Writer/director Bart Layton made an industry splash with 2012’s “The Imposter,” saucing up documentary formula by adding some sense of theatricality to the work, blurring the line between information and performance. He’s back with “American Animals,” which is a similar endeavor, only here the emphasis is on drama, putting actors partially in charge of recreating a true crime event that occurred nearly 15 years ago in Kentucky. While Layton’s already made other film and TV projects, he seems intent on proving his cinematic chops this time around, keeping “American Animals” steeped in style and attitude, but there’s little else that sticks after a viewing, finding the material too manipulative and the story too familiar to successfully keep the effort from resembling anything but a showy director’s reel.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

“The Gospel According to Andre” feels like a Marvel Studios-style payoff for subject Andre Leon Talley. Finally, the focus is on the Vogue editor after years of bit parts in other documentaries such as “The September Issue,” “Unzipped,” and “The First Monday in May.” Of course, Talley is a superhero in a way, and it’s about time someone recognized that, with director Kate Novack focusing exclusively on the larger-than-life personality, delivering biographical details and fly-on-the-wall footage, making sure that at all times, Talley is the star of the show. “The Gospel According to Andre” isn’t always stuffed with dynamic interactions, but it does manage to isolate Talley’s vitality and expertise, working through his history in the fashion industry and his childhood in North Carolina to paint a portrait of an unusual man who’s lived an extraordinary life.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

At this point, there probably won’t be another “Jackass” sequel. The guys are getting up there in age, and wear and tear on the body isn’t a party in your forties. Johnny Knoxville seems to understand the shelf life of his stunt days, working to build a bridge between self-harm and acting with “Action Point,” which isn’t a sequel to 2013’s “Bad Grandpa,” but shares a similar interest in pranks and stunts, mixed in with some relaxed Knoxville mischief. “Bad Grandpa” was a surprise, offering good-natured nonsense and decent direction for its type of entertainment. “Action Point” is the opposite, handling a surefire concept with low energy and a limited appreciation for the finer points of slapstick. It’s not fun, which is a bewildering response to a movie that sets Knoxville and a cast of goons loose inside an amusement park where safety is of no concern. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s not easy to make a surprising film about a true story that was covered extensively in magazine articles and news reports, and inspired a popular book. However, the makers of “Adrift” are willing to give it a try, working a little movie magic to turn known quantities into renewed suspense, recounting the story of Tami Oldham Ashcraft, who entered a hurricane while sailing across the Pacific Ocean, only to come out the other side with a severely damaged boat, while her fiancé, Richard, was washed overboard. It’s a harrowing tale of survival, but in the hands of director Baltasar Kormakur, “Adrift” isn’t always about the details of self-preservation, maintaining a tight grip on the romantic aspects of Tami’s tale as a way to remain marketable to a wider audience. Suspense is there intermittently, but the screenplay doesn’t trust inherent dangers and tests of endurance, downplaying real-world horrors to coast along on Hollywood conventions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The market is saturated when it comes to raunchy, R-rated comedies that primarily use the scattergun art of improvisation to secure jokes, with recent efforts such as “Game Night” and “Blockers” trying to push make-em-up silly business on fatigued audiences. “Ibiza” doesn’t have a radical approach to funny stuff, remaining in line with similar productions, but it does possess a wonderful velocity for its madcap events. It’s a terrifically high-energy movie that’s certainly light on plot, only submitting basic romantic conflicts and travel challenges, but it has timing, with director Alex Richanbach working to keep “Ibiza” flowing along as fast as possible, creating an appealing screen party with game actresses and a throbbing EDM soundtrack, also providing a steady run of laughs to support all the goofiness.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director John Cameron Mitchell enjoys eccentricity and celebratory chaos, solidifying his creative interests with his first two endeavors, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and “Shortbus.” Mitchell’s last feature was 2010’s “Rabbit Hole,” a sensitive drama that widened his cinematic world view, showcasing his gifts with actors and ability to mute his wild side when necessary. “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” is Mitchell’s return to insanity, or at least his version of it, reuniting with his performance art habits for this adaptation of a Neil Gaiman short story, which requires quite a bit of on-screen hustle to transform into a proper movie. “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” isn’t complete, but that’s the way Mitchell wants it, going loose and free with this valentine to punk music and the mysteries of the universe.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Blumhouse Productions receives a lot of credit from the media for their success stories, employing a simple low-budget approach to horror endeavors to achieve their monetary goals. They’ve had their triumphs, but for every “Get Out” there’s a “Delirium,” which joins pictures like “Visions,” “Curve,” and “Stephanie” as another paint-by-numbers genre exercise for Blumhouse, whose see-what-sticks approach to film production coughs up a new instantly forgettable story of murder and insanity. Perhaps the original screenplay by Adam Alleca was once a beaming example of chiller craftsmanship and psychological layers, but in the hands of director Dennis Iliadis, the end result is a dull take on encroaching madness and single location hellraising, rendered incomplete by choppy storytelling and an overall drowsiness that makes it difficult to maintain patience with 90 minutes of routine frights.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Late last year, James Franco collected numerous accolades and awards for “The Disaster Artist,” a surprisingly sincere dramatization about the making of “The Room.” However, while it was a successful directorial outing for the actor, it was hardly his only helming gig of the year, also responsible for two other movies (“In Dubious Battle” and “The Institute”) in 2017, with an additional six over the last five years. It’s the type of work output that puts Tyler Perry to shame, but while Franco’s fast, he’s also not very attentive to screen details, churning out experimental projects as a way to expand his thespian horizons, not necessarily refine his filmmaking chops. “Future World” is his latest grab-bag of tone and performances, this time trying on the world of “Mad Max” for size, seeing what he can do (with co-director Bruce Thierry Cheung) with a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The short answer: not much.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Social Animals” plays it safe with its subject matter, taking a long look at the wandering hearts and minds of unhappy people trying to conquer their confusion and chart a different course in life. There’s a bit of arrested development going on, and a lot of domestic disturbance issues. Pieces of millennial anxiety are present as well. Writer/director Theresa Bennett isn’t going for originality with her dramedy, but she does have a valuable perspective on character, managing to form living, breathing people in the midst of clichés, taking at least some of their personal issues as seriously as the effort’s tone allows. “Social Animals” makes a few ill-advised turns during the run time, but it offers a satisfying peek at the difficulties of being an adult, especially when facing relationship woes and professional failure.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The story of “A Kid Like Jake” details careful steps of observation as two parents of a four-year-old child try to assess his place in the world once they pick up on her transgender future. It’s not an easy tale to tell, with screenwriter Daniel Pearle adapting his own play, laboring to take something very intimate and give it a bigger sense of life and stakes for the screen. He’s mostly successful, as “A Kid Like Jake” does very well putting forth a state of normality that’s corrupted by anxiety, keeping focus on the parents, who wrestle with various issues, trying to care deeply for their child as she goes from the bubble of home life to the social challenges of kindergarten. There’s no sensationalism here, just honest feelings and relatable concern, with Pearle making sure to keep challenges realistic, doing whatever he can to shoo away the artificiality of a television movie.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Last year, Guillermo del Toro won an Academy Award for “The Shape of Water,” which depicted a loving, sexual relationship between a mute woman and humanoid amphibian. This year, director Xavier Gens drinks from the same creative well, only his “Cold Skin” showcases a more mysterious love triangle between two salty men and the female humanoid amphibian they both strive to possess. Gens doesn’t share del Toro’s love of fantasy and textures, but he does offer intermittent intensity with his latest, which is just strange enough to pass, finding oddity often competing for scene attention with overblown dramatics. “Cold Skin” struggles to maintain pace and surprise, but Gens has the right idea more often than not, staying true to an operatic take on man vs. nature, creating something that’s better with the dark and violent stuff than anything psychologically profound.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There have been many attempts to bring “Fahrenheit 451” to the screen over the last decade (Mel Gibson came awfully close on the few occasions), but now seems like the perfect time to revisit author Ray Bradbury’s iconic tale of government authority and the death of knowledge in America. The producers of the new adaptation are certainly careful not to assign the material to any specific presidential rule, which is a smart move, but the atmosphere of “Fahrenheit 451” is recognizable and its themes timely. It’s only a shame it’s not a better picture, with writer/director Ramin Bahrani generally fumbling the futureworld horror of the premise, which demands a more intricate touch than the problematic helmer is capable of offering. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com