20th Century Studios is bringing “Ella McCay” to digital and Blu-ray. The political dramedy is the first movie in fifteen years from Academy Award winner James L. Brooks. It stars Emma Mackey as Ella, an ambitious 34-year-old lieutenant governor who is thrust into political and personal chaos after she is promoted to governor following her mentor’s resignation. The film features a strong supporting cast that includes Jamie Lee Curtis, Albert Brooks, Woody Harrelson, Jack Lowden, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Albert Brooks, Rebecca Hall.

“Ella McCay” is available NOW on most digital platforms. It will release physically on Blu-ray on March 3rd. See below for a full synopsis of the film as well as a list of the special features from both the digital and physical releases.

About the Film:

Year: 2025

Runtime: 115 Minutes

Director: James L. Brooks

Screenwriter: James L. Brooks

Cast: Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Lowden, Woody Harrelson, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Spike Fearn, Rebecca Hall, Julie Kavner, Becky Ann Baker, Joey Brooks with Albert Brooks

Rating: PG-13 for strong language, some sexual material and drug content

“Ella McCay” follows an idealistic young woman juggling her less-than-perfect family with her passion for her work. From writer-director James L. Brooks, this fresh and heartwarming comedy is about the people you love and how to survive them.

Digital & Blu-ray Bonus Features:

Deleted Scenes:

• “You Win, We Lose”
• “Forget About The Union Rep”
• “I Love Girl”
• “No More Interruptions”
• “Make Your Family Whole”
• “A Small Concussion”
• “Hazel Bottomless”
• “You Got Him Out”
• “Nice Family”

Bloopers

Featurettes:

• A James L. Brooks Film: Go behind the scenes as the film’s star-studded cast and crew share their joy of working with acclaimed writer-director James L. Brooks. Experience Brooks’ singular gift for creating beloved, memorable movie moments — and what it’s like to hear him laugh.

• In Good Company: The Cast Of Ella McCay: Sit down with James L. Brooks as he talks about his extraordinary cast and as the actors share their respect and appreciation for Brooks — and each other. Hear about the casting process that created heartfelt chemistry both on set and onscreen.

Unlike any other franchise, Star Wars has taken the idea of canon and continuity to places no others have. What started in a series of feature films has blossomed to novels, comics, video games, animated and live-action television. And all of it interconnected through the same sprawling epic timeline. It’s true that Star Wars has hit some recent rough patches. But the overall world is still precious to fans like me, and one area where it continues to thrive is in its animation.

“The Clone Wars,” “Rebels,” and “The Bad Batch” have expanded Star Wars lore in exciting ways. That trend looks to continue with “Maul – Shadow Lord”. Set in the aftermath of the Clone Wars, this new series follows one of the franchise’s most compelling characters, Maul, as he builds his underworld syndicate, trains a new apprentice, and keeps his vengeful eye on the power-mad Empire. The first trailer gives us a thrilling look at what may be the darkest animated series yet. Even more, the show will feature the voice work of a returning Sam Witwer and recent Oscar nominee Wagner Moura. This looks amazing.

“Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord” will premiere April 6th exclusively on Disney+. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

My earliest encounters with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe came in my brother’s bedroom where he and I fought countless action figure battles against Skeletor and his evil forces. That was followed by a popular animated series and eventually a corny 1987 live-action feature film starring Dolph Lundgren. Who knew that decades later, well after its heyday, the franchise would be back on the big screen with a brand-new big-budgeted adaptation.

The new “Masters of the Universe” film is directed by Travis Knight (“Bumblebee”) and stars Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Adam aka He-Man. Mixing classic sword and sorcery with science-fiction, the film follows Prince Adam who was transported to our modern day as a young boy after his world was ravaged by a civil war. Once grown, he discovers the legendary Sword of Power which turns him into the mighty He-Man. He then returns to his home world to reclaim it from the clutches of the evil Skeletor. Idris Elba, Jared Leto, Alison Brie, Camila Mendes, Morena Baccarin, and Kristen Wiig also star.

“Masters of the Universe” hits theaters June 5th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

The last stop on the lengthy awards season grind is the Academy Awards. It’s an event that I once adored. Yet in recent years I’ve slowly but steadily been losing interest. Awards season has gotten so homogenized with the same tiny group of nominees appearing everywhere. That’s made it extremely predictable, and never has that been more true than this year.

The 2026 Oscar nominations offered no real surprise to anyone who has even casually followed awards season. Sure, there was a handful of snubs (or surprises, depending on your perspective), but nothing that would indicate an actual diversity of thought or taste in the whole process. Yet still, as I always do, here are a few random thoughts from this year’s Academy Award nominations.

• To no one’s surprise, the Academy accomplished its goal of cramming “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners” into every category possible. It was expected, but it also led to several of the ‘snubs’ that I’ll talk about shortly.
• Mission accomplished. “Sinners” broke a record by earning 16 Oscar nominations this morning. It was something that had started circulating a few days ago. Look, “Sinners” is a good movie. But it’s not THAT good.
• Of course “One Battle After Another” remains the awards season darling and is the clear Best Picture frontrunner. Overall it earned 13 Oscar nominations and is on track to be the third subpar movie to win BP in the last four years. Congrats.
• To their credit, nine out of the Academy’s ten nominees for Best Picture are good films. And they did include the year’s best film, “Train Dreams”. It doesn’t stand a chance at winning, but it’s nice to see it rightfully included.
• It’s hard to believe “Frankenstein” received so many nominations yet nothing for Guillermo del Toro in directing. It’s a tremendous film that doesn’t get off the ground without his vision and craftsmanship. He should be the frontrunner. Instead he’s not even nominated.
• Instead Josh Safdie gets a directing nod for “Marty Supreme”, an entertaining movie but a noticeably flawed one, in large part due to Safdie’s breakneck direction.
• The Best Actress category belongs to Jessie Buckley and rightfully so. Of course the Academy remains smitten with Emma Stone so she gobbles up the last slot. But to her credit, she’s very good in “Bugonia”. Much better than her last Yorgos Lanthimos collaboration.
• Staying with Best Actress, Chase Infiniti is the absolute best thing in “One Battle After Another” by MILES yet she doesn’t get nominated. You can’t make this stuff up.
• Best Actor seems to be between Timothee Chalamet (“Marty Supreme”) and Wagner Moura (“The Secret Agent”). It’s good to see Michael B. Jordan nominated for “Sinners” but a shame that Joel Edgerton is snubbed for “Train Dreams”. Both deserve the win ahead of the frontrunners.
• It wasn’t a good morning for “Wicked: For Good”. Unlike its predecessor, this mess of a sequel was completely shut out, receiving no nominations whatsoever. File this under something the Academy got right.
• It was also great seeing “F1” among the Best Picture nominees. Again, it has no chance of winning, but the recognition is nice.
• This is hard to believe, but Stellan Skarsgard is the very first international nominee to be included in the Supporting Actor category. Either way he deserves to win. His performance in “Sentimental Value” was one of the year’s very best.
• The rest of the Supporting Actor category wasn’t as impressive. The Academy insisted on clogging it up with both Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro from “One Battle After Another”. They threw in Delroy Lindo from “Sinners” which sadly means no Paul Mescal (“Hamnet”) and no Adam Sandler (“Jay Kelley”). Whatever.
• Best Casting is the first new competitive category at the Oscars in 25 years. Meanwhile stunt performers are still asking, “What about us?”
• It’s hard to put much into this year’s awards when I think of the glaring omissions that have plagued the whole season. No Daniel Day-Lewis or Sean Bean for “Anemone”. No love for Josh O’Connor after the year he had. Nothing for “Nouvelle Vague”. Only one nomination for “Weapons”. No Russell Crowe for “Nuremberg”. Barely a mention of great films like “Warfare”, “Black Bag”, and “Eddington”. Again, there is no diversity of tastes or opinions. It’s mostly the same small pool of nominees at every stop.

And those are a few random thoughts from this year’s Oscar nominations. The 98th Academy Awards will be held Sunday, March 15th. What are your thoughts on the Academy’s crop of nominees?

It has been nearly thirty years since childhood friends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck collaborated to write the screenplay for “Good Will Hunting”. The film would go on to be a box office smash, grossing over $225 million. Even more, the two buddies from Cambridge, Massachusetts would win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Soon after, both Damon and Affleck were catapulted into full leading man status. Yet despite their individual successes, their friendship remains strong to this day.

Damon and Affleck share the screen together again in Netflix’s “The Rip”, a pulse-pounding action thriller written and directed by Joe Carnahan. While they sit firmly as the film’s leads, Carnahan surrounds them with a compelling supporting cast that includes Steven Yeun, recent Golden Globe winner Teyana Taylor, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sasha Calle, Néstor Carbonell, and the always great Kyle Chandler.

“The Rip” tells a gritty, street-level crime story set in Miami. It begins with the violent murder of Captain Jackie Velez (Lina Esco), the leader of the police department’s Tactical Narcotics Team. With the tight-knit squad still reeling from Jackie’s death, the FBI begin an Internal Affairs investigation to see if the murder was pulled off by someone within the department. Meanwhile Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon) is promoted to team leader. But his job won’t be easy with the division falling apart and morale at rock-bottom.

After receiving a Crime Stoppers tip identifying a stash house belonging to the Hialeah cartel, Dane rounds up his frustrated and disillusioned team of detectives. They consist of his his best friend and a long-time cop, Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne (Affleck), Detective Mike Ro (Yeun), Detective Numa Baptiste (Taylor), and Detective Lolo Salazar (Moreno). The team arrives at the house which sits at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac. With his tone set and pieces in place, Carnahan then begins tightening the screws.

The team is met at the door by a young woman named Desi (Calle) who claims the house belongs to her grandmother. But inside tells a much different story. While searching the rooms they discover fifteen buckets filled with cartel cash hidden in the walls of an attic. The team expected the “rip” to be from $150k to $300k. But they quickly realize they’re sitting on an estimated $20 million. Procedure states they count the money at the site of the seizure. But that much money comes with an extra layer of danger, which they soon learn after a mysterious phone call gives them 30 minutes to leave or else.

Carnahan drops his team in a pressure cooker as the detectives scramble to figure out the best course of action. Or are there other motivations in play? As the external threat mounts, it’s the internal fractures that drive the suspense. The real tension kicks in once the team members begin losing trust in each other. And as trust erodes, loyalties shift and paranoia sets in. Who’s dirty? Who’s clean? Carnahan masterfully keeps us guessing as he digs deep into corruption and betrayal.

The film’s mystery is a key reason it works so well. Carnahan plants seeds of suspicion everywhere without ever tipping his hand. And whenever we think we have things figured out, he proves to be one step ahead of us. At the same time, he and DP Juan Miguel Azpiroz use their camera to give the world a gritty and visceral texture. The striking visuals not only keep us on the edges of our seats, they also energize the action sequences, grounding them in realism and putting us in the middle of the violence. It’s exhilarating.

“The Rip” is Joe Carnahan’s best film since “The Grey” and it’s a killer start of the year for Netflix. Inspired by true events, the story and storytelling grips you from the opening scene to the closing credits. The conscious barrage of f-bombs dumbs things down a bit. But otherwise the script is razor-sharp, giving the intensely focused cast some rich material to work with. Of course it helps to have actors working at such strong comfort levels as Damon snd Affleck. They really do have a natural chemistry that comes through on screen. And that’s one of many reasons this enthralling action thriller hits with such force.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

Searchlight Pictures is bringing the heartwarming “Rental Family” to home video. Directed and co-written by Hikari, the film sees Brendan Fraser in a role he was meant to play. The touching yet warmly comical premise has Fraser playing a struggling American actor living in Japan who gets a peculiar job that gives him a new outlook on himself and life. Fraser is joined by a terrific cast who give dramatic weight to this quirky yet deeply moving comedy-drama.

“Rental Family” is available NOW in 4K Ultra HD on digital platforms. It will release physically on Blu-ray on February 17th. See below for a full synopsis of the film as well as a list of the special features from both the digital and physical releases.

About the Film:

Year: 2025

Runtime: 110 Minutes

Director: Hikari

Screenwriter: Hikari, Stephen Blahut

Cast: Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman, Akira Emoto

Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, some strong language, and suggestive material

Set in modern-day Tokyo, Rental Family follows an American actor (Brendan Fraser) who
struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family”
agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients’ worlds, he
begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality. Confronting
the moral complexities of his work, he rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the quiet beauty of
human connection.

Special Features:

Bonus Features

• Featurette: Rental Family Revealed — Go behind the scenes with Brendan Fraser,
  director HIKARI and the Japanese cast as they explore friendship, culture, found family,
  and filming in Japan in this intimate look at the making of Rental Family.
• Deleted/Extended Scenes:
  o Columbus
  o Crying Session
  o Apology
  o Aiko’s First Client
  o Clearbright
  o Tickets
  o Audition
  o Phone Call
  o Final Montage