New movies on demand
WHAT’S NEW ON DEMAND, STREAMING
❚ “Military Wives”: With their husbands fighting in Afghanistan, a disparate group of women form a choir that takes on added import. Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan and Emma Lowndes star in this English comedy-drama directed by Peter Cattaneo (“The Full Monty”), one of the art-house movies that lost its theatrical window during the coronavirus pandemic. Available on demand and digital rental starting Friday.
❚ “The Trip to Greece”: Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon head to Greece in their fourth “Trip” movie, part travelogue and part buddy comedy, directed by Michael Winterbottom. Available starting Friday.
❚ “Inheritance”: When her wealthy and powerful father dies, a young lawyer discovers he’s left her a secret inheritance that comes with a dark history that could upend her family. Lily Collins, Simon Pegg, Patrick Warburton and Connie Nielsen star in this new thriller. Available starting Friday.
❚ “The Hunt”: The thriller about a “game” in which the rich actually hunt the working-class poor — until the poor get ideas of their own — had a tough
Steve Coogan, left, and Rob Brydon take their buddy-travelogue act on the road again in “The Trip to Greece.”
time in theaters; it was yanked before its planned release last fall over concerns that it was too political, and when it came out in theaters in March, it was steamrolled by the pandemic. Available starting Tuesday.
❚ “The Man Standing Next”: South Korea under the thumb of the powerful Park Chung-hee, who ruled with help from the country’s intelligence apparatus for nearly two decades, is the focus of this historical thriller, in Korean with English subtitles. Available starting Tuesday.
New on Sofa Cinema
Sofa Cinema, Milwaukee Film’s online movie portal, allows users to rent movies on demand with some of the proceeds going to the nonprofit operator of the Oriental Theatre. It also allows Milwaukee Film to continue to mimic virtually what would be showing at the Oriental if the Oriental could be showing anything. As of Friday, here’s what you’ll find via the site (mkefilm.org/sofacinema):
❚ “The Painter and the Thief”: After an artist has two paintings stolen from a museum, she sets out to find and befriend the guy who stole them — and paint his portrait — in this acclaimed documentary. (For this one, 50% of the proceeds from rentals go to Milwaukee Film.)
❚ “Life in Synchro”: A documentary profiling “the toughest sport you’ve never heard of” — synchronized ice skating — is streaming May 22-31 to mark National Film Festival Day May 23. (There’s also a Q&A streaming with the director at 6 p.m. May 23.)
❚ “Driveways”: In this indie drama returning for another week, a boy helping his mother (Hong Chau) clean out his late aunt’s house forms an unlikely friendship with the retiree (Brian Den
nehy) next door.
❚ “The Cordillera of Dreams”: Patricio Guzmán, a Chilean filmmaker who left in the early 1970s during a military coup, returns to his homeland to find much has changed, and much that hasn’t, in this award-winning documentary, back for another week.
❚ “The Booksellers”: This documentary, also back for another week, takes a deep dive into the world of antiquarian booksellers, part history lesson, part valentine, part reinvention story.
❚ “Salud Sin Papeles: Health Undocumented”: This documentary, about a group of activists who set up a free clinic for undocumented immigrants, is streaming through May 24 as part of Milwaukee Film’s Minority Health Film Series.
New movies on streaming
❚ “The Lovebirds”: A couple newly in love get caught up in a murder mystery and end up on the run. Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani star in this comedy. The movie got hit with a double whammy by the coronavirus pandemic — losing its planned premiere at SXSW, and then its theatrical release window — before being acquired by Netflix, where it makes its debut Friday.
❚ “On the Record”: Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s documentary chronicling a rape accusation against music mogul
Russell Simmons has had a turbulent history before it even arrived; Oprah Winfrey famously pulled out as an executive producer just before its debut at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie has its official debut Wednesday, on the first day of the new streaming service HBO Max.
❚ “Premature”: The summer before she’s heading to her first year of college, a young woman falls in love, hard, for a guy who’s staying put in New York. Zora Howard stars and co-wrote this urban romance with writer-director Rashaad Ernesto Green, who won the Someone to Watch Award at this year’s Film Independent Spirit Awards; Joshua Boone co-stars. Starts on Hulu Friday.
❚ “I Still Believe”: The big-screen story of Christian singer-songwriter Jeremy Camp makes it to streaming early, after the movie’s theatrical run was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. It debuts on Hulu Thursday.
❚ “Rocketman”: The ambitious musical biopic of Elton John, powered by John’s classic early catalog and an all-in performance by Taron Egerton, makes its streaming-service debut Friday on Hulu.
❚ “Top End Wedding”: Ten days before their dream wedding, a couple head to remote northern Australia, in search of the bride-to-be’s AWOL mother in this romantic comedy. Debuts on Hulu Friday.
❚ “Come to Daddy”: Elijah Wood plays a guy who travels to a remote cabin to reconnect with his estranged father, only to discover that his dad has a shady past and a shadier present. Available on Hulu starting Saturday.
❚ “The Tracker”: A mysterious guy (Dolph Lundgren) with a gun returns to the village where his wife and daughter were kidnapped 15 years earlier. Starting on Hulu Monday.
❚ “I’m No Longer Here”: The former leaders of a street gang in Monterrey, Mexico, clashes with a drug cartel and ends up fleeing to an immigrant community in New York City in this Mexicomade drama. Debuting on Netflix Wednesday.
❚ “La Corazonada” (“Intuition”): In this Argentinian crime drama, a rookie cop and a detective investigate the murder of a young woman whose best friend is the prime suspect. Due on Netflix Thursday.