Perhaps writer/director Kurt Voelker deserves kudos for not turning “The Bachelors” into a comedy, which it might appear to be from the outside, slapped with ill-fitting title and a premise that would feel comfortable on a CBS sitcom. However, the screenplay is serious about grief and familial relationships, with Voelker creating characters in dire need of human contact, hit with painful loss, which has knocked their instinct out of whack. It’s a relationship drama, but Voelker doesn’t pour on the syrup, creating an approachable but deeply felt picture that’s curious about behavior and therapy. The production presents a fine cast capable of matching Voelker’s sincerity, resulting in feature that’s as genuine as it can be, handling topics such as loss and adolescent love with genuine concern for the characters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There are mysteries within mysteries in “Never Here,” a beguiling take on the madness of art and the dangers of impulse control issues. It’s a bewildering picture, but that’s exactly how writer/director Camille Thoman wants it, keeping characters enigmatic and the plot fluid, though she achieves select genre appreciation at times, identifying a true filmgoer spirit in the midst of all this interpretive fog. Thoman also casts smartly, unleashing Mireille Enos on a role that plays to her strengths of physical communication and psychological unraveling. “Never Here” isn’t the smoothest viewing experience around, but it’s full of haunting images and provocative ideas, blending art world immersion with detective noir, offering the curious plenty to sift through as reality bends and obsessions graduate into horror.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s going to be a generational divide when it comes to the audience for “Tragedy Girls.” There will be those who understand, possibly even relate to the modern depiction of teenagedom, which is showcased here as a marathon of social media anxiety, bullying, and insincerity. Older audiences will likely spend the viewing experience being grateful they are no longer adolescents, forced to compete in a ferociously connected world. Thankfully, “Tragedy Girls” isn’t a documentary, but a horror comedy, offering satiric touches and exaggerated performances to help viewers ease into the challenges of juvenile life, which, for this endeavor, include murder. Co-writer/director Tyler MacIntyre pulls off a bit of a miracle here, finding ways to connect to unpleasant characters, while the rest of the movie speeds ahead with macabre twists and turns, and shares a love for bloody mischief.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Horror is a game of influence, and while certain directors (e.g. John Carpenter) receive a lot of attentions these days, “Shortwave” makes a different choice. Writer/director Ryan Gregory Phillips seems to be in a Shane Carruth mood for his helming debut, conjuring a style and dramatic distance that’s similar to “Primer” and “Upstream Color,” but with a decidedly more macabre intent. Perhaps this approach will be most appreciated by cinephiles, as “Shortwave” always feels just out of reach, working to summon a different form of menace with artful technique but a loose appreciation of authentic suspense. It’s a striking picture at times, and one can see Phillips is a talent in the making, but the feature always feels more interested in the visual experience, rendering the storytelling somewhat flat, even when it touches on unbearably devastating events.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Surfing movies were once a common event in specialty theaters, but they aren’t as popular these days, perhaps due to market saturation. Director Rory Kennedy tries to avoid the appearance of a daredevil surf film with “Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton,” which positions itself as an examination of one of the most famous surfers of all time, tracking Hamilton’s life as it burns through behavioral issues and wave-based trial and error. Glorious oceanic cinematography remains open for inspection, but the documentary strives to celebrate the concept of Hamilton as a god of the sport and a man for himself, eschewing prolonged clips of surfing performance for something slightly more intimate, but never abyssal in its inspection of a complex personality.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When it comes to the dissection of the life and career of Steven Spielberg, I’m not sure what exactly director Susan Lacy was expecting to achieve. There’s no way to get one’s arms around the enormity of Spielberg’s achievements, professional and charitable, leaving Lacy at a distinct disadvantage, tasked with highlighting 50 years of artistic accomplishments and family ties. And yet, with some help from an impressive roster of interviewees, “Spielberg” the documentary comes through with stunning clarity, offering the most rounded portrait yet of a complex individual who, for most of his career, has enjoyed unequaled success and cultural presence. It’s not easy to summarize Steven Spielberg, but Lacy has achieved that and so much more with the picture, which isn’t truly a trip down memory lane, but a guide map to influences and interests that helped to define an impressive man who’s made more than a few all-time classics during his career. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

While there are always strange horror movies hitting it big at the box office, blame for “Happy Death Day” belongs to 2014’s “Ouija.” A minor PG-13 chiller and a terrible film, “Ouija” managed to find a sizable pre-teen audience looking for vanilla frights on a late October weekend, surpassing all expectations. And now there’s “Happy Death Day,” which offers the same type of banal scares and screenwriting aimed directly at 12 year olds. It’s certainly a brighter picture, almost qualifying as a comedy, but director Christopher Landon isn’t putting in much of an effort with this “Groundhog Day”-inspired time loop endeavor, keeping a macabre premise cuddly for mass consumption, while the material’s juvenile tonality only takes minutes before it begins to feel like multiplex imprisonment.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Marshall” is not a bio-pic of the late Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall. Frankly, the film that bears his name isn’t even really about his career as a triumphant lawyer dealing with seemingly impossible cases steeped in prejudice. The Thurgood presented in the picture is more of an inspirational figure, handed defined attitude and authority as a black man trying to achieve justice in a white world. The screenplay by Jacob and Michael Koskoff (2015’s “Macbeth”) endeavors to transform Thurgood into a beacon of defiance, almost superhero-ish in design, gifting “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman a rare opportunity to play two men of action in his blossoming career. And he’s terrific in “Marshall,” handling the Koskoffs’ broad writing with care, making the most out of what becomes a supporting role in the feature, which probably wouldn’t welcome the same titular posture if it was called “Friedman.”  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As with any Jackie Chan release, there’s hesitation. He’s not one to mix things up as an actor, often playing the same heroic roles or, more recently, mystical forces, working with his limited range with healthy dollops of humor. “The Foreigner” doesn’t require a cheery Chan, asking the action star to go stone cold sober, for the most part, for this terrorism thriller. Chan’s committed to doing something a little different for director Martin Campbell (returning to screens six years after nearly destroying his career with the artistic and financial failure of “Green Lantern”), but hope for a somber, shuffling Chan is soon dashed, as “The Foreigner” quickly returns the star to his element, dodging weapons and flipping around bad guys. There’s something compelling here in the ugly details that peeks out periodically, but Campbell doesn’t always know the type of film he wants to make, keeping the effort unsteady and frustratingly unrealistic.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Our Souls at Night” represents the fourth acting collaboration for Jane Fonda and Robert Redford. Their partnership dates back 50 years, crossing paths over the decades in pictures such as “The Chase,” “The Electric Horseman,” and most famously, 1967’s “Barefoot in the Park.” The pairing doesn’t always receive the accolades it deserves, but that should change with “Our Souls at Night,” which provides perhaps the finest example of their honeyed, frighteningly comfortable interplay, put to terrific use in this adaptation of a Kent Haruf novel. Director Ritesh Batra (“The Lunchbox”) knows exactly how to encourage mood and stay out of the way when dealing with two industry icons, permitting the duo to conjure exquisitely understated performances in a tender, but not saccharine feature. It’s simple and just lovely.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It took someone long enough, but co-writer/director Chris Peckover is finally the person asking the all-important question: What would “Home Alone” be like if Kevin was truly treated as the terror he is? “Better Watch Out” presents itself as an R-rated evolution of the 1990 Christmas classic, meeting a new generation of wise pre-teens and their ability to act defensively in the face of crisis. There are secrets buried in the picture, which end up saving the viewing experience, as Peckover and co-writer Zack Kahn concoct a fairly thin and aggressive movie, but one that genuinely surprises with its nastiness, which is often mistaken for cleverness. “Better Watch Out” is blessedly short, but it remains memorable, delivering a punchy cinematic experience and a holiday rug burn for those who felt “Home Alone” played it too safe.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s very little in “Swing Away” that’s going to surprise viewers. It’s not the type of film that’s interested in extremity to make an impression, reaching to shock people with a particular sense of mischief. It’s comfort food cinema from director Michael A. Nickles (who portrayed Jim Morrison in “Wayne’s World 2”), who offers a mild sports dramedy that’s less about the minutiae of golf and more about The Hang in Greece, where gorgeous locations are everywhere and the story politely details a rejuvenation of spirit. “Swing Away” is light, perhaps too light for some, but for those in the mood for a charming tale of community interaction, Greek soulfulness without the “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” amplification, and golf, the feature delivers exactly what it initially promises. It’s not a major endeavor, but it goes down easy enough.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If there must be a rip-off of “The Fast and the Furious,” why not have it star an actor already part of the blockbuster franchise? In a strange career move, Scott Eastwood threatens to bite the hand that feeds him by appearing in this obvious knockoff in the same year as his turn in “The Fate of the Furious.” Perhaps it’s a case of poor timing or a sign of professional protest, but Eastwood joins a smaller ensemble for another round of speeding cars and heist shenanigans, and, admittedly, it’s kind of nice to not have Vin Diesel around. It’s damning the feature with faint praise, but “Overdrive” is more entertaining than most of “The Fast and the Furious” series. It’s definitely not a strong picture, but as brainless, witless junk food cinema goes, director Antonio Negret has a few flashy stunt sequences to share and a few Euro locations to visit, striving to deliver the essentials of race-and-rob subgenre, led by an actor with some valuable production experience.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Anytime a film misses a release date, it’s usually a bad sign. “Amityville: The Awakening” missed a whole bunch of them, kicked like a rusty can around the years as the studio worked up the nerve (or financial means) to slip the picture in front of audiences. Shot three years ago and teased with posters and trailers ever since, it’s finally time to witness the rebirth of the “Amityville” brand name, which was last seen on screens in a 2005 remake, starring Ryan Reynolds. Clues pointing to disaster were all there, and “Amityville: The Awakening” is happy to meet lower expectations, offering no real scares and even less common sense for a chiller. Writer/director Franck Khalfoun tries to be a little bit clever with the effort, frosting the endeavor with self-awareness, but what he really needs are effective frights and less predictability in this, the latest chapter in a weirdly enduring franchise.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The timing for the release of “M.F.A.” couldn’t be better, presented to filmgoers during a difficult time of debate and frustration over the subject of sexual assault, especially pertaining to the silencing of victims for the betterment of assailants. New frontiers of understanding have been achieved though efforts such as Kirby Dick’s “The Hunting Ground,” and “M.F.A.” certainly has focus when it comes to the depiction of shame and fear facing those who’ve been brutalized and have no path to justice. Screenwriter Leah McKendrick and director Natalia Leite (“Bare”) shape a provocative story of simmering rage and encroaching depression, but they make a deliberate choice to transform the endeavor into an exploitation movie, using graphic depictions of revenge to offer some level of catharsis. It doesn’t always feel like the right choice for an otherwise clear-eyed view of systemic suppression.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Last week, there was “The Mountain Between Us.” This week, there’s “6 Below: Miracle on the Mountain,” making October a big month for survival films featuring desperate people stuck at high altitudes in the snow and bitter cold. Where “The Mountain Between Us” was a highly fictional romantic saga about strangers growing close in a crisis, “6 Below” recounts the true life horrors that visited hockey player Eric LeMarque, who, in 2004, became lost in the Sierra Nevada wilderness while on a snowboarding adventure. What’s promised is a frightening story of personal endurance rooted in fact, but the movie doesn’t deliver that tension. Instead, the feature goes the inspirational route, with director Scott Waugh trying to depict the internal churn of a man who’s not just facing death, but an expiration pounded into place by guilt, addiction, and fear, forcing Eric to dig within to live another day. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com