On Demand Weekly

On Demand Weekly helps you browse through the New Movies On Demand (MOD) this month with our May preview!

The Movies On Demand MOD May Preview of The Indies has arrived. Indies premiering in May feature some notable performances, award nominees and winners and well-known actors in unique roles. For instance, cable viewers can find W.E., directed by Madonna, which won best original song at this year’s Golden Globes; #REGENERATION, the documentary following the Occupy Wall Street movement, narrated by Ryan Gosling, which premieres the same day as theaters; BEL AMI, featuring Robert Pattinson Twilight seducing Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci, and Kristen Scott Thomas’ characters. Also notable is RAMPART, from the director of THE MESSENGER, featuring a dynamic performance from Woody Harrelson and strong supporting cast as well Ben Foster, Cynthia Nixon, Anne Heche, Steve Buscemi, Sigourney Weaver, Robin Wright, Ice Cube, Brie Larson, Ned Beatty; ALBERT NOBBS, with Oscar-nominated performances from Glenn Close and Janet McTeer as Irish women living and working as men in late 19th-century Ireland; WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, featuring a powerhouse performance from TIlda Swinton; TAKE THIS WALTZ with Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen; and Coriolanus critic’s pick 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes which is the directorial debut of Ralph Fiennes

Almost every indie new release listed comes to Movies On Demand either before or the same day as DVD.

Enjoy On Demanding this month!


Indie Titles:
ALL IN: THE POKER MOVIE – Premieres May 1
TV-14, Documentary

Same day as DVD


W.E. – Premieres May 1
R, Drama
Andrea Riseborough, James D'Arcy

Same day as DVD


#REGENERATION – Premieres May 3
TV-14, Documentary
Narration: Ryan Gosling

Same day as theatrical release


BEL AMI- Premieres May 4
R, Drama
Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman

Before theatrical release


ALBERT NOBBS – Premieres May 15
R, Drama,
Glenn Close, Mia Wasikowska

Same day as DVD


RAMPART – Premieres May 15
R, Drama
Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster

Same day as DVD

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (Oscilloscope Labs).

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
A mother’s love doesn’t always cut it…
By Cynthia Kane

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN instantly elicits haunting reminders of the premeditated high school massacre at Columbine now some thirteen years ago. I remember at the time wondering where the parents were in all this, and how could they live with themselves after the tragedy, the graphic murders and suicides. How does a parent go on? How do they look at themselves in the mirror knowing they gave life to a killer, a sick, psychotic mind? Does the tragedy in the end lie with themselves?

A few years later, I was listening to a BBC World Service radio program where they were discussing Lionel Shriver’s 2003 novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin after which I ran out to a bookstore, bought and read in one sitting. Disquieting and provocative, this novel searches into the mind and soul of one such mother trying to understand the reason as to why her 15 year-old son murders not only his classmates and teachers, but his overly loving father and younger sister in a single day. Thus I have been waiting many more years for this film to be made and when I heard Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay (RATCATCHER, MORVERN CALLAR) would adapt the screenplay from the novel, direct and Tilda Swinton would play the role of Eva, the mother, I knew it would not disappoint.

What’s uncommon and extraordinary here is Ramsay takes the novel and makes the film her own and a more suitable or honorable adaptation I cannot imagine. The book and the film live singularly on their own, but respect each other simultaneously. Ramsay’s reoccurring themes in her work: the inveterate, unresolvable themes of grief, guilt and, above all, death and its aftermath, belong here in this tale where a mother in the days, months, weeks, maybe even years after her child’s heinous crimes tries to make sense of it all.

It took Lynne Ramsay a long time to make this film. A great and complicated book is never easy to adapt. As seen by Eva’s point of view, it’s difficult to grasp her as a completely reliable narrator as she’s reflecting after-the-fact, trying to understand what happened, what might have changed things, was it her fault or is her son simply a psychotic psychopath for whom nothing could have been done to change the tragic unfolding of events. We are along for the ride, inside of the head of a mother, a woman destroyed by her son’s actions, trying to make sense of it with her. It’s at once a thriller, a cautionary tale.

It rises to the level of classical tragedy.