Author: BO

“The Vigil” tracks the experiences of a shomer hired to watch over the body of a recently deceased man. The production explains what a shomer is at the beginning of the movie, helping those unfamiliar with Orthodox Jewish rituals to better understand the position, which carries immense importance when protecting the dead from evil spirits looking to claim them. There’s a distinct religious angle to writer/director Keith Thomas’s picture, but there’s just as much pure genre filmmaking in play. “The Vigil” is a ghost story, exploring spooky encounters and darkly lit rooms, and it’s a highly effective one, well-crafted on a low budget. Thomas wants a little more from the event than simple frights, weaving in elements of guilt and shame to supercharge the haunting that brings the lead character to the edge of sanity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We’ve been down this road with star Rosamund Pike before. In 2014 there was “Gone Girl,” which pulled Pike out of a career tailspin (taking supporting gigs in “Wrath of the Titans” and “Johnny English Reborn”), giving her a part she could sink her teeth into, portraying a dangerously disturbed character who’s relishes her psychopathic behavior, giving the screen a cold but calculating villain. She’s basically playing the same role in “I Care a Lot,” only writer/director J Blakeson shows a lot more interest in the well being of the character, delivering a twisty, edgy cat and mouse game between two shades of evil. The picture starts off with terrific intensity, with Pike happy to return to a role that makes the most of her inherent iciness. Blakeson bungles the ending of “I Care a Lot,” but he’s great with introductions, giving viewers an unusual roller coaster ride of nasty people engaged in predatory business. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There have been multiple T.V. shows and documentaries created about Silk Road, a darknet market website that made it easy to purchase illegal drugs over the internet. The idea was hatched by Ross Ulbricht, and his story is a fascinating exploration of millennial ego, business opportunity, and online exploitation, making it irresistible to filmmakers. Dramatizing the events of Ulbricht’s build-up and breakdown is “Silk Road,” with writer/director Tiller Russell adapting a magazine article to get inside the mind of the main character, while the screenplay focuses on the operation of the website and the battle to bring Ulbricht down. Russell goes to David Fincher’s “The Social Network” for some of his inspiration, and while it’s rough around the edges, “Silk Road” connects as a study of corruption and temptation, dealing with the new frontier of online accessibility. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Simon Bird is best known as an actor, appearing on the television show “The Inbetweeners” and its big screen adventures. He makes his feature-length directorial debut with “Days of the Bagnold Summer,” taking on a small story involving rising household tensions between a mother and her awkward metalhead son. It’s an adaptation of a graphic novel by Joff Winterheart (the screenplay is credited to Lisa Owens, also making her first movie), presenting Bird with a creative challenge, tasked with preserving the still-frame life of the source material for a cinematic presentation. Dramatic goals are refreshingly modest in “Days of the Bagnold Summer,” which gets by on a healthy sense of humor and wonderfully lived-in performances from the cast, who bring a sharp sense of realism to the picture while Bird keeps the effort nicely paced and open to surprises. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Flora & Ulysses” is an adaptation of a 2013 children’s book written by Kate DiCamillo (“Because of Winn-Dixie,” “The Tale of Despereaux”), and fans of the novel have an advantage when it comes the movie. They already know there’s more to the material than just the adventures of a superhero squirrel, an element of the plot Disney has emphasized in their marketing materials. Indeed, there’s a creature who can communicate with humans and fly to a certain degree, but “Flora & Ulysses” is primarily about family issues, including parental loss and marital messiness. There’s emotional weight to the film that keeps it from becoming a comic book-style romp, though screenwriter Brad Copeland (“Ferdinand,” “Spies in Disguise”) does a comfortable job balancing the light and dark of the story, keeping the feature approachable as it explores areas of drama unrelated to the communication failures of a super rodent. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Here’s a prime example of a fantastic idea for a film hobbled by mediocre execution. “Body Brokers” examines the treatment industry, where rehab facilities seemingly created to help people with addiction issues are actually part of a system meant to extract insurance dollars, focusing on greed, not health. Writer/director John Swab (“Run with the Hunted”) has passion for the subject, but he’s also trying to create drama to support sharp messages concerning a corrupt system, and that doesn’t turn out well for the helmer. “Body Brokers” gets lost while attempting to be a searing study of fraud, with Swab often more interested in crime movie formula, fearing that any sort of direct, sustained confrontation of the treatment industry won’t hold audience attention. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Amanda Idoko makes her feature-length screenwriting debut with “Breaking News in Yuba County,” looking to impress with a cat’s cradle-style story of crime and punishment in small town America. The effort lifts liberally from the Coen Brothers filmography, pairing pitch-black violence with a jocular tone of dimwits falling into deep trouble with every decision they make. It’s a shame “Breaking News in Yuba County” isn’t more successful as a comedy or a crime story, with Idoko paying more attention to quirky character connections than storytelling. The picture is a painful sit, with director Tate Taylor (“The Help,” “Ma,” “Ava”) often unsure how to proceed with a violent endeavor featuring wild personalities that’s largely played for laughs, ending up with a production that often resembles a bad improv troupe’s first movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sia is a pop music veteran who’s been making music for decades, building a fanbase loyal to her sound and special image, making something of an industry statement by performing and appearing with her face fully covered. She’s also directed many of her own music videos, generating cinematic experiences for her work, receiving acclaim for her collaborations with dancer Maddie Ziegler. Sia steps up to feature-length helming with “Music,” reuniting with Ziegler for a drama about love and redemption, with the songstress hoping to blend flashy musical numbers with a serious understanding of human interaction and motivation. “Music” has flashes of style and energy, but those moments remain with song and dance, playing to Sia’s strengths while the rest of the picture wrestles with tone and even basic editing, hinting that someone, somewhere lost their nerve with the original conception of the endeavor (which was shot nearly four years ago). There’s passion for the project, which is refreshing, but for her big screen debut, Sia’s storytelling focus is out of whack. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Blithe Spirit” is a filmed version of a highly successful 1941 play by Noel Coward, which inspired a 1945 David Lean big screen adaptation, starring Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, and Kay Hammond. A beloved light comedy from a sharp wit, Coward’s imagination is resurrected by screenwriters Piers Ashworth, Meg Leonard, and Nick Moorcroft, who try to do something with the material for another interpretation. The trio get a little angrier this time around, offering a slightly heavier take on Coward’s vision while still attempting to maintain comic rhythms with a game cast who seem genuinely delighted to be participating in this project. “Blithe Spirit” has select moments of enjoyable insanity, but the farcical aspects of the work don’t come through with any distinction in the new version. Director Edward Hall (a television veteran) makes a pretty picture, but one that doesn’t sustain enough energy to the end, giving viewers less and less as the feature tries to bring Coward to a new audience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Nicolas Cage’s wild career has come to this: starring in a movie about a mute loner going to war against a Rock-afire Explosion-esque, pizza place animatronic animal band over the course of one long night. Actually, “Willy’s Wonderland” fits snugly into Cage’s filmography, playing to his career interests in oddball characters and extraordinary situations, allowing him to use his penchant for showy acting to its fullest potential. Writer G.O. Parsons doesn’t come armed with an ambitious screenplay, but he does an inventive job fiddling around with genre ideas, while director Kevin Lewis attempts to transform the feature into a surreal nightmare of caffeine-fueled violence and menacing robots. “Willy’s Wonderland” doesn’t offer anything more than it initially delivers, and that’s enough to keep Cage busy and viewers amused with this oddball bloodbath. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The comedy world was rocked in 2011 with the release of “Bridesmaids,” which delivered a major hit for screenwriters Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig. The mid-budget film managed to become a major pop culture event, but Mumolo and Wiig didn’t cash in on this success. In fact, they waited a decade before attempting another comedy. While “Bridesmaids” was wacky, it attempted to retain some heart. “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar” is a straight-up farce, with writers creating a starring vehicle for themselves, portraying wacky, culotte-wearing characters experiencing the trip of a lifetime while stumbling across the end of Florida. While the cartoony ways of the feature result in a few dud scenes, “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar” is good fun with some big laughs, especially when director Josh Greenbaum gets away from the bizarre plot and focuses on his leading ladies, who seem like they’re having the time of their lives with this picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Perhaps for most outsiders, the idea of a “Wrong Turn” series is baffling. Producers made it happen, sensing brand name potential after the original film made a small profit in 2003, resulting in the creation of five sequels/prequels (no, really) meant to give DVD renters something to do on a weekend night. We haven’t heard from the franchise since 2014, with 2021’s “Wrong Turn” a reboot of sorts, making a distinct play to refresh the marketplace value of the title and get away from the cannibalism aspects of the earlier installments. The feature aims to do something different with the concept of Virginian backwoods horror, and it offers an interest twist on the identification of villainy. The production doesn’t follow through on a few of its ideas, but the “Wrong Turn” do-over has moments of aggression and intimidation that work rather well. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com