What's newly available for home viewing this week?
DVD/Blu-Ray
• Alpha - Kodi Smith-McPhee (The Road, X-Men Apocalypse) stars in this prehistoric adventure film about a boy and his wolf friend
• Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings -Marc Chao reprises his popular Detective Dee role. The previous title started with "Young Detective Dee" but I guess now that Chao is 34 they feel "Young" is pushing it? The previous film was ... bonkers.
• Juliet, Naked -Rose Byrne & Ethan Hawke star in this well-reviewed romcom
• The Meg -the campy giant-shark flick was a sleeper hit
• Mile 22 -Another gun-loving actioner from Peter Berg & Mark Wahlberg
• Puzzle - Two of our most reliable but underappreciated screen actors Kelly Macdonald and Irffan Khan star in this story about a woman who discovers a passion for solving puzzles
New iTunes 99¢ Deals
• Death of Stalin -Armando Iannucci (of In the Loop and Veep fame) is back with another political comedy. This one was up for Best British Independent Film Awards last year but released in the US this year.
• The Rider -Chinese director Chloé Zhao made one of the most celebrated debut films of the past two years. It was up for Indie Spirit prizes last year and is nominated for Best Film this year (when it was released) at the Gothams.
• Diner -Barry Levinson's beloved 1982 debut was a Golden Globe Best Picture nominee and an Oscar nominee for Best Screenplay in its time. The cast is a who's who of then rising stars: Ellen Barkin, Kevin Bacon, Steve Guttenberg, and Paul Reiser.
-What do they call you? Your Highness? Your Excellency? Your Honourable Something?
-In court it's "My Lady"
Brand New Streaming
• The Children Act -Amazon Prime has the Emma Thompson film about a no-nonsense judge whose marriage is faltering while she's working on a case involving a teenager (Fionn Whitehead) who refuses a blood transfusion that could save his life.
• Green Room - Netflix is streaming this brutal neo-nazi thriller from summer 2016 starring the late Anton Yelchin and Sir Patrick Stewart.