Jan 10th - 16th Downloads
& DVDs
 

  •  Vesper (2022):

    The setting here is a post-apocalyptic world in which, the message to those of us in the past is this: “beware of genetically modified plants and animals, as the damage to our eco-system could send us back to the Dark Ages.” Vesper is the lead character, a 13-year-old girl taking care of her ailing and fragile father in a world gone wrong. She lives in squalor, scrabbling about for food, and for medicine to help her father, when something changes. A spacecraft crashes nearby, and Vesper learns that the woman whom she has met, and who was in the craft, is not from space or anything like that, but rather is from Earth, but from a privileged region, which has Vesper begin to realize that all of the world is not like the bleak, dark place in which she lives. Vesper’s father is paralyzed, and the woman who has intruded upon Vesper and her dad is forcing the young girl to lean on her latent abilities as a bio-hacker to save both her father and the traveller. A world in disarray, and becoming more so by the day, may have its future as a planet, and its societies, determined by one young girl. Shot on location in Lithuania for that dark and foreboding look. Rated 14A.

     

  • Angry Neighbours (2022):

    Harry (Frank Langella) is a highly acclaimed novelist living a life in retirement at his home in the Hamptons. Harry is also a major grouch – he cannot get along with anyone, and that’s his choice. He has a dog named Hector, whom Harry hears talking to him regularly (voiced by Cheech Marin). He doesn’t get along with Hector – they don’t agree on anything. Hector is a right-wing conservative, a born-again Christian doggy and a capitalist, which is why they just don’t get along. Things in the neighbourhood are set to change when the property across the street from Harry is purchased by a super-rich man named Kevin (Bobby Cannavale). Kevin begins construction on a mansion that is everything that Harry hates. It is outsized, it is ostentatious, it is garish, and it represents everything that Harry believes is wrong with the world today. It is clear to Harry what he must do. He must make it his mission, his reason for being, to stop Kevin’s monstrosity and so begins the tale between two neighbours who just want peace, but who are not about to allow that to happen. Warren Brock, a rookie director doing his first movie, is at the helm, and the writers, James M. Blair and Roger Rosenblatt don’t have any film experience either, which means that this is Frank Langella’s movie to carry on his back. Rated 14A.

  • The Estate (2022):

    A solid cast makes fine work of this story in which a mean, angry, wretch of a woman, Aunt Hilda (Kathleen Turner), terminally ill and impossible to please, nears her unstoppable demise as her family members gather round. Normally no one would bother, but Aunt Hilda is also something else in addition to her other characteristics – she is wealthy beyond all reason, and her family, despite their distaste for the woman, are vying for her favour and hopefully with that, for a piece of the estate that could set any one of them up for life. Two sisters are at the heart of the conflict, Macy and Savannah (Toni Collette and Anna Faris. They feel most entitled to Aunt Hilda’s fortune, and they don’t want to share – not with the other family members, and certainly not with one another. As other family members pop into the aunt’s life, it becomes clear to Macy and Savannah that getting into the will is not going to be an easy thing. Additional family members are played by David Duchovny, Rosemary DeWitte, and Ron Livingstone. A serviceable comedy with a dramatic and very dark twist. Rated 14A.

  • The Pale Blue Eye (2022):

    An excellent cast shows up for this dramatic thriller with horror overtones. It is 1830 at the West Point Academy, and a young cadet is found swinging from a rope on the edge of the parade grounds. Suicide isn't that unusual in this environment, as cadets are expected to be perfect in every way and they have a code of silence and one of honesty that can be harsh and unforgiving. The next morning when officials visit the room in which the body has been kept, they find that the heart has been removed from the cadet's cadaver. A world-weary detective is hired by the Academy to attempt to get to the bottom of what is now at best, a murder, and at worst a Dr. Frankenstein-like event. The detective is Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) and he finds it impossible to crack the code of silence that the cadets exhibit. He decides to get one of their own to help him, a cadet named ... ready for it? .... Edgar Allen Poe, played by Harry Melling from the Harry Potter movies. Robert Duvall and Gillian Anderson also star. Rated 14A.

     

    Slumberland (2022):

    A good cast shows up for this adventure story that will appeal to children 8 or 10 and up. Based on the comic book series "Little Nemo in Slumberland '' by Winston McClay, we follow the adventures of a tweenage girl named Nemo and her eccentric companion Flip (Jason Mamoa) who come together after Nemo's father Peter (Kyle Chandler goes missing at sea. Set in the Pacific Northwest, but shot in Toronto, we follow Nemo as she is sent to live with relatives in the big city, a place foreign to her after the coastline life she had been living. While struggling in a new school with new people all around her, Nemo finds a secret map which hooks her up with Flip, and begins a challenging journey through lands of dreams and nightmares that she believes will help reunite her with her lost father. Rated PG.

New on CRAVE

The Serpent Queen (2022) (TV Series):

The only snakes and serpents in this historical drama are of the human variety as we get an eight-part series based on Leona Friede's book "Catherine de Medici, Renaissance Queen of France." Samantha Morton ("Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them") plays the title role here. She was queen of France by marriage to King Henry II for a dozen years and became one of the most significant political voices of her generation. After the death of her husband, she continued to become increasingly more influential, pulling the strings on the reigns of her subsequent sons who had no idea of the extent to which they were being manipulated. For most of the 16th century she was the most important woman in Europe, and was known for her ruthlessness and for her ability to make ground-breaking decisions with no concern for the human price. Rated 14A.

 

New on AMAZON PRIME

My Policeman (2022):

In 1950s London, we become acquainted with a young police officer named Tom (Harry Styles), a teacher named Marion (Emma Corrin), and a museum curator named Patrick (David Dawson). The morals and the conduct of those days is significantly different than what is acceptable in today's world, and the relationship between the three, in those early days not long after WWII, evolves into and emotional firestorm in which alliances are made and lost and regrets hang heavily in the air as the trio struggles with their respective relationship issues. Then, a flash forward to the 1990s, and our trio come together again, still full of remorse and hurt from the events of the past, but they feel they have one last chance to heal the wounds that still fester, and to heal the damage that was near fatal at a psychological level. A character study with a level of intensity that may be too strong for some viewers. Rated 18A.

 

New on DISNEY + /Star

Disenchanted (2022):

Amy Adams and much of the original cast, including James Marsden and Patrick Dempsey, show up 15 years after the movie "Enchanted" graced the big screen and was a blockbuster hit bringing in more than $350 million. In that film, Princess Giselle (Adams), living in an animated fairytale land, was just biding her time and singing her songs while she waited for Prince Charming. He showed up in the person of Prince Edward (Marsden) and the day before their marriage, a tragedy befell the princess. At the hands of an evil hag (Susan Sarandon), she was dumped into a well, which was actually a conduit between two worlds, the animate land of Andalasia, and now, the harsh, racaus world of New York City, complete with honking taxis and frenetic pedestrians. There she met a divorce lawyer named Robert Philip (Dempsey) and eventually fell in love, married, and lived happily ... well, not quite ever after. As this new story opens, it is 10 years later and Giselle and her husband are moving to the suburbs with their child and new baby in tow. On arrival, it's clear that something isn't quite right as their new home in Monroeville seems to be under the control of Malvina Monroe (Maya Rudolph) who is not what she seems. As Giselle struggles with this new twist, she makes a wish, wanting everything to be a perfect fairy-tale. The spell backfires and it turns both her live-action world and the animated world of Andalasia upside down. There are more songs in this sequel than in the original, a good account given by Idena Menzel who once again plays Nancy. Rated PG.

New on Apple +

Spirited (2022):
Just when you thought you had seen every possible variation on the Dickens classic, "A Christmas Carol," from the Muppets to George C. Scott, to the Alistair Sim version from 1951, along comes a truly different twist. Set in the present day, the star here, the Scrooge of the story, is a character named Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds). As expected, he is a miserable soul given to creating chaos and grief all around himself through his thoughtless, sometimes mean, stingy mannerisms. As Christmas Eve approaches, Briggs is visited by the first of three ghosts, this one being the spirit of Christmas Present played by Will Farrell. Each Christmas Eve, this spirit seeks out a wretched person to reform, and this time it's Briggs. Unlike Dickens' original story, Briggs turns the tables on the ghost and soon has Christmas Present examining his own past, present and future, completely forgetting the original mission. This is the first version of "A Christmas Carol" told from the perspective of the spirits themselves, Past, Present, and Future, and it's clear that they picked on the wrong Scrooge this time. Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer also stars, as does Sunita Mani from the series GLOW, as the spirit of Christmas Past. An interesting spin on an old classic, and a musical version at that. Rated PG.