What’s new to VOD and streaming this weekend
Including reviews of The Little Things, The Dig, Palmer, Jiu Jitsu and Penguin Bloom. By Norman Wilner and Glenn Sumi
Jan 29, 2021
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OW critics pick what’s new to streaming and VOD for the weekend of January 29. Plus: Everything new to VOD and streaming platforms.
The Little Things
(John Lee Hancock)
Set in 1990 – just before cell phones and forensics would have resolved its dumb, brooding story in minutes instead of hours – The Little Things spins out its threadbare procedural narrative as though it were exquisite serial-killer noir. Denzel Washington plays Joe “Deke” Deacon, a Bakersfield sheriff’s deputy who used to be an ace detective in Los Angeles. While visiting L.A. on routine business, he learns of a woman who appears to be the latest victim of a murderer Deke was hunting five years earlier, leading Deke to join forces with the hotshot (Rami Malek) currently on the case. Washington is rock-solid as
This image released by Apple shows Ryder Allen, foreground, and Justin Timberlake in a scene from Palmer. (Apple via AP)
There’s a kitchen-sink full of Serious Drama Cliches in the new Justin Timberlake film Palmer, about a high school football star turned convict who must help the young gender fluid boy with the addict mom next door while also trying to regain his footing in his small Louisiana hometown. It’d be an insult to real Oscar-bait to even call this Oscar-bait. And yet, compelling performances make Palmer watchable and fairly affecting despite the fact that we’ve seen this kind of thing so many times before.
January 28, 2021 Share
There’s a kitchen-sink full of Serious Drama Cliches in the new Justin Timberlake film “Palmer,” about a high school football star turned convict who must help the young gender fluid boy with the addict mom next door while also trying to regain his footing in his small Louisiana hometown. It’d be an insult to real Oscar-bait to even call this Oscar-bait. And yet, compelling performances make “Palmer” watchable and fairly affecting despite the fact that we’ve seen this kind of thing so many times before.
Timberlake plays Eddie Palmer, who has just been released from prison after 12 years and is going to live with his grandmother Vivian (June Squibb) in his old hometown. He’s got the ex-con beard and hoodie and thousand-yard squint and is a bit of a mystery, although that might be giving him a little too much credit. The script takes its time teasing out what exactly landed him behind bars.