This week\u2019s fringe VOD releases feature multiple poorly managed murder cover-ups among bull-riders, college students and cult members, plus a lovely sojourn to a surrealist restaurant in Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ride<\/em><\/strong> (VOD and select theaters June 14):<\/strong> Before belatedly turning into a low-level crime thriller, director and co-writer Jake Allyn\u2019s debut feature is a turgid family melodrama. It takes a while just to work out the relationships of the main characters, Texas ranchers with a long history as rodeo cowboys. C. Thomas Howell growls and grumbles as former bull-riding champion John Hawkins, whose 11-year-old daughter is in need of expensive cancer treatment. John\u2019s son Peter (Allyn), also a former bull-riding champion, was just released from prison, and John\u2019s estranged wife Monica (Annabeth Gish) is the town sheriff. The cast members, including Forrie J. Smith as John\u2019s father, all seem to be the wrong ages for their characters, and Allyn makes every interaction into an anguished, overwrought battle of emoting. The rodeo scenes look fantastic, accompanied by a rousing post-rock score by Those Who Ride With Giants, but the personal drama is a grim slog. Both the eventual desperate crime and its aftermath are presented with confusing obtuseness that Allyn mistakes for emotional resonance. Grade: C<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Queen Rising<\/em><\/strong> (VOD June 18):<\/strong> The queen who rises here is Madison (April Hale), survivor of both a childhood with an abusive stepfather and an infamous series of campus slayings during her college years. Now working as a teacher, she\u2019s convinced by her hunky, seemingly sensitive colleague Greg (Xamon Glasper) to let him turn her experiences into a book, but he obviously has ulterior motives. With its soap opera-level plotting and acting and its disingenuous message of violent female empowerment, Queen Rising<\/em> comes off like Tyler Perry\u2019s Promising Young Woman<\/em>, leading up to two heavily telegraphed yet incoherent twists. There are flashbacks nestled within flashbacks, serving only to obscure the fundamentally uninteresting narrative. Director Princeton James stages all of the action with generic indifference (Madison gets a foreclosure notice on letterhead from \u201cThe Bank,\u201d and her sister\u2019s dorm room is adorned with a poster that simply reads \u201cUniversity\u201d), indicating as little enthusiasm for making the movie as the audience will have for watching it. Grade: D+<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Waiting for Dali<\/em><\/strong> (VOD June 18):<\/strong> The leisurely pace of this Spanish dramedy matches its setting in a sleepy seaside town where brothers Fernando (Ivan Massagu\u00e9) and Alberto (Pol L\u00f3pez) attempt to lay low following Alberto\u2019s run-in with the law. Set in 1974, Waiting for Dali<\/em> deals with the political repression of the Francisco Franco dictatorship, but the social commentary is mostly background for a character-driven story about professional and personal passion. In the tourist town of Cadaqu\u00e9s, veteran chefs Fernando and Alberto are hired by flamboyant restaurateur Jules (Jos\u00e9 Garcia) to cook at his Salvador Dali-themed establishment El Surreal. Jules is obsessed with getting local resident Dali to eat at El Surreal, and that mission inspires Fernando\u2019s culinary creativity. Director David Pujol previously made documentaries about both Dali and renowned restaurant El Bulli, so he understands his subject matter, but more importantly, he builds strong relationships among complex, engaging characters. It\u2019s as enjoyable to spend time with them as it is to take a trip to Cadaqu\u00e9s. Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n