April 9th, 2024

ENNIO - $14.99 Sale / TBD Rental

Giuseppe Tornatore, the director of the Oscar-winning 1988 Best Foreign Language Film Cinema Paradiso, pays tribute to his friend and collaborator Ennio Morricone, retracing the life and works of the Italian composer, from his debut with Sergio Leone to his Oscar win for The Hateful Eight in 2016. The film comprises interviews with renowned directors and musicians, recordings of some of the maestro's acclaimed world tours, clips from some iconic films set to music by Morricone and exclusive footage of the scenes and places that defined Morricone's life. A must watch for fans of the composer.

GLITTER & DOOM - $14.99 Sale / TBD Rental

In a fantastical summer romance set to the iconic hits of the Grammy Award-winning Indigo Girls, Glitter & Doom follows the love-at-first-sight connection between carefree circus performer Glitter (Filipino star Alex Diaz) and struggling musician Doom (UK newcomer Alan Cammish). The film is punctuated by a star-studded supporting cast, including Lea DeLaria, Tig Notaro, Drag Race alum Peppermint, Ming-Na Wen, Missi Pyle, and the Indigo Girls themselves, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. Reviews were mixed, but Indigo Girls songs always pack a punch.

IO CAPITANO - $14.99 Sale / TBD Rental

Matteo Garrone’s drama was a surprise Oscar nominee for Best International Feature this year, crowding out some favorites like France’s The Taste of Things, Finland’s Fallen Leaves, and Denmark’s The Promised Land. It was a nice acknowledgement for Garrone, who previously missed out on a nomination for his breakthrough 2008 film Gomorrah. Io Capitano won the Silver Lion at the 2023 Venice Film Festival and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for star Seydou Sarr's performance. He plays a Senegalese teenager living in Dakar who yearns for a brighter future in Europe, and attempts a journey through the Saharan desert, a fetid North African prison and the vast waters of the Mediterranean to build a new life. It’s a harrowing film and a tough watch, but also extremely powerful.

KUNG FU PANDA 4 - $29.99 Sale / $19.99 Rental

The 2024 box-office is still recovering from the impact of last year’s SAG and WGA strikes, the effects of which we’re seeing in the lack of big releases in the first part of the year. One segment that’s been vastly underserved is the kids audience. Kung Fu Panda 4 was the first new theatrical release for kids in 2024, and it didn’t come until March 8th. Illumination’s Migration lingered in theaters for much of the winter, but there was really nothing new for parents to take their young children to for much of the first part of the year. Disney gave some of their pandemic titles a theatrical release (Luca, Turning Red, Soul), but they all tanked. The studios seem to have given up on live-action films for kids (or is it the other way around?). Anyway…there’s a whole generation not getting their version of Beethoven, The Sandlot, or Freaky Friday. Those kinds of movies imprint on their young audience, and make them moviegoers for life.

ONE LIFE - $24.99 Sale / $19.99 Rental

One Life is based on the true story of British humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton as he looks back on his past efforts to help groups of Jewish children in German-occupied Czechoslovakia to hide and flee in 1938–39, just before the beginning of World War II. It stars Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn as the older and younger version or Sir Nicholas, with Lena Olin, Romola Garai, Alex Sharp, Jonathan Pryce, and Helena Bonham Carter in supporting roles. This is the sort of meat-and-potatoes arthouse film that would have legged out $15M-$20M in the 2000s. Bleecker Street did its best, taking the film wide and getting it to nearly $5M. Here’s hoping they can find greater success on PVOD.

SLEEPING DOGS - $14.99 Sale Only

Russell Crowe is back again this week. We last saw him giving a one-room performance in the action thriller Land of Bad, and now he’s playing retired homicide detective Roy Freeman, who while undergoing treatment for Alzheimer's disease, is forced to re-open an old case involving the murder of a college professor. Reviews were not kind, with Owen Gleiberman of Variety describing it as follows: “It’s patchy, it’s badly lit, it’s glum, it’s overloaded with suspects, and it’s almost proud of its contrivances. Yet in its logy, booby-trapped way, it keeps you watching.” We want Crowe to get back on that Vespa and give us the Pope’s Exorcist sequel the world needs.

April 12th, 2024

ARGYLLE - Apple TV+

Who is the real Agent Argylle? Well…it turns out…no one really cared all that much. In a movie season desperate for an action-packed, star-studded hit, Argylle landed in theaters with a shrug. Audiences rejected it. Critics loathed it. And not even the tantalizing prospect of the possibility that Taylor Swift wrote it (she didn’t) could get moviegoers excited about this Matthew Vaughn production. It hit PVOD much faster than Apple’s two previous theatrical swings: Killers of the Flower Moon went to digital after 45 days; Napoleon after 47 days. Argylle arrived a mere 31 days after its theatrical release. And now it arrives on Apple TV+ a month later.

COUP DE CHANCE - TBD Sale / TBD Rental

Woody Allen’s latest is supposed to be pretty good. Whether you have the stomach for it probably depends on how much you can separate the art from the artist. The 88 year-old filmmaker continues to get financing for new films, though no major US distributor has come on board in quite some time. Watching Woody Allen films now is kind of like watching The Cosby Show. There’s a lot of great stuff…but it all feels rotten. Anyway…we’re not ones to encourage pirating (we prefer to support art with our $), but if there was ever a film we’d say ‘Have at it, pirates!’ to, this might be the one.

DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS - Peacock

The response to this Ethan Coen directed crime comedy was a bummer. We don’t mean the critical response. Coen Brothers comedies are usually a vibe not everyone gets on board with. We mean its utter failure at the box-office. Projected to earn about $4M on its opening weekend, it ended up grossing a paltry $2.4M. Universal/Focus has gotten a lot of flack for its aggressive PVOD strategy. We get it. But they are also the only studio releasing a robust, diverse film slate. They have 22 theatrical releases scheduled for 2024. No other studio comes close. So if they can make it work through PVOD and Peacock, we’re cheering them on. Drive-Away Dolls was always going to be a tough sell, but for the audience who vibes with it, it will be cherished.

THE GREATEST HITS - Hulu

We have high hopes for this time-travel romance that stars Lucy Boynton, Justin H. Min, and future Superman David Corenswet. Unfortunately, the reviews have been pretty lukewarm. That’s a shame, because the premise is intriguing: Harriet (Boynton) finds art imitating life when she discovers certain songs can transport her back in time -- literally. While she relives the past through romantic memories of her former boyfriend (Corenswet), her time traveling collides with a burgeoning new love interest in the present (Min). As she takes her journey through the hypnotic connection between music and memory, she wonders -- even if she could change the past, should she? We’ll give it a shot and hopefully be pleasantly surprised.

MAYHEM! - AMC+

France and Thailand-set action movie Mayhem! combines the talents of French director Xavier Gens and UK action designer Jude Poyer, who first met on the set of the AMC series Gangs of London (great show, btw). IFC Films has retitled the film, which was released worldwide as Farang, a Thai word that translates as: ‘A foreigner in Thailand who is of Western ancestry.’ Mayhem! has been described as a French The Raid, which pretty much sells it for us. We’re looking forward to catching up with this one on AMC+.

STRANGE WAY OF LIFE - Netflix

Pedro Almodovar is one of our favorite filmmakers, so it’s always an event when he releases a new film. Strange Way of Life is Almodvar’s second short film, coming after 2020’s terrific The Human Voice. Both are also the director’s only English-language efforts, though he is currently shooting his feature length English-language debut, tentatively titled The Room Next Door, which co-stars Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. Strange Way of Life looks gorgeous (as all Almodovar films do), but its length leaves you wanting more. It ends just as it gets going. Still, Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal are terrific, and it’s well worth a watch.

Happy Streaming Everyone!

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