OUT NOW:
‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ (HBO Max)
Judas and the Black Messiah is a biographical film that details the life of Fred Hampton, an often unsung figure of the civil rights movement. Hampton was chairman of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s, and when his activism led to the formation of the Rainbow Coalition – which joined various street gangs together to end violence and work for social change – he was assassinated by the FBI. He was only 21 years old.
Daniel Kaluuya turns in a phenomenal performance as Hampton, as does Lakeith Stanfield who plays the titular Judas, William O’Neal. O’Neal was coerced by the FBI into spying on Hampton, leaking the party’s secrets and eventually providing the vital intel that would lead to the chairman’s death. The film is every bit a war movie as it is a historical drama, and director Shaka King boldly refuses to shy away from Hampton’s revolutionary politics or the heinous methods of law enforcement that brought him down – methods that are still used today. To say that this movie is timely or topical would be extremely redundant. It’s an exceptionally important watch for any moment in time.
‘After Midnight’ (Shudder)
Filmmaker Jeremy Gardner both directs and stars in Shudder’s latest exclusive, After Midnight. He plays Hank, a man who is left devastated after his girlfriend Abby (Brea Grant) suddenly disappears. All she leaves behind is a strange note, and Hank spends the following days wallowing in self-pity and loneliness. To make things worse, his nights are filled with terror as a horrid monster attempts to break into his home.
After Midnight is a lot of things; a monster movie, a relationship drama, even a bit of a comedy. That hodgepodge of genres is sure to offer something different and exciting for horror fans.
‘Sator’ (VOD)
Sator is the painstaking and singular artistic vision of Jordan Graham, who spent several years working on the film. Graham wrote, directed, produced, and even acted as his own cinematographer and set designer and everything else you can think of; all except act. The result is a truly immersive and haunting experience, one with grim yet gorgeous scenery and impeccable sound design.
The film follows a man named Adam (Gabriel Nicholson), a grizzled loner who patrols a seemingly endless forest every day. At night he returns to his small cabin, where he obsesses over images captured by various wildlife cameras he’s set up around the woods. Adam is in search of a mysterious and terrifying being known as Sator, who has been a constant presence in the life of his family going back generations. What makes the film all the more unnerving is the fact that much of its story comes from Graham’s real life.
‘Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel’ (Netflix)
The latest true crime documentary series to hit Netflix focuses on the strange case of Elisa Lam, who disappeared from the infamously seedy Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. The mystery received significant interest online once surveillance footage from the hotel was released, which showed Lam behaving in an inexplicable and disturbing way.
The four-episode series chronicles the violent history of the hotel and interviews various investigators involved with the case. It also covers the way that the abnormal footage went viral and launched an array of speculation, some far-fetched but others, not so much. The truth, as the series reveals, is tragic no matter what.
Read Full 'Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel’ Review Here
‘You’re Next’ (Hulu)
You’re Next is one of the best slasher films of the past decade, balancing a sense of gorey brutality with an extremely morbid sense of humor. Directed by Adam Wingard (V/H/S, Blair Witch, Death Note), the film is the story of the dysfunctional Davison family getting together for a reunion, only to come under attack by a group of masked killers. What these attackers don’t know, however, is that one of their would-be victims, Erin (Sharni Vinson), has particularly fierce survival instincts.
The film takes a familiar home-invasion premise and packs it with plenty of wild and imaginative violence, surprising twists, and pitch black comedy. It’s a favorite among many horror buffs for a reason.
‘12 Hour Shift’ (Hulu)
Brea Grant is a woman of many talents, known for her roles on shows such as Friday Night Lights, Heroes, and Dexter, but also for her work as creator of several comic books and graphic novels. Her 2020 feature 12 Hour Shift, which she wrote and directed, is a sharp and twisted heist caper with plenty of wit.
Set in 1999 and taking place over the course of one 12 hour shift at an Arkansas hospital, the film is about a drug-addicted nurse (Angela Bettis), her scheming cousin (Chloe Farnworth) and a group of black market organ-trading criminals (Mick Foley, David Arquette, Dusty Warren) who start a heist that could lead to their imminent demises.
‘Dead Pigs’ (MUBI)
Filmmaker Cathy Yan made her memorable mark on superhero films with last year’s Birds of Prey, which saw Margot Robbie return as Harley Quinn in a bubblegum comic book adventure with other DC villains / heroines. Yan’s debut feature, 2018’s Dead Pigs, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival three years ago but never received a proper release until now, exclusively on the cinema streaming platform MUBI.
The film is based on a real 2013 incident where thousands of dead pigs were found floating down the Huangpu River in China. Dead Pigs follows a bumbling pig farmer, a feisty salon owner, a sensitive busboy, an architect and a disenchanted rich girl as their stories collide following the events on the river, all while living in a rapidly-modernizing Shanghai.
‘War Dogs’ (Netflix)
Three years before Todd Phillips informed us that we live in a society with Joker, he wrote and directed War Dogs, a dark comedy / crime thriller that earned its star, Jonah Hill, a Golden Globe nomination. The film’s crude humor lightens the approach to its more serious elements, such as the sad state of war and how people seek to profit off of it.
Based on a 2011 Rolling Stone article as well as a 2016 memoir titled Once a Gun Runner, the film is the true story of two arms dealers, Efraim Diveroli (Hill) and David Packouz (Miles Teller), who receive a U.S. Army contract to supply ammunitions for the Afghan National Army worth hundreds of millions of dollars. It also stars Ana de Armas and Bradley Cooper.
‘Red Dot’ (Netflix)
Netflix’s latest exclusive is the tale of a couple struggling to survive both figuratively and literally. The film stars Nanna Blondell - who will also appear in Marvel’s upcoming Black Widow movie - as Nadja, a pregnant woman who travels to the chilly mountains of Sweden for a hiking trip with her husband David (Anastasios Soulja).
The couple are hoping to rekindle their relationship with a relaxing getaway, but things take a dark turn when they realize that they’re in the crosshairs of a deranged hunter - and there may be more than one. On the run from the titular red dot as well as battling the harsh snowy elements, the film takes unexpected twists and turns that supply plenty of thrills.
‘Willy’s Wonderland’ (VOD)
In what is perhaps the most perfect premise ever for a movie, Willy’s Wonderland stars the one and only Nicolas Cage as a lonesome drifter who takes a job as the night shift janitor for an old and run-down family entertainment center. But when the building’s creepy animatronic characters suddenly come to life, he finds himself in a fight for survival as they attempt to kill him and make him a permanent resident.
Directed by Kevin Lewis, written by G.O. Parsons, and produced by Cage himself, Willy’s Wonderland promises to be a must-see for its zany and savage blend of action, horror, and comedy.
Also streaming now:
Netflix - ‘Xico’s Journey’, ‘Middle of Nowhere’
Hulu - ‘2067’
Shudder - ‘Carmilla’, ‘The Whispering Corridors Trilogy’, ‘Night Tide’
Amazon Prime Video - ‘Bliss’, ‘The Map of Tiny Perfect Things’
HBO Max - ‘Irresistible’, ‘We Bare Bears: The Movie’, ‘Dunkirk’
CONTINUED WEEKLY EPISODES:
‘WandaVision’ (Disney+)
Not only is WandaVision the first Disney+ series from Marvel Studios, but it’s the first new piece of Marvel Studios content in over a year thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic derailing their movie release plans. That’s a lot to live up to, and WandaVision takes a big gamble by not being your typical superhero entertainment. Instead, it’s a homage to classic sitcoms of the 50’s onward, filmed in front of a live studio audience and all.
SPOILERS in the below Mid-Season catch-up & Trailer
Now that the series is halfway through, much of its cheery facade has been peeled back to reveal a more sinister mystery beneath. Several other characters from the MCU - including Thor’s Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), Ant-Man’s Jimmy Woo (Randall Park), and Captain Marvel’s Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) - have joined the show to help discover the truth, and WandaVision’s second half is sure to keep the surprises coming. The first six episodes are now streaming, with the final three arriving in the coming weeks.
‘The Stand’ (CBS All Access)
Clocking in at over one thousand pages, Stephen King’s dark fantasy epic The Stand has been frustrating creatives with how to adapt it to the screen nearly as long as it’s been inspiring them to attempt it in the first place. Filmmaker Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars, The New Mutants) is the latest to take a crack at it, separating the book into a nine episode miniseries for CBS All Access.
The Stand follows the survivors of a devastating plague that brings an end to civilization as we know it. Spread out around the remains of the U.S., they begin to band together in two distinct locations: Boulder, Colorado and Las Vegas, Nevada. As one settlement attempts to rebuild a society better than before, the other gives into the nihilistic, violent, and selfish tendencies of human nature, and it eventually leads to conflict. The miniseries has a stacked cast that includes Whoopi Goldberg, James Marsden, Odessa Young, Owen Teague, Amber Heard, Jovan Adepo, Henry Zaga, Gordon Comier, and Alexander Skarsgård. All nine episodes are now streaming, with the series finale being written by none other than King himself.
COMING THIS WEEK:
Netflix - ‘Monsoon’, ‘The Crew’, ‘Animals on the Loose’, ‘Thus Spoke Kishinev Rohan’, ‘Heroes: Silence and Rock & Roll’, ‘I Care a Lot’, ‘Tribes of Europa’
Hulu - ‘The Shape of Water’, ‘Lost Girls & Love Hotels’, ‘Logan Lucky’, ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’, ‘Nomadland’
Shudder - ‘Basket Case’, ‘The Ninth Configuration’, ‘Outcast’, ‘Shook’
HBO Max - ‘The Book of Eli’, ‘The Batman’, ‘Static Shock’, ‘Hot Ones’
Disney+ - ‘The Muppet Show’
Amazon Prime Video - ‘Catfish’
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