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Trailer links for these movies https://www.youtube.com/ 7/7 BLOOD AND MONEY THRILLER NO THEATRICAL YET R DVD AND BLU RAY Tom Berenger (SNIPER, TRAINING DAY, BREAKING POINT, BAD COUNTRY, SNIPER: ULTIMATE KILL) Set in the northern woods of Maine, Blood and Money is as ornery as its lead, a virtually homeless vet guilt-stricken over his past. As played by the redoubtable Tom Berenger, Jim Reed is a loner relentlessly chewing over his mistakes, suspicious of everyone, reluctant to reach out. That is until he stumbles across a duffel filled with cash. It’s a classic film noir premise, but instead of dark streets, director and cinematographer John Barr lets it unfold in the blindingly white winter woods of northern Maine. Barr focuses at first on non-noir elements, like Reed’s day-to-day routines. Crime, with its attendant moral issues, slips in gradually. The Maine shown in Blood and Money has its moments of bucolic beauty. But mostly viewers see the hardscrabble poverty of worn- out small towns: bars, diners, AA meetings in American Legion halls, shopping mall parking lots, gas station convenience stores. Even in the woods, Blood and Money is about grit and grime. Logs piled up in muddy yards, business trailers filled with maps and paperwork, the occasional ranger-staffed checkpoint at the gate to private property. It’s an elemental world where survival is uncertain, and it’s captured efficiently by no-nonsense camerawork. Barr’s screenplay, co-written with Mike McGrale and Alan Petherick, is elemental as well. Berenger fleshes out his role, but the other characters are barely sketched in, apart from Kristen Hager’s turn as Debbie, a diner waitress. In terms of plot, Blood and Money builds from No Country for Old Men , asking how far Reed would go to hold onto an unexpected fortune. This is a micro-budget movie (although it doesn’t look skimpy), so Reed’s choices are a little too limited: fight the bad guys or give in. Because he is a veteran and an experienced hunter, Reed has an advantage over the villains. The plot gradually strips him of his weapons, forcing him to rely on his knowledge of the woods. Being lost on an unmarked logging road can be extremely disorienting; add winter conditions, and staying alive becomes a real problem. Unfortunately, the budget forces the filmmakers here to rely on a few locations and basic stunts. Will rent as well as UNDERWATERM THE TURNING, THE GENTLEMEN, and RAMBO: LAST BLOOD. 7/7 HOPE GAP DRAMA NOT IN THEATERS YET PG-13 100 MINUTES DVD AND A BLU RAY Annette Benning (AMERICAN PRESIDENT, THE NEGOTIATOR, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, BEING JULIA, BUGSY, POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE) This statement might seem unkind and ungenerous, but there is only one person to blame for the breakdown of the marriage briefly portrayed in Hope Gap . That marriage is basically finished by the time writer/director William Nicholson's story starts, and by the end of the first act, it is finished—at least unofficially. Getting the papers signed to make it official is an entirely different ordeal, one of many for the two parties and their adult son, who gets caught in the middle of the mess. The partner who's mostly, if not entirely, to blame is the wife, ironically named Grace and played by Annette Bening. She's a tough woman with whom to sympathize, because everything is about her. She expects her husband to make a fresh cup of tea for her, even though he sees and knows that she already has a cup sitting next to her. Grace can't finish a whole cup for reasons she can't really explain, although she suspects it's because she doesn't like endings. Whether or not that's true about tea specifically, it's definitely true in general. Grace treats her husband's life—his wants, his needs, his job, his hobbies—only as an extension of her own. She asks him about his day at work, teaching history at a local secondary school, but it comes across as a formality of sorts. What she really wants, in fact, is for him to ask her about her day. As for his feelings, Grace wants her husband to talk to her openly, but just before he drops the bomb that he's planning to leave her, it's clear that Grace has a set of certain answers—specific things she wants him to say her, about how much he loves and adores her—in mind. The husband might not be open about his feelings, but at least he's not dishonest. The night before he reveals his intentions, Grace slaps him for not saying what she wants to hear. The husband, named Edward and played by Bill Nighy, is an introvert—teaching in a calm and humorless manner, walking into the house and making his tea in silence, going directly to his computer afterwards to make his daily edits to an online encyclopedia. Grace thinks this manner and such behavior denote an inherent unhappiness with things—mainly her, because that's how she sees life, as well as everyone and everything in it. This will rent as well as DARK WATERS, GOOD LIAR and LIGHTHOUSE. 7/7 LOST HUSBAND DRAMA BEFORE THE THEATERS PG-13 119 MINUTES DVD Josh Duhamel (LOVE SIMON, TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST NIGHT, CHIPS, THE SHOW, WHEN IN ROME, SCENIC ROUTE) Libby (Leslie Bibb) has left the big city for a new life, bringing her two kids, Abby (Callie Hope Haverda) and Tank (Roxton Garcia), to live with her Aunt Jean (Nora Dunn) for a period of time. Enjoying a busy life on a working farm, Jean is happy to be reunited with her estranged niece, hoping the woman will transition into a caretaker role for the property, handed over to farm manager James (Josh Duhamel) for proper training. Overwhelmed by such responsibility, Libby fights for clarity, still working through issues concerning the loss of her husband, also dealing with condemnation from Marsha (Sharon Lawrence), her difficult, dismissive mother. Getting used to her new reality, Libby finds herself dealing with feelings for James, a handsome man who provides a cynical look at life, and she makes a connection to Sunshine (Herizen F. Guardioa), an aspiring medium who supplies mystical contact to her past. Libby’s escape from Marsha opens “The Lost Husband,” inspiring the urban mom to hit the road, traveling to small town America to spent time with Aunt Jean, who happily offers shelter but demands participation in the farm chores, gifting her niece a chance to take over the business now that she’s winding down her responsibilities. Libby is introduced to James, a rugged man who’s been minding the property while dealing with his own issues, unsure if the city slicker has what it takes. The opening act of “The Lost Husband” threatens to break out into a sitcom, following Libby as she’s exposed to the daily labor of the farm, including the milking of goats, requiring her to get up close and personal with animals she’s never encountered before. Thankfully, Wight dodges some clichés here, turning Libby into a character who’s admittedly fatigued by it all, but willing to learn the system, trying to be there for Jean while finding chemistry with James, who’s an impatient teacher. This will rent as well as RICHARD JEWEL, JUST MERCY, UNCUT GEMS, and LIGHTHOUSE. 7/7 OTHER LAMB THRILLER NOT IN THEATERS YET UNRATED 97 MINUTES DVD AND BLU RAY Michiel Huisman (TV—GAME OF THRONES, THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT, HARLEY AND THE DAVIDSONS, ORPHAN BLACK) Living in a remote rural area, Selah (Raffey Cassidy) has never known a life outside the self-sufficient community of which she is a member: all women, except for their leader, Shepherd (Michiel Huisman). Each in Shepherd’s ‘flock’ is either his wife or a daughter, and Selah, devoted in her faith, was born into this sect. Shepherd is their guardian and teacher, and has helped ‘cleanse’ them from the rot of the outside world. Of his children, he has taken a particular shine to the strong-willed Selah. Law enforcement forces the group to vacate the deep woodland land where they have lived for years. Determined to find a new Eden further inland, Shepherd leads the women, one heavily pregnant, on an arduous trek. Along the way, Selah experiences a crisis of faith and horrific, gory visions, while the onset of puberty brings its own set of complications, not least the advances of her father who’s looking to Selah’s promotion from the status of daughter to that of a wife – the film colour-codes the two ranks with red and blue clothing. Speaking of the wives, Selah’s beliefs are also called into question with her interactions with Sarah (Denise Gough), a scarred older member described as a ‘broken thing’ by Shepherd. With Sarah, there’s a story of a regretful woman who’s long lived with the consequences of implied terrible acts in this cult but unable to see a safe means of emancipation. An older cult veteran POV for a tale of doubt in the face of toxic male leadership is a rarer prospect – while The Other Lamb still has piercing scenes, its story path with Selah is a lot more familiar. This will rent as well as THE TURNING, UNDERWATER, THE GRUDGE, COUNTDOWN and OVERCOMER. 7/7 SORRY WE MISSED YOU DRAMA COMING TO THEATERS DVD Kris Hitchen (THICK AS THIEVES, CORONATION STREET, THE NAVIGATORS) It’s difficult to imagine a more socially engaged or powerful condemnation of the exploitative gig economy than Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You , which places the viewer on the ground with an English family trudging through the muck left behind by the erosion of workers’ rights in Europe.

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