In 2013, writer/director Chad Crawford Kinkle made his feature-length filmmaking debut with “Jug Face.” A tale of backwoods evil and escape, “Jug Face” delivered a spare but haunting viewing experience, with Kinkle offering a different kind of horror event in a genre that frequently rewards sameness. It was a small production, but packed an impressive punch. For 2021, Kinkle resurfaces with “Dementer,” returning to unsettling incidents in the southern U.S., remaining small in scale and large in strangeness to reach viewers. “Dementer” isn’t a picture that’s easily decoded, perhaps intentionally so, but the helmer secures an eerie atmosphere for the endeavor, which also offers a level of realism as the unfolding nightmare is mixed with documentary-style footage of developmentally disabled characters going about their daily lives. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Nicholas Jarecki hasn’t made a film in quite some time, but his last effort, 2012’s “Arbitrage,” was a compelling drama about corrupt people, examining the fraudulent activities of a hedge fund manager trying to preserve his wealth. The picture connected with a still-timely tale of desperation and privilege, and the helmer returns with a similar story of self-preservation, this time exploring the world of opioid abuse. “Crisis” presents a multi-character journey into corruption and powerlessness, with Jarecki aiming to cut a bit closer in terms of relatability, highlighting a system of criminal and corporate influence that works its way from skyscrapers to suburban households. “Crisis” is mindful of marketplace demands, as thriller-style engagements make periodic appearances, but the core message of exploitation is vividly rendered, making for a fascinating sit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Tom Paton has spent the last few years attempting to find his way through the film business with small-scale action and sci-fi endeavors (“Black Site,” “G-Loc”), working with technology and small spaces to create escapism that favors some degree of excitement. With “400 Bullets,” Paton (who also scripts) tries to remain earthbound, turning his attention to a double-cross story set during wartime troubles. The helmer wisely whittles down narrative complications to just a handful of pressure points, leaving the rest of the feature to mano a mano battles, shootouts, and light conversation. “400 Bullets” doesn’t do anything new, but Paton handles familiar business with enthusiasm, looking to jazz up the norm with raw violence, eschewing tightly choreographed mayhem for screen hostility that reflects the urgent, confusing survival situation at hand. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The story of Billie Holiday was perhaps most famously explored in the 1972 film, “Lady Sings the Blues,” which offered Diana Ross a chance to prove her dramatic skills while playing the famous jazz singer, who experienced a turbulent life involving abusive men and drug addiction. The feature used Holiday’s own autobiography as way to get inside the subject, probing her mistakes and fears to create an understanding of her life. “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” takes its inspiration from the 2015 book, “Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs,” offering a 2021 take on Holiday’s pain, which includes an F.B.I. conspiracy to cripple her career and health as a way to silence her voice. The new perspective has potential, but director Lee Daniels and screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks (“Girl 6,” “Native Son”) get bogged down in addict atmosphere, looking to replicate the heroin haze of Holiday’s latter years, charting her struggle to keep her head above water while dealing with all sorts of professional and personal challenges. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“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