Watch at Home: The Children Act, The Rider, Puzzle
Tuesday, November 13, 2018 at 7:27PM 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.
Reader Comments (8)
Can't wait for PUZZLE. I think both lead actors are terrific. She's currently filming DIRT MUSIC with Garrett Hedlund, and he was so great in the lovely, underseen THE LUNCHBOX.
Is The Children Act as bad as it looks? The trailer is terrible and they basically tell you the whole movie.
The Meg - so naff it's good
Death of Stalin - excellent, Buscemi, Russell Beale, Isaacs, Riseborough all top notch
The Rider - outstanding. Go watch now.
The Children Act - very very boring but Thompson is good, Whitehead is bad
Peggy Sue, yes. I thought it was a real slog and the plot was one big muddle.
Juliet, Naked is a delight, and The Rider is obviously a masterpiece, (Death of Stalin and The Children Act also have some respective merits) but Puzzle is my favorite of these. It's so good! Certainly hope it results in Kelly getting more lead roles, because she deserves them. I told her as much as at a screening and she was as humble and charming as you would expect. Love her.
I really need to see THE RIDER - missed it in theaters.
I did see PUZZLE, which I really enjoyed. If you liked THE LUNCHBOX, you'll like this one, although the focus here (deservedly) is on Kelly Macdonald, who's wonderful, more than Khan. But he's still great in supporting, as is everyone else. Just about every major character in the movie is surprisingly nuanced and well acted, when so many of them could have been flat or caricatured.
Am I the only one who wasn't crazy about "The Rider." It was shot exquisitely but didn't hold my interest in any way otherwise.
The listing suggests that THE RIDER is Chloé Zhao's debut feature, but it's her second. Her first was SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME, Spirit Award nominated as Best First Feature, followed two years later by a Best Feature nom for THE RIDER. The Gotham nom for Best Feature this year for THE RIDER came 17 months after its Cannes premiere and hopefully won't be the last we hear from the awards circuit and 10 Bests because it is indeed a 2018 release.