By: Al B.
POPPY
IndiePix Films
On VOD & Now
Nineteen-year-old Poppy Simpson is an irrepressible young woman with Down Syndrome and an assumption she should get to do what everyone else does – have a job, drive a car, get married. Holding her back is Dave, her older brother and only family since the death of their parents. Poppy and Dave work together in their inherited car repair business, and it’s clear Poppy has mechanical smarts. But her super-protective brother doesn’t think she’s up to getting her driver’s license or the apprenticeship she was promised by their late father. Quietly rebellious, Poppy secretly begins to teach herself to drive. And it’s not until she teams up with an old school friend who needs his car fixed in time to enter the local burnout competition that her plans progress.
RANDY & THE MOB
Lightyear
Available on Blu-ray April 7
Good ol’ boy Randy Pearson is constantly in over his head, and. Now the IRS has come calling. Already in debt go gangsters, he turns. To his long-suffering wife and gay twin brother for help. Fortunately, the Mob sends in their fixer, Tino Armani, a mysterious modern day prophet with a knack for high fashion, Italian cooking and making money appear and then disappear.
731
@WellGoUSA
On Digital April 7
731, a horrific tale of human corruption and depravity set inside the notorious Japanese Imperial Army Unit 731. Prisoners are kept and used for gruesome and torturous experimentation for the purpose of developing bacterial and chemical weapons. Wang is a prisoner assigned as an interpreter for his fellow captives; through his eyes, we see this harrowing story of suffering and survival.
AMERICAN SOLITAIRE
Complexity Pictures
In Theaters April 17
Slinger came home from war. But the battle isn’t over. AMERICAN SOLITAIRE stars Joshua Close as a veteran unraveling in the aftermath of combat, adrift in a country that celebrates guns but has little language for the damage they leave behind. Written and directed by Aaron Davidman, the film is a raw, urgent portrait of one man’s journey back to himself.
YOUNGBLOOD
@WellGoUSA Entertainment
In Theaters Now
Dean Youngblood was raised by his father, Blane, on a diet of toughness and hockey. When Dean is invited to join the Hamilton Mustangs, he travels to Canada from Detroit where his skill commands respect and his arrogance earns him fast enemies. Coach Chadwick, resentful of being saddled with such a toxic player, keeps Dean benched game after game. Dean’s frustration builds, culminating in a violent outburst involving rival goon Carl Racki that costs the Mustangs a significant win.
VAMPIRES OF THE VELVET LOUNGE
Strant Releasing
In Theaters Now
Deep in the American South, a back alley absinthe bar harbors a deadly secret: Countess Elizabeth Báthory and her glamorous coven of vampires keep their killer instincts sharp by preying on lonely singles through dating apps, seducing and slaughtering to preserve their youth. But when Elizabeth swipes right on the wrong profiles—a cunning undercover vampire hunter and a band of emotionally stunted bros—the hunt spirals into hilariously horrifying chaos. Blood flies, fangs pierce flesh, and the bar erupts into a glitter-soaked, green fairy-winged, fang-filled fever dream of grindhouse gore, terrible decisions, and fashionably fatal carnage.
SCARED TO DEATH
Atlas Distribution
In Theaters Now
An aspiring director decides to film a real séance at an old haunted house that was once a children’s shelter. However, his cast and crew soon become trapped inside and tormented by the spirits of the children — and something far worse.
PROTECTOR
Magenta Light Studios
In Theaters Now
Nikki, a veteran war hero who believed she had left her violent past behind, is thrust back into the criminal underworld when her daughter is abducted by a trafficking ring. Using the military skills she once tried to suppress, she navigates a dangerous network of criminals while becoming a target of both the police and the army in a desperate mission to save her child.
THE AI DOC: OR HOW I BECAME AN APOCALOPTIMIST
Focus Features a Comcast Company
In Theaters Now
a father-to-be tries to figure out what is happening with all this AI insanity. The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is a hand-made, eye-opening documentary about the most powerful technology humanity has ever created… and what’s at stake if we get it wrong.
KOKUHO
Gkids
In Theaters Now
Nagasaki, 1964 – After the death of his father, the leader of a yakuza gang, 14-year-old Kikuo is taken under the wing of a famous Kabuki actor. Alongside Shunsuke, the actor’s only son, he decides to dedicate himself to this traditional form of theatre. For decades, the two young men grow and evolve together – from acting school to the grandest stages – amid scandals and glory, brotherhood and betrayals… one of them will become the greatest Japanese master of the art of kabuki.