New streaming highlights for the week of June 5-11, 2023
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — This week's digital releases are headlined by "Fast X," the latest in the Fast & Furious franchise; "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret," an exceptional adaptation of Judy Blume’s novel that captures the confusion and insecurities of a young girl on the verge of puberty; and "Showing Up," the latest collaboration between Michelle Williams and director Kelly Reichardt's exploration of an artist on the verge of gallery showing and a mental breakdown.
The biggest Blu-ray and DVD release of the week is the overlooked "Renfield," a Dracula comedy centered on the legendary vampire's human assistant Renfield. It's filled with goopy gore and a narrative that explores abusive relationships with a dark sense of humor.
Digital to Own & Rent
Fast X
Studio Synopsis: Ever since their saga started on the streets of L.A.'s underground racing scene, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his family have overcome impossible odds to outsmart, out-nerve and outdrive every foe. Yet when the team took down a nefarious kingpin back in Brazil, they had no idea his son Dante (Jason Momoa) was watching from the shadows. More lethal than any other enemy they've faced, Dante now rises as a terrifying new nemesis who's fueled by revenge and determined to shatter their family and destroy everything and everyone Dom loves. From London and Brazil to Antarctica and Rome, new alliances are forged and old enemies resurface. But everything changes after Dom discovers his 8-year-old son is Dante's ultimate target.
Are You There God? It's Me, Margret.
Studio Synopsis: For over fifty years, Judy Blume’s classic and groundbreaking novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. has impacted generations with its timeless coming of age story, insightful humor, and candid exploration of life’s biggest questions. In Lionsgate’s big-screen adaptation, 11-year-old Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) is uprooted from her life in New York City for the suburbs of New Jersey, going through the messy and tumultuous throes of puberty with new friends in a new school. She relies on her mother, Barbara (Rachel McAdams), who is also struggling to adjust to life outside the big city, and her adoring grandmother, Sylvia (Kathy Bates), who isn’t happy they moved away and likes to remind them every chance she gets.
Showing Up
Studio Synopsis: A sculptor preparing to open a new show must balance her creative life with the daily dramas of family and friends, in Kelly Reichardt's vibrant and captivatingly funny portrait of art and craft.
Master Gardener
Studio Synopsis: Directed by Academy Award nominee Paul Schrader (FIRST REFORMED, THE CARD COUNTER) based on his original screenplay, MASTER GARDENER follows Narvel Roth (award-winner Joel Edgerton), the meticulous horticulturist of Gracewood Gardens. He is as much devoted to tending the grounds of this beautiful and historic estate, to pandering to his employer, the wealthy dowager Mrs. Haverhill (three-time Academy Award nominee Sigourney Weaver). When Mrs. Haverhill demands that he take on her wayward and troubled great-niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell) as a new apprentice, chaos enters Narvel's spartan existence, unlocking dark secrets from a buried violent past that threaten them all.
Aloners
Studio Synopsis: Jina (Gong Seung-yeon) is the top employee at a call center, despite talking to customers all day, she has shut out the world beyond her headset. When training a friendly new hire, her icy armor is threatened forcing her to confront why she isolates herself.
The Devil Comes at Night
Studio Synopsis: Ben, a washed-up boxer goes searching for his inheritance and must fight for his life when he is trapped in his deceased father’s farmhouse by a local cannibal cult, who have Ben in their sights.
First Contact
Studio Synopsis: FIRST CONTACT tells of two estranged adult siblings, Casey and Dan, who travel to their late scientist father’s farmhouse to make sense of his incomplete work. They soon learn that their father’s work was far more dangerous than they could ever imagine: An evil entity, buried in time and space for millions of years, has been released and has begun wreaking havoc on the locals. One by one the bodies start to pile up. Now, Dan and Casey must figure out the secrets of this extra – dimensional monster before it’s too late.
Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story
Studio Synopsis: A classically trained actor and director, Robert Englund has become one of the most revolutionary horror icons of our generation. Throughout his career, Englund starred in many well-known movies, but shot to super-stardom with his portrayal of supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger in the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET franchise. This unique and intimate portrait captures the man behind the glove and features interviews with Englund and his wife Nancy, Lin Shaye, Eli Roth, Tony Todd, Heather Langenkamp and more.
Leave
Studio Synopsis: A young woman searches for her family after having been abandoned as an infant at a cemetery wrapped in satanic symbols. As she gets closer to the truth a sinister spirit is telling her to leave.
Somewhere in Queens
Studio Synopsis: Leo Russo (Ray Romano) lives a simple life in Queens, New York, with his wife Angela (Laurie Metcalf), their son "Sticks" (Jacob Ward), and a colorful network of Italian-American relatives and friends. After Sticks gets a life-changing opportunity to play college basketball, Leo goes to unexpected lengths to try and make sure his son doesn't follow in his footsteps and end up in his family's construction business, in this heartfelt comedy directed by Romano and featuring Sebastian Maniscalco and Tony Lo Bianco.
Pollen
Studio Synopsis: After a senior coworker assaults a bright-eyed young woman, her dream job becomes a living nightmare as she tries to keep her career together while being tormented at work, at home, and in her dreams by a mysterious tree monster.
Taz: Quest For Burger
Studio Synopsis: After an outlaw abducts her father and steals their town's food supply, a feisty adolescent Bandicoot named Quinn recruits The Tasmanian Devil to help her find the thief. Taz may be an ill-tempered rogue with a fearsome reputation, but he and Quinn will have to work together to track the criminal through the wilds of Tasmania and save her community.
Blu-ray & DVD
Renfield
Studio Synopsis: Nicholas Hoult stars as Renfield, the tortured aide to history's most narcissistic boss: Dracula (Nicolas Cage). For centuries, Renfield has slavishly served Dracula by procuring his master's prey and doing his every bidding, no matter how debased. But now, Renfield is ready to look for a new life outside the shadow of The Prince of Darkness, if only he can figure out how to end the toxic, codependent relationship...
Tulsa King
Studio Synopsis: TULSA KING follows New York mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi (Sylvester Stallone), just after he is released from prison after 25 years and unceremoniously exiled by his boss to set up shop in Tulsa, Okla. Realizing that his mob family may not have his best interests in mind, Dwight slowly builds a “crew” from a group of unlikely characters, to help him establish a new criminal empire in a place that to him might as well be another planet.
La Brea
Studio Synopsis: Everything you love about this edge-of-your-seat drama is back. From giant sloths to mystifying time travel, the survivors continue their heart-pounding journey to find their way back home.
Mafia Mamma
Studio Synopsis: Catherine Hardwicke’s new action-comedy, MAFIA MAMMA, starring Toni Collette and Monica Bellucci. MAFIA MAMMA is a hilarious, action-packed comedy about a suburban American woman who inherits her grandfather’s Mafia empire, and guided by the Firm’s trusted consigliere defies everyone’s expectations, including her own, as the new head of the family business.
Assassin Club
Studio Synopsis: An elite assassin is given his final contract: to kill seven people around the world - only to discover the targets are equally skilled assassins hired to kill him. His only shot to survive is to uncover the mysterious mastermind behind the deadly plot and stop the killing before it's too late.
Rules of the Game
Studio Synopsis: Considered one of the greatest films ever made, The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu), by Jean Renoir, is a scathing critique of corrupt French society cloaked in a comedy of manners in which a weekend at a marquis’ country château lays bare some ugly truths about a group of haut bourgeois acquaintances. The film has had a tumultuous history: it was subjected to cuts after the violent response of the premiere audience in 1939, and the original negative was destroyed during World War II; it wasn’t reconstructed until 1959. That version, which has stunned viewers for decades, is presented here.
The Severing
Studio Synopsis: The Severing from acclaimed filmmaker Mark Pellington (The Mothman Prophecies) is a visceral and powerful feature-length dance film. This cathartic movement piece was created in collaboration with the brilliant choreographer Nina McNeely (Gaspar Noe’s Climax), rising Dutch cinematographer Evelin Van Rei, and editor Sergio Pinheiro. Inspired by the Wim Wenders film Pina, Pellington was interested in expressing feelings and emotions through a ‘narrative of movement and text,’ told through the physical expression of dancers’ bodies and souls. Grief is physical and lies in the body, in our very DNA, which makes movement the ideal way to communicate it. In Pellington’s words, “It’s the way to express what it feels like to be severed or to feel nothing. The film is a cathartic reencounter for anybody who’s felt loss, or isolation, or struggled with these themes: fear, reconnection, isolation.”
Warriors Two
Studio Synopsis: Cashier Hua (Casanova Wong, The Shaolin Plot) leads a simple life working for a local bank, the only complications resulting from trying to give life advice to his friend Fat Chun (Hung). When Hua discovers a murderous plot to overthrow the mayor and is left for dead, Chun urges him to protect himself by learning the formidable style of Wing Chun from master Leung Tsan (Knockabout’s “Beardy” Leung Kar-Yan). As Hua’s skill set grows, his proximity to Leung unknowingly lands him in the crosshairs of the treacherous scoundrels who previously sought to kill him
Indiana Jones Franchise 4K UHD
Previously only released in a standard and steelbook box sets, all of the original 4 films are now available to purchase individually.
The Strangler
Studio Synopsis: Leo Kroll (Victor Buono, Batman, What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?) is a lonely and disturbed hospital lab worker. Though he's a meek technician while at work, he leads a sinister double life as a deranged killer of young women. Could a chance meeting with Tally (Davey Davison, War Party, Dick Tracy), a young woman who works at an amusement park, influence him for the better? Could Tally curb his homicidal impulses and restore him to a normal life? Released at the height of the Boston Strangler killings, The Strangler is a film experience that will grip your throat and leave you breathless!
Private Parts
Studio Synopsis: In the sleaziest corner of Los Angeles, the King Edward Hotel has a new arrival in the form of Cheryl, a runaway teen. She's hoping to put her life back together – but somewhere in the musty halls of the King Edward lurks another guest who just loves to chop people apart.
Giallo Essentials Blue
Studio Synopsis: In the early 1970s, when the giallo boom was at its peak, producer-turned-director Luciano Ercoli helmed three standalone but thematically linked examples of the genre, each featuring a memorable star turn by Spanish born actress and model Nieves Navarro (billed under her adopted stage name of Susan Scott). Accompanied by a rogues’ gallery of familiar and recurring faces, this trilogy of terror represents the giallo at its most playful and unpredictable.
In The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion, Minou's (Dagmar Lassander, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire) dull but pampered life is upturned by a mysterious sadist (Simón Andreu, Death Carries a Cane) who blackmails her into submitting to his every perverted whim. Desperate to escape his clutches, Minou confides in her libidinous best friend Dominique (Navarro)... but is she more involved than she’s letting on? Then, in Death Walks on High Heels, Navarro stars as exotic dancer Nicole, daughter of a murdered jewel thief, who finds herself terrorized by a black-clad assailant determined to procure her father’s stolen gems. Fleeing Paris and her knife-wielding pursuer, Nicole arrives in London, only to discover that death stalks her at every corner. Finally, in Death Walks at Midnight, Navarro stars as Valentina - a model who, in the midst of a drug-fueled photoshoot, witnesses a brutal murder in the apartment opposite hers. But when the authorities refuse to believe a crime has been committed, Valentina is forced to assume the role of amateur sleuth.