Jonathan Scott’s Power Trip (MPI Blu-ray)
Jonathan Scott is one half of the “Property Brothers,” a cable show where disaster houses are transformed into dream homes. When Scott installed solar panels on his Nevada home, his electric bills plummeted—and he was able to sell power into the grid. And then the state utility board, ruling in favor of the electric company eliminated this provision. Power Trip is a documentary on how powerful utility corporations working with corrupt or backward-thinking politicians have frustrated the growth of solar. Along the way Scott encountered some strange allies, including a gun-totin’ Tea Party cofounder preaching “energy freedom” in the name of individual liberty. With Trump gone, solar will have its day. (David Luhrssen)
The Little Things (Streaming Friday, January 29 on HBO Max)
The Little Things is the first of Warner Bros.’ 2021 films scheduled for simultaneous release in theaters and on HBO Max streaming. Set in 1990, the story focuses on old-fashioned police work that was required prior to cell phones, embedded cameras and DNA. Denzel Washington portrays an aging sheriff protecting personal secrets. Rami Malek appears as a younger, more free-wheeling police detective, and Jared Leto plays the suspect in a string of murders. Set in and around the shabbier portions of Los Angeles, writer/director John Lee Hancock sought to break the crime-drama-formula mold. It took 26 years to get the go-ahead that was forthcoming only once Washington agreed to star. (Lisa Miller)
Penguin Bloom (Streaming Wednesday, January 27 on Netflix)
Sam Bloom (Naomi Watts) has three young, beautiful sons, a loving husband, and a picturesque seaside home, when a freak accident paralyzes her from the chest down. Adapted from an account by Sam’s photographer-spouse Cameron (Andrew Lincoln), he struggles to find his footing as she sinks into a family-upheaving depression. Previously an avid surfer, the now wheelchair-bound Sam grudgingly accepts responsibility for an injured magpie chick. Nursing the creature (named Penguin) back to health, forces Sam outside, which inspires her to reconsider her options. Watts (who co-produced) distracts from an otherwise straightforward trajectory with her lived-in, subtle performance—despite frequent upstaging by a miscreant magpie mega-star. (Lisa Miller)
The Suspect (Kino Lorber Blu-ray)
In a superb and largely forgotten performance, Charles Laughton plays a kindly, thoughtful gentleman whose vile, spiteful wife turns his homelife into hell. When she threatens to scandalize him over an innocent friendship with a younger woman, he’s driven to kill. And when his smug Social Darwinist neighbor threatens blackmail, will he kill again? Director Richard Siodmark’s 1944 production is film noir transposed to gaslit Edwardian London. A suspenseful plot as well as its dramatization of guilt and morality under pressure make The Suspect one of the great Alfred Hitchock movies that Hitchcock never made. (David Luhrssen)
“The Twilight Zone Season Two” (CBS DVD)
Remaking “The Twilight Zone” was a risky enterprise—Rod Serling set a high bar—but the creative team behind 2.0 have been able to bring his concept of the anomalous, the macabre and the weird warpage of space and time into the new century. Cinematography and design are state of the art. More importantly, in season two, the writers nail the vernacular of now and the psychological twists of the present day through protagonists that are apprehensive, stalked and beset by malice and the absurd. Jordan Peele (Get Out) stiffens his jaw and plays the Serling narrator role. (David Luhrssen)
