IRRESISTIBLE
After the Democrat’s top strategist Gary (Steve Carell) sees a video of a retired Marine Colonel (Chris Cooper) standing up for the rights of his town’s undocumented workers, Gary believes he has found the key to winning back the Heartland. However, when the Republicans counter him by sending in his brilliant nemesis Faith (Rose Byrne), what started out as a local race quickly becomes an out-of-control and hilarious fight for the soul of America.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“It’s a smart comedy that points out the flaws of all aspects of the United State’s political landscape. It discusses how bad the division is in our country and how the media and politicians are complicit in this division. It’s a problem for both sides of the aisle that needs to be addressed before any real change can be made.” – Lorry Kikta, Film Threat
“This buoyantly funny comedy offers lip-smacking entertainment that will surprise many with its skewering of both sides. Not to mention the news media that devours the Red vs. Blue war with an insatiable appetite.” – David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
“This is a relatively gentle indictment of the cynical, money-driven political system, bolstered by winning performances from the ensemble cast. The insightful screenplay by Stewart takes Hollywood’s tendency to condescend to small-town America and turns it upside down in clever fashion.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
Available Formats:
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
BELGRAVIA: SEASON 1
Set in 1840s London, secrets continue to haunt the nouveau riche Trenchards and the aristocratic Bellasis 25 years after they first met in 1915 in the six-part adaptation of Julian Fellowes’ novel of the same name.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Belgravia is gorgeously appointed, it’s romantic enough, it’s grounded in the manners of a far more delicate time when everyone stood six-feet apart lest they bump hands, and it does what Fellowes’s Downton Abbey did, in a deeper and more engaging way, as it explores the differences between the entitlement of old money and the scrappier personalities of new money.” – Matthew Gilbert, Boston Globe
“Belgravia is an entertainment, first and foremost—and a cracking good one at that—but it also serves as a biting critique of the unearned shame spurred by prejudice that severs our connection from those we love.” – Matt Fagerholm, RogerEbert.com
“Despite a few quibbles about its pacing, Belgravia’s sleek six episodes provide the TV equivalent of a beach read romp, one that is engaging and ultimately very satisfying.” – Allison Keene, Paste
Available Formats:
DVD
BLOOD QUANTUM
The dead are coming back to life outside. But in the isolated Mi’gmaq reserve of Red Crow, the indigenous inhabitants are immune to the zombie plague. Traylor, the tribal sheriff, must protect his son’s pregnant girlfriend, apocalyptic refugees and reserve riffraff from the hordes of walking white corpses.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“A lot of people are going to judge the film based on its success as a horror movie, and others will judge it as a political statement. Not that I think there’s a deficiency in any part of its personality, but I also think the panache with which it is both of those things and more — without looking to the history of genre or the future of civil rights for permission to say some pretty bold stuff — is why the film is a success.” – Scout Tafoya, Consequence of Sound
“It is as much a gusty dissection of colonialism as it is a gut-spilling splatter-thon.” – Barry Hertz, The Globe and Mail
“Blood Quantum makes some important points, gives us stuff to care about and then drenches it all in audacious gore. And isn’t that exactly what we want from our zombie movies?” – Meredith Borders, SlashFilm
Available Formats:
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
DEADWATER FELL: SEASON 1
Dr. Tom Kendrick (David Tennant) is the prime suspect behind the house fire that killed his wife and three children in this crime drama created by writer Daisy Coulam.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“In summary it sounds soapy, but in reality it is ruthlessly unsensationalist and at times deeply moving.” – Lucy Mangan, The Guardian
“[A] taut four-part mystery… David Tennant is compellingly inscrutable as the town’s affable doctor.” – Matt Roush, TV Guide
“The performances are on-point across the board.” – Joel Keller, Decider
Available Formats:
DVD
FIRST COW
A taciturn loner and skilled cook (John Magaro) has traveled west and joined a group of fur trappers in Oregon Territory, though he only finds true connection with a Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee) also seeking his fortune; soon the two collaborate on a successful business, although its longevity is reliant upon the clandestine participation of a nearby wealthy landowner’s prized milking cow.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“We might go into a Kelly Reichardt movie thinking we’ll be told a story, but we emerge with our consciousness subtly and radically altered.” – Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
“First Cow is a masterwork of indie cinema—a tale that’s both charming and unsparing, suffused with equal measures of wonder and dread.” – David Sims, The Atlantic
“This haunting movie transports you to another world — and redefines home.” – David Edelstein, Vulture
Available Formats (9/8):
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
BAD EDUCATION
Long Island school superintendent Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) and his assistant superintendent for business, Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney), are credited with bringing Roslyn School District unprecedented prestige. Frank, always immaculately groomed and tailored, is a master of positive messaging, whether before an audience of community leaders or in an office with a concerned student or parent. In short, it seems Frank can do no wrong. That is, until a plucky student reporter (Geraldine Viswanathan) decides to dig deep into some expense reports and begins to uncover an embezzlement scheme of epic proportions, prompting Frank to devise an elaborate cover-up — by any means necessary.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Where the film really sings — aside from its often darkly funny writing and surprisingly thrilling take on what could have been a dull bureaucratic scandal — is in tracing the effects of the pressures placed on administrators and faculty.” – Alissa Wilkinson, Vox
“Bad Education reminds us how synonymous great acting and great lying can be. Jackman and Janney, both giving their richest performances in some time, manage to pull the wool over your eyes with one hand even as they teasingly pull back the curtain with the other.” – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
“This isn’t a movie about car chases and explosions, it’s about the squirmy but satisfying feeling of watching justice done, and it’s a pleasure to watch the pieces fall into place.” – Tasha Robinson, Polygon
Available Formats (9/8):
DVD
WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS
The Magistrate (Mark Rylance) of an isolated frontier settlement on the border of an unnamed empire looks forward to an easy retirement until the arrival of Colonel Joll (Johnny Depp), whose task it is to report on the activities of the ‘barbarians’ and on the security situation on the border. Joll conducts a series of ruthless interrogations, which leads the Magistrate to question his loyalty to the empire.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“With a screenplay by Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee from his 1980 novel, Waiting for the Barbarians is a parable of depressingly timeless relevance, which means it’s faithful to its source material.” – John Anderson, Wall Street Journal
“The desert outpost, mostly shot in Morocco by the gifted cinematographer Chris Menges (a two-time Oscar winner for his camera work on The Killing Fields and The Mission), becomes a powerful symbol of human decency trying to hold out under the brutal siege of alleged law and order. It’s thuddingly obvious who the real barbarians are.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
“Coetzee’s novel, with its measured, interiorized voice and sparse, incrementally devastating narrative, was never an obvious fit for film treatment. After a stiffly mannered, overwritten first act, however, Waiting for the Barbarians gradually gains in poetry and power, while Mark Rylance’s lead performance, as a liberal-minded colonial official undermined and overwhelmed by his tyrannical superiors, gives proceedings a quiet but firm moral core.” – Guy Lodge, Variety
Available Formats (9/8):
DVD
WEATHERING WITH YOU
The summer of his high school freshman year, Hokoda runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if to suggest his future. He lives his days in isolation, but finally finds work as a writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then one day, Hokoda meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strong-willed girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The joy and grace of Weathering With You is in how Hina and Hodaka don’t reject a world that rejects them.” – Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle
“Weathering With You is far and away one of the loveliest and most beautiful animated films in years.” – Hoai-Tran Bui, SlashFilm
“[A] luminously beautiful film. Shinkai’s artists capture both micro- and macroscopic: the wonder of a raindrop acting a prism, casting refractions onto the surrounding surfaces and the glow produced by light shining through clouds.” – Charles Solomon, Los Angeles Times
Available Formats (9/15):
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
BECKY
Spunky and rebellious, Becky (Lulu Wilson) is brought to a weekend getaway at a lake house by her father Jeff (Joel McHale) in an effort to try to reconnect. The trip immediately takes a turn for the worse when a group of convicts on the run, led by the merciless Dominick (Kevin James), suddenly invade the lake house.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Becky is a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse that leaves you unsure if the good guy is really that good at all. It’s funny at parts, shocking in parts, but mostly it’s just a great thriller that just so happens to have a 13-year-old girl as the heroine.” – Lorry Kikta, Film Threat
“Besides its emotional texture, which will take you by surprise, more importantly, at the end of the day, Becky is a lot of enjoyably perverse fun.” – Charles Barfield, The Playlist
“Splitting skulls and still managing to hit the brain, Becky is a blood-splattered crowd-pleaser that would destroy at a drive-in.” – Mike Mazzanti, The Film Stage
Available Formats (9/15):
Blu-ray
KILLING EVE: SEASON 3
Suzanne Heathcote takes over as lead writer and executive producer for season three of the drama.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“So far Killing Eve’s third season remains engrossing, surprising, and strangely funny (like when Villanelle gets an incurable case of hiccups over the prospect of seeing her family again). It’s also casually brutal, something that continues to give the series its edge. Still, there is something fresh about this new exploration of what has become an old dynamic, and the episodes get better and deeper as the season progresses.” – Allison Keene, Paste
“Killing Eve Season 3 is deeper, darker, and bigger in its scope than ever before.” – Meghan O’Keefe, Decider
“It takes three episodes of an uneven but sporadically shocking third season for them [Eve and Villanelle] to cross paths again, but it’s worth the wait.” – Matt Roush, TV Guide
Available Formats (9/15):
DVD
TOMMASO
Abel Ferrara’s first dramatic feature since 2014’s Pasolini reteams the filmmaker and his frequent lead Willem Dafoe, who plays the title character, an older American expat living in Rome with his young wife and their daughter. Disoriented by his past misgivings and subsequent, unexpected blows to his self-esteem, Tommaso wades through this late chapter of his life with an increasingly impaired grasp on reality as he prepares for his next film.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The film depicts a subtle, complicated, mostly internal process so thoughtfully — blending humility and go-for-broke nerve — that its flaws ultimately seemed minor to me.” – Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
“Erotic, sensual, and nostalgic, Tommaso showcases the sweetest side of Hollywood’s enfant terrible. As far as his collaborations with Dafoe go, this marks the creative peak of their symbiosis.” – Alex Saveliev, Film Threat
“Ferrara has never been so concerned with making people like him–just wait for the audacity of the last 10 minutes. But given the brutal honesty of his latest, one of the most candid movies of its kind, it is difficult to not simply be happy for the man when Tommaso reaches its surreal point of catharsis.” – Rory O’Connor, The Film Stage
Available Formats (9/15):
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
OUTLANDER: SEASON 5
Life for the Frasers is never easy and at Fraser’s Ridge. Jamie’s ability to protect his family is tested when he is ordered to locate and kill Murtagh by Governor William Tryon.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“In its fifth season, the time travel period romance has truly found its footing. While the early seasons had a habit of wavering in quality, especially when it came to the pacing and an over-reliance on voice-over, the series has now found a new level of maturity which matches its central characters.” – Liz Shannon Miller, Collider
“Season 5 is still in America and it does start happily, and in many ways the first few episodes I’ve seen have had that same kind of angst you expect from Outlander. But on the whole, it has felt more like a warm hug of familiarity.” – Keri Lumm, Paste
“The series is returning to its roots this season; a common theme of the four episodes screened in advance for critics is that even when Outlander ventures into darkness, it still remembers its joyous spirit and finds new ways to make even small moments feel sweeping.” – Megan Vick, TV Guide
Available Formats (9/15):
Blu-ray | DVD
SUCCESSION: SEASON 2
The power struggle between Logan Roy’s children are not the only issue for WayStar as they face a rival media company run by CEO Rhea Jarrell (Holly Hunter).
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Despite the strength of its ensemble cast, Succession is a feat of writing above all… Succession aims to show us that the world of these capitalist monarchs is cruel, funny, and desperately sad, and on the strength of this first episode succeeds entirely.” – Ed Cumming, The Independent
“[Season 2] takes the show to a level of insight and theatricality that rivals anything else on television this year… In case it’s unclear: Season 2 is extraordinary. Jesse Armstrong, the show’s creator, finds new levels of horror to mine in Succession’s autopsy of the ultrarich, but he also finds pathos, which elevates the show even further.” – Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic
“Succession keeps moving forward in ways both surprising and hilarious, and Season 2 solidifies the series as one of the best shows in HBO history.” – Adam Chitwood, Collider
Available Formats (9/15):
DVD
THE GOOD FIGHT: SEASON 4
Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart becomes a subsidiary of a large multinational firm and the loss of independence is felt acutely by Diane and her colleagues.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The Good Fight is a spin-off that’s better than the original, and, four seasons in, as it settles into its own rhythm, it only continues to get better.” – Tambay Obenson, Indiewire
“In its triumphant fourth season, The Good Fight remains one of the best, and most insane, shows on television.” – Meghan O’Keefe, Decider
“That first episode convinced me that The Good Fight still works, and in fact, few things have made me happier over the last few weeks than watching this season.” – Kathryn VanArendonk, Vulture
Available Formats (9/22):
DVD
BABYTEETH
When seriously ill teenager Milla falls madly in love with smalltime drug dealer Moses, it’s her parents’ worst nightmare. But as Milla’s first brush with love brings her a new lust for life, things get messy and traditional morals go out the window. Milla soon shows everyone in her orbit – her parents, Moses, a sensitive music teacher, a budding child violinist, and a disarmingly honest, pregnant neighbor – how to live like you have nothing to lose. What might have been a disaster for the Finlay family instead leads to letting go and finding grace in the glorious chaos of life.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The level of artistry here is out of all proportion to the smallish scale of this Australian coming-of-age drama, which was directed by Shannon Murphy from a screenplay by Rita Kalnejais. Everything seems freshly discovered. Lives connect spontaneously, explosively. Love bursts forth inappropriately, yet unquenchably. Moments come along, not just a few but many, that stop your heart, leave you grinning with delight or watching breathlessly.” – Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
“Murphy animates Rita Kalnejais’s script—itself an inventive reimagining of cliché—with insistent artistry, announcing her arrival as an ascendant talent.” – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
“Like many a first film from someone experienced in episodic TV, Babyteeth gives us a lot to chew on. But in this case, that turns it into the very best kind of emotional roller-coaster, one that wins its laughs and earns its tears. In a year without blockbusters, this Aussie indie marvel stands out — one of the best films of the summer.” – Roger Moore, Movie Nation
Available Formats (9/22):
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
RICK AND MORTY: SEASON 4
The 10 episodes of the animated series are split evenly between 2019 and 2020.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The season 4 premiere was outrageously confident, and generally outrageous. Rick and Morty is angrily funny, powered by Rick’s galactic cynicism and a tendency toward hysterical navel-gazing criticism. The self-awareness would be annoying, if there wasn’t so much self there.” – Darren Franich, Entertainment Weekly
“It’s good storytelling, good comedy, and, yes, good TV.” – Garrett Martin, Paste
“The premiere was great; it has everything Rick and Morty fans are looking for.” – Dave Trumbore, Collider