Made In Italy
Bohemian London artist Robert (Liam Neeson) returns to Italy with his estranged son Jack (Micheal Richardson) to make a quick sale of the house they inherited from his late wife. Neither expects to find the once beautiful villa in such a state of disrepair. Renovations go badly, with father and son soon finding themselves at odds. Robert’s comical lack of DIY experience leads him to seek help from some colourful locals including the no nonsense Kate (Lindsay Duncan), an ex-pat making her living selling villas who quickly captures his attention. For Jack, the state of the house seems to mirror his search for memories of happier times with his mother. He soon falls for Natalia (Valeria Bilello), a vivacious young Italian chef, who restores both body and soul with delights from her local trattoria – until the pair find their developing relationship in jeopardy from Natalia’s jealous and threatening ex-husband. As Robert and Jack painstakingly restore the villa to its previous glory, they also start to mend their relationship. The future may now look quite different and surprise them both.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“It feels almost churlish to fault the film for its weightlessness, when light is exactly what movies like this are meant to provide: a fizzy, sun-drenched escape from the pale monotony of our own lives.” – Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
“Visually, Made in Italy is reminiscent of another escape-to-Italy romance, Audrey Wells’ 2003 Under the Tuscan Sun, starring Diane Lane (and also featuring Duncan)… But remember — we came for the scenery! And on that score, Made in Italy is a low-cost souvenir of the Tuscan-villa dream so many of us harbor, without the headaches of rewiring old electrical systems or fixing broken shutters.” – Stephanie Zacharek, TIME
“Turning his famous furrowed brow away from the realm of life-and-death nail-biters, Neeson elevates the proceedings with his dry delivery and nimble comic timing. Made in Italy makes you wish the actor did more comedy.” – Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter
Available Formats [12/1]:
DVD
The Rental
Two couples on an oceanside getaway grow suspicious that the host of their seemingly perfect rental house may be spying on them. Before long, what should have been a celebratory weekend trip turns into something far more sinister, as well-kept secrets are exposed and the four old friends come to see each other in a whole new light.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“This is a dark and brutal cautionary tale that traffics in any number of familiar scary-movie touchstones, but does so in consistently clever and entertaining fashion.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
“A neat, nasty little thriller with a brutally effective final third.” – Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
“Franco exercises so much restraint, especially during the frenetic final act, that you’re always left on edge. There’s hardly a single gratuitous shot to the entire film.” – Michael Roffman, Consequence of Sound
Available Formats [12/1]:
DVD
She Dies Tomorrow
After waking up convinced that she is going to die tomorrow, Amy’s carefully mended life begins to unravel. As her delusions of certain death become contagious to those around her, Amy and her friends’ lives spiral out of control in a tantalizing descent into madness.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“It’s intensely disturbing and hilarious in equal measure, as if somebody decided to let David Lynch remake Contagion.” – Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
“Dazed but far from confused, She Dies Tomorrow tugs at you, nagging to be viewed more than once. Eerie and at times impenetrable, the movie (which was completed pre-pandemic) presents a rapidly spreading psychological contagion that feels uncomfortably timely.” – Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
“Wildly unsettling and original.” – Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
Available Formats [12/8]:
Blu-ray | DVD
Yellowstone: Season 3
Hedge fund manager Roarke Morris (Josh Holloway) is the newest outsider to cross into the path of the Dutton family.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The series recently moved smoothly into its third season… This is a surprisingly overlooked gem. I’m hooked.” – Tom Ryan, The Age
“It’s been a quiet season and, honestly, that’s the way I like it: Yellowstone is best when it bathes in a mood, and the mood of this season is of a rattlesnake quietly slithering through the desert.” – Dustin Rowles, Pajiba
“Yellowstone, like many good westerns, combines gritty action with the dreamy landscapes of America’s lush frontiers. Yet in its subtexts it also has a few notable ideas.” – Alci Rengifo, Entertainment Voice
Available Formats [12/8]:
DVD
Proxima
An astronaut prepares for a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“A significant, ambitious and entirely impressive film by a dazzling young French director in full command of her ship.” – Fionnuala Halligan, Screen Daily
“An unostentatious but quietly dazzling meditation on womanhood in the largely patriarchal space race, Alice Winocour’s highly satisfying third feature outdoes many more lavish Hollywood efforts in evoking the otherworldly emotional disconnect that comes with space travel, all without leaving terra firma for the vast bulk of its running time.” – Guy Lodge, Variety
“Proxima is a well-considered story about the cost of ambition, intimate in contrast with its scope, and frankly a great depiction of what it’s like to be the kid caught between parents and careers.” – Andrew Crump, Paste
Available Formats [12/8]:
DVD
Father Brown: Season 8
Series inspired by the stories of GK Chesterton; a Catholic priest has a knack for solving mysteries in his English village.
Description provided by IMDb.
“Quirky and curious.” – Malcolm Hopwood, Stuff.co.nz
Available Formats [12/8]:
DVD
Tenet
Armed with only one word – Tenet – and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist (John David Washington) journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time. Not time travel. Inversion.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The depth, subtlety and wit of Pattinson and Debicki’s performances only becomes fully apparent once you know where Tenet is going, or perhaps that should be where it’s been. Still confused? Don’t be. Or rather do be, and savour it. This is a film that will cause many to throw up their hands in bamboozlement – and many more, I hope, to clasp theirs in awe and delight.” – Robbie Collin, The Telegraph
“Tenet is a film that will stay with you forever from its first scene, one that will tempt you to revisit it in part or as a whole, and that really tells you what it is: a masterpiece.” – Hanna B., Film Threat
“Tenet sweeps you away on waves of pure, ravishing cinema.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Available Formats [12/15]:
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
Infidel
An American journalist/blogger (Jim Caviezel) is kidnapped while attending a conference in the Middle East. Taken hostage by the Iranian regime, he is put on trial for trumped-up charges of espionage. His wife, who works for the State Department, quickly realizes that the American government can do nothing. Feeling desperate and alone, she goes to Iran to try to free him herself. This exciting story sheds light on the plight of Americans currently held captive in Iran, about whom the world has forgotten.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Agenda-driven films make for dreary viewing and Infidel is never dreary. Aided by excellent performances across the board by its international cast, Infidel works best when it’s an old-fashioned thriller.” – Sheila O’Malley, RogerEbert.com
“Although Caviezel’s character is meant to stand in for all Americans unjustly imprisoned by Iran, it would be irresponsible to take the film’s ‘inspired by true events’ claim too seriously. That doesn’t mean it’s not satisfying to watch Liz and several co-conspirators raid the facility in an attempt to liberate Doug and all those unjustly detained political prisoners.” – Peter DeBruge, Variety
“Nowrasteh’s storytelling wisely avoids histrionics, instead trusting the power of the story itself and the ability of the actors to drive it all home.” – Richard Propes, The Independent Critic
Available Formats [12/15]:
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
The Beach House
Escaping to his family’s beach house to reconnect, Emily and Randall find their off-season trip interrupted by Mitch and Jane Turner, an older couple acquainted with Randall’s estranged father. Unexpected bonds form as the couples let loose and enjoy the isolation, but it all takes an ominous turn as increasingly strange environmental phenomena begin to warp their peaceful evening. As the effects of an infection become evident, Emily struggles to make sense of the contagion before it’s too late.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The fact that Emily aspires to be an astrobiologist, fascinated by the study of extremophile life forms, is foreshadowing that could seem clumsy in a less crushingly doom-laden and exquisitely eerie story.” – Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle
“After a slightly rocky first act that succumbs to thin generational differences, Brown allows his slow burn to catch fire and doesn’t look back. You may be regretting not being able to visit the beach this summer. Maybe it’s for the best.” – Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
“The Beach House won’t be for everyone. Those coming in expecting a doozy of infections and balls-to-the-wall, gross-out horror will likely leave nursing a sunburn. But if you can appreciate those moments within what’s essentially a pandemic survival story, then you’ll walk away with a nice tan.” – Michael Roffman, Consequence of Sound
Available Formats [12/15]:
DVD
Alone
Jessica (Jules Willcox), a grief-stricken widow, flees the city in an attempt to cope with the loss of her husband. When Jessica is kidnapped by a mysterious man and locked in a cabin in the Pacific Northwest, she escapes into the wilderness and is pursued by her captor.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Alone is exactly what it sells — a taut, hot-wired survival thriller. With its gaunt storytelling, meaty characters, and high-stakes action, the film delivers on all fronts.” – Michael Roffman, Consequence of Sound
“There’s something deeply appealing about an already stripped-down cat-and-mouse scenario that becomes dirtier and more elemental as it goes along, tracing a devolutionary arc from the rules of the road to primeval combat.” – Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, A.V. Club
“This minimalist survival thriller unfolds with such elegant simplicity and single-minded momentum that its irritations are easily excused.” – Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
Available Formats [12/15]:
DVD
The Wolf of Snow Hollow
Terror grips a small mountain town as bodies are discovered after each full moon. Losing sleep, raising a teenage daughter, and caring for his ailing father, officer Marshall struggles to remind himself there’s no such thing as werewolves.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“More than just your standard horror/comedy, The Wolf of Snow Hollow is a tonal balancing act, a movie that doesn’t go for laughs or horror as much as weave various tones and styles through its excellent script. I thought Cummings was a talent to watch after Thunder Road, and now I’m sure of it.” – Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
“Part of the brilliance of Cummings’ performance is how he can turn on a dime, baring his soul one second and throwing off a well-timed jab in the same breath. Thankfully, the actors around him are able to keep up with his pace.” – Josh Kupecki, Austin Chronicle
“The Wolf of Snow Hollow is a pleasingly quirky outing that has fun with the mythologies of both monsters and men.” – Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times
Available Formats [12/15]:
DVD
The War With Grandpa
Sixth-grader Peter (Oakes Fegley) is pretty much your average kid—he likes gaming, hanging with his friends and his beloved pair of Air Jordans. But when his recently widowed grandfather Ed (Robert De Niro) moves in with Peter’s family, the boy is forced to give up his most prized possession of all, his bedroom. Unwilling to let such an injustice stand, Peter devises a series of increasingly elaborate pranks to drive out the interloper, but Grandpa Ed won’t go without a fight. Soon, the friendly combatants are engaged in an all-out war with side-splitting consequences.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Whenever and wherever kids do see it, they’re apt to enjoy it, while the theme reminds the adults in their lives that the differences that come between families — from politics to something as frivolous as a kid’s bedroom — finally aren’t as significant as the deeper bonds that they share.” – Brian Lowry, CNN
“The War with Grandpa will probably prove riotously funny to small fry while providing some compensations to adults with its supremely overqualified cast.” – Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
“De Niro is game throughout, and sometimes amusing in that way he can be. But Walken is the funniest performer here.” – Glenn Kenny, New York Times
Available Formats:
Blu-ray
The Craft: Legacy
An eclectic foursome of aspiring teenage witches get more than they bargained for as they lean into their newfound powers.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The Craft: Legacy is a smart, edgy, wickedly funny and wild ride from the talented writer-director Zoe Lister-Jones.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
“As it races to its cool supernatural climax — and then a coda that connects it to the first film — The Craft: Legacy is firing on all cylinders, looking back respectfully but also showing how the same story in different hands can soar.” – Mark Kennedy, Associated Press
“The result is an entertaining and insightful mashup of tropes, both respectful of what came before and willing to try new tricks. Being a weirdo, it seems, has never gone out of fashion, but now it has a different kind of future to conjure up.” – Kate Erbland, Indiewire
Available Formats [12/22]:
Blu-ray
Kajillionaire
Con-artists Theresa (Debra Winger) and Robert (Richard Jenkins) have spent 26 years training their only daughter, Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood), to swindle, scam, and steal at every opportunity. During a desperate, hastily conceived heist, they charm a stranger (Gina Rodriguez) into joining their next scam, only to have their entire world turned upside down.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“July’s aesthetic imagination is inseparable from her empathetic curiosity and emotional urgency; it tempers a howl of anguish at a world of pain into a kind of cinematic music that unfolds it in nuanced detail and extends a hand of consolation, even offers a note of hope.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker
“Funny, poignant and ultimately triumphant, Kajillionaire is a precarious balancing act, one that July pulls off with astute writing, careful staging and trust in her actors to strike precisely the right emotional tones, whether they be tender or breathtakingly tough.” – Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
“July takes these weird, desperate characters and gives their lives a couple of cosmic twists that serve both to clarify her vision and to expand it. This might be her best film yet.” – Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
Available Formats [12/22]:
DVD
Honest Thief
Wanting to lead an honest life, a notorious bank robber (Liam Neeson) turns himself in, only to be double-crossed by two ruthless FBI agents.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“As ‘solidly senior Liam Neeson kicks ass’ vehicles go, Honest Thief falls firmly in the middle, nowhere near the heights of Taken but well above the depths of Taken 3.” – Alonso Duralde, The Wrap
“A little bit itchy, maybe, and smelling of mothballs, but deeply, inexplicably comforting, in these uncertain times.” – Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post
“The second half falls into familiar action tropes, but Honest Thief has some twists and turns, sly humour and a refreshing feel for its characters that raises them beyond genre types.” – Ian Freer, Empire