December 11th, 2023

JULES - Paramount+ w/Showtime

JULES is stacked with a talented cast: Ben Kingsley, Jane Curtin, Harriet Sansom Harris, Andy Daly, and Paramount+ seems like a perfect place for the film to find an audience. It’s sweet and well done, a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Our favorite part of the film was the promotional campaign, which featured the ‘alien’ from the story walking around New York City. Behold as the New Yorkers encounter this hairless ET, and probably realize it’s only the third or fourth most bizarre thing they’ve seen that day:

December 12th, 2023

DARK HARVEST - MGM+

Director David Slade made a big splash when his debut film Hard Candy premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. It came and went quietly in theaters that year, but quickly became a cult favorite on home video, and helped launch the career of star Elilot Page. From there Slade hit the big time, directing the Josh Hartnett vampire thriller 30 Days of Night, and the third installment in the Twilight Saga, namely The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Since then, he’s done some television (Breaking Bad, Black Mirror), but Dark Harvest is his return to features. Sadly, the film (which was pretty well-received by critics) went straight to streaming.

DIVINITY - $14.99 Sale / TBD Rental

A fascinating oddity. Steven Soderbergh and Eddie Alcazar announced in September 2021 that they were collaborating on a new film with Alcazar directing and Soderbergh producing. Divinity is the result, and it sounds bonkers: Set in an otherworldly human existence, scientist Sterling Pierce (Scott Bakula) dedicated his life to the quest for immortality, slowly creating the building blocks of a groundbreaking serum named "Divinity". Jaxxon Pierce (Stephen Dorff), his son, now controls and manufactures his father's once-benevolent dream into a malicious nightmare. And Bella Thorne plays a character named Ziva! Reviews were all over the place, but we’re going to dive in and give it a shot.

December 13th, 2023

TAYLOR SWIFT | THE ERAS TOUR (EXTENDED VERSION) - $19.89 Rental

The film that saved theaters in the fall comes home. What better way to celebrate Taylor Swift’s birthday? The Time Magazine Person of the Year has generously reduced the price of rental by ten cents to commemorate her year of birth. Three additional songs from her concert tour were added to this ‘Extended Version’, including ‘Wildest Dreams’, ‘The Archer’, and ‘Long Live’. So who do we think will win the SVOD rights? Netflix? Prime Video? The NFL Network? Stay tuned, we’ll post as soon as there’s news.

December 14th, 2023

BLUE JEAN - Hulu

Georgia Oakley’s directorial debut won the People’s Choice Award at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, and went on to win stars Rosy McEwan and Kerrie Hayes lead and supporting actress prizes at the 2022 British Independent Film Awards. The film is set in 1988, and tells the story of a closeted PE teacher who is pushed to the brink when a new student threatens to expose her sexuality. Great to see this one hitting Hulu, where it should get a nice boost in visibility.

December 15th, 2023

BARBIE - Max

What’s left to say about the blockbuster of the year? It’s Oscar chances, of course! Will Barbie continue to defy the odds and become an Academy Award winner? We’re thinking it’s a shoo-in for nominations for Best Picture, Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Production Design, Song(s), and Costumes. Less certain are Margot Robbie for Best Actress, and Greta Gerwig for Best Director. Whatever happens with nominations, we think wins for Song and Production Design are likely. So get ready for Oscar-winning Barbie by catching up with it on Max.

CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET - Netflix

A sequel to 2000’s Chicken Run, it’s cause for celebration when Aardman Animations releases a new film. The extremely British stylings of their stop-motion animated creations always deliver, and it sounds like Dawn of the Nugget is yet another winner. With voice talent including Thandiwe Newton, Imelda Staunton, Miranda Richardson, and Bella Ramsey (plus Zachary Levi), we’re ready for the bug-eyed and clenched teeth facial expressions that never fail to amuse us.

THE DELINQUENTS - MUBI US, PVOD ($14.99 Sale)

Who’s ready for a three-hour Argentinian heist comedy? We are! The Delinquents premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and has been selected by Argentina as their entry for Best International Feature at this year’s Oscars. We’ll see if it makes the short list when it’s announced on December 21st. For now, we look forward to catching up on this story of a bank employee who schemes to steal enough money to never work again, then confess and serve prison time while his colleague hides the cash.

THE FAMILY PLAN - Apple TV+

If there’s an Apple TV+ quality scale for their films, we’d say it runs from KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON at the top, to GHOSTED at the bottom. The Family Plan, unseen by us, looks like it leans more on the Ghosted side of the scale. Mark Wahlberg stars as Dan Morgan, a seemingly normal family man, who was once ‘the deadliest assassin in the world.’ When his past finally catches up with him, Dan takes his family on a "road trip" to Las Vegas so he can confront the man who wants him dead—all while trying to keep his old life a secret from his wife and children. That is some AI-generated plot shit. And side note: Who ranks these assassins? Who gets to call themselves the ‘deadliest assassin in the world?’ It’s like the term ‘porn star.’ Not every porn performer is a star. Not every assassin is ‘the world’s deadliest’ (end of rant).

FINESTKIND - Paramount+

A crime thriller starring Ben Foster, Jenna Ortega and Tommy Lee Jones, we’re looking forward to seeing if this enters the pantheon of bad Boston accent movies. Reviews out of this year’s Toronto Film Festival were quite bad. As Jordan Hoffman wrote in The Messenger: Movies are all about the suspension of disbelief, but 20-year-old Ortega dressed up like Mary Anne from Gilligan's Island is simply too preposterous of a buy-in. The packed press screening at the Toronto International Film Festival was unable to keep its snickering down. So yes, we will be watching.

GRAN TURISMO - Netflix

The latest Sony release to hit Netflix. We’re not sure how much Sony is getting paid for this partnership, but Netflix is surely getting it’s money’s worth. The previous Sony movie to hit Netflix, NO HARD FEELINGS, was a smash. The Jennifer Lawrence movie was the most-streamed title during the week of Oct. 23-29, with a healthy 1.1 billion minutes watched. We’ll see if Gran Turismo can reach those heights when it arrives on the platform next week. Next up for Sony/Netflix: The Equalizer 3 on January 1, 2024.

PRISCILLA - $24.99 Sale / $19.99 Rental

One of the low-key biggest indie success stories of the year. Priscilla is the first Sofia Coppola film to break $20M at the domestic box-office since 2003’s Lost in Translation. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be getting much awards traction or year-end critics support. That’s a bit surprising, especially considering lead Cailee Spaeney won the Best Actress prize at this year’s Venice Film Festival. It doesn’t feel like she’s even part of the Oscar conversation? Hopefully the film’s PVOD release gives it a boost in visibility and gets people talking again.

THE RETIREMENT PLAN - Hulu

The year of Nicolas Cage continues, with one of his six (yes, we’re counting THE FLASH) movies hitting Hulu. We’re not expecting The Retirement Plan to end of in any of Cage’s career retrospectives, it’s a pretty standard, down the middle crime thriller. It was produced by William G. Santor, CEO of Productivity Media, and Nicholas Tabarrok, President of Darius Films, who have a multi-picture deal with the Cayman Islands local authorities, where the film was shot. That sounds completely legit…not tax shenanigans to see here.

THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY - MUBI US

The other Lily Gladstone movie of 2023. This is the one she received the Best Actress prize for at last week’s Gotham Independent Film Awards (Killers of the Flower Moon was not eligible). Shockingly, Gladstone was not among the nominees when the Spirit Awards were announced this week. We thought she’d be a threat to win this year’s Best Lead Performance prize, but nope. Not nominated. The Unknown Country did snag a nomination for The John Cassavetes Award, which is given to the best feature made for under $1,000,000. This quiet film is well worth seeking out.

Happy streaming everyone!

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