Half of the Oscar nominated films are still in theaters. Catch up!

Yesterday we saw huge increases in theater counts for several of the 37 Oscar nominated films (marked by up arrows below). If you've missed any of them, this is the week for it. The titles marked with an asterisk below were already on their way out of the theaters and did not add screens, so you'd best hurry up if you can find them! 

• 🔺 The Favourite -10 nominations. (back in wide release)
• 🔺 A Star is Born - 8 nominations. (back in wide release)
• 🔺 Vice  - 8 nominations 
• 🔺 BlacKkKlansman - 6 nominations. (re-release, limited only)...

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Watch at Home: Eighth Grade & Old Man and the Gun

What's newly available for home viewing? Herewith a quick survey of new releases andgreat deals

DVD/Blu-Ray
• Halloween -  Jamie Lee Curtis returns to battle her star-making demons in this monster hit
• Madeline's Madeline - While it wasn't quite an arthouse hit, this experimental film has obsessive fans. 
• Mid90s -Jonah Hill's directorial debut
• Monsters & Men - John David Washington is up for a Spirit Award for his supporting role in this well reviewed race drama
• Old Man and the Gun - Robert Redford charms, and Sissy Spacek and Casey Affleck provide soulful support in this mellow but pleasing bank robbery movie...

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Soundtracking: Dumplin'

by Chris Feil

Much to our surprise when Dumplin’ arrived on Netflix last month, the film is stealthily a Dolly Parton jukebox musical. The heartwarming film is a collection of Dolly songs old, new, and (crucially) reimagined, shot straight out of the heart of its heroine. Add in a few appearances by drag queens, and the film is the kind of unassumingly big-hearted self-love anthem to make the music legend proud.

And its no mere cashing in on a famous songbook either - Dolly’s music anchors the emotional backbone of the film...

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Watch at Home: Eighth Grade, Bad Times at the El Royale

What's newly available for home viewing? Herewith a very quick survey of new releases and/or great deals. Links go to reviews.

DVD/Blu-Ray
• Bad Reputation a doc for Joan Jett fans
• Bad Times at the El Royale seven strangers, each with "a secret to bury" meet at a hotel. So like Clue + 1 only noirish?

Also new: AXL, Love Gilda, Night School, and White Boy Rick

iTunes 99¢ Deals of Note This Week
• Eighth Grade -Bo Burnham's inspired you-are-there comedy about everyone's favourite existential horror: middle school
• 12 Angry Men - the legendary courtroom drama was nominated for 3 Oscars including Best Picture of 1957 (pssst. it's also available right now on Prime)
• The Apartment -1960's big Oscar winner starring Jack Lemmon & Shirley Maclaine and an over-extended bachelor pad.
• Fargo -This freezing cold comic noir is still the best Coen brothers movie, right? Best Actress winner 1996 Frances McDormand.
• Platoon - Oliver Stone's bracing 1986 Vietnam war drama and Best Picture winner

Streaming
ICYMI What's new on Netflix & Amazon Prime

Streaming Roulette: Netflix & Prime for January

Curiously Netflix and Prime have no recent movies available to start 2019 with.  In the first half of January Netflix only has Solo: A Star Wars Story (beginning on the 9th). The situation at Prime is a bit better with Leave No Trace (3rd), Beautiful Boy (4th), and Eighth Grade 13th) all available soon. In other words, now is a great time to hit the actual movie theaters and catch up on Oscar hopefuls since the streaming services won't help much. Nevertheless here's a perusal of 'new'  streaming options.

As is our practice we've frozen the films at utterly random moments without cheating (whatever comes up comes up) for this quick preview. Let's go...

What just happened?!

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