Credit should be paid to writer/director Jeffrey A. Brown. Making his feature-length helming debut, Brown attempts to deliver a refreshing of the body horror subgenre, doing so without a large cast or a major budget. He pushes for atmosphere and heavy tension, working like crazy to stretch a minor idea into a major picture. “The Beach House” has nothing but good intentions to provide a B-movie immersion for fans of this type of entertainment, and those who live for this stuff will likely devour it without hesitation. Wider appreciation for the effort is up for debate, as Brown is in no hurry with “The Beach House,” forgoing a ripping pace to build the endeavor as slowly as humanly possible. Brown asks a lot of his audience, and while the film has style and a macabre imagination, it never really moves in a fully captivating manner. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Nasim Pedrad is a former cast member on “Saturday Night Live.” She didn’t have a breakout moment on the show, but she provided refreshing weirdness at times, interested in making deep dives into bizarre characters. She left “SNL” in 2014, kicking around T.V. offerings ever since. Now she has her own starring vehicle in “Desperados,” a Netflix comedy that’s meant to show her stuff, commanding a romantic comedy that’s addicted to raunchy antics. Pedrad deserves better, but she gives an awful script by Ellen Rapoport (“The Jamie Kennedy Experiment”) her full commitment, trying to go screwball and sweet with impressive energy. The picture is a complete waste of time, as paint-by-numbers as it gets, but Pedrad deserves credit for trying to make an unbelievably lame film work on some frenzied level. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Maintaining a steady career of memorable dramas in his native Japan, writer/director Hirokazu Kore-eda elects to disrupt his routine, taking his gifts to France for “The Truth.” An adaptation of a short story, the feature explores revived tensions between an older actress and her estranged daughter during a particularly vulnerable moment in the mother’s life. The invitation is there to dial up hysterics when examining domestic disorder, especially when it involves the emotional exploration of acting. Remining true to form, the helmer doesn’t take the bait, and while the language is different, storytelling grace remains, allowing “The Truth” to reach some unusual psychological places with rich behavioral observations. It’s another creative success from Kore-eda, who tries to remain faithful to the production adventure while tending to his interests. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Outpost” is a little late to the game when considering all the productions created over the last 15 years that detailed the horrors of the Iraq War and Afghanistan conflicts. While freshness is certainly in limited supply, writer Eric Johnson and director Rod Lurie have a vivid take on the pressures of military performance, exploring the hellish atmosphere surrounding the Battle of Kamdesh, where soldiers inside a poorly located American Combat Outpost in Afghanistan were overwhelmed by a large Taliban force, commencing a chaotic fight that took a large number of American lives. There’s a certain western feel to the material, but Lurie isn’t interested in creating a stylized look at combat, trying to manufacture a you-are-there sense of the unknown as violence repeatedly erupts. Some staleness creeps into the viewing experience, and the helmer’s casting choices aren’t the strongest, but it’s hard to deny the raw power of “The Outpost” and its interest in depicting the insanity of this particular situation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Three years ago, writer/director Onur Tukel made an indie splash with “Catfight,” a violence-laden dark comedy that managed to achieve some attention, giving a helmer used to working without much notice a chance to show his stuff. And then there was silence. Tukel returns with “Black Magic for White Boys,” a micro-budgeted endeavor that was shot a few years ago, finally finding its way to audiences in the mood for a Woody Allen-esque NYC comedy with distinct weirdness running throughout. “Black Magic for White Boys” isn’t the thrilling surprise “Catfight” was, but Tukel retains his sense of humor, shooting for more of a community story of desperate people in tight situations of personal doubt and financial failure, struggling with identity as they figure out future plans. Keeping in step with Tukel’s worldview, it’s messy, but also unpredictable and appealingly bizarre. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

21 years after making his directorial debut (joined by his brother, Mark) with “Twin Falls Idaho,” Michael Polish has maintained a helming career largely comprised of odd and forgettable features. He’s gone arty and indulgent (2011’s “For Lovers Only”), and even tried out a faith-based picture (“90 Minutes in Heaven”), but now he’s testing the VOD action market with “Force of Nature,” with screenwriter Cory Miller trying to make a miniature “Die Hard” with this Puerto Rico-set tale of an apartment building takeover. This appears to be paycheck work for Polish, putting in limited effort with a feeble script that doesn’t come up with imaginative ways to deal with cops and crooks. “Force of Nature” is bland work all over, unable to conjure a necessary level of excitement with a familiar close-quarters crisis. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

At some point during the end of his run as the host of “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart decided he wanted to become a film director. In 2014, he delivered “Rosewater,” which wasn’t the comedy people were expecting from him, presenting a stark look at an Iranian prison story. It was a creative leap that didn’t attract an audience, but it cleared something out of Stewart’s system, establishing an interest in dodging expectations. Five years later, Stewart is back with “Irresistible,” which is exactly the kind of movie fans want from him. Taking a comedic look at the lunacy of the “election economy,” the picture uses a real-world incident of monetary mayhem surrounding a small-town election as inspiration, with Stewart (who also scripts) aiming to use a semi-farcical tone to expose a corrupt system. A few wilder ideas get away from him, but Stewart shows confidence with arguments and comfort with his approach, making a very funny feature about a chilling topic. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The legacy of Suzi Quatro is important to the history of rock music. She’s was a female performer in a male-dominated world, coming up in the 1970s, where such gender distinction was cause for dismissal. She powered her way to chart-topping hits and sold 55 million albums over the course of her career, becoming a top draw on the touring circuit in Europe and Australia. She conquered the recording industry and even found a place for herself on television, joining the cast of “Happy Days” for two seasons. Suzi influenced millions with her style and sound, yet director Liam Firmager has some concern that the kids of today don’t understand her importance to the music movement, assembling the documentary “Suzi Q” as a way to remind viewers what she represented for so many. “Suzy Q” is a highly engaging look at Suzi’s career and personal life, with Firmager trying to stay out of fan mode for as long as possible, aiming to understand exactly what made a large part of the world go crazy for Suzi Quatro. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When one thinks of a well-directed American comedy, the name David Dobkin doesn’t immediately come to mind. He had a hit, a massive one, with 2005’s “Wedding Crashers,” and he’s been riding that credit over the last 15 years, making disappointments like “Fred Claus” and “The Judge,” and wiping out with 2011’s “The Change-Up.” Dobkin remains in the funny business for “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga,” which reunites him with “Wedding Crashers” stars Rachel McAdams and Will Ferrell (who co-scripts with Andrew Steele), this time setting the duo loose on the beloved international song competition. The idea offers a ripe opportunity for silly stuff, and Ferrell and Adams are certainly game to have some fun. There’s an unexpected gentleness to the picture as well, which isn’t completely obsessed with raunchy antics, but good heavens, Dobkin has no idea how to cut the feature, refusing to pare down an exhausting 123-minute-long run time, suffocating the endeavor, which could probably do wonders with tighter edit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As to be expected with a movie that concerns the daily life of a sand fairy, “Four Kids and It” is a very strange effort. However, the production gets even weirder the deeper one looks into the production. The 2020 feature is an adaptation of “Four Children and It,” a novel by Jacqueline Wilson, who’s updating a 1902 book called “Five Children and It,” by Edith Nesbit. One of the characters actually reads the nearly 100-year-old literary offering in the picture, which barely follows the plot of the Wilson’s YA endeavor. Layers of inspiration and motivation are a tad difficult to follow, but director Andy De Emmony’s push to make a palatable family film is quite clear, deliver a very mild take on emotionally broken kids and the magic they encounter while on a difficult mixed-family vacation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com