What to Watch This Weekend: Happy Cleaners, To Tokyo, The Right One, The Panti Sisters, Malcolm and Marie, Coming to America, Let him Go, 1917

For A Narrative Immigrant Story: Happy Cleaners (Digital)
Happy Cleaners tells an authentic immigrant story, with interesting insights into the Asian experience, a wonderful family dynamic, and a good balance of dreams and duty.  For more information, check out the review!

For A Dreamlike Horror Movie: To Tokyo (Digital)
To Tokyo is a surreal film, with an art house feel, high production values, and a sense of wonder and dread.  For more information, check out the review!

For A Few Laughs: The Right One (Digital)

The Right One is a hilarious rom-com with an amazingly funny premise, a great cast, and enough heart to appeal to any persona.  For more information, check out the review!

For A Bold and Silly Filipino Film: The Panti Sisters (Netflix)

The Panti Sisters is a hilarious film that has plenty of important messages below its flamboyant skin.  It is something that is so wonderfully different and heartfelt that it should not be missed.    For more information, check out the review!

For A Stylistic Relationship Drama: Malcolm & Marie (Netflix)

A stylish presentation and great chemistry between the stars overcomes some of the film's shortcomings, in this new Netflix drama with some serious starpower. 

For A Laugh: Coming to America (Amazon)

Get ready for the sequel's launch on Amazon next month by watching the original, now available on Amazon prime!  

For a Slow But Satisfying Family Drama: Let Him Go (Redbox and Digital)

Let Him Go has fantastic characters and a slow burning story, fueled by the natural chemistry between Costner and Lane, in this harrowing tale of family and fear.  For more information, check out our review!

For A Cinematic War Movie: 1917 (Showtime)

1917 uses impressive camera work and Hollywood magic, booming special effects, and impressive sets to tell an authentic, dramatic war story.  For more information, check out our review!

What to Watch This Weekend: Holiday Movies, Let Him Go, Post-Halloween Horror, Playing With Fire, Long Shot

For Some Irreverent Holiday Cheer - Cup of Cheer (Digital and Tubi)

Cup of Cheer's confident, irreverent style, beautiful camera work, and great music make this one holiday treat that you won't want to return for store credit.  For more information, check out our review!

For Some Emotional Holiday Cheer - My Dad's Christmas Date (Digital)

My Dad's Christmas Date gives Barrett and Piven a chance to shine and brings an unconventional holiday story with great characters and plenty of emotion and heart.  For more information, check out the review!

For Some Extra Holiday Cheer - Operation Christmas Drop (Netflix)

The film is doing well with audiences and provides your standard holiday rom com so you can get in the holiday mood now!

For A Family or Western Thriller - Let Him Go (Theaters)

Let Him Go has fantastic characters and a slow burning story, fueled by the natural chemistry between Costner and Lane, in this harrowing tale of family and fear.  For more information, check out our review!

For Some Post-Halloween Horror - The Dark and the Wicked (Theaters, Digital)

The Dark and the Wicked will keep you on edge with it's palatable sense of tension, dread-filled atmospheric horror, amazing gore and effects, and wonderfully nuanced characters in a terrible predicament.  For more information, check out our review!

For Some Historical Horror - Antebellum (Redbox)

Antebellum is an imaginative mind game that explores the sins of the past and present through strong performances, a mysterious story, and some fantastic, dread-inducing music.  For more information, check out our review!

For the Kids - Playing With Fire (Hulu)

Maybe you have a lot on your mind this weekend and want to distract the kids for a couple hours.  If that's the case, then this is the perfect movie.  It is surprisingly entertaining for adults and my kids absolutely loved it  For more information, check out our review!

For Election Junkies - The Long Shot (Cinemax)

Long Shot starts off ridiculously enough but as it develops, you get to see a lot of heart from Theron and Rogan in this humorous election romp.

Let Him Go Review: A Harrowing Family Story Fueled By Costner And Lane

Release date: November 6, 2020
Running time: 114 minutes
Starring: Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Lesley Manville, Jeffrey Donovan, Kayli Carter, Booboo Stewart, Will Brittain
Director/Writer: Thomas Bezucha, based on the novel “Let Him Go” by Larry Watson
Producers: Paul Mazur, Mitchell Kaplan

Following the loss of their son, retired sheriff George Blackledge (Costner) and his wife Margaret (Lane) leave their Montana ranch to rescue their young grandson from the clutches of a dangerous family living off the grid in the Dakotas, headed by matriarch Blanche Weboy (Manville). When they discover that the Weboys have no intention of letting the child go, George and Margaret are left with no choice but to fight for their family.

The main stars of this film are Diane Lane and Kevin Costner, two iconic actors that are good in pretty much everything they have done.  The pair play the main characters in Let Him Go and are the focus of much of the screen time.  And thankfully, the pair have a very good dynamic on screen.  In the film they play an old couple that have been together forever and Lane and Costner portray this perfectly.  And they do approximation of a relationship between themselves.  They are old and have some quirks of old people, but they are comfortable in their old relationship.  And that is partly due to the great writing.  The dialog between Lane and Costner, and between all the characters, feels natural and fits with the time period.  Let Him Go is just good all around from a character standpoint.  The characters in this world feel fully fleshed out and have quirks and personalities that come through on the big screen.  

The story of this film takes a long time to develop but it is worth it.  The film does a good job of telling a story set in this time period.  Everything just feels right, from the clothing, to the cars, to the sense southern and midwest hospitality, with the outward warmth but inward steel.  And although the film takes a long time to develop, the film has a good sense of foreboding.  You can tell that something terrible will happen early on so you have an internal sense of dread as the movie develops.  And when that does happen, the film does have some visceral, extreme violence.  And although this sense of foreboding is implied at the start, the story does go off the rails towards the end of it.  The film has a more exiting final third than I expected from the build up, and did feel a little too extreme in that respect, but the overall build up was so good that I didn't mind it.    

Let Him Go has fantastic characters and a slow burning story, fueled by the natural chemistry between Costner and Lane, in this harrowing tale of family and fear.

Watch it.

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Let Him Go will be available in theaters on November 6, 2020.

Screening: Let Him Go Virtual Screening

We have screening passes for the new movie Let Him Go, from Focus Features.  Let Him Go features the all star cast of Diane Lane and Kevin Costner and is a tense, harrowing family drama.  This film will be IN THEATERS on November 6th!

Following the loss of their son, retired sheriff George Blackledge (Costner) and his wife Margaret (Lane) leave their Montana ranch to rescue their young grandson from the clutches of a dangerous family living off the grid in the Dakotas, headed by matriarch Blanche Weboy (Manville). When they discover that the Weboys have no intention of letting the child go, George and Margaret are left with no choice but to fight for their family.

SCREENING INFO

Let Him Go
Wednesday, November 4th
7:00 PM EST
Virtual!
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE8pwEF-3TI

Screening Link: http://focusfeaturesscreenings.com/SglgK88827