Both Fyodor Dostoevsky and Jean-Claude Van Damme make comebacks in this week\u2019s low-profile VOD releases, which also feature grieving parents, Danish lesbians, and vampire drug addicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Karamazovs<\/em><\/strong> (VOD June 3):<\/strong> Paring down Fyodor Dostoevsky\u2019s sprawling 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov<\/em> into an 86-minute feature film necessitates jettisoning lots of characters and subplots, but director and co-writer Anna Brenner successfully turns the vast story into a chamber piece with a handful of players. Adapting her own stage play, she transmutes Dostoevsky\u2019s brothers into sisters and one brother, all converged on their childhood home where their tyrannical father Fyodor (Ezriel Kornel) is dying of cancer, largely offscreen. Brenner mixes naturalistic drama and literary stylization, with Fyodor\u2019s caretaker Liz (Rami Margron) often speaking directly to the audience and guiding the narrative. The dialogue combines florid philosophical digressions with modern angst, and while the balance isn\u2019t always effective, the strong performances help smooth over the rough transitions. Brenner\u2019s limited resources curtail her ambitions when profligate brother Dimitri (Ross Cowan) ends up on trial for murder, but whenever the movie returns to these dysfunctional relatives in a room confronting their troubled past and fraught future, it\u2019s emotionally and existentially gripping. Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Venus Effect<\/em><\/strong> (VOD June 2):<\/strong> There\u2019s a gorgeous, sun-dappled look to this Danish romantic dramedy, which takes place mostly on an idyllic farm where 20-something Liv (Johanne Milland) works with her parents. Her seemingly settled life is upended by the unexpected arrival of free-spirited lesbian artist Andrea (Josephine Park) at the neighboring apple orchard. Although she\u2019s dating a man and always considered herself straight, Liv is immediately drawn to Andrea, and their relationship progresses quickly from flirty photography sessions to steamy backseat sex. It\u2019s all fairly standard, but Milland and Park have sweet, appealing chemistry, and writer-director Anna Emma Haudal introduces conflict without relying on clich\u00e9d small-town homophobia. Liv\u2019s sexual awakening is just one aspect of her life that is thrown into chaos after Andrea arrives, and those changes add up to a minor but serious crisis that culminates at an uncomfortable Christmas dinner. The lovely nature shots and soundtrack full of Scandinavian pop create a relaxed vibe that extends even to the family drama. Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Barron\u2019s Cove<\/em><\/strong> (VOD and select theaters June 6):<\/strong> Garrett Hedlund begins this overwrought thriller at such a heightened level of anguish that there\u2019s nowhere left for him to go as his brutish underworld enforcer deals with the horrific death of his young son. Writer-director Evan Ari Kelman sets the grim tone in an opening scene that involves a child getting run over by a train, and things do not get more upbeat from there. Caleb (Hedlund) is determined to uncover the truth, even if that entails kidnapping the child of a powerful, corrupt local politician (Hamish Linklater). As more gloomy secrets come to light, Kelman delivers a bargain version of Denis Villeneuve\u2019s equally histrionic Prisoners<\/em>, with weaker performances and clumsier twists. Hedlund plays every scene with unearned intensity, without any build-up or modulation. Linklater makes for an ineffectual villain, and Stephen Lang coasts through his role as Caleb\u2019s menacing mob-boss uncle. Kelman treats every scene like it\u2019s a profound revelation, but the only revelation is how seriously he takes this pulpy nonsense. Grade: C-<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n