Joey’s Home Movies For the Week of November 16th – ‘Broken Hearts’ and ‘New Mutants’

Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, one of the more underrated films of the year hits shelves in The Broken Hearts Gallery. Joining it is The New Mutants, which has had one hell of a road to audiences. Plus, there’s a pair of top-notch titles joining the Criterion Collection! Read on for more…

Joey’s Top Pick

The Broken Hearts Gallery

A good romantic comedy is worth celebrating. The Broken Hearts Gallery is certainly one of those, and in a normal year, would have been a bit hit. Alas, that wasn’t the case, but now it can finally find its audience. From our review here on the site, which was one of our very first:

Romantic comedies should make you smile. It’s just in the romcom DNA. So, when something as charming as The Broken Hearts Gallery comes along, it’s important to take notice. Full of witty dialogue, a genuine sense of what going through a broken heart is like, and a fun take on getting over a breakup, there’s a lot to enjoy here. Plus, it’s another big sign that actress Geraldine Viswanathan is a comic star in the making. She has more than got the goods. The more this movie focuses on her, as well as her friends, the better and more entertaining it gets. Some of the romantic aspects here fall short, but the comedy and cleverness more than save the day.

Recommended Viewing

The Resident Evil 4K Ultra HD Collection

This video game franchise somehow became a successful and long-running movie franchise. That’s not a knock on its quality, though the installments wildly vary in quality, but just speaks to how hard it is to get films based on games right. The Resident Evil series is simply spectacle, with a surprisingly strong turn from Milla Jovovich running throughout. Now available in its entirety, in 4K, no less, it’s a perfect way to kill a weekend with popcorn entertainment. Remember those kinds of releases?

Also Available This Week

Death of Me

The Devil Has a Name

Mission: Impossible – The Complete TV Collection (TV)

The New Mutants

Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin

The Orange Years: The Nickelodeon Story

Relic

Summerland

Then Came You

Unhinged

We Are Little Zombies

Westworld: The Complete Third Season (TV)

Words on Bathroom Walls

Criterion Corner

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

From The Criterion Collection: “Jim Jarmusch combined his love for the ice-cool crime dramas of Jean-Pierre Melville and Seijun Suzuki with the philosophical dimensions of samurai mythology for an eccentrically postmodern take on the hit-man thriller. In one of his defining roles, Forest Whitaker brings a commanding serenity to his portrayal of a Zen contract killer working for a bumbling mob outfit, a modern man who adheres steadfastly to the ideals of the Japanese warrior code even as chaos and violence spiral around him. Featuring moody cinematography by the great Robby Müller, a sublime score by the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, and a host of colorful character actors (including a memorably stone-faced Henry Silva), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai plays like a pop-culture-sampling cinematic mixtape built around a one-of-a-kind tragic hero.”

Moonstruck

From The Criterion Collection: “A full moon, a New York City night, and love and music in the air . . . One of the most enchanting romantic comedies of all time assembles a flawless ensemble cast for a tender and boisterously funny look at a multigenerational Italian American family in Brooklyn, wrestling with the complexities of love and marriage at every stage of life. At the center of it all is a radiant Cher as Loretta, an unlucky-in-love bookkeeper whose feelings about her engagement to the staid Johnny (Danny Aiello) are thrown into question after she meets his hot-blooded brother, Ronny (Nicolas Cage), and one night at the opera changes everything. Winner of the Academy Awards for best actress (Cher), supporting actress (Olympia Dukakis), and original screenplay (by playwright John Patrick Shanley), this modern-day fairy tale is swept along on passionate Puccini melodies, and directed by master storyteller Norman Jewison with the heightened emotion to match.”