This week\u2019s fringe VOD releases explore tumultuous historical periods in Japan and Germany, personal battles for women\u2019s reproductive health, and a monster going on a date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Love, Danielle<\/em><\/strong> (VOD October 3; DVD October 7):<\/strong> This well-meaning dramedy could double as a PSA for getting tested for the BRCA gene, and that\u2019s both its primary accomplishment and its primary weakness. Inspired by the actual experiences of star and co-writer Devin Sidell, the movie offers a sincere but often dramatically inert exploration of the aftermath of testing positive for BRCA. Thanks to her family history, Danielle (Sidell) already suspects that she\u2019s a carrier for the gene that greatly increases the likelihood of developing breast cancer. After getting her results, she struggles with the decision to have preventive surgery, while dealing with mild family drama, including unresolved issues with her controlling mother (Lesley Ann Warren) and narcissistic father (Barry Bostwick). The interpersonal problems never seem particularly urgent, but Sidell and director Marianna Palka bring sensitivity to Danielle\u2019s medical journey, which includes some stark real-life post-surgery footage. As Danielle\u2019s sister, Jaime King is the movie\u2019s bright spot, playing a clear-eyed, sharp-tongued cancer patient, and more of that spiky energy could have enlivened a mostly sedate movie. Grade: C+<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Match<\/em><\/strong> (Tubi October 3):<\/strong> What if Leatherface\u2019s mom made an online dating profile for him? That\u2019s the initial twist in this delightfully messed-up horror movie, which doesn\u2019t hide its influences (notably including Barbarian<\/em>) but avoids feeling like derivative opportunism. Lonely singleton Paola (Humberly Gonz\u00e1lez) just wants to meet a nice guy, and she thinks she\u2019s finally found him in the handsome, slightly old-fashioned Henry. But when she arrives at Henry\u2019s house for their date, she\u2019s instead greeted by his disturbingly enthusiastic mother Lucille (Dianne Simpson), who lures her in with vague excuses about Henry\u2019s absence. Being catfished by a killer is a standard plot for true-crime thrillers, but Match<\/em> takes the premise in increasingly demented directions, aided by Simpson as an enjoyably loopy villain and Gonz\u00e1lez as a gritty, determined protagonist. Prolific genre director Danishka Esterhazy (The Banana Splits Movie<\/em>, 2021\u2019s Slumber Party Massacre<\/em>) delivers gruesome horror that occasionally borders on tasteless, balanced with some surprisingly tender character moments. Even someone like Leatherface is just searching for happiness, in his own misguided way. Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Stella: A Life<\/em><\/strong> (VOD and Film Movement+ October 3):<\/strong> It\u2019s difficult to find the right tone to depict the life of Stella Goldschlag, a German Jew who aided the Nazis in rounding up her fellow Jews during World War II. Director and co-writer Kilian Riedhof doesn\u2019t exactly excuse Goldschlag\u2019s actions, but he provides context for the impossible position she was placed in. A jazz singer and aspiring actress, Stella (Paula Beer) dreams of stardom even as the rights of Jews are being rapidly stripped away. She first goes into hiding with her parents, then hooks up with a forger who sells counterfeit papers to other Jews. It\u2019s only after being arrested and tortured that she agrees to collaborate, and the movie takes far too long getting to that point. The disjointed storytelling sometimes feels like an extended highlight reel rather than a coherent narrative, and Riedhof loses momentum when shifting to the aftermath of Stella\u2019s crimes. Beer\u2019s fierce performance holds the movie together, making Stella alternately pitiable and reprehensible, with the messy complexity of real life. Grade: B-<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n