Movies: What’s new on demand, streaming
New movies on demand
“The Painted Bird”: Jerzy Kosinski’s semi-autobiographical novel about a boy growing up in Eastern Europe at the end of World War II gets a new, lush, black-and-white telling in this new movie by Czech filmmaker Vaclav Marhoul. Available on demand and digital rental Friday.
“Dirt Music”: Kelly Macdonald plays a woman in a loveless relationship in Western Australia who falls for a young poacher. David Wenham and Garrett Hedlund co-star in this film festival drama set in Western Australia. Available starting Friday.
“The Sunlit Night”: After a bitter breakup, an American painter takes a job as an apprentice to an artist in rural Norway, where lots of painting, and a Viking funeral, ensue. Jenny Slate, Alex Sharp, Fridtjov Saheim, Gillian Anderson and Zach Galifianakis star in this indie comedy. Available starting Friday.
“Easy Does It”: A pair of criminal wannabes turn a treasure hunt into a crime spree as they travel across the American South of the 1970s in this new dark comedy, starring Ben Matheny, Bryan Batt, Linda Hamilton, Dwight Henry and John Goodman. Available starting Friday.
“Guest Artist”: A young man (Thomas Macias) gets to meet his hero, a hard-drinking, past-his-prime playwright (Jeff Daniels), when the latter is sent to a Michigan town to make a special appearance. Actor-turned-director Timothy
Busfield directed this indie drama, filmed in Daniels’ adopted hometown of Chelsea, Michigan. Available starting Tuesday.
“Survive the Night”: A pair of crooks, one of them badly injured in a shootout, take hostage a doctor and his family, including the doctor’s ailing retired-sheriff father. Chad Michael Murray and Bruce Willis star. Available starting Tuesday.
“Target: Philadelphia”: This new documentary takes a hard look at the 1985 MOVE bombing, when a heavily militarized Philadelphia police ended a standoff with a Black liberation group by dropping a bomb on their townhouse, killing 11 people, five of them children, and torching a neighborhood. Available starting Tuesday.
“The Wild Goose Lake”: A gangster on the run after killing a cop cooks up a deal to turn himself in to help out his wife in this stylish Chinese crime drama. Available starting Tuesday.
“The Room”: A couple buy a house that turns out to have a mysterious room that grants wishes. Be careful what you wish for. Available starting Tuesday.
Sofa Cinema
Milwaukee Film’s online movie portal Sofa Cinema gives you a window through which you can rent new and recent independent movies, the movies that the nonprofit outfit would have been showing at the Oriental Theatre if the theater had been shut down thanks to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Part of the proceeds go to Milwaukee Film. See the website for details: New releases beginning Friday include:
“We Are Little Zombies”: Four young orphans, left to fend for themselves after their parents are actually turned to dust, start a band and set out to conquer the world in this darkly giddy
Japanese comedy from writer-director Makoto Nagahisa.
New movies on streaming
“We Are Freestyle Love Supreme”: For anyone who didn’t get enough of Lin-Manuel Miranda from the live-capture of “Hamilton,” there is this documentary about the improvising hiphop group that he and others founded before Miranda created “In the Heights” or “Hamilton.” After the film’s June debut was postponed in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protests, it lands on Hulu on Friday.
“Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love”: Nick Broomfield’s latest music documentary explores the relationship between beloved singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen and his muse, Marianne Ihlen. Available on Hulu and Amazon Prime starting Sunday.
“The Assistant”: Julia Garner gives one of the best-reviewed performances of the year in this drama about an assistant to a powerful executive who, she begins to realize, is a sexual harasser and abuser who’s being enabled by his underlings. Available on Hulu starting Monday.
“The Last Dance”: If you’re one of the (apparently) few people who missed ESPN’s lengthy complex valentine to baseball demigod Michael Jordan, here’s another chance — it’s available on Netflix starting Sunday.
“Harriet”: Cynthia Erivo earned two Oscar nominations — best actress and original song, for “Stand Up” — for this sterling biopic of Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman. It joins HBO Max Saturday.