Look, there are literally so many movies I want to see in theaters right now, but for some very frustrating reason they are not playing anywhere near me. While I would usually take the drive, the weather is finally turning here, and I just wanted some non-stressful stagnant time at my home for one weekend. I doubt it happens again at all this year, but because of that, you are getting some newly available movies that I got to enjoy from the comfort of my couch.
The Tutor – Yes, I read the premise and saw the trailer and still decided to rent this Lifetime-adjacent film about a strange young man obsessed with his new tutor. Ethan has made a career out of tutoring the uber-rich, but he especially needs to buckle down now that he’s got a kid on the way with his long term girlfriend. Enter, an extremely lucrative deal tutoring Jackson. Over two grand a day for potentially the whole summer but he’d be getting paid under the table. I’d probably say yes to that at first too, but why under the table? Fishy. And Jackson is an odd and awkward kid. It hard to nail down what’s there between Jackson and his obsession with Ethan, but there’s a twist that I wasn’t expecting and then they double down on it. Sure, I had no clue how they got through a lot of those scenes without laughing at how ridiculous the dialogue was, but in the end, I enjoyed it. Interesting cast that may make it worth the watch for some.
Invitation to a Murder – Just like The Tutor, I was expecting this Knives Out and Murder on the Orient Express knock off to be full cringe and not any good, but they got me with a unique twist and a feeling of unease. Somehow, Mischa Barton makes a likeable and fairly convincing British woman who gets invited to a dinner with a wealthy man shrouded in secrecy. The other guests are strangers and a bit suspicious, but so is the waitstaff at the mansion. Again, there are some clever twists and turns that ultimately made this as satisfying a whodunit as last year’s See How They Run.
To Catch A Killer – With Shailene Woodley and Ben Mendelsohn leading this crime thriller, I was sad to learn that this was getting a straight to streaming release. Woodley plays Eleanor, a cop who gets recruited as a liaison between the Baltimore PD and the FBI as Lammark and the rest of his team try to find a man who’s not afraid to mass murder people all over Baltimore. This movie was dark, and in beats reminded me a little bit of The Little Things. You want Eleanor to get this solved before anything bad happens, but like most of the law enforcement on this show notes, people can’t wait to watch the next tragedy on their screens. I like watching the fictional stuff, but I can’t deny how close to reality it is. I can’t tell if some of this film was totally insensitive to the sheer amount of mass shootings happening almost every day in America or not. Also, the reasoning we get is probably not satisfying to most. Jury’s out for the most part, but I did like it.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline – Who knew environmental thrillers were something I would enjoy?! Also, to the people who thought adapting this kind of controversial non-fiction novel into a film: good work. There are always even more creative people in this world. The gist of the story is this: a group of young people decide that in order to get some change to happen with the continuing environmental repercussions of the gas and oil industry, you need to hit them where it counts. The author of the novel argues that peaceful protesting can only do so much, and there are certainly times where I can agree with that. Luckily in this case, they manage to cause disruption without providing additional environmental impacts, but I think things like these would need to happen in a similar execution but more frequently for the consequences on those individuals involved not being so harsh. An intriguing watch.