Home Team (Streaming on Netflix Jan. 28)
In 2012, New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton (Kevin James), should have been riding high from his recent Super Bowl win. Instead, he was suspended for the season after it came to light that his team paid bounties for injuring players on other teams. In actuality, the team’s players reportedly created the fund, but for failing to stop it, Payton received a one-year suspension from the NFL. With so much free time and a very specific skill set, Payton coached his 12-year-old son’s Pop Warner team in a bid to stop their losing streak (a much harder thing to do than it seems). In this comic drama, James spouts off, and is spouted off at, by kids and parents alike. Then again, kids’ sports are getting so serious that it takes the fun out of it. (Lisa Miller)
Morbius (Theatrical Release Jan. 28)
Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) is a biochemist afflicted with a rare blood disease. In his effort to find a cure, Morbius infects himself with a form of vampirism. He acquires a myriad of super-powers, and is alive rather than undead. However, his monstrous alter-ego suffers from an insatiable craving for human blood. Part vigilante, part villain, Morbius is hunted by FBI Agent Simon Stroud (Tyrese Gibson). The agent sports a high-tech weapons-grade arm and is likely to become a fixture since Gibson signed on to play the character in three films. The PG-13 Marvel comic book adaptation is directed by Daniel Espinosa. In the wake of COVID-19, the film saw starts and stops to shooting and post production, along with seven different release dates. (Lisa Miller)
Sleep (MVD Blu-ray)
Sleep might be brilliant but it’s too soon to tell—let me watch it a few more times (and I’ll get back to you). It’s the startlingly accomplished debut by German director Michael Venus, a horror film that can be described by obvious references to great work from the past. The small town where Sleep is set is a Teutonic Twin Peaks and the Summer Hill Hotel is another Overlook, complete with apparitions in the long corridors and meaningful markers in the photos on the wall. Some of the nocturnal outdoor scenes suggest Edward Hopper in their loneliness, but probably Hopper as transmuted through Italian giallo director Dario Argento.
The story is the quest by a young woman, Monica, to uncover the reason for her mother’s trauma. Mom is tormented by recurring nightmares about a place she’d never been—until she checks into Summer Hill and falls into a coma from the shock. The villagers are quirky—some have secrets. Venus may wear his cinematic influences on his sleeve, but introduces unique elements, including an inversion of a Brothers Grimm fable and a plot involving the persistence of Nazism. The film slips from dreaming to wide-awake, blurring realms of imagination and experience. (David Luhrssen)
