Butch Cassidy, a foul-mouthed teddy bear, and an accountant-turned-pop singer star in this week\u2019s minor VOD releases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are You Lonesome Tonight?<\/em><\/strong> (VOD March 17):<\/strong> The protagonist of Chinese filmmaker Wen Shipei\u2019s stylish, noir-influenced debut feature eventually ends up with a bag of stolen money and gangsters on his tail, but the meditative drama initially takes precedence over the underworld intrigue. Late one night, air conditioning repairman Wang Xueming (Eddie Peng) flees the scene after accidentally hitting a man with his car. (Exploring Xueming\u2019s guilt over his actions is just as important to Wen as the crime story.) Although Xueming believes himself responsible for the man\u2019s death, there\u2019s more to the situation than he realizes, as Wen gradually reveals in a sometimes confusing nonlinear narrative. Xueming establishes a connection with the victim\u2019s unwitting widow (Sylvia Chang), and the two actors share a sweet, understated dynamic. Wen makes the city of Guangzhou a perfect noir setting, giving it the vibe of a neon-soaked fever dream. The suspense and the anguish combine for an evocative, rewarding existential thriller. Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch<\/em> (Tubi March 17):<\/strong> Although the real-life Butch Cassidy\u2019s gang was known as the Wild Bunch, it\u2019s unlikely that historical accuracy was the main reasoning behind the title of this Tubi original from mockbuster factory The Asylum. Anthony C. Ferrante\u2019s film hardly benefits from comparisons to classic Westerns Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid<\/em> and The Wild Bunch<\/em>, although it\u2019s more respectable than might be expected from the director of the Sharknado<\/em> movies. Ross Jirgl plays Cassidy as a bland pretty boy, and the low budget means minimal opportunities for shootouts and train robberies. Instead, there\u2019s a lot of standing around in rooms talking, as Pinkerton detective Charles Siringo (Jeffrey Combs) tracks Cassidy and his gang. Combs delivers one impressively menacing monologue to Cassidy\u2019s adoptive mother (Dee Wallace), but Ferrante mostly squanders the talents of the cast\u2019s slumming veterans (including Bruce Dern). This Cassidy is so dull and stiff that it\u2019s hard to imagine he could ever become a legend. Grade: C-<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Last Sentinel<\/em><\/strong> (VOD and select theaters March 24):<\/strong> The director of a three-hour, Oscar-submitted Estonian historical drama seems like a strange choice to helm a post-apocalyptic B-movie, but Tanel Toom brings the right amount of solemnity to this surprisingly engrossing sci-fi chamber piece. The seas have risen to engulf nearly all land on Earth, leaving only two small continents that are perpetually at war with each other. In the middle of the ocean, four soldiers man an early-warning outpost armed with the last remaining nuclear weapon, and they go a little stir crazy as they await a relief crew and any word from home. Stars Kate Bosworth, Thomas Kretschmann, Lucien Laviscount, and Martin McCann make the most of Malachi Smyth\u2019s sparse screenplay, and Toom gives the quiet scenes room to breathe\u2014sometimes more than necessary. There are some shaky special effects, but the movie focuses more on personal relationships and philosophical quandaries than spectacle. For patient viewers, there\u2019s plenty to explore. Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n