Kerry Brown / Netflix
REBECCA
Rebecca: (L to R) Armie Hammer as Maxim de Winter, Lily James as Mrs. de Winter. Cr. KERRY BROWN/NETFLIX
Rebecca (Streaming October 21 on Netflix)
Given the Best Picture Oscar won by Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 version, much is expected from this adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s novel. Lily James portrays the young second wife of handsome, aristocratic widower, Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer). Arriving at his palatial estate, Manderley, the new wife is chastened by her husband’s formidable housekeeper (Kristin Scott Thomas) who preserves and worships the memory of first wife, Rebecca. Finding her footing among slippery memories, and a husband unwilling to discuss his first marriage, is more than daunting for wife number two. Timidly updated while simultaneously subjugated to Hitchcock’s classic, critics feel this new Rebecca suffers from similar feelings of inadequacy as the new Mrs. de Winter. (Lisa Miller)
High Plains Drifter (Kino Lorber)
Clint Eastwood’s career was elevated by his role as the Man With No Name in Sergio Leone’s ‘60s “spaghetti westerns.” In his second film as a director, High Plains Drifter (1973), Eastwood pays homage to Leone’s pitiless, laconic perspective on the Old West. Out now on Blu-ray, the film depicts more guts than glory as the mysterious stranger played by Eastwood rides into a mining town from the bright midday haze and finds only corruption and even pure evil, corporate as well as personal. After dispatching local thugs who assault him with a quick gun-hand, he is hired by the townsfolk to protect them from a trio of “bad men” heading their way. But who’s bad when everyone is? What’s shocking today is not the violence but the disturbing depiction of women who seem to enjoy being raped by the film’s star. (David Luhrssen)
“Star Trek Picard: Season One” (CBS Home Entertainment)
Jean-Luc Picard wakes from disturbing dreams in a comfortable but restless retirement on his vineyard-estate in the south of France as the late Gene Roddenberry’s universe continues to expand. In season one of “Star Trek Picard,” out on Blu-ray, Patrick Stewart returns as a character older and wiser still. He grapples with the melancholy of aging, the stocktaking of failure, the anxiety over loss of influence over events and mortality itself. Sure, future worlds are envisioned and Matrix-like ninja violence erupts around a mysterious young woman who comes to Picard for help, but many of the best moments concern other things and have a quiet, ruminative tone as Picard finds his quest for answers. Did Data have daughters? (David Luhrssen)
The Whistle Blower (Kino Lorber)
The funny thing about The Whistle Blower (1987), a Cold War spy thriller out on Blu-ray, is how rapid political developments rendered its story obsolete only two years after its release. What sustains interest is Michael Caine’s masterful performance as Jones, a man almost as ordinary as his name who finds himself drawn into a labyrinth of conspiracy. Caine endows Jones with a quietly magnetic presence that builds outrage as evidence mounts. His son, a Russian language translator for British intelligence, may have been murdered in a dark charade whose players are expendable. The mood of moral compromise derives from John le Carré but the movie’s direct source was a novel by John Hale. Britain’s uncomfortable status as a geo-political vassal of the U.S. is acknowledged and nuclear war with the Soviets is just around the corner. (David Luhrssen)
The Witches (Streaming October 22 on HBO Max)
Chris Rock narrates this second film adaptation of Roald Dahl's story about the adventures of young Charlie (Jahzir Kadeem Bruno). In the wake of his mother's untimely death, the lad is taken in by his kindly, witch-hunting grandmother (Octavia Spencer). While staying at a posh English hotel (Stanley Tucci appears as its manager), the pair encounters a conference of witches, led by the Grand High Witch (Anne Hathaway), who is scheming to turn all human children into mice. Dahl’s zany witch mythology stipulates toeless feet and inky blue blood. A dark fantasy laced with humor, the Halloween-ready film is written and directed by Robert Zemeckis. (Lisa Miller)
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