By Ryan Painter 

It’s a massive release week for both digital and physical titles. I’ve selected 20 digital films including the blockbuster sequel Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, indie darling The Bikeriders (one of Mark’s favorites that I’ve yet to see), and Wildcat, the latest Ethan Hawke film (featuring his daughter Maya). I’m intrigued by The Blue Rose from Dark Sky Films, the action sequel Rendel: Cycle of Revenge, and Tiger Stripes. Sorry/Not Sorry, a Louis C.K. documentary is getting fantastic reviews. I’ve lacked the courage to sit down with it.

On the Blu-ray and DVD front we have the fantastic Civil War from Alex Garland, the wonderfully strange The Boy and the Heron (which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature) from the legendary director Hayao Miyazaki, Zendaya in Challengers, and genre films Abigail and Boy Kills World. Did I mention True Detective: Night Country with Jodie Foster? That’s in there too. I need to track down Drafthouse Film’s The World of Kanako, it feels like something I’d love. Warner Bros. is releasing Twister in 4K just in time for Twisters (two tornados are better than one). You’ll need to track down the Criterion Collection’s 4K UHD of Le Samourai. It belongs in every collection.

Lots of options. No wrong answers.

Digital 

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes [20th Century Studios]

Synopsis: Set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

The Bikeriders [Universal Studios]

Synopsis: The Bikeriders captures a rebellious time in America when the culture and people were changing. After a chance encounter at a local bar, strong-willed Kathy (Jodie Comer) is inextricably drawn to Benny (Austin Butler), the newest member of Midwestern motorcycle club, the Vandals led by the enigmatic Johnny (Tom Hardy). Much like the country around it, the club begins to evolve, transforming from a gathering place for local outsiders into a dangerous underworld of violence, forcing Benny to choose between Kathy and his loyalty to the club.

Dragonkeeper [Shout! Factory]

Synopsis: As ancient China falls under the rule of an evil Emperor, a fiery young girl rebels. Alongside a powerful dragon, she embarks on a journey to recover the last remaining dragon egg and save the world.

The Exorcism [Vertical Entertainment]

Synopsis: Academy Award-winner Russell Crowe stars as Anthony Miller, a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play. The film also stars Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg and David Hyde Pierce.

Garfield [Sony]

Synopsis: Garfield (voiced by Chris Pratt), the world-famous, Monday-hating, lasagna-loving indoor cat, is about to have a wild outdoor adventure! After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father – scruffy street cat Vic (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) – Garfield and his canine friend Odie are forced from their perfectly pampered life into joining Vic in a hilarious, high-stakes heist.

Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace [Uncork’d Entertainment]

Synopsis: Gabriel, a retired demon bounty hunter, returns to the dark land when his deceased wife’s prophecy comes true that “four angels will come to destroy mankind”, only to find a mysterious fifth angel that he must protect from a vicious demon horde.

The Blue Rose [MPI Media Group]

Synopsis: A genre-bending surrealist noir set in the 1950s, THE BLUE ROSE follows the one-night journey of two rookie detectives as they set out to solve a seemingly clear-cut homicide, only to find themselves in an alternate reality of their worst nightmares.

The Convert [Magnolia Pictures]

Synopsis: Lee Tamahori’s action-filled historical epic stars Guy Pearce as Thomas Munro, a newly arrived preacher in a colonial town in early 19th-century New Zealand who finds himself at the centre of a long-standing battle between two Māori tribes.

Deer Camp ’86 [Mill Creek]

https://youtu.be/YJu4tsGlgOU

Synopsis: In the fall of 1986, six friends from Detroit travel north to partake in the annual tradition of deer hunting, but something horrific has been awakened. An ancient spirit seeks vengeance for the death of yet another Native American girl who’s gone missing or been murdered. In an ironic twist, the hunters have become the hunted.

The Dish & the Spoon (2011) [Music Box Films]

Synopsis: This quirky romantic comedy follows Rose (Greta Gerwig), whose life changes after discovering her husband’s affair. Devastated and reeling, she soon crosses paths with a marooned British teenager (Olly Alexander) in a boarded-up Delaware beach town, and the two begin a peculiar friendship. As they drink their way through town, act out dream scenarios, and get to know each other’s pasts, this eccentric and insightful film illustrates how we navigate change and loneliness, for better and worse.

Exposure [Gravitas Ventures]

Synopsis: A traumatized man is convinced someone is trying to poison him, so his skeptical wife forces him to face his fears head on with exposure therapy.

Latency [Lionsgate]

Synopsis: When Hana (Sasha Luss), a professional gamer who suffers from acute agoraphobia, is asked to trial sophisticated new gaming equipment which uses AI to interpret the electrical activity of her brain, she sees an opportunity to enhance her game. As Hana and her best friend Jen (Alexis Ren) experiment with this new technology, the line between reality and Hana’s subconscious quickly begins to blur and she starts to wonder if the device is helping her or serving a more sinister force.

A Man of Reason [Epic Pictures]

Synopsis: After spending a decade in prison, a hitman learns that he has a daughter and just wants a chance at a normal life. But his former mob boss wants him back at any cost, sending merciless assassins after him.

Nordic by Nature [Magnolia Pictures]

Synopsis: The Faroe Islands are an ancient microcosmos of exciting products, Nordic history, a thriving seafood industry and home of the culinary pearl, 2-Star Michelin restaurant KOKS. The cuisine is based on just 500 square miles of local produce in a terrain that is rugged and the climate subpolar, with an everlasting light in the summer and scorching darkness through winter. Join director Rasmus Dinesen (Michelin Stars: Tales from the Kitchen), as he dives into the poetic mind of chef Poul Andrias Ziska and seeks to find the traditions, history and distinctive ancient practices that lie beneath the most remote fine dining in the world.

The Outlaws [Saban Films]

Synopsis: A group of outlaws awaken to find their hard-earned bag of loot from a daring train heist is empty. A high-stakes interrogation begins as each cowboy becomes the focus in an attempt to unmask the thief among them. With no witnesses and only unforgiving wilderness around, tension mounts as each bandit struggles to clear their name before bullets fly.

Population Purge [Gravitas Ventures]

Synopsis: In a dystopian world where a radical government has unleashed a deadly poison to control population, only those with blood type AB positive remain unscathed. But instead of outright death, the rest of the population is left to suffer in a state of chronic illness, causing widespread chaos and panic. As the majority slowly succumbs to the effects of the poison, their only hope lies in receiving transfusions of AB positive blood from the few immune survivors, like Charlie and his granddaughter Maya. Living in the decrepit remains of an abandoned amusement park, Charlie is a renegade supplier of blood to the underground market. But their sanctuary is threatened by the iron-fisted rule of District 22’s ruthless warden, Onslow, who will stop at nothing to save his own dying son. As Charlie and Maya fight to defend their haven and their own sanity, the eccentric duo must navigate through a world of danger and betrayal

Rendel: Cycle of Revenge [Shout! Factory]

Synopsis: ‘When ‘Smiley’ – ‘Christoper Cox’ takes over the ‘Vala Drug Corporation’ in the long shadow of his late grandfather ‘Edward Cox’ a masked vigilante, ‘Rendel’, takes revenge for the murder of his family’.

Sorry/Not Sorry [Greenwich]

Synopsis: An inside look at Louis C.K.’s public downfall and surprising return to the stage. Featuring interviews with women who spoke up about his sexual misconduct, New York Times journalists who broke the story, and fellow comedians and writers such as Michael Ian Black, Michael Schur, and Aida Rodriguez. Invites viewers to question whose stories and whose art we value, and at what cost. A New York Times production.

Tiger Stripes [Dark Star Pictures]

Synopsis: Zaffan, a rebellious and carefree teen girl, begins to see horrifying physical changes in her body. Shunned by friends and community, Zaffan is forced to embrace the change and reveal her true self, her wrath, rage and beauty, to everyone.

Twice Colonized [Film Movement]

Synopsis: Renowned Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter has led a lifelong fight for the rights of her people. A member of a historically marginalized and oppressed community, Aaju’s heritage puts her in the unique position of someone who has been “twice colonized” – first by European settlers who arrived in the Arctic, and then by modern-day Canadian policies and institutions. But while launching an effort to establish an Indigenous forum at the EU, Aaju finds herself facing a difficult and deeply personal journey to mend her own wounds after the unexpected passing of her youngest son.

Wildcat [Oscilloscope Pictures]

Synopsis: Directed and co-written by four-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke, WILDCAT invites the audience to weave in and out of celebrated Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor’s mind as she ponders the great questions of her writing: Can scandalous art still serve God? Does suffering precede all greatness? Can illness be a blessing? In 1950, Flannery (Maya Hawke) visits her mother Regina (Laura Linney) in Georgia when she is diagnosed with lupus at twenty-four years old. Struggling with the same disease that took her father’s life when she was a child and desperate to make her mark as a great writer, this crisis pitches her imagination into a feverish exploration of belief. As she dives deeper into her craft, the lines between reality, imagination, and faith begin to blur, allowing Flannery to ultimately come to peace with her situation and heal a strained relationship with her mother.

Blu-ray & DVD 

Abigail [Universal]

Synopsis: After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.

Boy Kills World [Lionsgate]

Synopsis: Bill Skarsgård stars as “Boy” who avows revenge after his family is murdered by Hilda Van Der Koy (Janssen), the deranged matriarch of a corrupt post-apocalyptic dynasty that left the boy orphaned, deaf and voiceless. Driven by his inner voice, one which he co-opted from his favorite childhood video game, Boy trains with a mysterious shaman (Ruhian) to become an instrument of death and is set loose on the eve of the annual culling of dissidents. Bedlam ensues as Boy commits bloody martial arts mayhem, inciting a wrath of carnage and blood-letting. As he tries to get his bearings in this delirious realm, Boy soon falls in with a desperate resistance group, all the while bickering with the apparent ghost of his rebellious little sister.

Challengers [Warner Bros.]

Synopsis: From visionary filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, “Challengers” stars Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy turned coach and a force of nature who makes no apologies for her game on and off the court. Married to a champion on a losing streak (Mike Faist, “West Side Story”), Tashi’s strategy for her husband’s redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against the washed-up Patrick (Josh O’Connor, “The Crown”) – his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend. As their pasts and presents collide, and tensions run high, Tashi must ask herself, what will it cost to win.

Civil War [A24]

Synopsis: An adrenaline-fueled thrill ride through a near-future fractured America balanced on the razor’s edge. A group of journalists must race through battlefields to the White House before DC falls. Featuring Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Nick Offerman.

The Boy and the Heron [Shout! Factory]

Synopsis: From the legendary Studio Ghibli and Academy Award®-winning director Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) comes a critically-acclaimed fantasy adventure. After losing his mother during the war, young Mahito moves to his family’s estate in the countryside. There, a series of mysterious events lead him to a secluded and ancient tower, home to a mischievous gray heron. When Mahito’s new stepmother disappears, he follows the gray heron into the tower, and enters a fantastic world shared by the living and the dead. As he embarks on an epic journey with the heron as his guide, Mahito must uncover the secrets of this world, and the truth about himself. Featuring the voices of Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Dafoe, Karen Fukuhara, Mark Hamill, Robert Pattinson and Florence Pugh.

Food. Inc. 2 [Magnolia]

Synopsis: In Food, Inc. 2, the sequel to the 2008 Oscar-nominated and Emmy-award winning documentary, Food, Inc., filmmakers Robert Kenner and Melissa Robledo reunite with investigative authors Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) to take a fresh look at our efficient yet vulnerable food system. Since the first film, multinational corporations have tightened their stronghold on the U.S. government. The system at large has robbed workers of a fair living wage, and profit focused corporations are proliferating a chemically formulated international health crisis by focusing on growing the market for ultra-processed foods.

Tarot [Sony]

When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.

Titanic: The Musical [Liberator Film Studios]

Synopsis: From composer Maury Yeston, five-time Tony Award® winner, Titanic The Musical is a stunning and stirring production that recounts the hopes, dreams and aspirations of all on board her fateful maiden voyage.

True Detective: Night Country [Warner Bros.]

Synopsis: Set in Alaska, True Detective: Night Country follows detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), as they investigate the disappearance of eight scientists. In addition, the season also stars John Hawkes, Christopher Eccleston, Fiona Shaw, Finn Bennett, Anna Lambe, Aka Niviâna, Isabella Star Lablanc, and Joel D. Montgrand.

Dark Angel (1990) 4K UHD [Shout! Factory]

Synopsis: Detective Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren, Joshua Tree, The Expendables) thought he’d dealt with every kind of crime on earth. But now, someone is using human bodies to manufacture narcotics. Someone — or something — not of this world.

The Hairdresser’s Husband (1990) [Kino Lorber]

The Hairdresser’s Husband (Kino Lorber)

Synopsis: A newly restored masterpiece from famed director Patrice Leconte (Girl on the Bridge, Yvonne’s Perfume), The Hairdresser’s Husband is a wildly erotic ode to wedded bliss. Starring the legendary Jean Rochefort (Man on the Train) and the incandescent Anna Galiena (Jamón Jamón), it follows the life of young Antoine, who was obsessed with the bewitching beautician who cut his hair. Since then, his single ambition in life has been to marry a hairdresser. As an adult, Antoine (Rochefort) meets a woman (Galiena) who seems to be the perfect incarnation of his childhood fantasies. He promptly marries her, then spends most of his daylight hours sitting in her shop, watching her every move. They are so crazy in love that some days they close up early to be alone. As time passes the shop becomes their entire world.

Le Samourai (1967) 4K UHD [Criterion]

Le Samourai 4K UHD (Criterion Collection)

Synopsis: In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts. After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him. An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director Jean‑Pierre Melville, Le samouraï is a razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture —with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology.

Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954) [Criterion]

Riot in Cell Block 11 (Criterion Collection)

Synopsis: Early in his career, Don Siegel made his mark with this sensational and high-octane but economically constructed drama set in a maximum-security penitentiary. Riot in Cell Block 11, the brainchild of producer extraordinaire Walter Wanger, is a ripped-from-the-headlines social-problem picture about inmates’ rights that was inspired by a recent spate of uprisings in American prisons. In Siegel’s hands, the film, shot on location at Folsom State Prison, with real inmates and guards as extras, is at once brash and humane, showcasing the hard-boiled visual flair and bold storytelling for which the director would become known.

Storytelling (2001) [Shout! Factory]

Storytelling (Shout! Factory)

Synopsis: Acclaimed writer-director Todd Solondz (Welcome To The Dollhouse, Happiness, Life During Wartime) brings you a wry, insightful comedy that shines a light on the dark side of human behavior. Take a journey from innocence to experience, kindness to cruelty, and love to hate with an emotionally needy college student (Selma Blair, Cruel Intentions), a dysfunctional family man (John Goodman, The Big Lebowski), and a struggling filmmaker (Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers) as they learn some of life’s most difficult lessons. Masterfully balancing both fact and fiction, Solondz uses his ever-present razor-sharp wit and observant eye to cut open his characters and skewer the American dream.

Twister (1996) 4K UHD [Warner Bros.]

Synopsis: Academy Award winner Helen Hunt stars as Dr. Jo Thornton-Harding, who as a small girl watched her father sucked to his death from her family’s storm cellar by a massive tornado. Now a storm chaser, a scientist who risks her life to study the dark side of nature by taking her data-transmitting instruments directly into the path of a deadly storm, Jo chases the largest tornado to ever strike Oklahoma as her marriage implodes and rival scientists will stop at nothing to steal her breakthrough.

Unsung Hero [Lionsgate]

 

Synopsis: Based on a remarkable true story, Unsung Hero follows David Smallbone as he moves his family from Down Under to the States, searching for a brighter future after his successful music company collapses. With nothing more than their seven children, suitcases, and their love of music, David (for KING + COUNTRY’s Joel Smallbone) and his pregnant wife Helen (Daisy Betts) set out to rebuild their lives. Helen’s faith stands against all odds and inspires her husband and children to hold onto theirs. With their own dreams on hold, David and Helen begin to realize the musical prowess in their children, who would go on to become two of the most successful acts in Inspirational Music history: five-time GRAMMY Award®-winning artists for KING + COUNTRY and Rebecca St. James.

The World of Kanako [Drafthouse Films]

 

Synopsis: An uncompromising revenge thriller of operatic scope, The World of Kanako is a non-stop visual and emotional assault to the senses as it follows troubled ex-detective Akikazu (Kôji Yakusho, 13 Assassins, Babel) on the hunt for his missing teenage daughter, Kanako. What he discovers in his search is an unsettling and harrowing web of depravity––surrounding both Kanako and himself. As Akizaku stumbles along a shocking trail of drugs, sex and violence, he finds himself woefully unprepared for the revelations that affect all he holds dear.

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