The House of Tomorrow is an unusual coming-of-age film about two rebellious Minnesota teenagers who form a punk rock duo. One, played by Asa Butterfield (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Hugo), is a naïve kid who was home schooled in Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller’s domed house of tomorrow by his former hippie grandmother, played by Ellen Burstyn. The other, played by Alex Wolff (The Naked Brothers Band), is a more worldly-wise youth recovering from a recent heart transplant. They meet when Wolff, his father (Nick Offerman), and sister (Maude Apatow) are part of a group touring Burstyn and Butterfield’s unique home.

First-time director Peter Livolsi wanted the best for his film, so he figured he’d start at the top and work his way down. He sent the script to Burstyn, not sure she’d accept, and not having the faintest notion that she had known “Bucky.” It turns out she had attended one of his lectures while she was filming The Exorcist and flew to Chicago to interview him during a five-hour stopover at O’Hare. They became friends and she has the home movies to prove it. She not only leaped at the chance to make the film but provided a delightful home movie of her and “Bucky” riding in a car.

Burstyn and Offerman are quite good in their roles, but the film belongs to the three young actors. Apatow, the daughter of Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann, grew up with Wolff and the two make a very believable brother and sister. Britisher Buttterfield, as he proved with The Space Between Us, does an American regional accent flawlessly.

The House of Tomorrow is available on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Winner of the Cinematography award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, The Yellow Birds played the festival circuit before being given a limited theatrical release in June 2018.

One of the better Iraq War films, or rather anti-war films, this one stars Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One) and Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) in this story of loss of innocence and loss of life.

The two young soldiers from the same town in Virginia bond in basic training with each other and their sergeant (Jack Huston) who looks out for them in Iraq. The pressures of war take their toll on both Sheridan and Ehrenreich with Sheridan going missing and Ehrenreich returning home with a severe case of PSTD. Jason Patric plays the CID officer assigned to investigate Sheridan’s disappearance, Jennifer Aniston plays Sheridan’s grieving mother, and Toni Collette plays Ehrenreich’s exasperated mother. All six actors are at the top of their game with Sheridan, Ehrenreich, and Huston providing exceptionally fine performances.

Based on the novel by Iraq War veteran Kevin Powers, the film was directed by Alexandre Moors.

The Yellow Birds is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

The Russo Brothers’ Avengers: Infinity War is another in a long line of disappointing Hollywood blockbusters. The third film to bring together all the Marvel comic book superheroes is a setup for the fourth and final instalment due out next year. The best that can be said for it is that it gives employment to a lot of of good actors who should be doing better work, some of whom are, outside of the lucrative Marvel franchise. The film starts off on the wrong foot with an opening sequence that borders on torture porn. From there it moves to a plethora of battle scenes involving the likes of Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, Chris Evans as Captain America, Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Tom Holland as Spider-Man, and Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther. It ends on a totally despairing note.

Avengers: Infinity War is available in various Blu-ray and DVD formats.

Brian De Palma is best known for such excellent genre films as Carrie and Dressed to Kill. His most successful film at the box office was 1987’s The Untouchables after which he made the 1989 Vietnam War film Casualties of War, which has been given a Blu-ray release by Sony.

An “important film,” the allegedly true story of a helpless recruit who is forced to watch his sergeant and three other soldiers kidnap, rape, and murder a Vietnamese girl has its admirers but I’ve always found it rather overheated, driving its points home a bit too emphatically. Michael J. Fox does give an excellence performance as the recruit, a performance far removed from his sunny Back to the Future, as does Sean Penn as the sergeant. The future double Oscar winner for Mystic River and Milk received even stronger notices than Fox at the time.

Vincente Minnelli is best remembered these days for his musicals, among them Meet Me in St. Louis, An American in Paris, and Gigi, but he was equally celebrated in his day for his pioneering use of the widescreen CinemaScope process which reached its zenith with 1960’s Home from the Hill, which has been given a long overdue Blu-ray release from Warner Archive.

The family saga gave Robert Mitchum one of his best roles as a northeast Texas land baron with two sons, one legitimate and one illegitimate. Mitchum’s performance is right up there with his work in Out of the Past and The Night of the Hunter. Eleanor Parker works wonders with her relatively small role as his long-suffering wife, her last major role before turning to character parts in films from The Sound of Music on.

The film was also a showcase for its three young stars, all of whom had been in films before, but hadn’t yet achieved stardom. George Peppard, who plays the illegitimate son, had been on TV and in films from 1956; George Hamilton, who plays the legitimate son, had been in films since 1952; and Luanna Patten, who plays the girl they are both in love with, had been in films since 1946. Peppard won the National Board of Review (NBR) award for Best Supporting Actor. Mitchum won the NBR award for Best Actor for both Home from the Hill and The Sundowners. Minnelli was nominated by the Directors Guild of America Award for both Home from the Hill and Bells Are Ringing, his fifth and sixth nominations, which would be his last from the guild.

This week’s new releases include Deadpool 2 and First Reformed.