#Middlebury #DVDs
“Little” (PG-13) – High-tech firm CEO Jordan Sanders (Regina Hall) is a boss – but not the nice kind. In fact, she’s a terrible human and a bully. She has a run-in with a kid magician who wishes that Jordan was a kid too (so, she could get the comeuppance she deserves) and lo and behold, she wakes up 13 years old (played by Marsai Martin). Her overburdened assistant April (Issa Rae) is left to hold down the company while the newly teen Jordan takes a heaping helping of humility at middle school – but not before parading around like an absolute tyrant. Although there are supposed to be some lessons here, instead there are mom jokes and girl gags that are pretty cute.
Jete Lawrence in “Pet Sematary” (Kerry Hayes/Paramount Pictures photo)
“Pet Sematary” (R) – Everything old is new again as directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer rehash Stephen King’s 1983 novel about occult influences in the graveyard. Dr. Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) and family relocate to bucolic Maine. After Creed suffers a surprisingly real, prophetic dream, the family cat dies and neighbor Jud Crandall (John Lithgow) takes Creed to a special burial ground to inter it under the watchful eye of the Wendigo. When the cat pops back up the next day, events begin to spiral out of control, including the death and regeneration of Creed’s young daughter. But as they say in the movie (and the other movie, and the book), sometimes, dead is better. Overall, the pace is terribly slow, and while there are some creepy visuals, it’s more jump scare than true terror.
“High Life” (R) – A lone traveler through space (Robert Pattinson) raises a child while contemplating the events that led to her birth and the prospect of her future as they approach a black hole. Circa-not-too-distant future, a group of death row prisoners are transported on a spacecraft on an energy-finding mission, alongside a disturbing doctor/warden (Juliette Binoche) with her own ulterior motive: architect procreation in space. Although visually beautiful in its contrast of clinical, mechanical space and warm, lush memories of earth, I felt it was unnecessarily weird and too graphically sexual. Binoche and Pattinson turn in strong performances, as does Andre Benjamin.
“The Professor” (R) – Johnny Depp is a university professor who, after being given a death-sentence diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer, decides to rachet up the rakishness and go full crazy until the bitter end – this includes drugs, lechery, typical bad boy behavior, saying exactly what he thinks, and you get the drift. Although he’s taken some knocks for his foppish hairstyle and overdone look in this film, I thought he looked good. But you can only take Level 10 Depp in small doses, and unfortunately this is about 40 minutes too long.
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© 2019 King Features Synd., Inc.
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