What’s new to VOD and streaming this weekend: May 14-16 Including reviews of The Underground Railroad, The Killing Of Two Lovers, In The Earth and more By Norman Wilner and Radheyan Simonpillai May 14, 2021 OW critics pick what’s new to streaming and VOD for the weekend of May 14. Plus: Everything new to VOD and streaming platforms. The Killing Of Two Lovers (Robert Machoian) Machoian’s solo debut as a writer/director after more than a decade of collaborations and documentaries is a spare, aching and almost unbearably sad drama about thirtysomething David (Clayne Crawford), a husband and father in rural Utah mired in a domestic crisis. He’s separated from his wife Nikki (Sepideh Moafi) and their children. Nikki appears to be moving on. David has a gun. He badly wants to use it. But The Killing Of Two Lovers isn’t that simple. Machoian immediately complicates his story by showing us who David is when he’s not blinded by rage, and then complicates things further by demonstrating that everyone else is just as layered and complex, striving to find their way through an impossible situation. Crawford and Moafi are both tremendously affecting, showing us an entire history between David and Nikki through their physicality and their shared concern for their kids, and Machoian presents their performances in deliberately paced, unbroken takes that let the characters dig through their complex feelings for each other. The filmmaker also makes sure his movie can’t be read as an apology for toxic masculinity; rather, it understands how it runs through the totality of American culture, offering weak men an excuse to be their worst selves.
Army of the Dead (R) The latest film by Zack Snyder is about a group of mercenaries who decide to rob a Las Vegas casino after the city is overrun by zombies. Starring Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Garret Dillahunt, Nora Arnezeder, Ana de la Reguera, Hiroyuki Sanada, Omari Hardwick, Raúl Castillo, and Tig Notaro. (Opens Friday) The Djinn (R) This horror film stars Ezra Dewey as a mute boy trapped in an apartment with a sinister spirit after he makes a wish. Also with Rob Brownstein, Tevy Poe, John Erickson, and Donald Pitts. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Austin 360 Who gets to have a family? Together Together wants you to think about it when you re not laughing. Poke around for deets on writer-director Nikole Beckwith’s radiant film and you’ll see chatter about it being an anti-rom com, which it is. But there’s much in this indie dramedy to warm those long left cold by American cinema’s tried-and-untrue formats. The film, starring Patti Harrison and Ed Helms, hit theaters on April 23. Matt (Helms), a man in his 40s who works as an app developer, wants to start a family. He’s single. It’s just … nothing has worked out. When the film opens, he’s interviewing 20-something Anna (Harrison) to possibly be his surrogate. She moved to town with her boyfriend, but he’s gone, and she doesn’t talk to her family.
Fort Worth Weekly The Paper Tigers (PG-13) This martial-arts comedy is about three middle-aged former kung fu prodigies (Alain Uy, Ron Yuan, and Mykel Shannon Jenkins) who are forced to revive their talents to solve the murder of their master. Also with Yuji Okumoto, Jae Suh Park, Roger Yuan, Peter Adrian Sudarso, Yoshi Sudarso, and Matthew Page. (Opens Friday in Dallas) Image courtesy of YouTube.com OPENING
Above Suspicion (R) This thriller based on the first American conviction for the murder of a federal agent stars Jack Huston as an FBI man who has an illicit affair with his informant (Emilia Clarke). Also with Sophie Lowe, Austin Hébert, Thora Birch, Omar Benson Miller, and Johnny Knoxville. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Film Shorts // April 28-May 4, 2021 OPENING Cliff Walkers (NR) This Chinese spy thriller by Zhang Yimou ( Hero) is about a group of agents (Qin Hailu, Yu Hewei, Zhang Yi, and Zhu Yawen) who return to their Japanese-occupied country in the 1930s to find that they’ve been betrayed by persons unknown. Also with Liu Haocun, Li Naiwen, and Ni Dahong. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills) Four Good Days (R) Rodrigo Garcia delivers yet another dull, earnest drama about white people living on the West Coast. Glenn Close stars as a mother who takes in her estranged, opioid-addicted daughter (Mila Kunis, looking emaciated with bleached-blonde hair and blackened teeth) to help her stay clean for four days prior to receiving a shot of naltrexone that will prevent her from getting high. The film doesn’t drag, but every argument in this movie feels like something you’ve heard from a thousand other movies about drug addiction. The performances here aren’t enough to lift the film above those, and the direction by Garcia (
Here s the official trailer (+ poster) for Nikole Beckwith s Together Together, direct from YouTube: When young loner Anna (Patti Harrison) is hired as the gestational surrogate for Matt (Ed Helms), a single man in his 40s who wants a child, the two strangers come to realize this unexpected relationship will quickly challenge their perceptions of connection, boundaries and the particulars of love. Together Together is both written and directed by American filmmaker Nikole Beckwith, her second feature after making Stockholm, Pennsylvania previously, as well as some TV & film writing work. Produced by Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Anthony Brandonisio, and Tim Headington. This premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and also played at the Cinequest Film Festival. Bleecker Street Films will release Beckwith s
Film Shorts // April 21-27, 2021 Mortal Kombat (R) A second film adaptation of the 1990s arcade video game, this martial-arts movie is about an evil overlord (Chin Han) who summons the world’s best fighters to a tournament. Also with Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Joe Taslim, Hiroyuki Sanada, Josh Lawson, Tadanobu Asano, Ludi Lin, Max Huang, Sisi Stringer, Nathan Jones, and Mehcad Brooks. (Opens Friday) Photo courtesy of YouTube.com OPENING Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train (R) A big-screen continuation of the anime TV series, this film features the continuing adventures of demon hunter Tanjiro Kamado (voiced by Natsuki Hanae and Zach Aguilar). Additional voices by Akari Kitô, Abby Trott, Satoshi Hino, Mark Whitten, Hiro Shimono, Aleks Le, Daisuke Hirakawa, and Landon McDonald. (Opens Friday)
2 stars The new film “ Together Together ” has a great premise: A single, straight man wants to be a father and decides to hire a surrogate to help. It’s fertile territory that has been fairly unexplored in popular art and brings with it a host of built in dramatic and comedic opportunities, especially with someone like Ed Helms leading the cast. Writer-director Nicole Beckwith (“Stockholm, Pennsylvania”) instead chooses to focus on the relationship between Helms’ character Matt and his surrogate, Anna (Patti Harrison) and it becomes just another semi-quirky, frustratingly surface exploration of two lonely headcases finding comfort in one another. In some ways, it’s a quintessential Sundance film. The baby and the pregnancy become just a screenwriter’s excuse to put these two together. It’s too bad because Helms shows promise stretching in a more dramatic role and Harrison herself is a captivating presence.
The new film “Together Together,” in theaters Friday, has a great premise: A single, straight man wants to be a father and decides to hire a surrogate to help. It’s fertile territory that has been fairly unexplored in popular art and brings with it a host of built-in dramatic and comedic opportunities, especially with someone like Ed Helms leading the cast. Writer-director Nikole Beckwith (“Stockholm, Pennsylvania”) instead chooses to focus on the relationship between Helms’ character Matt and his surrogate, Anna (Patti Harrison), and it becomes just another semi-quirky, frustratingly surface exploration of two lonely head cases finding comfort in each other. In some ways, it’s a quintessential Sundance film. The baby and the pregnancy become just a screenwriter’s excuse to put these two together. It’s too bad because Helms shows promise stretching in a more dramatic role and Harrison herself is a captivating presence.
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