Creative progress was made in 2017’s “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” with co-writer/director Matthew Vaughn learning from mistakes made in 2015’s “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” which often indulged his worst habits as a filmmaker. The sequel sharpened his vision, bringing out the cinematic thrills of the premise, with the spy game creating some crazy moments, but packed into a more consistent endeavor. Instead of moving forward, Vaughn goes the prequel way with “The King’s Man,” which explores the formation of the intelligence service during the dark times of World War I. Instead of being explicitly comic book in style, “The King’s Man” tries to be a bit more historical, playing with the political gamesmanship of the era to inspire a point of origin for the well-dressed team, though Vaughn, in his excitement, often fails to create a balanced picture, offering an occasionally rough ride of tonal highs and lows. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Swan Song” is about death, though it’s also about life. The screenplay by Benjamin Cleary (who also directs) has the quality of a sci-fi short story, offering a level of futurism as the writer explores the human experience from a fantasy point of view. Cleary doesn’t delve too deeply into matters of the unreal, simply using it to understand universal ideas on love and loss, working very deliberately with the slow-burn tale. “Swan Song” is heartfelt and heartbreaking, offering an ideal space for actor Mahershala Ali to showcase his gifts, tasked with bringing to life two characters who share the same body and mind, only divided by their mission to bring comfort to others. Cleary avoids cliché as much as possible with the picture, hoping to reach complex feelings instead with this challenging but engrossing endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Johnny Depp is known for fully inhabiting the characters he portrays. It’s been his obsession since the 1990s, and it’s largely worked for him, turning in some amazing performances and a few uncomfortably showy ones along the way. For “Minamata,” the actor seeks to step inside the life of photojournalist W. Eugene Smith, a respected but troubled professional who provided coverage of “Minamata disease” in the early 1970s, with mercury pollution destroying lives around a Japanese village located near a chemical plant. Depp tries to hide himself once again, and he successfully communicates the strange ways of Smith, who was a man of guilt and little self-control, but he had a gift with a camera, using it to provide the world with visions of life and hardships, with this particular case of unimaginable suffering allowing co-writer/director Andrew Levitas (“Lullaby”) to detail a greater understanding of industrial pollution and corporate malice. Depp is strong in “Minamata,” but it’s the larger story of suffering that’s most gripping. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Most animated endeavors are created to be heartwarming, looking to appeal to a wide audience with lessons on family and friendship, typically balancing high comedic energy with gooey scenes of tenderness. “Rumble” just wants to be entertaining, offering the kid-approved concept of a professional monster wrestling league that’s dealing with the presence of its newest, and least threatening, participant. It’s underdog cinema with lots of slapstick, giving “Rumble” an enjoyable pace and sense of cartoon engagement, never slowing down to deal with unnecessary melodrama. Simplicity is the idea here, and a lot of humungous bodies flying around wrestling rings, with the production understanding it’s not going to make it as a sensitive study of partnership. There’s warmth here, but more zaniness, giving young audiences an enjoyable break from the soul-stirring routine. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After spending years as a respected actress, Maggie Gyllenhaal takes the next step in her career, making her feature-length directorial debut with “The Lost Daughter.” She handles screenplay duties as well, adapting a 2006 Elena Ferrante novel about a middle-aged woman wrestling with dark thoughts and stinging memories while taking a vacation on a Greek island. It’s not a tale that’s built for comfort, and it’s not a thriller either. Gyllenhaal rolls up her sleeves and digs into the ugliness and exposure of a mental health crisis, using Ferrante’s plotting to generate a striking character study. Gyllenhaal gets a little tripped up while trying to compact the book into a movie, but her instincts with casting and emotional wreckage are spot-on, creating a disturbing picture that sneaks up on viewers, also painting an unnervingly realistic portrait of motherhood and all the sacrifices it demands. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Lauren Hadaway has been working with dialogue and sound for the last decade, participating in productions such as “Justice League,” “Underworld: Blood Wars,” and “The Marine 4: Moving Target.” She makes the move to the director’s seat with “The Novice,” building on her 2017 short, “The Row.” It’s a story of a punishing collegiate rowing experience told with autobiographical touches, presenting Hadaway with some authority on the subject. She commits to the ugly details of the sport and the educational experience, offering a superbly lived-in screenplay that really digs into the experience of competition. “The Novice” remains riveting when sticking tight to the rowing odyssey, giving viewers a chance to understand physical exertion and psychological ruin. However, the helmer doesn’t remain within the shock of it all, working out unnecessary directorial flourishes and superfluous dramatics to show her stuff, which periodically weakens the fierce character study Hadaway is clearly capable of delivering. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Nightmare Alley” is based on a 1946 novel by William Lindsay Gresham, which was quickly adapted for the screen in 1947, with Tyrone Power taking on the central role of a pushy con man who gets in too deep with his grifting, trying to stay one step ahead of those he’s playing, sometimes unintentionally. Co-writer/director Guillermo del Toro returns to the source material to inspire a new vision for “Nightmare Alley,” which plays to his strengths with its collection of haunted characters and extreme cinematic textures. The helmer remains with his interests here, delivering a very del Toro-esque viewing experience with a tale that’s physically and psychologically violent, working to present period noir to modern audiences while still retaining all the fetishes and bodily harm del Toro loves to arrange. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Adam McKay used to make the same kind of comedies all the time (“Anchorman,” “Step Brothers,” “Talladega Nights”), and now he makes the same kind of social criticism and political movies all the time (“The Big Short,” “Vice”). With “Don’t Look Up,” McKay remains fixated on a semi-satiric take on American life and order, but he aims bigger with his latest project, which investigates the end of the world and all the madness that goes along with accepting the truth. “Don’t Look Up” tries to fashion something close to a farce with the material, but McKay enjoys a stickier sense of tone, delivering a picture that’s after big laughs with broad antics, and it’s also examining the reality of an extinction level event occurring in our screwball time, keeping behaviors accurate even when they go full cartoon. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sandra Bullock doesn’t act much anymore. She’s been increasingly selective in her parts over the last decade, trying to find a new direction to her career with more serious roles, ready to inhabit darker characters in disturbing situations of survival. After dominating pop culture with 2018’s “Bird Box,” Bullock stays severe with “The Unforgivable, which is an adaptation of a 2009 British television series. The material gives the actress another opportunity to play a frayed person, this time exploring the days of a parolee trying to put a few parts of her ruined life back together, and Bullock does quite well in the film. She’s raw yet reserved, happy to give others showier amounts of screentime. It’s the story of “The Unforgivable” that’s a little out of tune, with director Nora Fingscheidt submitting to warped turns of plot, allowing the feature to become absurd when, for about 90 minutes, it does simply fine being as real as possible. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The very idea of a movie detailing the domestic and professional relationship between Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz is chilling. Expectations for a monumentally broad understanding of talent and impatience immediately fall into place, with caricature typically the only avenue available for this type of endeavor. Few want to see that, and this includes writer/director Aaron Sorkin, who was last seen on screens drilling into political and judicial history with “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” and returns to pressure points of judgment and conformity with “Being the Ricardos,” which attempts to understand the experience shared between Ball and Arnez as they experience a particularly punishing week in their lives. Sorkin doesn’t want a cartoon with the picture, finding a more human approach to the bigness of these personalities, out to analyze their insecurities and mistakes while ruling television as America’s favorite couple. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Agnes” is being marketed as an exorcism picture, and there is some degree of possible demonic possession involved in the story. However, all that hellraising is only a small part of the plot, and those paying to see such religious fury and spiritual manipulation should be aware that while the studio is hoping to sell the movie as something horrific, co-writer/director Mickey Reece isn’t making that kind of film. He’s after a character study, and a slightly strange one, examining the power of evil and the illusion of submission, but also the challenges of religious repression and basic human grief. “Agnes” is all over the place, with distinct sides to the viewing experience, watching Reece attempt to shake off expectations by serving up familiar images of violence before switching to more intimate areas of psychological pain. It’s the kind of feature that’s going to connect with select viewers, while angering everyone else. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“National Champions” has something to say about the state of college athletics, where profit runs high, but financial participation is minimal at best. It’s a fictional offering from writer Adam Mervis, who brings his own play to the big screen, addressing ideas on greed and inequality, focusing on the moneymaking machine known as college football. Mervis is filled with numbers and ideas, and he creates a suspenseful tale of a player boycott challenged from all sides, with a star quarterback looking to take a stand when it comes to the disposability of college athletes. It’s a powerful idea, and while “National Champions” has some difficulty shaking off its theatrical roots, it lands some compelling arguments concerning fairness and support, with Mervis providing a dimensional assessment of the central conflict, making for a more layered understanding of panic. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com