Here's our guide to the new movies hitting UK Home Entertainment platforms next week (w/c June 1st).
Next week sees the arrival of this year's Best Picture Oscar winner, an acclaimed coming of age indie, new films from Woody Allen and Atom Egoyan, the compelling car crash that is Cats, and lots more. Thanks to Strike Media for their help in compiling the schedule. All titles released June 1st unless otherwise stated.
To the Stars
In this acclaimed and uplifting coming-of-age story, a 1960s Oklahoma town is shaken when an enigmatic new girl arrives.
Format: Digital
Porno
An outrageous comedy horror following five teens who unwittingly unleash a demon determined to give them a sex education!
Format: Digital
Buffaloed
When an acceptance letter to the school of her dreams arrives, Peg (Zoey Deutch) falls into the shady business of delinquent debt collection to pay her tuition fees.
Format: Digital
Dolittle
Robert Downey Jr. electrifies as the man who could talk to animals: Dolittle. After losing his wife, he hermits himself away behind the high wall of his manor, but is forced to set sail on an epic adventure when the queen falls gravely ill. Helping Dolittle in search of a rare cure are his rambunctious animal friends - including Chee-Chee (Rami Malek), an anxious, self-conscious gorilla; Dab-Dab (Octavia Spencer), an enthusiastic but bird-brained duck; the bickering duo of cynical, neurotic ostrich Plimpton (Kumail Nanjiani) and chilly-but-chill polar bear Yoshi (John Cena); as well as a headstrong parrot named Polynesia(Emma Thompson).
Format: Digital (DVD, blu-ray June 15th)
Cats
Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper (The King's Speech, Les Misérables, The Danish Girl) transforms Andrew Lloyd Webber's record-shattering stage musical into a breakthrough cinematic event. Cats stars James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson and introduces Royal Ballet principal dancer Francesca Hayward in her feature film debut. Featuring Lloyd Webber's iconic music and a world-class cast of dancers under the guidance of Tony-winning choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton, In the Heights), the film reimagines the musical for a new generation with spectacular production design, state-of-the-art technology, and dance styles ranging from classical ballet to contemporary, hip-hop to jazz, street dance to tap.
Format: DVD, blu-ray
Parasite
Korean satirical black comedy co-written and directed by Bong Joon-ho. Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) sees a way out of his struggling family's poverty when he is employed by the wealthy Park family to tutor their daughter Da-hye (Jung Ji-so). He quickly ingratiates himself with the Park family and convinces them to employ the rest of his impoverished family disguised as his acquaintances. However, their scheme to infiltrate the Park's lavish life soon turns awry when their true identities come under scrutiny.
Format: Digital, DVD, blu-ray
Line of Descent
Line of Descent explores a dysfunctional mafia family in Delhi, as three brothers fight for control of their father's legacy. When a mysterious American arms dealer (Brendan Fraser) becomes embroiled in the family business, a respected veteran cop (Abhay Deol) investigating the brothers, tries to stop their tragic downfall.
Format: Digital, DVD
Shockwave: Countdown to Disaster
When massive volcanic storms begin to spew from the Earth, geophysicist Kate Ferris tries to convince the Department of Defense that this is no natural phenomenon. They re the result of a seismic super weapon known as the Hell Storm device; and now that it's been activated, the shock-waves it sends out will destroy major cities across the globe, killing millions. When her claims fall on deaf ears, Kate teams up with her daughter and estranged husband at the San Andreas fault line to find a way to counteract the destruction. As Kate and her family navigate the fault, they find themselves directly at the epicenter of the largest shock wave yet. Now, in a harrowing race against the clock, Kate must figure out how to stop the shock-wave before its effects seal humanity's fate once and for all.
Format: DVD
The Iron Mask
English cartographer Jonathan Green (Jason Flemyng) makes the journey to China hoping to map parts of the Far East. However, once there he finds himself involved with a village of tea makers who are under the spell of an evil witch (Li Ma). As Green aids them he discovers that in order to defeat the witch they will need the coveted dragon seal which is being held by a man known as the Master (Jackie Chan), who is currently incarcerated in the Tower of London. To ensure his escape they must evade the attention of tower guard James Hook (Arnold Schwarzenegger).
Format: Digital (DVD, blu-ray June 8th)
America as Seen by a Frenchman
At the end of the 1950s, celebrated French documentarian François Reichenbach (F for Fake, Portrait: Orson Welles), whose lens captured the likes of Brigitte Bardot and Johnny Hallyday, spent 18 months travelling the United States, documenting its diverse regions, their inhabitants and their pastimes. The result, America as Seen by a Frenchman, is a wide-eyed, perhaps even naïve journey through a multitude of different Americas, filtered through a French sensibility and serving as a fascinating exploration of a culture that is both immediately familiar and thoroughly alien. Prison rodeos; Miss America pageants; visits to Disneyland and a school for striptease; a town inhabited solely by twins; rows of newborns in incubators, like products on an assembly line all these weird and wondrous sights, and more, are captured, sans judgement, by Reichenbach's camera, aided by whimsical narration (provided by, among others, Jean Cocteau) and a jaunty musical score by the late, great Michel Legrand.
Format: Blu-ray
Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson
Horror film director 'Found Slain, Buried Under Floor', screamed the 1995 headlines read around the world. But the truth behind the wild life of Al Adamson including the production of such low budget classics as Satan's Sadists, Dracula vs Frankenstein and The Naughty Stewardesses and his grisly death reveals perhaps the most bizarre career in Hollywood history. Told through over 40 first-person recollections from friends, family, colleagues and historians plus rare clips and archival interviews with Adamson himself, Blood & Flesh is an award-winning chronicle of bikers, go-go dancers, porn stars, aging actors, freak-out girls, Charles Manson, Colonel Sanders, alien conspiracies and homicidal contractors.
Format: Blu-ray
Polaroid
From the producer of It and The Ring comes an iconic and bold new vision in horror. High school loner Bird Fitcher has no idea what dark secrets are tied to the mysterious Polaroid vintage camera she stumbles upon, but it doesn't take long to discover that those who have their picture taken meet a tragic end.
Format: DVD, blu-ray
The Last Full Measure
The true story of Vietnam War hero William H. Pitsenbarger (Jeremy Irvine), a USAF Para rescue medic who saved over 60 men in the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division before making the ultimate sacrifice in one of the bloodiest battles of the war. 32 years later, Pentagon staffer Scott Huffman (Sebastian Stan) investigates a decades-long Congressional Medal of Honor request for Pitsenbarger and uncovers a high-level conspiracy prompting him to put his career on the line to seek justice for the fallen airman.
Format: Digital
Trick or Treat
Taking place over the course of a single psychedelic Halloween night in a ghostly Blackpool, depressed Greg Kielty’s life is turned upside down when his estranged brother Dan turns up, claiming to have drunkenly run someone over. But has Dan, in fact, just murdered a psychopathic gangster’s son? Or maybe he’s stage-managed the whole scenario to scare Greg out of town so he can cement his affair with Greg’s wife?
Format: Digital
Don't Look Down
Don’t Look Down is the latest offering from French directing duo Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau (Theo & Hugo, Cockles & Muscles and Drole De Felix). In a high-rise apartment, a woman and four men gather to share their experiences of a man that they have all been involved with, to their cost. In the main room, they talk, drink, dance, while one by one, each goes next door for a private moment of truth.
Format: Digital
Feral
An exploration of the invisibility and masks we put on to face the world, the story is told through the lens of a homeless woman, Yasmine, living in the tunnels beneath Manhattan’s West Side. Surviving on her own terms, she is reeling from the loss of her mother who was deported when she was 16 while trying to build a new image of life alone. Along the way, she meets a cast of characters and real New York personalities, each living their own form of loneliness. A lonely piano player who’s never played his music out loud, a mother who regrets the birth of her six-year-old, a lonely grandmother nostalgic for her salsa music past and the Mission who is there to help, but only if she’s willing to go with their rules. Based off real stories of living underground and working with former homeless individuals, the film is an experience that lets you look into Yasmine’s emotional reality, looking her directly in the eyes, as she struggles to carry on.
Format: Digital (June 2nd)
Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway
CIA Agents Palmer and Gagano are tasked with the mission of destroying a computer virus called "Soviet Union". They enter the system using VR but the mission turns into a trap.
Format: Digital
The Uncertain Kingdom
Climate change, migration, disability, homelessness and sexuality are just some of the subjects explored in The Uncertain Kingdom. The ground-breaking anthology of 20 short films from 20 directors offers a unique portrait of the nation today. Directors include Hope Dickson Leach (The Levelling), Carol Salter (Almost Heaven), Guy Jenkin (Drop the Dead Donkey, Outnumbered) Iggy LDN (Black Boys Don’t Cry).
Format: Digital
Dating Amber
Set-in Ireland during the mid-90s, Eddie (Fionn O’Shea) and Amber (Lola Petticrew) decide to stage a relationship in order to stop everyone speculating about their sexuality. Eddie is keen to follow his Dad into the military, while Amber dreams of moving to the liberal hub of London. However, their ‘ideal’ arrangement begins to fall apart, forcing Eddie deeper into denial as Amber realises that a perilous future awaits her best friend unless she intervenes.
Format: Amazon Prime Video (June 4th)
A Rainy Day in New York
A Rainy Day in New York tells the story of college sweethearts, Gatsby (Timothée Chalamet) and Ashleigh (Elle Fanning), whose plans for a romantic weekend together in the city are dashed as quickly as the sunlight turns into showers. When Ashleigh gets an assignment from the school paper to interview celebrated film director Roland Pollard (Liev Schreiber) in Manhattan, Gatsby seizes the opportunity to show small-town girl Ashleigh his favourite haunts in his home city. However, Gatsby’s well-laid plans are quickly sidetracked when Pollard whisks Ashleigh away on a head-spinning series of encounters that lead her from the director to screenwriter Ted Davidoff (Jude Law) to movie star Francisco Vega (Diego Luna). Left to his own devices in the city, Gatsby ends up spending the day with Chan (Selena Gomez), the sharp-witted younger sister of his ex-girlfriend, attending parties and having his own life-changing conversations and encounters.
Format: VOD (June 5th)
Guest of Honour
Jim (David Thewlis) and his daughter Veronica (Laysla De Oliveira), a young high- school music teacher, attempt to unravel their complicated histories and intertwined secrets in Guest of Honour, the new film from Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) which weaves through time exploring perception and penance, memory and forgiveness. A hoax instigated by an aggressive school bus driver (Rossif Sutherland) goes very wrong. Accused of abusing her position of authority with 17-year-old Clive (Alexandre Bourgeois) and another student, Veronica is imprisoned. Convinced that she deserves to be punished for crimes she committed at an earlier age, Veronica rebuffs her father’s attempts to secure her early release. Confused and frustrated by Veronica’s intransigence, Jim’s anguish begins to impinge on his job. As a food inspector, he wields great power over small, family-owned restaurants. It’s a power he doesn’t hesitate to use. While preparing Jim’s funeral, Veronica confides the secrets of her past to Father Greg (Luke Wilson), who may hold the final piece of the father-daughter puzzle.
Format: Curzon Home Cinema
Luz
In this slick and disturbing horror film, Luz is a young cab driver fleeing from the grasp of a possessed woman, whose confession could endanger the lives of everyone who crosses her path.
Format: Digital
The Last Days of American Crime
As a final response to terrorism and crime, the US government plans to broadcast a signal making it impossible for anyone to knowingly commit unlawful acts. Graham Bricke (Édgar Ramírez), a career criminal who was never able to hit the big score, teams up with famous gangster progeny Kevin Cash (Michael Pitt) and black market hacker Shelby Dupree (Anna Brewster) to commit the heist of the century and the last crime in American history before the signal goes off.
Format: Netflix (June 5th)
Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai
A bank employee weighed down by her jobless husband's debts - and her own broken dreams - finds a secret source of seemingly unlimited cash in her home.
Format: Netflix (June 5th)
Olla
Ariane Labed’s directorial debut is a dark comedic tale of a Russian mail-order bride relocating to rural France echoes the brilliant strangeness of the Greek Weird Wave.
Format: MUBI
Ms Slavic 7
The latest work from Canadian auteur Sofia Bohdanowicz is an introspective, semi-autobiographical look at family histories and artistic legacies.
Format: MUBI (June 4th)
"Exposition scene after exposition scene, all leading to the inevitable wrestling match set against an indeterminate CG backdrop."— The Movie Waffler (@themoviewaffler) May 25, 2020
JUSTICE LEAGUE is on Netflix UK now.
Read @hilliseric's reviewhttps://t.co/C0sXxjSOB7 pic.twitter.com/ODfnaxEokm