The Devil You Know (2022):

Omar Epps is Marcus Cowans, a man just out of prison after beating alcoholism and the kind of life that led him to incarceration in the first place. Once out, he faces a major challenge that emanates from his brother Drew (William Catlett), an unemployed young man who is hanging out with a bad crowd. Marcus is determined to help his brother, but in doing so, finds himself slipping down the slimy slope that led him to jail in the first place. The issue that has to be overcome is just how far down that slope Marcus must go in order to rescue his brother from a life that can end only in death or life in prison. And of course, the brother must want the help, which it appears he does not. This is an uneven story with no characters that really work, although you’ll recognize such familiar faces as those of veteran utility actors Michael Beach (“The Rookie; “SWAT”) and Michael Ealy (“The Good Wife;” “Stumptown”). Most of these actors have been given characters with little to do, operating in a one-dimensional world which, through a scrip and direction that are wanting, leaves the whole thing never living up to its potential. Rated 14A.

Big Gold Brick (2022):

This fantasy drama has us thinking, at times, that it’s a story that could really have happened, but as it drifts away from the original premise, it becomes clear that this is a genre-bending tale that often leaves us wondering just what the point might be. It begins simply enough – Sam Liston (Emory Cohen) is crossing the street in a marked crosswalk when he is hit by a car driven by Floyd Devereaux (Andy Garcia), a man of some means. When the doctor explains the nature of Sam’s injuries to Floyd, the guilt-ridden driver sees both an opportunity to make amends, and a chance to get a project fulfilled. This dark comedy takes us down a rabbit hole in which Floyd, a man always bigger than life, sees Sam as the ideal person to write his biography. To that end, he invites the injured man into his posh home to live with his family while he recovers, and to have ample access to his family for interview purposes. Sam feel that this might be something that could work, but after his encounters with Floyd’s second wife Jacqueline (Megan Fox), he begins to wonder. And when an inanimate Santa Claus ornament in his room begins to speak with him, it all becomes more unhinged. The chaos on which the family seems to thrive makes the writing of the biography something more than simple. Shot in Toronto, and this one would be for Megan Fox fans only, as there isn’t much more to attract movie-goers. Rated 14A.

Ted K (2022):

If you ever get sick and tired of the technology that surrounds you every day, from Twitter to email to Alexa and Siri, one could only imagine how Ted Kaczynski might feel in our world. Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber, is still on the fringe of our world, but serving eight consecutive life terms in prison with no possibility of parole leaves him in a position of not having to deal with the modern life issues that put him in prison in the first place. Kaczynski was a university professor who, over time, became more and more concerned about the industrialization taking place in the world, about the way technology began to rule everyone and everything. He retreated, off the grid, to rural Lincoln, Montana, where he attempted to live a life free of the trappings of modern civilization. That was in 1969. It wasn’t enough. Between 1978 and 1995 he was responsible for a reign of terror in which he used the postal service and bombs of various sorts to take out those people whom he believed were advancing technology and hurting the environment. Kaczynski is played to perfection here by South African actor Charlto Coply, and we follow his dark journey as authorities work to find and identify the terrorist who was responsible for the deaths of three people and the serious wounding of eight others. Filmed on location in Montana. Rated 14A.

Stranger Things: Season 4 (TV Series) (2022):

The horrors of The Upside Down continue to haunt the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, while the original cast returns intact, with the kids who fought those horrors now in high school and facing their own challenges. When season three ended, we were in the midst of the Battle of Starcourt, the mall which became the focus of the bizarre creatures focused on destroying humans. Town Sheriff Hopper isn't in Hawkins when the action opens. He was captured and is the focus of interrogation somewhere on Russia's Kamchatka peninsula by both human dangers and those more out worldly. A good part of the start to this season, which will come in two parts separated by one month's time, has the pals, the kids, including Eleven, Mike, Dustin, et al off on separate missions of a sort, really the first time in their young lives that they haven't been a tight group. Rated 14A.

Operation Mincemeat (2021):

This film, based on actual events in WWII, was released by Warner Bros in the UK theatrically, and is being released by Netflix in North America. Colin Firth stars in this ingenious story of an espionage operation in 1943 that turned the tide of the war when a pair of British operatives used a combination of a corpse and false identity documents to deceive the Germans at a critical point when a huge build-up of troops was set to quash the allies. It tells the story of those who fight in the shadows, and whose true exploits are sometimes unknown and lost in the fog of war and the mirage of history. Rated 14A.