Ever since
The Invisible Man, the upper-class wife whose luxury real estate becomes an overbearing metaphor for her isolating marriage seems to have become a go-to set-up for indie filmmakers. Last year we had
Swallow and
The Nest, and this year that plot gets a straight-up genre treatment in
Held. The perennially pained-looking Emma (Jill Awbrey, who also wrote the script) is clearly over her square-jawed husband Henry (Bart Johnson), but they’re giving it one more try by escaping to a secluded, automated smart house vacation rental. Naturally, the property’s version of Alexa has other plans drugging them and forcing them into chivalrous machinations straight out of a 1950s marriage manual. Held doesn’t hold back, skimping on character development, rushing into the concept and mainly using the first act to set things up to pay off later. Basic druggy montages, a visually uninteresting set and an even more uninspired baddie sap
All the new movies and early theater releases you can watch at home right now
2020/03/20
2021/04/09
Article Contents
This article is part of our
Movie theaters are slowly reopening, but most of the new releases are headed to streaming services rather than the big screen. Whether you re staying at home to limit potential risks, or just saving a few bucks by watching from the couch, we ve organized a huge list with many of the newly added films and some upcoming titles.
April 9
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Octavia Spencer, Jason Bateman
Synopsis: Two childhood best friends reunite as an unlikely crime-fighting superhero duo when one invents a formula that gives ordinary people superpowers.
Horror, Thriller, Mystery
Henry (Bart Johnson) and Emma Barrett s (Jill Awbrey) marriage is falling apart. Trying to save their relationship, the couple celebrate their nine-year anniversary by renting out a modern vacation home for one weekend, equipped with the top-of-the-line smart home features and security.
However, their weekend getaway takes a turn for the worse when Emma wakes up the next morning in different clothes, and a stranger reveals he s been watching them the whole time, knowing every little secret of their relationship. Henry and Emma attempt to escape, only to be locked in due to the house s automated security system. Held hostage, Henry and Emma must now obey the stranger s every command if they want to live.
What’s new on VOD and streaming this weekend: April 9-11
Including Nomadland, Sugar Daddy, The Nevers, Held and Exterminate All The Brutes By Kevin Ritchie and Norman Wilner
Apr 9, 2021
N
OW critics pick what’s new to streaming and VOD for the weekend of April 9. Plus: Everything new to VOD and streaming platforms.
Sugar Daddy
(Wendy Morgan)
NOW named Kelly McCormack one of Canada’s rising screen stars in 2019. Watch Sugar Daddy and you’ll see why: Morgan’s slightly stylized, emotionally charged drama stars the Letterkenny and Killjoys scene-stealer – most recently seen as an unwelcome guest in Ginny & Georgia – as a struggling musician who joins an agency that provides “paid dinner companions” to older men who don’t want emotional attachments, or anything further. Naturally, the reality of it turns out to be a little more complicated. McCormack wrote and produced the film, and does her own singing, but Sugar Daddy’s not just a showcase for her
This movie opens with three dirtbags and a young woman drinking beer in a car. The unpleasant scene cuts away when the dirtbag at the steering wheel tells the woman she isn’t going anywhere and rolls up the car’s windows.
In the next scene, it’s years later, and Emma, a woman near middle age whose face is tight and drawn, is being driven by an overly inquisitive ride service guy to a remote house. An overhead shot gives an idea of its remoteness; the plot on which the house sits is surrounded by impossibly neat trees stretching out past the borders of the frame.