Paw Patrol: The Movie
The PAW Patrol is on a roll! When their biggest rival, Humdinger, becomes Mayor of nearby Adventure City and starts wreaking havoc, Ryder and everyone’s favorite heroic pups kick into high gear to face the challenge head on. While one pup must face his past in Adventure City, the team finds help from a new ally, the savvy dachshund Liberty. Together, armed with exciting new gadgets and gear, the PAW Patrol fights to save the citizens of Adventure City!
Rated G.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Paw Patrol: The Movie is both entertaining and educational, and that’s always a major accomplishment for a family film.” – Yolanda Machado, The Wrap
“Parents will appreciate the way the pups tackle problem solving, working together to make the best use of each character’s talents, coming up with alternative strategies when the initial plans are not working, and understanding the mistakes made by team members.” – Nell Minnow, RogerEbert.com
“There’s no rude humor, no sarcasm, no sharp edges — just a warm cuddle of a movie that does exactly what it sets out to do.” – Kristen Page-Kirby, Washington Post
Available Formats [11/2]:
DVD
Pig
A truffle hunter who lives alone in the Oregonian wilderness must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved foraging pig after she is kidnapped.
Rated R for language and some violence.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“It’s a rustic, poetic, occasionally funny, sometimes heartbreaking and wonderfully strange and memorable character study of a man who is in such tremendous pain he had to retreat from the world.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
“Like the animal itself, Pig is considerably smarter and more ardent than it appears at first glance, and unearths treasures that are barely evident on the surface level. We’d have settled for much less, but what a rare treat to be offered a great deal more.” – Mike D’Angelo, AV Club
“At a time when so many people are struggling to find something of value in their lives, when people are fleeing jobs, cities, futures they thought they wanted, Cage has crafted a quiet soliloquy about grasping on to something that has meaning. In some ways, this is one of his most emotionally brutal films.” – Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle
Available Formats [11/2]:
DVD
Nine Days
Will (Winston Duke) spends his days in a remote outpost watching the live Point of View (POV) on TV’s of people going about their lives, until one subject perishes, leaving a vacancy for a new life on earth. Soon, several candidates — unborn souls — arrive at Will’s to undergo tests determining their fitness, facing oblivion when they are deemed unsuitable. But Will soon faces his own existential challenge in the form of free-spirited Emma (Zazie Beetz), a candidate who is not like the others, forcing him to turn within and reckon with his own tumultuous past. Fueled by unexpected power, he discovers a bold new path forward in his own life.
Rated R for language.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Nine Days is the sort of original cinematic art that, these days, is few and far between.” – Gregory Ellwood, The Playlist
“Thoughtful and hauntingly beautiful in style and treatment, Nine Days emerges as a sublime slice of cinema that sincerely tugs at the heartstrings.” – Debopriyaa Dutta, Screen Rant
“Nine Days is that rare work of art that invites you to re-consider your entire worldview.” – Peter Debruge, Variety
Available Formats [11/2]:
DVD
Come True
Looking for an escape from her recurring nightmares, 18-year-old Sarah (Julia Sarah Stone) submits to a university sleep study, but soon realizes she’s become the conduit to a frightening new discovery.
Not Rated. Contains language, nudity, sexual content, and graphic images.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Burns conjures horror so vivid and tactile that at any time it feels like it might leap off of the screen and into our own imaginations or, worse, our own lives.” – Andrew Crump, Paste
“There are only a couple of jump scares in Anthony Scott Burns’s Come True — mild ones at that — but the movie’s elusive sense of menace lingers for days, weeks, possibly forever.” – Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
“In any genre, a distinct filmmaking voice and clever avoidance of cliches earns a closer look; perhaps even more so in the realm of sci-fi/horror. And no spoilers, but where Come True lands is extremely satisfying.” – Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times
Available Formats [11/2]:
DVD
The Crown: Season 4
The fourth season features the arrival of new Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson) and Lady Diana Spencer (Emma Corrin) starting her journey to becoming Princess Diana.
Rated TV-MA for language and mature content.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The richest season to date of this juicy drama.” – Matt Roush, TV Guide
“Colman is now allowed to own the monarch’s authority in her performance. And with foils like Anderson and Corrin, all three turn in very brittle and beautiful performances… Beyond reveling in the tawdry candy-colored tale of Charles and Di, Morgan’s writing on the show routinely explores notions of classicism, privilege, sexism, and racism. But this time around, the undercurrents surface in a way that is timely, incisive, and, ultimately, more pointed and hopeful.” – Ann Donahue, IndieWire
“The best and most addictive season yet. All 10 episodes of the royal drama are a binge-watcher’s dream. Olivia Colman is the shining jewel in The Crown, but Emmy love, please, for Emma Corrin as Lady Di and a knockout Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher.” – Peter Travers, ABC News
Available Formats [11/2]:
DVD
Baptiste: Season 2
Julien Baptiste (Tchéky Karyo) is pulled out of retirement to locate the family of British Ambassador Emma Chambers (Fiona Shaw).
Not Rated. Contains language, violence, and sexual content.
Description provided by Metacritic.
“The mystery of what happened between the Chambers family kidnapping more than a year ago and the present day slowly builds, with the show’s writers, brothers Harry and Jack Williams, cleverly skipping between past and present.” – Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian
“There’s a world-weary melancholy drenching everything and a tincture of subtle commentary about the underbelly of politics in that part of Europe.” – John Doyle, Globe and Mail
“Shaw turned out to be the show’s driving force, with enough acting and star power to bring the series home with its credibility mostly intact.” – Alison Rowat, The Herald
Available Formats [11/2]:
DVD
Respect
Following the rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom, Respect is the remarkable true story of the music icon’s journey to find her voice.
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content, strong language including racial epithets, violence, suggestive material, and smoking.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Respect has everything you could hope for in a musical biopic. It has a good story and great songs and, best of all, it has someone in the lead role who can put those songs over.” – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
“Liesl Tommy extracts the proper emotion from every scene, and the music is like truffles on top of a fantastic meal.” – Alan Ng, Film Threat
“Respect is filled with memorable supporting turns, including Audra McDonald as Aretha’s mother and Saycon Sengbloh and Hailey Kilgore as her sisters, who were often in the background in more ways than one — but an old-fashioned show-business biopic such as this rises and falls on the talents of the lead, and it’s hard to imagine anyone in the world doing more justice to the legacy of Aretha Franklin than Jennifer Hudson.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
Available Formats [11/9]:
DVD
Reminiscence
Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman), a private investigator of the mind, navigates the darkly alluring world of the past by helping his clients access lost memories. Living on the fringes of the sunken Miami coast, his life is forever changed when he takes on a new client, Mae (Rebecca Ferguson). A simple matter of lost and found becomes a dangerous obsession. As Bannister fights to find the truth about Mae’s disappearance, he uncovers a violent conspiracy, and must ultimately answer the question: how far would you go to hold on to the ones you love?
Rated PG-13 for strong violence, drug material throughout, sexual content, and some language.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“In building this mystery, and in proving herself as a major entertainer, Joy always has something up her sleeve, including her savvy ways to suddenly spike the plot with a slickly edited fight scene that builds the mystery instead of just taking a break from it.” – Nick Allen, The Playlist
“It’s depressing, in more ways than one, given its cynical take on what makes life worthwhile, and what we have to do to preserve it. But it’s also refreshing to see science fiction this aware of how actively we’re careening toward a terrible future, and how our response to it is likely to be specific, personal, and just as selfish as the behavior that gets us there in the first place.” – Tasha Robinson, Polygon
“Reminiscence is an assured big-screen debut from Lisa Joy, playfully recreating classic movie tropes with a modern twist.” – Richard Trenholm, c|net
Available Formats [11/9]:
DVD
Four Good Days
31-year-old Molly (Mila Kunis) begs her estranged mother Deb (Glenn Close) for help fighting a fierce battle against the demons that have derailed her life. Despite all she has learned over a decade of disappointment, grief and rage, Deb throws herself into one last attempt to save her beloved daughter from the deadly and merciless grip of heroin addiction.
Rated R for drug content, language throughout, and brief sexuality.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The mother-daughter dynamic in Four Good Days is powerful and lasting and devastating and maybe the thing that will help Molly save her life.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
“As a relationship movie, not just for the pair but those around them, Four Good Days is more complex than its outward trappings and preachier scenes — like an anguished Molly addressing a high school class — suggest.” – Ben Kenigsberg, New York Times
“What sets Four Good Days apart from the many other films of its ilk are Close and Kunis, who sharpen and elevate its well-worn contours with vivid performances that are honest and grounded. These are characters you can connect to, on both sides of the equation.” – Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post
Available Formats [11/9]:
DVD
My Salinger Year
New York in the 90s: After leaving graduate school to pursue her dream of becoming a writer, Joanna (Margaret Qualley) gets hired as an assistant to Margaret (Sigourney Weaver), the stoic and old-fashioned literary agent of J. D. Salinger. Fluctuating between poverty and glamour, she spends her days in a plush, wood-panelled office – where dictaphones and typewriters still reign and agents doze off after three-martini lunches – and her nights in a sink-less Brooklyn apartment with her socialist boyfriend. Joanna’s main task is processing Salinger’s voluminous fan mail, but as she reads the heart-wrenching letters from around the world, she becomes reluctant to send the agency’s impersonal standard letter and impulsively begins personalizing the responses. The results are both humorous and moving, as Joanna, while using the great writer’s voice, begins to discover her own.
Rated R for language and some sexual references.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Joanna’s journey of creative and emotional enlightenment — including the balancing act of trying to write when consumed by a day job — is managed with grace, tenderness and touching credibility by a wonderfully winning Qualley in concert with Philippe Falardeau’s smart, engaging direction and screenplay.” – Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
“This cast and this world make for a grand escape from the mundane necessities of life as we’re immersed in a coming-of-age tale like few others, one that should make anybody with a soft spot for Salinger and empathy for those who had to ‘manage’ him just a tad envious.” – Roger Moore, Movie Nation
“In the borderline trifling but consistently amusing and wry period piece My Salinger Year, Qualley has the opportunity to carry the story, and she delivers an effortlessly endearing performance in a literary adventure that plays like The Devil Wears Prada meets Can You Ever Forgive Me, only at lower stakes.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
Available Formats [11/9]:
DVD
Emily in Paris
Due to her marketing job, 20-something Emily (Lily Collins) moves to Paris where she juggles work, new friends and romances in this romantic comedy from Darren Star.
Rated TV-MA for language, nudity, sexual content, language, drug use, and smoking.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Emily in Paris is a confection, a series so charming and fanciful that it becomes impervious to snobbery and cynicism. Star has served je ne sais quoi in a glittery package, a tray of macarons arranged neatly in a Ladurée display window, each episode providing a morsel of airy delight.” – Shirley Li, The Atlantic
“Emily in Paris is a treat, a beguiling work of Netflix escapism… It is a Darren Star show, which means it’s fun and stylish and only partly steeped in reality. It is unabashedly on the side of its plucky heroine, played by Lily Collins, who dresses like Carrie Bradshaw and is self-involved like Carrie Bradshaw and is also charming, so you will root for her regardless of her flaws, like… Carrie Bradshaw.” – Jen Chaney, Vulture
“As created by Darren Star (the mastermind of lush fantasies including Younger and, yes, Sex and the City), this series is a delight that poses the question of what it really means to grow up, against a truly inviting backdrop.” – Daniel D’Addario, Variety
Available Formats [11/9]:
DVD
Snowpiercer: Season 2
Passengers are divided between Mr. Wilford (Sean Bean) and Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs) as Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly) discovers something that could change everything in the second season of the show based on the 2013 film by Bong Joon Ho.
Rated TV-MA for strong, bloody violence, language, sexual content, and brief nudity.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“It’s not really a binge show, as it juggles disparate storylines and switches up key players and themes on a whim. But over time that feels natural; it remains entertaining and unique as its character narratives become deeper and more layered.” – Allison Keene, Paste
“Sean Bean’s campy villain keeps this steampunk thriller on the right track.” – Beth Webb, NME
“Snowpiercer confidently shifts into new gears with Season 2. It’s traveling miles beyond the initial procedural framing, and the seemingly hurried revolution from last year’s episodes is quickly forgiven with a richer storytelling journey in its place.” – Kimberly Ricci, Uproxx
Available Formats [11/9]:
DVD
Jungle Cruise
Inspired by the famous Disneyland theme park ride, Disney’s Jungle Cruise is an adventure-filled, rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon with wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt). Lily travels from London, England to the Amazon jungle and enlists Frank’s questionable services to guide her downriver on La Quila—his ramshackle-but-charming boat. Lily is determined to uncover an ancient tree with unparalleled healing abilities—possessing the power to change the future of medicine. Thrust on this epic quest together, the unlikely duo encounters innumerable dangers and supernatural forces, all lurking in the deceptive beauty of the lush rainforest. But as the secrets of the lost tree unfold, the stakes reach even higher for Lily and Frank and their fate—and mankind’s—hangs in the balance.
Rated PG-13 for sequences of adventure violence.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Jungle Cruise is just plain, good, not-to-be-taken-seriously fun.” – Alan Ng, Film Threat
“Jungle Cruise is a rollicking adventure full of humor and heart anchored by Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt’s winning heroes.” – Matt Fowler, IGN
“A humor-laced, richly produced adventure benefiting greatly from the charisma and rapport of its lead actors, it’s built in the mold of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which was also based on a theme park attraction.” – Mike Scott, The Times-Picayune
Available Formats [11/16]:
DVD
Candyman
For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials. With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer (Colman Domingo) exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to maintain his status in the Chicago art world, Anthony begins to explore these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifyingly viral wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.
Rated R for bloody horror violence, and language including some sexual references.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“This is a consistently gorgeously framed and shot movie, with several moments of absolutely stunning cinematography… a pretty great piece of art.” – Sean Farrell, AFPL Journal
“DaCosta, who made her directorial debut with the remarkable abortion drama Little Woods, firmly announces herself as an artist at work with Candyman, a genuinely terrifying and artful horror film that speaks with a bell-clear voice to the current moment, the product of centuries of racist power structures.” – Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times
“The scares are off the charts, but only as a means to confront the film’s thoughtful messaging about racial injustice. Dynamite star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and director Nia DaCosta make you think hard about everything you see. Welcome to a new horror classic.” – Peter Travers, ABC News
Available Formats [11/16]:
DVD
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
The Eyes of Tammy Faye is an intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. In the 1970s and 80s, Tammy Faye (Jessica Chastain) and her husband, Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield), rose from humble beginnings to create the world’s largest religious broadcasting network and theme park, and were revered for their message of love, acceptance and prosperity. Tammy Faye was legendary for her indelible eyelashes, her idiosyncratic singing, and her eagerness to embrace people from all walks of life. However, it wasn’t long before financial improprieties, scheming rivals, and a scandal toppled their carefully constructed empire.
Rated PG-13 for sexual content and drug abuse.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Entertaining and surprisingly funny given the subject matter, the movie’s also an exquisitely acted affair paced by Chastain (who also produces), turning in a career-best effort as the complex Tammy Faye.” – Brian Truitt, USA Today
“The Eyes of Tammy Faye gives viewers an absorbing, amusing and provocative chance to rethink yet another train wreck who turned out to be, of all things, human.” – Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
“It would be easy to get lost in all that technical detail, to figure the impression—both physical and vocal—is enough. But Chastain digs deeper than the aesthetics, and locates something crucial in Tammy Faye. It’s a genuine, deep-seated, perhaps ruinously naive compassion, which Chastain illustrates with great care.” – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
Available Formats [11/16]:
DVD
Kevin Can F*** Himself: Season 1
Allison McRoberts (Annie Murphy) has been living like a stereotypical sitcom housewife but after 10 years, she reaches her breaking point in this dark comedy created by Valerie Armstrong.
Rated TV-MA for language and violence.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Kevin Can F*** Himself is ambitious and experimental, and it’s far more than satire.” – Allison Keene, Paste
“Kevin Can F*** Himself quickly moves past its high concept to show the picture of a woman in crisis, and we’re excited to see how she tries to improve things through the first season.” – Joel Keller, Decider
“Kevin Can F*** Himself hopscotches between filmmaking styles and tones, but does so with an assurance that makes each episode feel cohesive.” – Jen Chaney, Vulture
Available Formats [11/16]:
DVD
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization.
Rated PG-13 for sequence of violence and action, and language.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“…one of the series’ stronger entries, and possibly its best origin story.” – Sean Farrell, AFPL Journal
“It’s fresh, it’s alive, it’s not the same old Marvel Cinematic Universe.” – Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post
“Director/co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton’s film accomplishes something akin to what Black Panther accomplished in better times. It broadens the scope of superhero representation and storytelling. It offers an adversary, and a father figure, of teasing ambiguity and complicated rooting interests.” – Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Available Formats [11/30]:
DVD
Malignant
Madison (Annabelle Wallis) is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities.
Rated R for strong horror violence and gruesome images, and for language.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Malignant might not hold up to scrutiny but by the time all its mysteries are revealed, it’s clear that it was never supposed to. It’s an absurdly entertaining frightfest with a heavy emphasis on the absurd, and thank heaven — or hell — for it.” – William Bibbiani, The Wrap
“The lack of true scares may be a deal-breaker for some. And indeed, the overall outlandishness at work on the screen is going to flat-out annoy certain viewers. But then there will be those who revel in the audacity of Malignant, and boy oh boy are those folks in for a treat. This isn’t even close to being James Wan’s best horror movie, but cripes, it sure is a lot of fun.” – Chris Evangelista, /Film
“Malignant is rarely scary, but its outlandish bits likely didn’t happen by accident — not when it culminates in scenes so ludicrously over the top that they invite both fist-pumping cheers and wheeze-inducing laughter.” – Siddhant Adlakha, Polygon
Available Formats [11/30]:
DVD
Saint Maud
Maud, a newly devout hospice nurse, becomes obsessed with saving her dying patient’s soul — but sinister forces, and her own sinful past, threaten to put an end to her holy calling.
Rated R for disturbing and violent content, sexual content and language.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“This is a stunning piece of work and a triumphant fanfare for the arrival of a remarkable new talent.” – Jason Bailey, The Playlist
“In only an hour and 24 minutes, Glass has crafted a film rich in history, reference, psychology, spirituality, style and even some gore, but it never overstays its welcome, recognizing that less is more.” – Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times
“With elements of psychological terror, spiritual warfare, and even a dash of repressed sexual urges, Saint Maud is the kind of complicated, slippery horror that fans will talk about for years to come. This is the horror film most A24 titles wish they could be.” – Matthew Monagle, Austin Chronicle
Available Formats [11/30]:
DVD
Grantchester: Season 6
Geordie and Will continue solving crimes in 1958 Grantchester.
Description provided by Metacritic.
“Take it as inconsequential entertainment and it does the job. Green gets the best lines.” – Anita Singh, The Telegraph