Friday Releases: Barbie & Oppenheimer

JULY 21, 2023

<Click film’s poster to see info/trailer>

Barbie

Directed By: Greta Gerwig
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.

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Oppenheimer

Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Studio: Universal Pictures

During World War II, Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. appoints physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spend years developing and designing the atomic bomb. Their work comes to fruition on July 16, 1945, as they witness the world’s first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history.

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They Cloned Tyrone

Directed By: Juel Taylor
Studio: Netflix

A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy in this pulpy mystery caper.

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Cobweb

Directed By: Samuel Bodin
Studio: Lionsgate

Horror strikes when an eight-year-old boy named Peter tries to investigate the mysterious knocking noises that are coming from inside the walls of his house and a dark secret that his sinister parents kept hidden from him.

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The Beanie Bubble

Directed By: Kristin Gore & Damian Kulash
Studio: Apple Original Films

Why did the world suddenly treat stuffed animals like gold? Ty Warner was a frustrated toy salesman until his collaboration with three women grew his masterstroke of an idea into the biggest toy craze in history. “The Beanie Bubble” is an inventive story about what and who we value, and the unsung heroes whose names didn’t appear on the heart-shaped tag.

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Fear the Night

Directed By: Neil LaBute
Studio: Quiver Distribution

Eight women attend a bachelorette party at a remote farmhouse in the California hills. They are interrupted by the arrival of masked intruders who surround the place and begin shooting arrows at the home and the guests. One partygoer–Tess, a military veteran who is fighting her addictions and her difficulty at fitting in with other people–leads the women in making a stand against the attackers as they fight back in an effort to save themselves over the course of a single dark night.

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Stephen Curry: Underrated

Directed By: Peter Nicks
Studio: Apple Original Films + A24

“Stephen Curry: Underrated” is the remarkable coming-of-age story of one of the most influential, dynamic and unexpected players in the history of basketball. This feature documentary — blending intimate cinéma vérité, archival footage and on camera interviews — documents Curry’s rise from an undersized college player at a small town Division I college to a four-time NBA champion, building one of the most dominant sports dynasties in the world.

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The Island

Directed By: Shaun Paul Piccinino
Studio: Saban Films

When his brother is killed, LAPD officer Mark (Michael Jai White) leaves the city to return to the island he grew up on. Seeking answers and ultimately vengeance, he soon finds himself in a bloody battle with the corrupt tycoon who’s taken over the island paradise.

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Sharksploitation

Directed By: Stephen Scarlata
Studio: Shudder

In the wake of blockbuster classic Jaws, a new subgenre was born. This new documentary explores the weird, wild cinematic legacy of sharks on film and the world’s undying fascination.

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See You on Venus

Directed By: Joaquin Llamas
Studio: Vertical

A dying 18 year-old orphaned girl wants to travel to Europe to track down her biological mother, so when she meets a kind-hearted young man reeling from the guilt of a fatal accident, she convinces him to accompany her on the journey.

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Streetwise

Directed By: Jiazuo Na
Studio: Dekanalog

Set in 2004 in Zhenwu, one of the many small towns in the Sichuan province where the young people who remain are those who could not leave. A gritty portrait of a group of outcasts in a fading riverside town as they come to terms with life’s uneasy lot. With his father requiring costly and continual hospital treatment due to complications brought on by long term alcoholism, aimless youth Dongzi (Li Jiuxiao) ends up working as a debt collector for the local mafia. Further complicating things, Dongzi is in love with the boss’s wife (Huang Miyi), a troubled tattoo parlor owner who dreams of divorcing her husband and fleeing Zhenwu. Breathtaking and unforgettable, this largely nocturnal neo-noir embraces a woozily romantic ambience, heightened by the alluring glow of neon signage, recalling the mood of Lou Ye’s masterpiece Suzhou River.

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Happiness for Beginners

Directed By: Vicky Wight
Studio: Netflix

Helen has always lived her life as far from the edge as possible. Newly divorced, she joins a quirky group of strangers on a survival course for the “Adventure of a Lifetime” with the hope of learning how to live — and love — again.

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Mother May I?

Directed By: Laurence Vannicelli
Studio: Dark Sky Films

Emmett wants to clean and flip his recently deceased mother’s house: get in, get out, and avoid any trauma still lingering from when she abandoned him as a young child. Anya, his fiancé, see’s this as an opportunity to finally force Emmett to deal with his trauma because she believes it is preventing him from being the partner she needs. So she convinces him to take mushrooms to get him to let go. But something strange happens while they’re tripping: she starts behaving like his mother. The next morning he wakes up sober, but she still won’t drop the act… Anya loves playing games — is this her taking it too far? Or did his mother’s spirit somehow possess her?

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Natty Knocks

Directed By: Dwight H. Little
Studio: Vertical

On Halloween Eve, a small-town babysitter and the kids she is looking after must survive the horrors of serial killer Abner Honeywell.

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Return To Dust

Directed By: Ruijun Li
Studio: Film Movement

In rural Gaotai county, two lonely, middle-aged outcasts are pushed into an arranged marriage by their families. Ma (Wu Renlin) is a humble farmer with little to offer his timid and sickly wife, Cao (Hai Qing), except for a small abandoned house on a barren patch of land. From just a few seeds, their newly planted crops take root and flourish; and similarly, an unexpected bond between the two starts to blossom. As seasons pass their dedication to each other grows stronger, but change and adversity soon threaten the idyllic existence they share.

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Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir, The Movie

Directed By: Jeremy Zag & Thomas Astruc
Studio: Netflix

Ordinary teenager Marinette’s life in Paris goes superhuman when she becomes Ladybug. Bestowed with magical powers of creation, Ladybug must unite with her opposite, Cat Noir, to save Paris as a new villain unleashes chaos unto the city.

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Half Sisters

Directed By: Devin Fei-Fan Tau
Studio: Cranked Up Films

Two half-sisters who bitterly hate each other become trapped in a farmhouse during a storm, as a couple of murderous intruders terrorize them from outside as they look for their $1M inheritance check.

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Artists in Agony: Hitmen at the Coda Teahouse

Directed By: Kenneth Lui
Studio: Global Digital Releasing

An unprecedented look into the hidden and violent world where assassins regard their work as art and themselves as artists. ARTISTS IN AGONY features recently discovered footage revealing how four bungling hitmen died at the infamous Coda Teahouse Massacre — Frosty (the new father), Lucien Mercy (the stay-at-home mom), Red Rick (the romantic), and his apprentice Lady Faith (the rising star). Ex-CIA Agent Jonathan Sully guides us through the footage, suspecting they were killed by the renowned assassin artist known as Rockstar, considered the greatest hitman who ever lived. Kenneth Lui’s feature film debut is the most satirical faux-documentary on the fictional world of assassination art ever made. It’s a dark comedy of egotistical criminality, destructive vanity and reveals how four bungling psychopaths ended up dead in the criminal underground’s greatest mystery.

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