Videoreleases
The Last Vermeer
Shortly after the end of World War II, Capt. Joseph Piller (Bang) is part of the Dutch force tending to the bureaucratic mess left by the Nazis. When a rare painting by the renowned and adored Danish artist Johannes Vermeer is recovered from the belongings of Nazi leader Hermann Göring, Piller is on the case. Determined to find the traitor who would hand a priceless national treasure over to the enemy, he traces the sale to Han van Meegeren (Pearce), an extravagant artist with a penchant for mischief. Despite his initial motion to arrest the supposed Nazi sympathizer, it only takes Piller a few conversations with the eccentric gentleman to realize that there might be more to the story as Meegeren reveals that, rather than collaborating with Axis officials, he was conning the enemy by forging Vermeer paintings and selling them to the Nazis for millions.
Director: Dan Friedkin. Stars: Guy Pearce, Vicky Krieps, Claes Bang, August Diehl, Olivia
Grant, Andrew Havill, Karl Johnson, Adrian Scarborough. 2019. 118 mins. Drama.
The Croods: A New Age
Still searching for a place to settle, Crood patriarch and caveman Grug (Cage); his wife, Ugga (Keener); her mother, Gran (Leachman); their daughter, Eep (Stone); and Eep’s boyfriend,
Guy (Reynolds), stumble upon a wall. When the Croods decide to go beyond it, they are greeted by a paradise inhabited by the Bettermans, a family a couple of steps ahead of them.
Director: Joel Crawford. Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Nicolas Cage, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman. 2020. 95 mins. Animation.