#Middlebury #DVDs
“Midsommar” (R) – Troubled college student Dani (Florence Pugh) has had her fair share of personal tragedy. And although her relationship with fellow student Christian (Jack Reynor) is on the rocks, she joins him and his friends for a trip to Sweden to witness a rare midsummer festival in a remote village. The sun overhead is unrelenting, but so is Dani’s growing sense of unease with the villagers’ rituals. The visitors are given psychedelics, which only exacerbate the burgeoning paranoia. As the festival unfolds, the invitees become part of the ceremonies in ways that they hadn’t imagined.
Scene from “Toy Story 4” (Disney/Pixar photo)
“Toy Story 4” (PG) – Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and the gang return in the fourth installment of the Pixar powerhouse series “Toy Story.” Our newly minted kindergartener Bonnie creates a best friend out of craft-pile remnants and a plastic spork, but the new toy emerges with an existential crisis Why am I alive and not garbage? Woody responds by taking “Forky” (Tony Hale) under his wing. But when Bonnie takes the whole gang on a road trip vacation, Forky gets lost and Woody will need to enlist some old friends (the long-lost Bo Peep, voiced by Annie Potts) and new friends (Keanu Reeves as a motorcycle stuntman) to save him. As always, the Toy Story franchise isn’t afraid to tackle the big ideas – mortality, and what makes us who we are – and give it the empathy it deserves.
“Annabelle Comes Home” (R) – Right on time for Halloween party fare, we revisit the incredibly creepy facets of the Conjuring Universe. Experts in the field of demonic possession, Lorraine and Ed (Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson) attempt to once and for all squelch the threat of Annabelle’s porcelain pout by encasing her in sanctified glass in their locked room of other dark objects. But when the parents are away, the kids will play – including a family friend who sneaks into the locked lair and unknowingly releases Annabelle and a whole host of her unholy friends. It’s creepy-scary, but not terribly so.
“Red Joan” (R) – Was Joan Stanley (Judi Dench in present time, Sophie Cookson in flashbacks) a patriot or a traitor? This is the determination to be made when the octogenarian is arrested in a quiet English village. As a young college physics student at Cambridge, she became embroiled in a love affair with a Russian sympathizer who influenced her into later giving up nuclear secrets learned in her job at a hush-hush research facility. The pace is a little slow and tedious, and Dench really isn’t in it much. Based on the real-life story of Melita Norwood.
New TV Releases
“Vikings” Season 5, Vol. 2
“Leave It to Beaver” The Complete Series
“Dragon Ball Super: Part 9”
“A Place to Call Home” Series 6 (Blu-Ray)
“Paw Patrol: Pups Chase a Mystery”
© 2019 King Features Synd., Inc.
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