Get swept away by ‘Wind River’
S till haunted by the murder of his daughter years earlier, a Wyoming game tracker (Jeremy Renner) teams up with a rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) to solve the slaying of a local girl on a remote Native American reservation.
Boasting expert direction by Taylor Sheridan (“Hell or High Water”) and restrained performances by its cast, “Wind River” captures what happens when the greediness of bad men meets the resilience of folks used to living in the “frozen hell” of rural Wyoming. It’s one of the year’s best. On Amazon, Google, iTunes and Vudu
Also New on VOD and Streaming
The Limehouse Golem: Step right up for a potent Victorian chiller about a Scotland Yard detective (Bill Nighy) who, in the midst of trying to track down the titular serial killer, comes to believe that a woman (Olivia Cooke) on trial for murder is innocent of her crimes. Of course, the two cases wind up dovetailing but the movie does a good job of keeping you guessing about everyone’s true nature. Even though it’s a busy film, with lots of characters, flashbacks and stage performances, it manages to keep you on the edge of your seat. On Amazon, Google, iTunes and Vudu The Shadow Man: Haunted by nightmares in which she’s menaced by a man wearing a fedora, a photographer (Sarah Jurgens) begins to descend into a deep depression. It doesn’t help that her sleazy lawyer husband (Nick Bailie) recently cheated on her or that the members of her group therapy session seem indifferent to her plight. “The Shadow Man” scores points for spending as much time developing its central characters as generating suspense but, in the end, this “Nightmare on Elm Street” knockoff never makes much sense. On Amazon, Google, iTunes and Vudu Indiscretion: Imagine “Fatal Attraction” with a sex change and a political twist and you’ll have a good idea of what to except from this guilty-pleasure Lifetime thriller. Mira Sorvino stars as the wife of a would-be senator (Cary Elwes) who indulges in a one-night stand with an artist (Christopher Backus, Sorvino’s real-life husband) only to discover that Backus is a psycho. For a film with plenty of familiar elements, director John Stewart Miller keeps the action moving along at a good clip while managing to spring surprises you won’t see coming. It’s trashy but fun. On Amazon, Google, iTunes and Vudu A Date For Mad Mary: Coming-of-age stories don’t come any more moving than this stunner about a troubled teenager (Seana Kerslake) who, fresh out of prison, must find a date for her best mate Char’s (Charleigh Bailey) wedding. As she searches for a bloke to accompany her, she winds up falling for a lesbian wedding photographer (Tara Lee). While the romance is portrayed beautifully, the movie is mostly about Mary’s realization that her life – and friendship with Char – is changing. From start to finish, “Mary” works like a charm. On Amazon, Google, iTunes and Vudu Mudbound: Set in the rural American South during World War II, this drama unreels the saga of two families pitted against one another yet bound together by the shared farmland of the Mississippi Delta. The McAllans (Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke) are unprepared for the harsh demands of farming. Meanwhile, Hap and Florence Jackson (Rob Morgan, Mary J. Blige) are sharecroppers who have worked the land for generations. The war winds up changing both families’ plans as their returning loved ones (Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell) forge a fast but uneasy friendship that challenges the brutal realities of the Jim Crow South in which they live. On Netflix.
For The Kids
Albert: From the folks at Nickelodeon comes an original holiday movie about a tiny evergreen with dreams of becoming the biggest Christmas tree in the world. You’ll be rooting for Albert as he and his friends deliver one merry miracle after another. On Amazon, Google, iTunes and Vudu PJ Masks - Hello Christmas: Who can resist Catboy, Owlette and Gekko as they go on their nighttime missions to save the world? In the latest batch of six episodes, the pals must stop Luna Girl from sucking Christmas presents out of chimneys and prevent Romeo from icing up the whole city and turning it into a giant rink. On Amazon, Google, iTunes and Vudu
Teen Titles
Overdrive: As “Fast and Furious” knockoffs go, this heist adventure manages to get its motor running with some well-staged action scenes. But the shallow characters (Scott Eastwood, Freddie Thorp, Ana DeArmas) never get out of first gear. Eastwood and Thorp play car-thieving brothers who are hired by one car-obsessed gangster to steal from another car-obsessed gangster. The police get involved too and soon there’s lots of vehicular mayhem on the windy roads of the South of France. It’s slight but pretty. On Amazon, Google, iTunes and Vudu Patti Cake$: In this scrappy charmer of a drama, twentysomething rapper Patti Dombrowski (Danielle MacDonald) longs to leave New Jersey behind for a music career in Manhattan but strip-mall suburbia defines her. Patti is a big-hearted wordsmith who can deliver genius rhymes, carry on a romance with a fellow musician and work two jobs to support her mom (Bridget Everett) and grandma (Cathy Moriarty). “Patti Cake$” tells a familiar story of longing but it does it with a lot of heart. On Amazon, Google, iTunes and Vudu