We’re finally back with another list of the new movie arriving at the library on DVD and Blu-ray! We’ve only been able to highlight movies you can stream on Hoopla and Kanopy for the last few months, but with the library being open again, we have been getting some great new titles on video for you to take home! So let’s get to it!
MARRIAGE STORY
An incisive and compassionate portrait of a marriage breaking up and a family staying together.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“What makes Marriage Story so profound and affecting is its tenderness. Although there are points where one character’s choices puts the other into serious difficulty, Baumbach doesn’t demonize Charlie or Nicole, and never ever asks us to judge either of them.” – Karen Gordon, Original Cin
“This wonderfully sweet, sad and funny film simply delivers more moment-by-moment pleasure than anything else around.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“It’s funny and sad, sometimes within a single scene, and it weaves a plot out of the messy collapse of a shared reality, trying to make music out of disharmony. The melody is full of heartbreak, loss and regret, but the song is too beautiful to be entirely melancholy.” – A.O. Scott, New York Times
Available Formats:
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
CAPONE
Once a ruthless businessman and bootlegger who ruled Chicago with an iron fist, Alfonse Capone (Tom Hardy) was the most infamous and feared gangster of American lore. At the age of 47, following nearly a decade of imprisonment, dementia rots Alfonse’s mind and his past becomes present. Harrowing memories of his violent and brutal origins melt into his waking life. As he spends his final year surrounded by family with the FBI lying in wait, this ailing patriarch struggles to place the memory of the location of millions of dollars he hid away on his property.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Trank’s had to suffer a lot to get to make his art, and Capone is one of the most bravely singular and uncommon films you’ll see this year.” – Scout Tafoya, Consequence of Sound
“Capone is an ambitious, impressive film. But there’s a bittersweetness to it, too.” – Karen Han, Polygon
“Josh Trank’s somber, small-scale drama is not the guns-blazing Al Capone biopic some gangster movie fans might be expecting, but it’s a curiosity that nevertheless demands a look-see for a fresh take on a crime legend whose most notorious exploits have been retold many times already.” – Jim Vejvoda, IGN
Available Formats:
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
SCOOB!
Scoob! reveals how lifelong friends Scooby and Shaggy first met and how they joined with young detectives Fred, Velma and Daphne to form the famous Mystery Inc. Now, with hundreds of cases solved and adventures shared, Scooby and the gang face their biggest, most challenging mystery ever: a plot to unleash the ghost dog Cerberus upon the world. As they race to stop this global “dogpocalypse,” the gang discovers that Scooby has a secret legacy and an epic destiny greater than anyone imagined.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Scoob! is basically a really fun Scooby-Doo episode.” – Mike Ryan, Uproxx
“If you’re able to ignore the franchise’s 50-year history, you’re probably going to have a blast. After all, Scoob! is a fun, colorful, and funny movie that not only sends several great messages to younger viewers, but also proves to be highly entertaining for adults.” – Trace Thurman, Consequence of Sound
“Part origin story of the Mystery, Inc. team (Scooby-Doo and the rest of them, for newbies), part Hanna-Barbera homage, the animated feature is a charming enough diversion that adds to the appeal of the original show.” – Kate Erbland, Indiewire
Available Formats:
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
THE OUTSIDER
The adaptation of Stephen King’s novel about the investigation into the murder of an 11-year-old boy in the Georgia woods by local police detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn) and Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo), a P.I. he brings in when he becomes unsure about the guilt of his prime suspect.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Mendelsohn, in particular, is spectacular… The Outsider feels different. It feels fresh. It feels unique. It feels like a side of King’s Dominion we haven’t really seen on screen before, and that’s good news for Constant Readers and for HBO.” – Michael Roffman, Consequence of Sound
“The Outsider is deluxe King, befitting a tall tale that gains imaginative power by slowly weaving its spooky and supernatural elements into a gripping detective story.” – Matt Roush, TV Guide
“The Outsider’s relative sprawl—10 hours to tackle a nearly 600-page book—affords unusual leeway and breathing room, which Price exploits with intelligence and deft creativity. It also helps that the cast is uniformly excellent.” – Jack Hamilton, Slate
Available Formats:
DVD
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT
Theo Conroy (Kevin Bacon) is a successful middle-aged man whose marriage to his much younger actress wife, Susanna (Amanda Seyfried) is shredding at the seams, frayed by her secretiveness, his jealousy, and the shadow of his past. In an effort to repair their relationship, Theo and Susanna book a vacation at a stunning, remote modern home in the Welsh countryside for themselves and their six-year-old daughter, Ella (Avery Essex). What at first seems like a perfect retreat distorts into a perfect nightmare when Theo’s grasp on reality begins to unravel and he suspects that a sinister force within the house knows more than he or Susanna have revealed, even to each other.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“There’s a throbbing theme at You Should Have Left‘s core about what it means to be a man. But if subtext isn’t your jam, you can kick back, switch off, and enjoy the eerie thrills and jolting scares of this satisfying horror-thriller.” – Kristy Puchko, IGN
“It’s low-key in tone and not a splatter fest, even remotely. You Should Have Left is horror for a thinking audience.” – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
“The movie won’t disturb your dreams, but it grabs hold of you and keeps tugging.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety
Available Formats:
DVD
END OF SENTENCE
After being widowed, Frank Fogle (John Hawkes) reluctantly embarks on a journey to honor his wife’s last wish of spreading her ashes in a remote lake in her native Ireland and a promise of taking his estranged son, Sean (Logan Lerman), along for the trip. Between a disconcerting Irish wake, the surfacing of an old flame, the pick up of a pretty hitchhiker and plenty of unresolved issues, the journey becomes a little more than father and son had bargained for.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Hawkes and Lerman are subtle, naturalistic performers who spin gold out of settings that could easily seem clichéd. You pretty much know that these guys are on the road to understanding, acceptance and reconciliation, but they fill in the details so quietly and surely that the deep ruts put in this road by a thousand other movies barely matter.” – Steve Pond, The Wrap
“Adalsteins demonstrates a mastery of restraint, a rare ability to hold back emotions so that when they come, they pour forth like a broken dam.” – Asher Luberto, The Playlist
“Casually cathartic at times, cathartically casual at others, this affecting little film about fathers and sons knows that some wounds never heal, but it’s never too late to stop the bleeding.” – David Ehrlich, Indiewire
Available Formats:
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
FISHERMAN’S FRIENDS
A fast living, cynical London music executive (Daniel Mays) heads to a remote Cornish village on a stag weekend where he’s pranked by his boss (Noel Clarke) into trying to sign a group of shanty singing fishermen (led by James Purefoy). He becomes the ultimate “fish out of water” as he struggles to gain the respect or enthusiasm of the unlikely boy band and their families (including Tuppence Middleton) who value friendship and community over fame and fortune. As he’s drawn deeper into the traditional way of life he’s forced to reevaluate his own integrity and ultimately question what success really means.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“A faulty delivery device doesn’t diminish that truth or take away from the requisite happily ever after we know is coming. Purefoy, Hayman, Middleton, and Mays are too good to let that happen. They’ve willingly embraced the clichés to honor a story brimming with the kind of hope we need currently and it’s worth following their lead.” – Jared Mobarak, The Film Stage
“Their singing is robustly and winningly performed, and the whole thing is heartfelt. Nice also to see Maggie Steed as the local pub’s landlady. It’s pretty goofy but fun.” – Mike McCahill, The Guardian
“There’s really only one reason to see Fisherman’s Friends, and it’s the singing.” – Alan Ng, Film Threat
Available Formats:
DVD
HIS DARK MATERIALS: SEASON 1
The adaptation of Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy from the BBC and HBO follows Lyra (Dafne Keen) as she searches for her kidnapped friend, makes new friends and discovers secrets people want kept hidden.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“His Dark Materials is worth the trip. This is a beautiful, brooding vision of Pullman’s universe, which retains the mix of childish wonder and darkness that make his books so beguiling to young adults.” – Ed Cumming, The Independent
“In short, this is the adaptation fans have been waiting two decades to see.” – Kaitlin Thomas, TV Guide
“The plot of His Dark Materials is a fusion of ripping adventure yarn and coming-of-age story; neglecting the latter in favor of the former, on the misapprehension that action pleases audiences more than character, is a mistake this production does not make. The expanse of eight episodes makes it possible to do justice to both sweeping quests and intimate conversations.” – Laura Miller, Slate
Available Formats:
DVD
TOM CLANCY’S JACK RYAN: SEASON 2
Jack Ryan investigates possible illegal arms trading in Venezuela in the second season of the action series.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Krasinski elevates the character simply by the fact that we just want to pinch his cheeks. Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan is meat-and-potatoes spy thriller entertainment, and now has its equally accessible character to drive it.” – Tim Surette, TV Guide
“Jack Ryan is still fun, despite being a little bit ridiculous and predictable.” – Tim Goodman, The Hollywood Reporter
“Jack Ryan is fun and forgettable, exciting and predictable.” – Josh Modell, The A.V. Club
Available Formats:
Blu-ray
SWALLOW
On the surface, Hunter (Haley Bennett) appears to have it all. A newly pregnant housewife, she seems content to spend her time tending to an immaculate home and doting on her Ken-doll husband, Richie (Austin Stowell). However, as the pressure to meet her controlling in-laws and husband’s rigid expectations mounts, cracks begin to appear in her carefully created facade. Hunter develops a dangerous habit, and a dark secret from her past seeps out in the form of a disorder called pica – a condition that has her compulsively swallowing inedible, and oftentimes life-threatening, objects.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“A staggering accomplishment in its storytelling, visuals, and performance.” – Lena Wilson, The Playlist
“Denis O’Hare delivers a heart-stopping performance as Hunter’s unlikely father figure, but this is Bennett’s show. She is luminous and her journey from beautiful, broken housewife to clear-headed woman, grabbing handfuls of soil from a parking lot to snack on later, is thrilling. It’s a role you can imagine a young Isabelle Huppert playing, and there’s no higher praise than that.” – Greer McNally, Time Out
“Swallow is difficult viewing at times, but it’s psychologically rich and always feels genuine, even in its gorgeously stylized approach to the interior life of its complex protagonist.” – Kimber Myers, Los Angeles Times
Available Formats:
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
THE HIGH NOTE
Set in the dazzling world of the LA music scene comes the story of Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross), a superstar whose talent, and ego, have reached unbelievable heights, and Maggie (Dakota Johnson), her overworked personal assistant. While stuck running errands, Maggie still aspires to her childhood dream of becoming a music producer. When Grace’s manager (Ice Cube) presents her with a choice that could alter the course of her career, Maggie and Grace come up with a plan that could change their lives forever.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“It feels as if about 50% of this movie accurately captures the music business, while the other half is a fluffy confection of pure fantasy — and that’s a formula that works perfectly in an escapist film such as this.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
“The High Note is a wholly unexpected and utterly enchanting summer movie throwback.” – Oliver Jones, Observer
“Light, fluffy and sugarcoated, The High Note feels like a throwback to another time when studios produced movies with the sole purpose of putting a little spring in viewer’s step.” – Amy Amatangelo, Paste
Available Formats (8/11):
Blu-ray
HOW TO BUILD A GIRL
Johana Morrigan (Beanie Feldstein) is a bright, quirky, 16-year-old who uses her colorful imagination to regularly escape her humdrum life in Wolverhampton and live out her creative fantasies. Desperate to break free from the overcrowded flat she shares with her four brothers and eccentric parents, she submits an earnestly penned and off-beat music review to a group of self-important indie rock critics at a weekly magazine. Despite being brushed off initially, Johana clamors to the top of the 90s rock music scene by reinventing herself as Dolly Wilde – a venerable, impossible-to-please music critic with an insatiable lust for fame, fortune, and men. It isn’t long before the rapid pace at which Johana’s life is changing becomes overwhelming and she runs face-first into a devastatingly real, existential crisis: Is this the type of girl she wants to become? Or does she need to start over and build again from the ground up?
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Based on Caitlin Moran’s semibiographical novel, How to Build A Girl is a wickedly funny, sweet and vibrantly told coming-of-age story that feels like a teen classic in the making.” – Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press
“What a thoroughly likeable and funny film.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“As fun as a night in the mosh pit with your best mate… Directed by Coky Giedroyc with a fizzy vibrancy and supercharged by Feldstein’s intense charisma, this crowd-pleasing comedy has smart things to say about class, sex and female identity.” – Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter
Available Formats (8/11):
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?
The new members of The Midnight Society tell the tale of the Carnival of Doom in this three-part miniseries revival of the long-running horror anthology series.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Are You Afraid of the Dark? does a few difficult things in just a single episode… But most importantly, it stands out as a show that is just as enjoyable for the young horror geeks as the nostalgic horror geeks looking back on where they came from.” – Jacob Oller, Paste
Available Formats (8/11):
DVD
SOMETIMES ALWAYS NEVER
Alan is a stylish tailor with moves as sharp as his suits. But he’s spent years searching tirelessly for his missing son, Michael, who stormed out over a game of Scrabble. With a body to identify and his family torn apart, Alan must repair the relationship with his youngest son and identify an online player who he thinks could be Michael, so he can finally move on and reunite his family.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“There’s a terrific ensemble — including Ella-Grace Gregoire as a girl Jack has a crush on — but it’s Nighy who will have you enthralled. He delivers a subtle, nuanced performance that allows the actor to shine while in full support of his costars.” – Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times
“This film is a distinct, articulate pleasure.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“Director Carl Hunter infuses Sometimes Always Never with creative visual touches, whether he’s using graphics to illustrate certain Scrabble words, or shooting a poignant scene through a patterned glass door, so we feel the emotions of the character in question just through the movement of his silhouette.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
Available Formats (8/18):
DVD
CURSED FILMS: SEASON 1
The documentary series directed and written by Jay Cheel looks at the problems behind the making of such films as Poltergeist, The Exorcist, The Omen, The Crow, and Twilight Zone: The Movie.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Cursed Films isn’t some cheapo scare tactic, focusing just as much on human stories and on-set details as it does the rumors of curses and bad karma around these movies. The result is more than just a fun trivia piece but odes to the power of each of these movies, both cursed and merely mortal.” – Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
“Each [episode] manages a careful balance between vividly recounting lurid details, instilling the appropriate gravitas real-world tragedies demand, and casting a skeptical (and yet at times empathetic) eye toward the magical thinking that construes coincidences into a ‘curse.'” – Melissa Leon, Daily Beast
Available Formats (8/18):
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
PREVENGE
Widow Ruth is seven months pregnant when, believing herself to be guided by her unborn baby, she embarks on a homicidal rampage, dispatching anyone who stands in her way.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Prevenge is a brilliantly conceived meditation on prepartum anxiety and extreme grief.” – Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
“A pitch-black, blood-soaked comedy and phenomenal first feature by Alice Lowe, who also stars as Ruth, the pregnant heroine.” – Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
“Serving as an allegory on post- and antenatal depression, Prevenge is a kaleidoscope of violence and humour, a tense tale that wickedly extracts laughs through the banality of its suburban setting.” – Patrick Smith, The Telegraph
Available Formats (8/18):
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND
Scott (Pete Davidson) has been a case of arrested development ever since his firefighter father died when he was seven. He’s now reached his mid-20s having achieved little, chasing a dream of becoming a tattoo artist that seems far out of reach. As his ambitious younger sister (Maude Apatow) heads off to college, Scott is still living with his exhausted ER nurse mother (Marisa Tomei) and spends his days smoking weed, hanging with the guys—Oscar (Ricky Velez), Igor (Moises Arias) and Richie (Lou Wilson)—and secretly hooking up with his childhood friend Kelsey (Bel Powley). But when his mother starts dating a loudmouth firefighter named Ray (Bill Burr), it sets off a chain of events that will force Scott to grapple with his grief and take his first tentative steps toward moving forward in life.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The final shot of Apatow’s movie is the iconic Staten Island Ferry, bringing to mind Working Girl, Manhattan and countless other New York City classics. The King of Staten Island joins that list.” – Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post
“The laughs in The King of Staten Island are earned, and they are frequent — a frequency that is no small accomplishment, given the pain and loss at the film’s center.” – Don Aucoin, Boston Globe
“Davidson delivers a fully realized, nuanced performance, tackling dark comedy and raw drama with equal aplomb.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
Available Formats (8/25):
Blu-ray
THE TRIP TO GREECE
When Odysseus left Troy it took him ten years to get back to his home in Ithaca. Steve and Rob have only six days on their own personal odyssey in The Trip to Greece. On the way they argue about tragedy and comedy, astronomy and biology, myth, history, democracy and the meaning of life! Featuring locations such as: Temple of Apollo at Delphi, the Ancient Agora of Athens, the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, the unique island of Hydra, the Caves of Diros, Nestor’s Palace, Niokastro Fortress in Pylos, and Ancient Stagira, as well as a lot of shooting in restaurants and hotels in Athens, Hydra, Lesvos, Chalkidiki, Pelion, Kavala, and at the Peloponnese.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Coogan and Brydon might scoff at such sentimentality, but over the course of the Trip films, they’ve shown us that world, at its most aspirationally easeful and epicurean. Even more brilliantly — and affectingly — they’ve constructed a world between them, an airy, reality-adjacent universe conjured in billowing clouds of witticisms, idle observations, passive-aggressive feints and silent, solitary reflections. Did they ever really live there? Maybe not. But it’s been a delightful place to visit.” – Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
“It’s a simple recipe and remarkably effective.” – Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times
“The Trip to Greece reminds us that anyone who gets to take a picturesque holiday with good food and friends should savor every last second of it. Because it won’t last forever. And it could all end when you least expect it.” – Matt Singer, Screen Crush
Available Formats (8/25):
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY
Irresistibly charismatic art critic James Figueras (Claes Bang) hooks up with provocative and alluring American, Berenice Hollis (Elizabeth Debicki). He’s a classic anti-hero in the making with a charm that masks his ambition, whilst she’s an innocent touring Europe, enjoying the freedom of being whoever she wishes. The new lovers travel to the lavish and opulent Lake Como estate of powerful art collector, Joseph Cassidy. Their host reveals he is the patron of Jerome Debney the reclusive J.D. Salinger of the art world, and he has a simple request: for James to steal a Debney masterpiece from the artist’s studio, whatever the cost.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“In short, this is fundamentally a movie of surface pleasures, placing gorgeous actors in an equally stunning location and letting them parry with sharp words and lithe, angular bodies.” – Mike D’Angelo, The A.V. Club
“The film allows that we are complicit in privilege for our fascination and envy.” – Chuck Bowen, Slant
“The international cast manage to acquit themselves fine enough, with Jagger in particular having a ball as an energetic rapscallion.” – Barry Hertz, The Globe and Mail
Available Formats (8/25):
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack
INFAMOUS
Living in a small Florida town and working at a diner was never Arielle’s (Bella Thorne) dream life. She’s always wanted more. Fame. Popularity. Admiration. When she falls for a recently paroled young criminal named Dean, she drags him back into a life of danger, learning that posting their criminal exploits on social media is an easy way to viral fame. Obsessed with their rising number of followers, they embark on a dangerous adventure together that leads to robbery, cop chases and even murder. Heading to Hollywood, the City of Stars, they will realize what it takes to become famous and have to decide if this dangerous lifestyle is really worth it.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Infamous has a good balance of fun thrills and compelling drama that make for an entertaining watch.” – Molly Freeman, Screen Rant
“Caldwell’s Infamous, at turns nihilistic and uncomfortably believable, may be built on a thin premise — what if its star-crossed pair of criminal lovers was, as the kids say, doing it for the ‘gram? — but an appropriately nutso performance from its star and some sharp writing keep it from feeling as disposable as its worldview.” – Kate Erbland, Indiewire
“If you’re going to check out the social media Bonnie and Clyde riff Infamous, do it for Bella Thorne’s performance. From the get-go she has the classically great presence of someone like Sandra Bullock, but with her own scraggly edge.” – Nick Allen, RogerEbert.com
Available Formats (8/25):
DVD
NOTE: Due to shipping the potential for shipping delays due to COVID-19, some titles may not be available immediately upon their release date and available formats are subject to change.
-
-
-
-
-