Murder at Yellowstone City (2022):

A cynic might say that anything looking remotely like a western, and containing the word “Yellowstone” in the title, would be an opportunistic grasp of the immense popularity of the Amazon Prime series “Yellowstone,” with Kevin Costner. So, call me that cynic. The original working title of this film, while it was in production in Montana, was “Murder at Emigrant Gulch.” I am sure that most would agree that changing “Emigrant Gulch” to “Yellowstone City,” would be good for many thousands of extra viewings. Gabriel Byrne is Sheriff Jim Ambrose of Yellowstone City. There is a murder in town, and the sheriff goes to work solving it, which appears quite simple, as there is, perhaps coincidentally, a new person in town, a former slave named Cicero (Isaiah Mustafa), who, on the surface at least, seems to fill the bill for the killer. The person who was murdered was a prospector who is said to have struck gold in the town that is now well past its best-before date. As Sheriff Ambrose conducts his investigation, it becomes clear that Cicero is innocent of the crime. Not arresting the murderer puts the town and the lawman in jeopardy, so despite the evidence, Cicero is deemed to be the culprit. That leaves things to the new minister, Thaddeus Murphy (Thomas Jane of “The Punisher”) and his forthright wife Alice (Anna Camp) to stand up to the sheriff and to right the wrong that is being done. Richard Dreyfuss also stars. Rated 14A.

Vivo (2021):

This animated feature from Sony Pictures animation, that company’s first ever musical, is entirely on the shoulders of its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Hamilton,” “In the Heights”), who voices the lead character and who created all the music. Some observers have been critical by suggesting that it all sounds the same as Miranda’s previous music, which is fine if you are a fan, and could be pushing it if you are not. Vivo is the main character here. He is a rainforest kinkajou, a forest mammal most closely related to the raccoon family, and he makes beautiful music every day in the main town square in Havana, Cuba, along with Andres, his human friend and partner. One day Andres gets a letter from Marta Sandoval (voice of Gloria Estefan) who invites him to Miami to see her farewell performance as she is retiring from showbusiness. Vivo learns that Marta and Andres used to perform together, but that life put them on separate paths and they had not seen each other in years. He also learned that Andres has decided to use this trip to Miami as an opportunity to tell Marta that he loves her, and to perform a song he wrote to her expressing this emotion. Vivo does not want to go to Miami. Things are fine just as they are, and he and Andres are at odds. That night (here’s the PG part of this cartoon) Andres dies in his sleep. He has never told Marta how he feels about her and now he will never go to Miami. Now Vivo, wracked with guilt, has to figure out a way to make things right, and this becomes a “road” movie. Also features the voice of Zoe Saldana. Rated PG.

Nitram (2021):

I am not sure there is an appetite for stories about mass shootings given what has happened in the U.S. over the past year, but here we are with exactly that scenario, although this took place in Australia in 1996 and was known as “the Port Arthur Massacre.” In this event, a young man named Martin Bryant shot and killed 35 people and wounded 23 others in Tasmania in a rampage that remains the worst mass shooting in Australian history. His motivation seemed to have been rising outrage at a family whom he believed had wronged and disrespected his father. American actor Caleb Landry Jones (“Get Out!”, “Three Billboards”) plays Martin – the title, “Nitram,” is “Martin” spelled backwards – and works at demonstrating the clear mental disorders that seemed to create the incident and then add to it after the fact. Martin was obsessed with how many people he killed and could not get enough information on the mass murder. He pleaded guilty to each count and received 35 life sentences with no chance of parole. Judy Davis plays his mother, and Anthony LaPaglia plays dad. A disturbing story made all the more strange because it does not have an American setting. Rated 14A.

13 The Musical (2022):

This Netflix original is a romantic drama, or a dramatic romance, take your pick, about two young people from very different worlds, who come together with a common cause. He is Luke (Nicholas Galitzine who played Prince Charming in the recent Cinderella movie), a handsome young man from a troubled background, who has just enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. She is Cassie (Sofia Carson), a struggling singer/songwriter, and her past and present is very different from that of Luke. They agree to marry, but only so that she can have access to his military benefits such as healthcare, after a diagnosis that will change her life. As her illness becomes more pronounced, the couple must decide which part of their life was a marriage of convenience, and which part might be for much more than that. Rated 14A.

Day Shift (2022):

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.