Saturday Night Movie Recommendations with Abe

Welcome back to a weekly feature here at Movies With Abe. I'm going to be providing a handy guide to a few choice movies currently playing in theatres as well as several films newly released on DVD and Netflix. I invite you to add in your thoughts on any films I haven’t seen in the comments below.

Now Playing in Theatres

The Yellow Birds (mixed bag): This entry from Sundance 2017 is most notable for starring Alden Ehrenreich, now known as Han Solo, and Tye Sheridan, who anchored “Ready Player One.” It’s otherwise a pretty standard war movie that doesn’t stand out from any other similar fare, not quite sure what it’s intending to accomplish. Now playing at the Village East Cinema. Read my review from Sundance.

New to DVD

Elizabeth Blue (recommended): This spotlight of mental illness is relatively straightforward as far as cinema is concerned, demonstrating its value in the way it portrays schizophrenia and the difficulty of understanding reality when it can’t be distinguished from what’s not real.

Now Available on Instant Streaming

Cutie and the Boxer (recommended): This 2013 Oscar nominee for Best Documentary may start slowly, but it builds to a fascinating and very creatively-presented examination of a volatile marriage between two magnetic artists.

In Bruges (highly recommended): Martin McDonagh earned more attention for his recent hit “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” but his feature film debut, starring Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell is a far more even, unique, and worthwhile experience.

Sunday’s Illness (recommended): This Spanish entry, which screened at Tribeca earlier this year, is an often hypnotic tale of a long-lost adult daughter who insists that the mother who abandoned her come spend time with her, revealing unexpected truths about both of them.