Nathaniel R giving you the heads up on what's newly available to screen at home.
DVD/Blu-Ray/Rental
• High Life - In which Dr Juliette Binoche gets nasty with her patients and Robert Pattinson mopes around in outer space while caring for an infant.
• Tell It to the Bees - In which Dr Anna Paquin seduces her new friend Holliday Grainger (fine performance!) in a small homophobic British town in the 1950s. But it's actually a sentimental family movie of sorts. Watch out for the unintentionally hilarious killer bees!
Also newish on blu-ray and/or DVD: Pet Sematary, The Best of Enemies, Little, After, Mojin: The Worm Valley, and Gotham (the complete series).
iTunes 99¢ Deals
Titles you can rent on the cheap this week include the orgiastic French film Climax, 2016's Best Picture winner Moonlight, 2017's very best film Lady Bird, the new horror classic The VVitch, Bong Joon-ho's popular South Korean monster movie The Host, and the charming Eighth Grade. They're also offering up Don Jon & Under the Skin in a stealth attempt to remind you of what a genre-hopping ridiculously talented and versatile actress Scarlett Johansson is. Be happy that she shakes off the Marvel shackles very soon (Black Widow is currently filming). Who knows what pleasures await when she can step out of that one genre and into all genres again!
Streaming this week
Starcourt Mall, the complete blueprints. So, this is us...
Stranger Things (Season 3) on Netflix
That's Maya Hawke pointing at the blueprints. I didn't realize it was her until I was looking away from the TV and heard THAT VOICE. She doesn't look like her but she sounds EXACTLY like her mom, Uma Thurman. Close your eyes and try it. It's uncanny. One thing more about this image. The Scoops Ahoy uniforms are a brilliant stroke because they give even tense scenes a comic edge because there just so silly. For what it's worth, season 3 is very good. Not quite finished so perhaps it doesn't stick the landing but currently confused at the naysayers as this is a marked improvement on Season 2. Also a bit surprised that the show -- which is definitely aimed at families despite the gorey violence -- appears to be fully aware that the character of Will (Noah Schnapp) reads as gay.
So, four years old. Yes, it's written here.
Woman at War (2018/2019) on Hulu
Iceland's most recent Oscar submission really should've been nominated last season (though it didn't open in the states until March). Benedikt Erlingsson is among the most exciting new directors on the planet and no sophomore slump for him; this one is even better than his mesmerizing debut Of Horses and Men. Jodie Foster has optioned the rights for an American remake so wish her luck. It will not be easy to do this one justice.
Nonsense. The bank is just around the corner and the children and I have plenty of legs to get us there.
Mary Poppins Returns (2018) on Netflix
We really didn't do this one enough justice when it opened here at TFE given its big Christmas musical status. That said, it was quite a fast fade wasn't it, despite strong moments? This was surely due to its attempt to basically remake the original albeit with a scene by scene similar plot. Too bad they weren't looser about the construction because the cast and the crew were there waiting to shine.
If you don't find it, you crack a few heads! [DOOR SLAMS]
Peterloo (2018/2019) on Amazon Prime
Mike Leigh's latest is surely better than its reputation since it got the cold shoulder everywhere -- it's even his lowest grosser ever in US theaters (just $151k when his movies usually gross around $3-4 million). But Leigh movies usually contain at least some brilliance. That said, after this screencap roulette moment you see above, I let the movie play on a bit and this scene was followed by not one but two consecutive scenes of old men reading dramatic things they'd just written aloud to hear how they sounded which is questionably anti-cinematic! Have any of you seen this yet?
also...
brand new to Netflix: Bangkok Love Stories, The Iron Lady, Kinky, The Last Czars, Siclian Ghost Story, The Good Witch (S4), Kakegurui (S2), In the Dark (S1), and Free Reign (S3)
brand new Hulu: The Brink, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Into the Dark, The Last Word, Phoenix, The Venture Bros (S7), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (S13), and Amazing World of Gumball (S6)
brand new Prime: Kung Fu Panda (S1B), Marshall, Phoenix, Witness Protection
brand new HBOGo: Bohemian Rhapsody, Divorce (S3), Thoroughbreds