John Scheinfeld’s heartfelt documentary not only does the greatness of John Coltrane justice, but serves as a nice tribute to the likes of Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk as well.

The legendary saxophonist, who died far too early at the age of 40, is represented in a few quotes by the voice of Denzel Washington, who gives the film a nice flavor. Interviewees include Wynton Marsalis, Carlos Santana, Common, Sonny Rollins, John Densmore and, yep, saxophonist Bill Clinton, who actually offers some of the film’s best insights on Coltrane’s music.

The film focuses on Coltrane’s early struggles and conflicts with Davis over drug use, and his eventual rebirth after quitting drugs cold turkey. Fans will enjoy the appreciation of such classics as “Love Supreme,” while the non-initiated might find themselves struck by just how good Coltrane was and go stream a song or two after viewing.

I thought I knew a lot about the guy, but I didn’t know his last tour included a trip to Nagasaki, Japan to pay tribute to those who lost their lives to the atomic bomb. He was a very interesting man, and this is a very interesting documentary.

Bullets whiz, whistle and rip with a darkly comic ferocity in Free Fire, the latest from little known but super talented English director Ben Wheatley.

Wheatley has quietly been establishing himself as a solid indie director of action and horror with obscure gems like Sightseers, High-Rise and A Field in England, along with one of the better installments in the horror anthology The ABCs of Death.

With Free Fire, Wheatley gets to employ his action-directing prowess along with sharp dialogue and snap acting. He’s working with his biggest cast yet that includes an Oscar winner in Brie Larson, along with Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy and Sharlto Copley. The film is co-produced by Martin Scorsese, and the setup sounds like the sort of movie he should be making.

Two groups come together in a deserted Boston warehouse sometime in 1978. Things go awry, and the whole movie becomes one elongated shootout where everybody is taking bullets, and the losers will easily outnumber the winners. The movie is a blast, thanks in large part to Wheatley’s staging of the event, and the actors (especially Hammer) taking it to great heights. There’s some mystery involved in the payoff, but it’s secondary to the action, which is appropriately disorienting at times. I couldn’t always tell who was shooting who, but this works for the movie in adding to the chaos of the situation.

Throw in an extremely well placed John Denver song, and you have what amounts to a solid, eccentric step in the evolution of Wheatley, a white-hot director who is just getting started.

This throwback to John Carpenter/Clive Barker horror films is completely insane, horribly acted, and totally great for anybody who likes their horror served up with a side of cheese.

A brash policeman (Aaron Poole) picks up a stranger on the side of the road and takes him to a sparsely populated hospital (shades of Halloween 2). While there, a possessed nurse (shades of Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness) murders a patient, then promptly turns into a messed up monster (shades of Carpenter’s The Thing) while the hospital is besieged by a zombie-like throng of people dressed in white cloaks (shades of Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13).

Shortly thereafter, the head doctor dies, but comes back, promptly skins himself, and unleashes a world down below filled with mutants (shades of Barker’s Hellraiser). That’s just some of the homages, and they all come together to make little or no sense. Still, the style of the movie, which features schlocky special effects and both over and under acting, makes the whole mess work in an effective horror revival sort of way. If you hate horror films full of blood and puss where skinless doctors are bellowing devilish incantations, this one isn’t for you.

If you are a fan of the recent Stranger Things and the Carpenter fare of old, this one will satisfy you.

The Tucson sun is heating up again, which means indoor air conditioning will be everyone's best friend soon enough. For those days that it is too hot to do anything, including to leave your bed, kick back and relax in the comforts of your makeshift igloo with one (or all) of Casa Video's top 10 best-sellers of the week.

Star Wars: Rogue One

Hidden Figures


Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Split

Why Him?


Lion


Arrival

Sleepless

A Monster Calls

Moonlight

With no shame and no regret, award-winning Canadian filmmaker—by way of New York—Jefferson Moneo offers an unabashed look at the eclecticism of Tucson’s arts scene in his 18-minute documentary film Tucson Hot Damn.

Tucson Hot Damn makes its world premiere at the 2017 Arizona International Film Festival as part of The Tucson Happening, a music, performance and film event that closes the fest, which began Wednesday, April 19, and ends Sunday, April 30. (Go here for more info: filmfestivalarizona.com.)

Moneo’s affinity for Tucson served as incubator where the doc’s seeds germinated and took root. “I love Tucson; the town, the desert, and especially the people,” Moneo says. “For the past decade, I've been making the pilgrimage to Tucson for the Arizona International Film Festival. There's a reason I keep coming back.”

A sentiment echoed in wordsmith Billy Sedlmayr’s lyrics (from the song “Tucson Kills” featured in the film).

Well I left a dozen times
But I always crawl back against my will
Yeah, Tucson kills

Without borders—rising from 6th Avenue underpass downtown, whose surrounding warehouses have served as fertile spawning ground for artistic creativity, to the grit, symbolic decrepitude and skeletal remains of the once iconic Spanish Trail Motel sign off of I-10─Tucson Hot Damn takes the viewer on a journey in vignettes that capture artists at work and play; from the rawness of a soulful blues mouth-harpist to the effortless technicality of a classically trained violinist. In filmic prose, this short promises to be a trip down the rabbit hole on a wild and magical ride through "The Weird Capital of the World" featuring the music of beloved homeboys Brian Lopez, Gabriel Sullivan and Sedlmayr.

Adam Sandler’s third movie with Netflix is the very definition of over indulgence.

There’s a decent movie in here from director Steven Brill, who worked with Sandler previously on Little Nicky, Mr. Deeds and The Do-Over.

Sandler stars as the title character, a talent manager trying to find new clients in the ‘90’s. After working with low level comedians and daredevils, Sandy finds Courtney Clarke (Jennifer Hudson), an amusement park performer with a stunning voice. Sandy takes charge of her career, and sends her on a superstar trajectory. Sandler creates one of his weirdo characterizations, with a goofy voice and strange mannerisms. While some of the ‘90s jokes involving Fruitopia, Arsenio Hall and the Atkins Diet are pretty funny, Sandler and Brill take the movie off into a strange, unlikely romance realm that destroys all of the fun.

The movie is supremely overstuffed at 130 minutes, with one subplot too many involving Terry Crews as a flamboyant wrestler. His entire story arc could’ve been left on the cutting room floor. Kevin James has a fairly funny supporting role as a ventriloquist who carries on regular conversations through his dummies, and Nick Swardson scores some laughs as a daredevil reminiscent of Super Dave Osborne and Evil Knievel. Hudson is good in her role, even when the character inexplicably falls for Sandy.

At 90 minutes and without the love story, this one might’ve been okay. As it stands, it’s another miss for Sandler (Streaming exclusively on Netflix).

Kristen Stewart plays Maureen, a personal assistant to a celebrity, fed up with her job while dealing with the recent passing of her brother.

Before his dying, the brother pledges to make contact afterwards in the event of his death, so Maureen spends some time in his old house, where a spirit seems to be present. She starts getting mysterious text messages, and slowly finds herself having direct contact with ghostly spirits and/or completely losing her mind.

Part ghost story and part psychological drama, the film is directed by Olivier Assayas, who got a powerful performance out of Stewart with Clouds of Sils Maria, and the same happens here. Stewart continues her string of impressive choices, eschewing huge Hollywood projects in favor of more daring projects.

The film contains its share of supernatural moments, but there’s far more beneath the layers than Maureen simply speaking with ghosts. Credit Stewart and Assayas for making something simple like a text exchange truly compelling. There’s also a true eeriness to the scenes where Maureen may or may not be coming into contact with the dead.

Stewart carries this movie, and shows that she is one of the better actresses of her generation, yet again.

The new sci-fi-horror film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, is an inconsistent but overall sturdy genre pic that looks great and ultimately delivers the goods despite a few slow patches and a couple of remarkably dumb moments.

Credit director Daniel Espinosa for setting a grim tone and sticking with it through the very end. Too many big-budget films wimp out with their visions, but Life isn’t afraid to go to the dark place and stick around until the credits roll. Gyllenhaal and Reynolds play astronauts pulling a long haul on an international space station. Gyllenhaal’s David Jordan is actually about to break the record for consecutive days in space, and generally prefers life in the stars to life back on our miserable planet.

The crew is awaiting a space capsule containing samples from Mars, and these samples will put forth an amazing discovery: life beyond our planet. Ship scientist Hugh Derry (Ariyon Bakare) discovers a cell, wakes it up, and marvels at its ability to grow at a rapid pace. He eventually finds himself marveling at the little guy’s ability to grab on to his glove and basically mulch the hand within it. So, as the viewer quickly discovers, life on Mars was probably a total shit show, because this globular nasty—a distant cousin of Steve McQueen’s The Blob—digs on killing everything in its path.

The expedition goes from a triumphant discovery to ultra protective mode in a matter of seconds. If this thing gets to Earth, the Blue Planet will look like the Orange Planet virtually overnight. The movie hums along nicely for a while as the organism picks off crewmembers in grisly fashion. Some of those death scenes will impress those of you who like your movie deaths yucky, and Life does good things with weightless blood-splattering.

Renting movies, in my humble opinion, has become a lost pastime in the face of Netflix, Hulu and HBO GO. As convenient as these services may be, there's something about opening up a DVD case and popping it into a player that makes me nostalgic for a simpler time and can't be replaced. For those of you reading who are not college-aged students, maybe this is how you feel about VHS tapes or cassettes. Anyway, if you want to step away from your Netflix docket for a day or two, here are the top 10 movies you can rent from Casa Video.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them


Rogue One: A Star Wars Story


Why Him?

Arrival


Sing


Silence


20th Century Women


Passengers


Moana


Collateral Beauty

Japanese anime is about the last type of vehicle where I would expect to see a body switching comedy, but here it is.

Two teenagers in Japan find themselves inhabiting each other’s lives when they are dreaming, and general nuttiness ensues. Of course, this is Japanese anime, so things get a little deeper and metaphysical than two kids simply switching lives at high school. As the film goes on, there are comets, allegorical braids, time travel…this movie is nutty in a good way.

Writer-director shoots for the stars with his spiraling, inventive movie, and he reaches them. On top of being a great story, the animation is startlingly good. Actually, it’s some of the best animation I’ve seen in years. Does the movie try to do too many things at once? Perhaps, but it’s done so well you will forgive it it’s complications.

In a week where Hollywood released a pale Japanese anime remake in Ghost in the Shell, it’s nice to see a film that takes the anime art form to new heights. Let’s all just cross our fingers and hope Hollywood doesn’t try to do a live action remake of this one. That would be a confusing mess. It’s best to leave well enough alone, and this is a remarkably beautiful movie.