#Middlebury #DVDs
“Adopt a Highway” (NR) – Russ Millings (Ethan Hawke) is an ex-convict just released from a 20-year stint in the California penal system. But this is no hardened criminal. Instead, Millings is the type of institutionalized person who jumps at a brusque tone. He gets a job at a diner washing dishes and attempts to adjust to the bright and shiny new world he’s been released into. And then he finds an abandoned baby, Ella, in the dumpster behind his diner, setting him off on a gentle awakening of innocent hope in a world that can be difficult to navigate.
Renee Zellweger in “Judy” (Pathe Films photo)
“Judy” (PG-13) – Judy Garland comes alive in director Rupert Goold’s biopic starring Renee Zellweger in the title role. It picks up later in the iconic singer’s life, circa 1968, when Garland must take a gig in London, where her star power has not begun to dim, in order to right her rocky finances. This just as she’s attempting to hold on to custody of her children. It also follows her romance with Mickey Deans (Finn Whitrock), who would go on to be her fifth husband, as well as flashbacks to her studio days as a child star. The standout performance is Zellweger, who plays Garland masterfully – perhaps too masterfully, as it’s Zellweger you see, rather than any revelations into Garland.
“The Kill Team” (R) – Specialist Andrew Brigmann (Nat Wolff) is an earnest young American soldier stationed in Afghanistan at the start of the U.S. conflict. Assigned to a tough unit with a charismatic but cruel leader – Sergeant Deeks, played by Alexander Skarsgaard – Brigmann witnesses other team members killing Afghani civilians and other atrocities. As he contemplates blowing the whistle on these violent crimes, it quickly becomes clear that his loyalty is questioned, and his fellow soldiers and sergeant are closing in for the kill. Wolff does a tremendous job of expressing the conflicting forces he’s under. Based on real-life events.
“The Gallows: Act II” (R) – In this supernatural horror from Blumhouse studios, Auna Rue (Ema Horvath), a not-so-successful vlogger, finds a copy of a cursed play in her high school library, from which she performs a monologue with much aplomb. Then she’s approached by an anonymous online fan who directs her to the “Charlie Challenge” – “Charlie” being a cast member who was hanged during the original production with a “challenge” to record yourself performing a passage and document any paranormal activity. While the challenge amps up her followers, she also finds she’s being “followed” by a malevolent Hangman from the beyond. This is a sequel to the 2015 film. It wasn’t any better.
New TV Releases
“Giant Robo” The Complete Series
“Medabots” Season 1
“WWE: Survivor Series 2019”
“Frontline: Zero Tolerance”
© 2020 King Features Synd., Inc.
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