of what her future might hold, but like the transition from childhood to womanhood, it may be a journey of no return.
Blu-ray & DVD Highlights
Avatar: The Way of Water
Studio Synopsis: Avatar: The Way of Water reaches new heights and explores undiscovered depths as James Cameron returns to the world of Pandora in this emotionally packed action adventure. Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water launches the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure. All of this against the breathtaking backdrop of Pandora, where audiences are introduced to new Na'vi cultures and a range of exotic sea creatures that populate the majestic oceans.
Polite Society
Studio Synopsis: A merry mash up of sisterly affection, parental disappointment and bold action, POLITE SOCIETY follows martial artist-in-training Ria Khan who believes she must save her older sister Lena from her impending marriage. After enlisting the help of her friends, Ria attempts to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of independence and sisterhood.
Guy Ritchie's The Covenant
Studio Synopsis: Guy Ritchie's The Covenant follows US Army Sergeant John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Afghan interpreter Ahmed (Dar Salim). After an ambush, Ahmed goes to Herculean lengths to save Kinley's life. When Kinley learns that Ahmed and his family were not given safe passage to America as promised, he must repay his debt by returning to the war zone to retrieve them before the Taliban hunts them down first.
Blu-ray & DVD
Rodeo
Studio Synopsis: Hot-tempered and fiercely independent, Julia (Julie Ledru) is a gearhead who thrives in hostile environments and turns every situation to her advantage. She has a talent for scamming condescending men who think it’s cute that she shows interest in their used motorbikes–and can’t fathom her riding away with gleeful abandon. Her obsession with the high-octane world of urban ‘Rodeos’ - illicit gatherings where riders show off their bikes and latest daring stunts - sparks a chance meeting with a volatile clique. Julia strives to prove herself to the ultra-masculine gang by performing cons and running errands for their incarcerated ring leader, Dom. She finds a surprising connection with Dom’s wife, Ophélie (Antonia Buresi), and son, a risky move that puts a target on her back. Julia is unsure who she can trust as the ultimate heist comes down the pike.
Skinamarink
Studio Synopsis: Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished.
The Servant
Studio Synopsis: The prolific, ever-provocative Joseph Losey, blacklisted from Hollywood and living in England, delivered a coolly modernist shock to the system of that nation’s cinema with this mesmerizing dissection of class, sexuality, and power. A dissolute scion of the upper crust (James Fox) finds the seemingly perfect manservant (a diabolical Dirk Bogarde, during his transition from matinee idol to art-house icon) to oversee his new London town house. But not all is as it seems, as traditional social hierarchies are gradually, disturbingly destabilized. Lustrously disorienting cinematography and a masterful script by playwright Harold Pinter merge in The Servant, a tour de force of mounting psychosexual menace.
Medicine for Melancholy
Studio Synopsis: Barry Jenkins’s captivating debut feature, Medicine for Melancholy, is a lo-fi romance that unfolds against the backdrop of a rapidly gentrifying San Francisco. There, a one-night stand between two young bohemians, Micah (Wyatt Cenac) and Jo’ (Tracey Heggins), spins off into a woozy daylong affair marked by moments of tenderness, friction, joy, and intellectual sparring as they explore their relationships to each other, the city, and their own Blackness. Shooting on desaturated video, Jenkins crafts an intimate exploration of alienation and connection graced with the evocative visual palette and empathetic emotional charge that have come to define his work.
Game Trilogy
Studio Synopsis: Made at the end of the 1970s, Toru Murakawa's Game Trilogy launched actor Yusaku Matsuda as the Toei tough guy for a new generation. Matsuda was the definitive screen icon of 1980s until his career was tragically cut short by cancer at the age of 40, following his Hollywood debut in Ridley Scott’s Black Rain.
In this career-defining triptych, Matsuda is Shohei Narumi, an ice cool hitman of few words, a steely trigger finger, and a heart of stone, hired in The Most Dangerous Game by a company bidding for a lucrative government air defence contract to take out the competition. In The Killing Game, Narumi finds himself caught in the midst of violent yakuza gang warfare, while his own brutal past catches up with him in the form of two beautiful women still bearing the emotional scars of his past assignments. In The Execution Game, Narumi falls for a mysterious saloon bar chanteuse who may or may not be part of the same, shadowy underworld organisation as the rival hitmen he is employed to rub out.
The Manchurian Candidate (1962) 4K UHD
Studio Synopsis: Shocking, daring, thrilling and mesmerizing, The Manchurian Candidate is a mindblower! Directed by the legendary John Frankenheimer (Seven Days in May, The Train, Seconds, Ronin) and featuring an all-star cast, including Angela Lansbury (The Mirror Crack’d) in an Oscar-nominated performance (Best Supporting Actress, 1962), this eerily prescient masterpiece “may be the most sophisticated political satire ever made” (Pauline Kael). When a platoon of Korean War G.I.s is captured, they somehow end up at a ladies’ garden club party. Or do they? Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra, Von Ryan’s Express) can’t remember. As he searches for the answer, he discovers threads of a diabolical plot orchestrated by the utterly ruthless Mrs. Iselin (Lansbury) and involving her war hero son (Laurence Harvey, A Dandy in Aspic), her senator husband (James Gregory, The Silencers) and a secret cabal of enemy leaders.
Ronin 4K UHD
Studio Synopsis: An end-of-career masterpiece from John Frankenheimer, the legendary director of The Manchurian Candidate, The Train, Seconds and Grand Prix, Ronin is a gritty and gripping action caper with some of the most exhilarating car chases ever committed to celluloid. The Cold War may be over, but a new world order keeps a group of covert mercenaries employed by the highest bidder. These operatives-for-hire, known as “Ronin” (masterless samurai), are assembled in France by a mysterious client for a seemingly routine mission: steal a top-secret briefcase. But the simple task soon proves explosive as other underworld organizations vie for the same prizeand to get the job done, the Ronin must do something they’ve never done before—trust each other.
Vanilla Sky 4K UHD
Studio Synopsis: Young, handsome and wealthy, publishing tycoon David Aames (Cruise) can have anything his heart desires. Still, David’s charmed life seems incomplete. One night, David meets the woman of his dreams (Penélope Cruz) and believes he may have found the missing piece. But a fateful encounter with a jealous lover (Cameron Diaz) suddenly sends David’s world out of control, rocketing him on a roller-coaster ride of romance, sex, suspicion and dreamsto a shocking, final awakening you will never forget.
The Firm 4K UHD
Studio Synopsis: Three-time Oscar nominee Tom Cruise delivers the most electrifying performance of his career in this riveting film based on the international best-seller. Cruise plays Mitch McDeere, a brilliant and ambitious Harvard Law grad. Driven by a fierce desire to bury his working-class past, Mitch joins a small, prosperous Memphis firm that affords Mitch and his wife (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and affluent lifestyle beyond their wildest dreams. But when FBI agents confront him with evidence of corruption and murder within the firm, Mitch sets out to find the truth in a deadly crossfire between the FBI, the Mob, and a force that will stop at nothing to protect its interests – THE FIRM.