By: Al B.
THE NUDE
IndiePix Films
On DVD/Digital now
A young woman walks the galleries and halls of a museum, admiring and imitating the gestures of the marble sculptures surrounding her. She is a figure art model, who poses nude for finely skilled painters and sculptors. Like a dancer, she exhibits total control over her body. Aware of every muscle and its function, she uses her keen eye and natural instincts to guide her movements, movements that express the mysteries of the human form. Always selective with her assignments, she decides to accept a job with a still photographer, a session that allows her the ability to move more freely than ever before.
GHOST TRAIN
@WellGoUSA
On Digital February 17
Da-kyung is desperate to make it as a YouTube content creator, but her failing channel really needs a boost. Her latest plan: explore an allegedly haunted train station. Her interview with the station master takes her through a horrifying series of chilling tales that may be more true than she could have ever expected.
SHELTER
Black Bear
In theaters now
On a remote coastal island, a reclusive man (Statham) rescues a young girl (Breathnach) from a deadly storm, drawing them both into danger. Forced out of isolation, he must confront his turbulent past while protecting her, sending them on a tense journey of survival and redemption.
ISLANDS
Greenwich Entertainment
In Theaters now
In this twisty thriller, a tennis coach at a tropical resort finds himself at the center of a missing persons mystery. Tom (Sam Riley) teaches tennis during the day and parties at night. When an enigmatic tourist (Stacy Martin) arrives, Tom is unable to shake the feeling he has met her before. Tension and attraction grow, until her husband (Jack Farthing) disappears, and the police suspect Tom.
A POET
1-2 Special
In Select Theaters
Middle-aged and erratic, Oscar is a failed writer who has given up on life. Unemployed and living with family, he wanders the streets of Medellín in a drunken stupor, lamenting the state of literature in his home country, where he has succumbed to the cliché of the tortured artist. However, the opportunity to mentor a young student offers a chance at redemption, if he doesn’t screw it up first.
JIMPA
In Select Theaters February 6
Filmmaker Hannah (Olivia Colman) takes her trans nonbinary teenager Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde) to Amsterdam to visit their gay grandfather, lovingly known as “Jimpa” (John Lithgow). When Frances expresses a desire to stay with Jimpa for a year abroad, Hannah is forced to reconsider her parenting beliefs and the stories she has long told about her family. As Jimpa faces the difficulties of aging as a gay man in a generation that never expected to grow old and Frances grapples with the disappointment of heroes falling short of their ideals, Hannah learns to navigate the differing perspectives of her father and her child.
DEAD MAN’S WIRE
Row K Entertainment
In Theaters now
Based on a true story, the 1977 kidnapping of a prominent banker grips the nation and turns the abductor into an outlaw folk hero. As the media frenzy peaks, the standoff becomes a spectacle of desperation, defiance and blurred justice, which resonates even today.
FLATHEAD
IndiePix Films
On DVD/Digital February 17
Cass Cumerford has borne more than his fair share of setbacks in life. Now in his seventies, he decides to return to his long -forsaken childhood home of Bundaberg, a small city famous for its rum, in Queensland. Through conversations with the strangers he encounters and the friends he makes, Cass gradually reveals the events that have shaped his life – the mistakes he has made, the moments of joy and the grief that weighs him down as he finds himself on a spiritual search for redemption.
RESCUE AT DONJI
@WellGoUSA
On Digital February 24
When the Japanese troopship, Lisbon Maru, is torpedoed off the coast of Dongji Island, the lives of over 300 British soldiers onboard are threatened. Their only hope is a small group of defiant fishermen who will do anything to save them.
PAYING FOR IT
Film Movement
In theaters now
Set in the late 90’s, PAYING FOR IT follows the trials and travails of Chester (Dan Beirne), a cartoonist and Sonny (Emily Lê), a TV host, who are in a long-term, committed, romantic relationship. When Sonny introduces the idea of opening up their relationship, Chester begins sleeping with sex workers, forcing him to face his issues with intimacy and romance in the process.
HEAVEN
Lightyear
On Blu-ray, Digital Platforms & VOD February 17
Though Diane Keaton appeared in over 60 movies and produced nearly a dozen, for her debut as a feature film director, the iconic actress, long preoccupied with the afterlife, chose to investigate what people really think about the great beyond. HEAVEN, the result of her inquiry, is a free-wheeling and off-beat pastiche of interviews, clips from films such as Metropolis, Green Pastures and Stairway to Heaven and songs that explore different ideas of what paradise may have to offer.