Adam Resurrected (MVD Blu-ray)
Director Paul Schrader was a hitmaker in the ‘80s (American Gigolo) but had had difficulty getting films made in Hollywood since the ‘90s. He chooses difficult subjects (First Reformed). Adam Resurrected (2008) is his adaptation of a 1960s novel by Israeli author Yoram Kaniuk about a fictitious experimental psychiatric hospital for Holocaust survivors. One of its star patients, Adam is played pin-pointed nuances in an outstanding performance by Jeff Goldblum. A Berlin cabaret performer before the Nazi takeover he survived the Holocaust by entertaining the death camp commandant (Willem Dafoe) in a theater of cruelty and humiliation. (David Luhrssen)
The Forever Purge (In Theaters on July 2)
Globally, the $37 million dollar cost for four “Purge” films reaped $458 million at the box office. Franchises with such returns live on, especially when the take increases with each successive film. The ante keeps getting ratcheted up to keep the series compelling. Here, the purgers are lawless killers, defying the 24-hour-purge limits to continue their rampage. The primary intended victims are an undocumented Mexican couple (Ana de la Reguera, Tenoch Huerta) working at a Texas ranch. The migrant couple is fleeing an evil Mexican drug cartel. Texas towns along the Rio Grande understand the situation since residents have felt a nightly purge along the river for years. (Lisa Miller)
The Stylist (Arrow Video Blu-ray)
The hair stylist who kills her customers? It might sound like Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street but The Stylist brings deeper focus to the plotline. It’s not weirdness for its own sake.
The deadly cutter at the picture’s heart, Claire (Najara Townsend), is a troubled young woman, uncomfortable inside her own skin despite a flair for fashion and good looks. She has assembled a chamber of horror in her cellar, a candlelit gallery of hair scalped from her victims and displayed like wigs on mannequin heads. She tries them on as she tries on dresses—and identities, as if trying to escape from herself or take control by taking other lives.
Directed and co-written by Jill Gevargizian, The Stylist is alert to the cadence of contemporary speech and catches the emptiness at the heart of our society. Envy and resentment erupt into blood-splattered violence. Through apt facial and body language, Townsend depicts Claire as socially uncomfortable, concealing, and the supporting cast is also pitch perfect. The film is cinematically stylish, with colors punctuating the dark interiors and nocturnal urban landscapes. (David Luhrssen)
Till Death (In Theaters on Streaming on FandangoNow & AppleTV, July 2)
A tawdry screen presence makes Megan Fox characters appear fair game to take the fall. Somehow, her patsies harness the strength and smarts to fight back. This time Fox portrays Emma, the unhappy wife of control-freak Mark. On the eve of their 10th anniversary, he whisks her off to a secluded lake house. Then, barely after their romantic evening begins, Emma awakens handcuffed to a dead man and pursued by ruthless criminals determined to kill her. Emma must uncuff herself, evade her pursuers, and escape or kill them. It’s a tall order but Fox has pulled off the unexpected before. The actress was virtually blackballed following her remarks about Michael Bay’s directing style during Transformers. (Lisa Miller)
