#Middlebury #DVDs
“Escape Room” (R) – Six players accept an uninvited mental challenge with a hefty payoff: survive an enhanced escape room and win a million dollars. When the puzzles become perilous – the first room heats up like an oven until it bursts into flames – the strangers must combine wits and learn from past experiences in order to literally escape with their lives. And the lives to be saved are diverse, from an Iraq War veteran (Deborah Ann Woll) to an introverted physics student (Taylor Russell) to a supercilious stockbroker (Jay Ellis). It’s moderately suspenseful young adult horror, and although there are plot points that aren’t hard to work out, I couldn’t escape my own enjoyment.
Nicole Kidman in “Destroyer” (Annapurna Pictures photo)
“Destroyer” (R) – Nicole Kidman goes deep undercover – so deep that there are times you can barely identify the actress portraying LAPD detective Erin Bell. As a young cop, Bell takes a surreptitious role in a crime gang with her partner Chris (Sebastian Stan). They end up party to a botched bank robbery, and Chris is killed by gang leader Silas (Toby Kebbell), who disappears. Years later, Silas’ re-emergence is discovered when a tainted bill is left behind at a murder scene. This brings Bell out full force, tracking him down for retribution and justice, gang member to gang member, with a treacherous bloodlust and moral ambiguity to match.
“The Gospel According to Andre” (PG-13) – As a boy in North Carolina, Andre Leon Talley discovered luxury in not only the issues of Vogue magazine he found in the library, but also in the smart and well-crafted clothes provided by his grandmother, a cleaning lady at Duke University. Raised in the segregated South, but never accepting its limits, he rose to a life of influence in the New York fashion world, working at the top echelons of Vogue by his mid-30s. Told through interviews and archival footage, with a loving patina of honesty from the man himself.
“Hal” (NR) – He operated in the same universe as other pantheon directors of the 1970s, a decade of groundbreaking film direction, but you don’t generally hear the name Hal Ashby in a list of greats. Director Amy Scott means to change that by documenting the significant contributions of one of the most respected and rebellious editors and directors of his time. From his editing Oscar for “In the Heat of the Night” to direction of iconic, era-defining works such as “Shampoo,” “Harold and Maude” and “Being There,” Hal is brought into focus by an exhaustive list of actors, Hollywood filmmakers and friends.
New TV Releases
“A Place to Call Home” Season 6
“Shameless” Season 9
“Margaret: The Rebel Princess”
© 2019 King Features Synd., Inc.
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