Reviews: This week’s large streaming and VOD motion pictures

‘We Have a Ghost’

Based on Geoff Manaugh’s quick story “Ernest,” the genial horror-comedy “We Have a Ghost” stars David Harbour as a spirit haunting a fixer-upper home within the Chicago space. Dubbed “Ernest” due to the identify stitched on his shirt, the ghost — who could make noise however can’t discuss, and might contact individuals however can’t be touched — tries to ward off the house’s new household by howling and making scary faces. But introverted teenager Kevin (Jahi Winston) can inform Ernest isn’t any menace and turns into his good friend, whereas Kevin’s clout-chasing dad, Frank (Anthony Mackie), turns the apparition right into a viral sensation.

Writer-director Christopher Landon tailored Manaugh’s story, including just a few extra characters and twists whereas holding on to quite a lot of the unique premise. Landon is greatest recognized for “Happy Death Day” and “Freaky,” two polished, genre-bending movies that mix humor, horror and shocking swells of emotion. In this case, many of the heart-tugging comes by way of Kevin, from his strained relationship with Frank and his try to assist Ernest work out who he actually is.

“We Have a Ghost” is unnecessarily lengthy, padded with tangential comedian characters — together with Jennifer Coolidge as a phony TV spiritualist and Tig Notaro as a bitter ex-CIA agent — who don’t do loads to advance the story or make it funnier. But there are a number of impressively dynamic particular results sequences with Ernest utilizing his ghost powers to guard Kevin. And Landon will get quite a lot of assist from Harbour, whose facial expressions alone seize this ghost’s wit, hopes, fears and heartbreak. He’s one lovable lifeless man.

“We Have a Ghost.’’ PG-13 for language, some sexual/suggestive references and violence. 2 hours, 6 minutes. Available on Netflix; also playing theatrically, Bay Theater, Pacific Palisades.

‘Bruiser’

The suave indie drama “Bruiser” begins out as an enticing however maybe too typical coming-of-age story a couple of middle-class child cracking underneath the stress of getting to be a diligent and well-behaved scholar on a regular basis. Then a couple of third of the best way by way of the movie, director Miles Warren (who additionally co-wrote the movie with Ben Medina) introduces a twist that successfully alters the viewers’s understanding of who this younger man is and the way he was raised.

Jalyn Hall performs Darious, a youngster whose dad and mom have saved and sacrificed to ship him to a pleasant boarding faculty, offering the sort of snug upbringing they didn’t have. When he will get bullied and overwhelmed up, Darious weighs two competing visions for his future as a person: one represented by his father Malcolm (Shamier Anderson), a hardworking businessman who favors self-discipline, and one promoted by his new acquaintance Porter (Trevante Rhodes), a muscular rambler who teaches the child easy methods to assert himself.

Warren retains this story easy, leaving room for lengthy conversations that seize the nuances of those three personalities — typically staged in placing, softly lighted places, like a scenic creekside or a carnival. But what makes “Bruiser” so affecting is that Warren doesn’t maintain any of those characters locked into varieties. If this gently philosophical movie has a lesson for Darious — and for us — it’s that life is lengthy and issues change. The selections made yesterday don’t all the time must outline who we’re right this moment.

“Bruiser.’”Not rated. 1 hour, 37 minutes. Available on Hulu.

‘Devil’s Peak’

In the Appalachian crime drama “Devil’s Peak,” a North Carolina meth kingpin named Charlie — performed with entertaining gusto by Billy Bob Thornton — educates his crew by sharing colourful anecdotes from his misspent youth, crammed with wealthy particulars about each the enjoyable and the obligations of being a nasty man. These tales are delivered in Thornton’s affable drawl, as if they simply popped into the actor’s head. And sadly, they’re often livelier than the dour film surrounding them.

It’d be exhausting for anybody to compete with Thornton, however “Devil’s Peak” isn’t helped a lot by the tasteless efficiency of its lead, Hopper Penn, who performs Charlie’s softhearted son Jacob. Robert Knott’s screenplay (tailored from David Joy’s novel “Where All Light Tends to Go”) and Ben Young’s path places Penn’s Jacob in reactive mode more often than not, overshadowed by his charismatic father, his drug-addicted mom (performed by Penn’s real-life mother, Robin Wright), and his socially well-connected girlfriend, Maggie (Katelyn Nacon).

The movie does kick into gear in its last third, when Jacob begins difficult the authority figures in his life: from Charlie, whose lawbreaking is more and more brazen, to Maggie’s father (Brian d’Arcy James), a rising native power-player hoping to construct his political profession by taking down Jacob’s household. The parts of a very good, “Winter’s Bone”-like depiction of the agricultural social order are right here. But they solely actually coalesce — and combust — when Thornton’s on the display screen.

“Devil’s Peak.” Not rated. 1 hour, 37 minutes. Available on VOD; additionally enjoying theatrically, Laemmle Glendale.

‘Ambush’

The large shock assault within the middling Vietnam War thriller “Ambush” happens early within the movie when an enemy squadron invades a distant camp of U.S. troopers and engineers, stealing a binder containing high-level navy intelligence. At a base a secure distance away, Gen. Drummond (Aaron Eckhart) orders two of his hardest underlings — a particular forces officer named Mora (Gregory Sims) and a dogged tracker named Miller (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) — to retrieve the binder in any respect prices, even when they lose each one of many small handful of frontline grunts and underprepared eggheads at their command.

The actual star of “Ambush” is Connor Paolo, enjoying Cpl. Ackerman, a type of college-educated “ditch-diggers” Mora thinks is ineffective. Miller, although, sees worth in Ackerman’s drafting expertise and sends him into the Viet Cong tunnels to attract a map. The bulk of the film takes place underground, whereas the solid’s larger names seem solely sometimes, in scenes the place they largely keep in a single location and discuss. This is a dialogue-heavy film on the whole, with a number of conversations about what individuals are going to do — or accusations that they’re not ok to get it executed. “Ambush” has the construction of an old style two-fisted fight image, however with too little precise fight.

“Ambush.’” R, for violence, some bloody pictures, and language. 1 hour, 44 minutes. Available on VOD.

‘The Outwaters’

During the found-footage horror increase, the movies began out wanting largely reasonable earlier than step by step turning into extra scripted and “performed.” Writer-director Robbie Banfitch’s intensely freaky “The Outwaters” will get the style again to its unpolished roots — and, in consequence, would require some persistence from thrill-seekers anticipating a extra typical B-movie. Banfitch stars as Robbie, an aspiring filmmaker who ventures into the Mojave Desert together with his brother Scott (Scott Schamell) and good friend Ange (Angela Basolis) to shoot a video for folkie singer-songwriter Michelle (Michelle May). “The Outwaters” begins with a number of unfastened footage of younger people hanging out.

Then within the second half — after our heroes begin listening to loud booms within the distance and see the bottom invaded by monumental, shrieking, blood-letting worm-creatures — Banfitch pivots to unbridled chaos as Robbie information his descent into an inexplicable nightmare. Some might discover all this tedious or complicated, however there’s an admirable integrity to Banfitch’s strategy. “The Outwaters” genuinely looks like a first-person perspective on the top of the world.

“The Outwaters.” Not rated. 1 hour, 50 minutes. Available on Screambox; additionally enjoying theatrically, Lumiere Music Hall, Beverly Hills, Feb. 24 solely.

‘God’s Time’

Daniel Antebi’s debut function, “God’s Time,” is a stressed movie about stressed characters. Ben Groh performs the film’s fourth-wall-breaking narrator, an lively recovering addict who ropes Luca (Dion Costelloe), his greatest good friend from conferences, into attempting to save lots of their mutual acquaintance Regina (Liz Caribel Sierra), who they consider is planning to homicide her ex. While chasing Regina throughout New York City — within the COVID-affected fall of 2020, no much less — the 2 friends maintain stumbling into hectic and typically violent conditions, and inadvertently make Regina’s life worse with their inquiries into the place she is and the way she’s doing. “God’s Time” has an endearingly scrappy vibe and a gifted solid crammed with unfamiliar faces. But it additionally feels cobbled collectively, as if Antebi had a number of concepts for easy methods to strategy this materials — goofy comedy? earnest melodrama? city thriller? fashionable meta-movie? — and determined to shoot just a few scenes in every mode. The particular person items largely work, however they don’t fairly match collectively.

“God’s Time.” Not rated. 1 hour, 23 minutes. Available on VOD; additionally enjoying theatrically, Laemmle Glendale.

Also streaming

“M3GAN” is already certainly one of 2023’s shock field workplace hits due to a hooky story — a couple of life-size robotic doll that turns violent to guard her proprietor — and a successful lead efficiency from Allison Williams because the killer toy’s creator. Even the tens of millions of people that went to see the film in theaters might wish to try its streaming premiere, which provides an unrated model that’s reportedly a lot gorier. Available on Peacock.

“EO” is a late-career masterpiece from Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski, who has been directing prize-winning motion pictures because the Sixties. His Oscar-nominated newest is the largely dialogue-free story of a donkey that will get handed from proprietor to proprietor and predicament to predicament in vignettes that Skolimowski captures with wit, humanity and astonishing visible aptitude. Available on the Criterion Channel.

Available now on DVD and Blu-ray

“A Life’s Work” tells 4 fascinating tales about people who’ve devoted their careers to initiatives they know gained’t be completed after they retire — and even after they die. Documentarian David Licata places a highlight on individuals dedicated to preserving the previous or constructing for the longer term, plugging away at making the world higher no matter private glory. First Run Features (additionally accessible on VOD)