New to View: April 26

By Bob Bloom
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, April 26, unless otherwise noted:
12 Monkeys (4K UHD)Details: 1995, Arrow Video
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: Director Terry Gilliam’s dystopian sci-fi, time-travel saga can be a bit confusing and distracting with its non-linear story-telling.
The movie, though, is compelling, featuring strong performances by Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt.
The film begins in 2035 and jumps around to 1990, 1917 and 1995 before its resolution.
The basic premise deals with a deadly virus, released in 1996, that wiped out almost all of mankind and forcing the survivors to live underground.
Willis portrays James Cole, a prisoner selected by scientists to go back in time to find the original virus to help the scientists find a cure.
The source of the virus supposedly is a radical group, the Army of the Twelve Monkeys.
Pitt portrays Jeffrey Goines, suspected of being the leader of the group, who is responsible for the virus.
“12 Monkeys” is a movie in which you need to pay focus your attention to catch all of Gilliam’s nuances.
The movie, which runs 130, minutes earned an impressive 88 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 2160p 4K ultra high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 2.0 LPCM monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus offerings include a 1996 interview with Gilliam, an appreciation of Gilliam by author Ian Christie, a “Twelve Monkeys Archives” featurette, a feature-length documentary on the making of the movie and a commentary track by Gilliam and producer Charles Roven.

Cyrano (Blu-ray + DVD + digital)
Release date: April 19
Details: 2021, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated: PG-13, language, strong violence, suggestive material, thematic material
The lowdown: Noted British filmmaker Joe Wright directs the newest adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s “Cyrano de Bergerac,” a musical adapted by Erica Schmidt from her 2018 stage musical.
The movie, like Schmidt’s musical, casts Peter Dinklage as the poetic and self-conscious Cyrano. The casting, of course, immediately allows you to discern the alterations from Rostand’s original.
The story, however, remains the same. Cyrano loves Roxanne (Haley Bennett, also reprising her role from the musical) from afar. He knows his appearance and status in life will keep them apart, so he offers his poetic services to Christian de Neuvillette (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who has fallen in love with Roxanne and does not have the words or wit to woo her properly.
This adaptation, thanks to Wright’s staging, soars with emotion and romance. It also is heartbreaking, yet while you may feel sorry for Cyrano, Dinklage refuses to allow you to pity him.
And while the movie’s music and songs may not be memorable, the performances, especially that of Dinklage, is the spirited foundation that propels the movie. The songs, at times, seem to stop the movie in its tracks.
You should see “Cyrano” simply to watch a consummate performer like Dinklage steal the movie and your heart.
Dinklage most likely touched a great majority of critics, who gave the movie an 86 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: Blu-ray: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, 2.0 Dolby digital DVS and French 5.1 DTS digital surround; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles; DVD: 2.39:1 anamorphic widescreen picture; English and French 5.1 Dolby digital and English 2.0 Dolby digital DVS; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: The main bonus feature is a making of featurette.

“Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema VI” (Blu-ray)
Details: 1947-51, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Kino Lorber offers another trio of post-World War II dark dramas, reflecting the changing mood of the era.
The films in this set include “Singapore” (1947), “Johnny Stool Pigeon” (1949) and “The Raging Tide” (1951).
“Singapore” begins in before the war. It stars Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner. MacMurray is Matt Gordon who falls in love with Gardner’s Linda Graham. He loses contact with her when the Japanese attack the city.
Five years later Gordon returns to Singapore to retrieve a fortune in smuggled pearls. He accidentally reconnects with Graham, who is now married and suffering from amnesia. The cast also features Roland Culver, Thomas Gomez and Spring Byington.
Howard Duff stars as San Francisco-based Treasury agent George Morton in “Johnny Stool Pigeon.” Morton goes undercover to break up a narcotics ring. Dan Duryea costars as an Alcatraz inmate who makes a deal with Morton, thus becoming the titular character. The supporting players include a very young Tony Curtis, John McIntire and Leif Erickson.
Shelley Winters is featured as the drug leader’s moll who gets involved in the case.
“The Raging Tide” is a story of police against smugglers. This San Francisco-based drama starts with the killing of a gangster by rival crook Bruno Felkin (Richard Conte), who brazenly reports the crime to homicide lieutenant Kelsey (Stephen McNally) in an alibi scheme that quickly falls apart.
To escape, Felkin stows away on a fishing boat run by Hamil Linder (Charles Bickford), who kindly receives the felon. Shelley Winters, John McIntire and Alex Nicol help fill out the cast.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.

Grand Slam (Blu-ray)
Details: 1967, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: PG
The lowdown: This caper movie came in the twilight of the career of the great Edward G. Robinson.
Robinson, a retired professor, recruits a team of elite criminals in this heist thriller.
The target is a supposed impenetrable vault in Rio de Janeiro holding $10 million in diamonds. The robbery is scheduled to take place at the height of the city’s Carnival.
The movie, which offers a twist finale, features an international cast including Janet Leigh, Adolfo Celi (“Thunderball”), Klaus Kinski and Robert Hoffmann. It also includes a score by the legendary Ennio Morricone.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: A commentary track with film historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Michell and Nathaniel Thompson is the main bonus component.

“Twisting the Knife: Four Films by Claude Chabrol” (Blu-ray)
Details: 1997-2003, Arrow Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This four-disc set offers a quartet of interesting movies from veteran French director Claude Chabrol.
The titles are “The Swindle” (1997), “The Color of Lies” (1999), “Nightcap” (2000) and “The Flower of Evil” (2003).
In “The Swindle,” Isabelle Huppert and Michel Surrault portray Betty and Victor, a pair of scam artists, who get in over their heads when they recruit Maurice, a treasurer of a multinational company, who is scheduled to transfer 5 million francs out of Switzerland. Betty has plans for that money, but Victor and Maurice may have some as well.
This is a playful caper movie that keeps you on your toes.
“The Color of Lies” centers on the murder of a 10-year-old girl in a small Breton town. The inspector handling the case questions the child’s art teacher who was the last one to see her alive.
But the pale of suspicion on the teacher upends his life, with only his wife seeming to believe and support him.
“Nightcap,” also featuring Huppert, begins with a premise that could have been the stuff of comedy — children switched at birth. But the movie takes on a Hitchcockian vibe about a possible murder and a plot to kill another individual.
“The Flower of Evil” is a story about skeletons coming out of the closet. The story centers on Anne (Nathalie Baye), who is running for re-election to the town council. She is aided by Matthieu (Thomas Chabrol), her fellow candidate and campaign manager.
Meanwhile, Anne’s philandering husband, Gérard (Bernard Le Coq), a businessman, hates the campaign. He gets even more upset when a nasty leaflet circulates about their family history.
The movie deals with two deaths and a forbidden romance, as well.
Fans of Chabrol will not be disappointed with these movies.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.66:1 widescreen picture; French LPCM stereo and 5.1 DTS-HD on “Nightcap” and “The Flower of Evil”; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include commentary tracks on the four movies; various behind-the-scenes looks at the movies; interviews with filmmakers and cast members; and a booklet about Chabrol and the movies.

Sibyl (Blu-ray)
Details: 2019, Music Box Films
Rated: Not rated, sexual situations
The lowdown: Sibyl, a psychotherapist, decides to quit her practice and return to her first love, writing.
As she begins to drop patients, she also begins to struggle with excess time as well as a lack of inspirational spark.
She gets a call from Margot, a young actress having an affair with her costar, who is married to the movie’s director.
As Sibyl becomes more involved in Margot’s life, Sibyl begins to blur past and present, fiction and reality and her professional ethics with her personal goals.
She uses Margot’s life as fodder for her novel.
The movie is clever, disorienting and well-acted, but it divided critics who gave it a 57 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a commentary track and interviews with the director and cast members.

Moon Manor (Blu-ray)
Details: 2022, Good Deed Entertainment-Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A comedy-drama about Jimmy, who has advanced Alzheimer’s. He has decided that this will be his last day on Earth.
And Jimmy plans to leave the world on his own terms — throwing himself a FUNeral before his intentional death.
The movie was inspired by a “true-ish” story as Jimmy is determined to teach his guests, including his estranged brother, salt-of-the-earth caretaker, sharp-witted death doula, a novice obituary writer and an ethereal cosmic being that, at times, the art of living just could be the art of dying.
Despite its subject matter, the movie is entertaining and a celebration of life.
This little-seen movie garnered an 88 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental options include footage of Jimmy as a cruise ship director in the 1980s and a director’s cut of the “Loonartics” infomercial, which was Jimmy’s fictional real estate business.

Rocco Schiavone: Ice Cold Murders: Season 1 (Blu-ray)
Details: 2021, Kino Lorber
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This Italian crime series centers on cranky and unorthodox detective Rocco Schiavone who, in season one, is exiled to the tourist-laden Alpine town of Aosta, which is far from his beloved Rome.
Upon arriving, he’s already is a foul mood and his temper does not improve when he is immediately met with a series of bizarre cases.
The series is based on best-selling novels by Antonio Manzini.
The four-disc set features all 12 first-season episodes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.78:1 widescreen picture; Italian 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.

Why Is We Americans? (DVD)
Details: 2020, Corinth Films
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A documentary that looks at the Baraka family, mainstays of Newark, NJ, for decades.
The family patriarch is Amiri Baraka (formerly known as LeRoi Jones), one of the most famous African American poet/playwright/activists of our time.
From the Newark Rebellion (some have called it a riot) of 1967 to the current day, Newark’s narrative has been one of revolution, with each generation picking up where the previous lone had left off.
The movie examines Newark’s struggles against oppression and police brutality through the triumphs and tragedies of the Baraka family — from Amiri’s civil rights leadership and ultimate artistic marginalization to the murder of his sister, Kimako, through the homicide of his daughter, Shani — who was one of the first openly gay black activists — to the election of Ras Baraka as the city’s mayor.
The story’s lodestar and moral compass is matriarch Amina Baraka.
The movie spans decades of social activism, poetry, music, art and politics — at the center of which sits the Barakas.
Technical aspects: 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English Dolby digital stereo.
Don’t miss: Extras include a question-and-answer session with the filmmakers, a Danny Glover deleted scene, L.A. premiere behind-the-scenes footage and a discussion with the filmmakers.

Other titles also are being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
A Taste of Hunger (DVD & VOD) (Magnolia Home Entertainment)
Dead by Midnight: Y2Kill (DVD & VOD) (Indican Pictures)
Expired (Blu-ray & DVD) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Writing with Fire (DVD) (Music Box Films)

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
7 Days (Cinedigm)
The Girl from Plainville: Episode 7 (Hulu)
Hostile Territory (Saban Films-Well Go USA Entertainment)
The Laws of the Universe — Elohim (Freestyle Digital Media)
David Spade: Nothing Personal (www.netflix.com/davidspadenothingpersonal) (Netflix)
Turning Red (Buena Vista Home Entertainment-Disney)
Uncharted (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
APRIL 27
The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes (www.netflix.com/marilynmonroe) (Netflix)
APRIL 28
Bluff (Catharsis Films)
Dear Mr. Brody (Discovery+)
APRIL 29
The Aviary (Saban Films-Paramount Pictures)
Crush (Hulu)
Fortress: Sniper’s Eye (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Make or Break: Season 2 (Apple TV+)
Shining Girls (Apple TV+)
Unplugging (Vertical Entertainment)
MAY 2
Stu’s Show (Upstream Flix)

Coming next week: Turning Red

I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook at ReelBob or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.