Kin
Chased by a vengeful criminal (James Franco) and a gang of otherworldly soldiers, a recently released ex-con (Jack Reynor) and his adopted teenage brother (Myles Truitt) are forced to go on the run with a weapon of mysterious origin as their only protection.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“There are plenty of plot devices to keep the audience on its toes, and Reynor is the epitome of a 21st century lovable antihero, so fashionable these days. He’s hard and grizzled when needed, but soft and playful as well.” – Jude Dry, IndieWire
“So, yeah, Kin is a bit of a biker movie, too. More important, it’s also a family drama. In their first-time feature-directing effort, twin brothers Jonathan and Josh Baker — speaking of kin — turn Cain and Abel inside out and upside down. Why be east of Eden when you end up that far west of Motown?” – Mark Feeney, Boston Globe
“Newcomer Myles Truitt inhabits the role with an earthbound soulfulness — what you might call the opposite of heroic flash — and even when the film’s progress feels more mechanical than organic, he’s easy to root for.” – Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter
Available Formats:
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Beanpole
1945, Leningrad. World War II has devastated the city, demolishing its buildings and leaving its citizens in tatters, physically and mentally. Although the siege – one of the worst in history – is finally over, life and death continue their battle in the wreckage that remains. Two young women, Iya and Masha, search for meaning and hope in the struggle to rebuild their lives amongst the ruins.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The film is an improbably thrilling work of art by virtue of its physical beauty and its relentless intensity of feeling about people — not only Iya and Masha — who would prefer in their heart of shattered hearts to feel nothing.” – Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
“I imagine even Billy Wilder would’ve gotten misty-eyed during the final, perfectly-pitched moments of this extraordinary film.” – Matt Fagerholm, RogerEbert.com
“This is only the second feature from the sensationally talented Russian director Kantemir Balagov (who was born in 1991), and it’s a gut punch. It’s also a brilliantly told, deeply moving story about love — in all its manifestations, perversity and obstinacy.” – Manohla Dargis, New York Times
Available Formats:
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Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears
Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis) frees Shirin Abbas (Izabella Yena) from a Jerusalem prison and while looking into the disappearance of Shirin’s family, discovers a larger mystery of priceless jewels, curses and secrets in this feature-length adventure.
Description provided by Metacritic.
“A lavish feature-length escapade of cheerfully preposterous escapism.” – Matt Roush, TV Guide
“Once the adventure aspect of the film picks up, it’s a fun ride until the end.” – Joel Keller, Decider
“This lavish, fantastical adventure takes our inspiring heroine into what might be described as James Bond territory.” – Stephen Schaefer, Boston Herald
Available Formats:
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Saint Frances
Flailing thirty-four-year-old Bridget (Kelly O’Sullivan) finally catches a break when she meets a nice guy and lands a much-needed job nannying six-year-old Frances (played by a scene-stealing Ramona Edith-Williams). But an unwanted pregnancy introduces an unexpected complication. To make matters worse, she clashes with the obstinate Frances and struggles to navigate a growing tension between Frances’ moms. Amidst her tempestuous personal relationships, a reluctant friendship with Frances emerges, and Bridget contends with the inevitable joys and shit-shows of becoming a part of someone else’s family.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Saint Frances expands the representation of women’s lives on screen in a way that is so casual you hardly notice it’s happening.” – Mark Kermode, The Observer
“One of the pure joys of this job is experiencing a breakout performance or discovering a new director destined for great things. Saint Frances gives us both.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
“Turns out there are a lot of things that have gone unsaid in movies until now, and Saint Frances goes there in a way that’s not only enlightening, but entertaining as well. This exceptionally frank, refreshingly nonjudgmental indie was written by and stars Kelly O’Sullivan, a ‘girl next door’ type whose no-nonsense approach to issues facing both her gender and her generation leaves ample room for laughter — à la Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck.” – Peter Debruge, Variety
Available Formats:
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Fishbowl
In a small town filled with secrets, a grieving father prepares his three teenage daughters for the rapture, hoping to reunite with his deceased wife.
Description provided by Rotten Tomatoes.
“The story of this family is compelling and will have you thinking long after it’s done.” – Alan Ng, Film Threat
“A superior and chilling character study of a family in mourning.” – Anne Brodie, What She Said
“The filmmakers behind Fishbowl allow frustration to transform into something quite moving, showing that apocalypses need not be global events to be devastating.” – Stephen Saito, Moveable Feast
Available Formats:
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What Just Happened
During the course of an ordinary week in Hollywood, movie producer Ben (Robert De Niro) must navigate his way through shark-infested waters as he struggles to complete his latest projects. A demanding studio boss (Catherine Keener) demands extensive changes to a movie starring Sean Penn, while another chief won’t greenlight a project unless star Bruce Willis shaves his beard. Meanwhile, Ben tries to reconcile with his wife and maintain a relationship with his young daughter.
Description provided by Rotten Tomatoes.
“It’s a pungent film about Hollywood power and a useful manual for young producers on how to stay upright in Hollywood or at least, how to lose your soul with grace.” – Paul Byrnes, Sydney Morning Herald
“A welcome return to form from Robert De Niro, who has not been so proactively reactive on-screen for many, many years.” – Leigh Paatsch, Herald Sun
“A send-up of Hollywood and its stars, this is the best film industry satire since The Player. Funnier, too.” – David Edwards, Daily Mirror
Available Formats:
Kanopy Streaming
Villains
Mickey and Jules are lovers on the run, headed southbound for a fresh start in the Sunshine State. When their car dies after a gas station robbery, they break into a nearby house looking for a new set of wheels. What they find instead is a dark secret, and a sweet-as-pie pair of homeowners who will do anything to keep it from getting out.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Villains is wacky off the walls fun and it constructs a solid sandbox for its actors to play in and deliver four colorfully captivating performances about the shades and degrees of human wickedness.” – Griffin Schiller, The Playlist
“It’s fun to watch clever people think their way out of impossible situations. What Berk and Olsen do in Villains is make it wildly entertaining to watch not-so-clever people try to do the same things.” – William Bibbiani, The Wrap
“With a surprising amount of side laughs and an isolated, elaborately decorated chamber in the woods full of opportunities, Villains sets an intriguing stage for a quartet of skilled performers, all clearly enjoying the chance to fly their freak flags to comical effect.” – Tomris Laffly, RogerEbert.com
Available Formats:
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CoroNation
A team directed by Activist and artist Ai Weiwei films inside the hospitals, homes, and quarantine sites of Wuhan, the first city hit in the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Description provided by IMDb.
“…harrowing… The artist-activist has secretly assembled a powerful and artful look at how the pandemic was handled in China.” – The Guardian
“The movie puts a human face on a global health crisis by finding many of them all across this troubled country… a haunting and immersive starting point for parsing the flaws of a vast national response to the sudden takeover of COVID-19.” – Eric Kohn, IndieWire
Available Formats:
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VHYes
A bizarre retro comedy shot entirely on VHS, VHYes takes us back to a simpler time, when twelve-year-old Ralph mistakenly records home videos and his favorite late night shows over his parents’ wedding tape. The result is a nostalgic wave of home shopping clips, censored pornography, and nefarious true-crime tales that threaten to unkindly rewind Ralph’s reality.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Check out VHYes if you want to see the most original film to come out in ages.” – Lorry Kikta, Film Threat
“Think of the film as an extended cousin of Too Many Cooks, where parody gives way to weirdness, which gives way to surrealism, which gives way to genuine horror by the end. Bonkers as the combination sounds, and it is unimpeachably bonkers, the effect of their marriage is hypnotic.” – Andrew Crump, Paste
“VHYes succeeds by using comedy sketches the wrong way.” – Karen Han, Polygon
Available Formats:
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A Royal Affair
A Royal Affair is the true story of an ordinary man who wins the queen’s heart and starts a revolution. Centering on the intriguing love triangle between the ever more insane Danish King Christian VII (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard), the royal physician who is a man of enlightenment and idealism Struensee and the young but strong Queen Caroline Mathilda, A Royal Affair is the gripping tale of brave idealists who risk everything in their pursuit of freedom for their people… Above all it is the story of a passionate and forbidden romance that changed an entire nation.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“With its sumptuous settings, urgent romance and intellectual substance, A Royal Affair is a mind-opener crossed with a bodice-ripper.” – Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
“Takes a fascinating chapter in Danish history, little-known to general audiences, and presents it engagingly.” – Claudia Puig, USA Today
“Historical drama of the highest order – teeming with big ideas, and anchored by the nicely nuanced performances of Vikander and Mikkelsen.” – Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
Available Formats:
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We The Kings
A fostered teenager develops a vendetta against the former guardian of his foster brother. Seeking redemption, his actions spiral out of control, leaving him hiding from the rest of society.
Description provided by Rotten Tomatoes.
“As the camera bounces from room to room one can feel the breath being taken from you as you begin to feel the walls closing in for Jack and Victor.” – The New Current
Available Formats:
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Buoyancy
Spirited 14-year-old Chakra works the rice fields with his family. He yearns for independence and seeks out a local broker who can get him paid work in a Thai factory. Without telling his family, Chakra travels to Bangkok to make his fortune. But when he gets there, he and his new friend Kea realize the broker has lied to them. Along with other Cambodians and Burmese, they are sold to a fishing captain as slaves.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“There is evil and it helps keep the world running, our clothes and food coming. This is the greatest, most difficult, most unspeakable violence laid bare in Rathjen’s measured, insistently political movie.” – Manohla Dargis, New York Times
“Though grippingly shot and paced, its realism makes it not an easy watch. However, one never questions the horrific circumstances in which the protag finds himself and the ending provides a bitter sort of closure and enough salve on the wounds to make the story palatable.” – Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter
“Diving deep into dark material yet always remaining afloat, it’s a potent feature debut from Australian filmmaker Rodd Rathjen.” – Sarah Ward, Screen Daily
Available Formats:
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Starfish
A couple’s love is tested to its limit after their perfect life falls apart in a single moment.
Description provided by Rotten Tomatoes.
“Depicting a courageous fight back with compassion and sincerity, this capably played drama has its heart firmly in the right place.” – David Parkinson, Empire
“A brutally honest family drama that boasts a pair of great lead performances.” – Mike Tsenti, Little White Lies
“A dynamic British indie that highlights essential human drama in and amongst an inconspicuous disease, Starfish packs a potent punch about life’s fragility.” – Chloe Catchpole, Den of Geek
Available Formats:
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The Guardian of Memory
Lawyer Carlos Spector fights for asylum rights for Mexicans who try to immigrate to the United States to escape from cartel violence.
Description provided by Rotten Tomatoes.
“It’s an important piece of reportage that’s also an aesthetic jewel of unconventional documentary technique.” – Dennis Harvey, 48 Hills
“Arteaga sits with many of the survivors telling one horror story after another in what could be best described as a modern-day Holocaust.” – Alan Ng, Film Threat
“An impactful, wise and bone-chilling work that tries to keep alive the memory of a massacred town and its survivors.” – Ricardo Gallegos, Shuffle Online
Available Formats:
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Wolfman’s Got Nards
The impact of the film The Monster Squad on its fans, cast and crew.
Description provided by Rotten Tomatoes.
“A cult classic and its fanbase get the documentary they deserve.” – Scott Wampler, Birth.Movies.Death.
“Wolfman’s Got Nards isn’t just about the minutiae of a single film. It’s about the genuine phenomenon that surrounds that film, how the movie’s reputation changed over time, and how its belated success affected the lives of those involved.” – Patrick Bromley, Bloody Disgusting
“In the end, the real nards were the friends we made along the way.” – Allen Adams, The Maine Edge
Available Formats:
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The Commune
Erik and Anna are a professional couple with a dream. Along with their daughter Freja, they set up a commune in Erik’s huge villa in the upmarket district of Copenhagen. With the family in the center of the story, we are invited into the dream of a real commune; we participate in house meetings, dinners and parties. It is friendship, love and togetherness under one roof until an earth-shattering love affair puts the community and the commune to its greatest test.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The movie may feel minor next to Vinterberg’s more serious work, but it’s more personal, too: A messy, tender window into the world that shaped him.” – Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
“Dyrholm, who deservedly took the prize for best actress at last year’s Berlinale for her sensitive performance as Anna, movingly captures the struggles of a middle-aged career woman who revels in the new freedoms of the 1970s, while ultimately falling victim to them.” – Pat Padua, Washington Post
“This Danish-language film about a Copenhagen commune in the mid-1970s pulses with screwy energy and antic confusion.” – Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
Available Formats:
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The Disappearance of My Mother
Benedetta Barzini wants to disappear. An iconic fashion model in the 1960s, she became a muse to Warhol, Dali, Penn and Avedon. As a radical feminist in the 1970s, she fought for the rights and emancipation of women. But at the age of 75, she is fed up with all the roles that life has imposed upon her and decides to leave everything and everybody behind, to disappear to a place as far as possible from the world she knows. Hiding behind the camera, her son Beniamino witnesses her journey. Having filmed her since he was a child in spite of all her resistance, he now wants to make a film about her, to keep her close for as long as possible – or, at least, as long as his camera keeps running. The making of the film turns into a battle between mother and son, a stubborn fight to capture the ultimate image of Benedetta – the image of her liberation.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The Disappearance of My Mother is rife with grand philosophical questions about beauty, capitalism, love, life, and death, while still maintaining the intimacy of a family connection.” – Lorry Kikta, Film Threat
“The result of the collaboration between mother and son brings no great epiphanies but it remains a film that both beguiles and unsettles as it salutes a remarkable woman and the enduring demands of ties that bind.” – Allan Hunter, Screen Daily
“It’s fascinating to see Benedetta Barzini in academic action, like an ethnographer of the patriarchy herself, bringing back news from its most glamourous yet rotten core.” – Diego Semerene, Slant
Available Formats:
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American Pastoral
Seymour “Swede” Levov (Ewan McGregor), a once legendary high school athlete, is now a successful businessman married to Dawn (Jennifer Connelly), a former beauty queen. But turmoil brews beneath the polished veneer of Swede’s life. When his beloved teenage daughter, Merry (Dakota Fanning), disappears after being accused of committing a violent act, Swede dedicates himself to finding her and reuniting his family. What he discovers shakes him to the core, forcing him to look beneath the surface and confront the chaos that is shaping the world around him.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Star and first-time director Ewan McGregor, working with screenwriter John Romano, has skillfully reshaped Roth’s tale for more urgent cinematic telling, covering a host of profound themes with disquieting power, reflection and grace.” – Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
“American Pastoral doesn’t quite nail its tone, but it’s a compelling enough adaptation with a few truly inspired moments.” – Darren Ruecker, We Got This Covered
“American Pastoral leaves a residue of dread and despair that is oddly in keeping with today’s moment of uncertainty amid an ugly presidential campaign.” – Stephen Holden, New York Times
Available Formats:
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Joe
An ex-con (Nicholas Cage), who is the unlikeliest of role models, meets a 15-year-old boy (Tye Sheridan) and is faced with the choice of redemption or ruin.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“If your moviegoing needs are driven less by a need to ‘feel good’ afterwards and more by a desire to see something that will grab and touch you in ways that you will not be shaking anytime soon, this is the movie for you.” – Peter Sobczynski, RogerEbert.com
“Nicolas Cage delivers what may his best, most nuanced performance yet in the gritty, hypnotic and deeply moving Joe.” – Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post
“None of this would work with anywhere near the power it does without Nicolas Cage, whom Green has smartly cast in this sometimes maddeningly erratic and ill-disciplined actor’s most perfectly suited role since Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation.” – Geoff Pevere, The Globe and Mail
Available Formats:
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The Librarian: Quest for the Spear
Noah Wyle is Flynn Carsen, a quiet history buff who finds himself entangled in a dangerous adventure to recover a powerful, holy artifact stolen from his library. He is joined by a beautiful but deadly female counterpart with unmatched martial arts skills.
Description provided by Metacritic.
“Wyle’s geeky charm and the story’s glorification of book learnin’ are enough to keep the good vibes aloft.” – Joyce Millman, Boston Phoenix
“It’s a fun, cheesy, cable-TV flick; a slice of winking B-movie giddiness that charms us into smiling through all the nonsense.” – David Cornelius, eFilmCritic
“It’s all totally lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek and never dares to be serious about anything, which is refreshing.” – MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher