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THE STAND is a deeply felt portrait of responsibility, resilience, and love. In just 14 minutes, Oanh-Nhi Nguyen crafts a story that feels both intimate and universally relatable, centering on Quinn (Jovie Leigh), a young girl who helps her mother run a hectic food stand. When her mother is unexpectedly pulled away, Quinn teams up with her younger brother Liam (Kailen Jude) to keep the business running, determined to make enough to give their mom something she rarely gets — a night off.

LITTLE BIRD might only span 17 minutes, but it examines a story with the weight of a feature. Director Oanh-Nhi Nguyen takes audiences back to 80s Los Angeles, crafting a layered, empathetic portrait of displacement, survival, and the courage to stand against injustice. While many films explore the aftermath of the Vietnam War, few focus on what happened after refugees landed on American soil — the nuanced realities that existed between the headlines. Nguyen’s story narrows in on one woman, Linh Tran (Chantal Thuy), whose job forces her to confront those very truths.

HIS MOTORBIKE, HER ISLAND is a film that explores the story like a half-remembered dream — one that lingers not because of its plot, but because of how it makes you feel. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, best known internationally for the wild genre-bending of HOUSE (1977), this 1986 romance trades chaos for something gentler, more reflective. It’s a story of fleeting youth, personal freedom, and the delicate push-and-pull between two people drawn together by the hum of an engine and the lure of the open road.

MISS FREELANCE compresses a week of a woman’s life into nineteen minutes, yet the film’s impact extends well beyond that running time. Matthew Kyle Levine writes, directs, shoots, and edits with a prudence that never feels rushed. The story follows Carly, played by Maddy Murphy, as she moves through a series of meetings with men across New York City. The nature of these interactions isn’t a mystery—Levine isn’t coy about the transactional element—but the focus is on what each encounter reveals about Carly’s life.

This limited-edition collection arrives with a simple promise: three features that capture a studio at full tilt and a filmmaker defining his lane just before the tidal wave of Bruce Lee reshaped the market. MARTIAL LAW: LO WEI’S WUXIA WORLD isn’t pitched as a greatest-hits reel; it’s a snapshot of a style. You get the moral chess of classic wuxia, the immaculate storytelling of Shaw Brothers productions, and a trio of heroines and heroes whose choices are drawn with confident precision. The restoration and supplements make the case that these are not just archival curiosities—they’re genuinely entertaining films that still play well all these years later.

There’s a depth to stories like BAU, ARTIST AT WAR that goes beyond the mechanics of filmmaking. Sean McNamara’s dramatization of Joseph Bau’s life doesn’t just retell history—it actively engages with the question of how love and art can endure when surrounded by cruelty. The film’s premise alone places it alongside some of the most emotionally charged narratives in the war drama genre. But what keeps it from being swallowed by the familiar tropes of Holocaust cinema is the specificity of its subject: a man who turned creativity into resistance.

Long before Baz Luhrmann’s visual fireworks or Robert Redford’s sun-drenched elegance, Elliott Nugent’s 1949 take on THE GREAT GATSBY brought F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age novel to life, filtered through the sensibilities of postwar Hollywood. With the Production Code still in force, this adaptation inevitably softens some of the source material’s sharper edges. Yet, it remains a compelling, character-focused take on one of America’s most enduring stories — and now, restored from a new scan for Kino Lorber’s 2025 Blu-ray release, it’s easier than ever to appreciate its strengths.

Some shows build their appeal on grit and high-stakes peril; WHITSTABLE PEARL does it by balancing cozy mysteries with just enough dramatic bite to keep you leaning forward. The third season returns to the Kent coast with the same blend of scenic beauty, relatable characters, and a mix of cases that stretch from the quirky to the chilling. However, while the tone still leans toward the “comfort watch” category, this season delves deeper into the emotional lives of its leads, raising the stakes in subtle yet meaningful ways.

There’s an ease to slipping back into DARBY AND JOAN that’s hard to find in most contemporary mystery dramas. The pairing of Bryan Brown’s wry, world-weary ex-detective Jack Darby and Greta Scacchi’s inquisitive, warmhearted nurse-turned-sleuth Joan Kirkhope has always been the hook, but Season 2 proves that this show has more in its tank than just chemistry and charm. Picking up a year after their initial run-ins across the Australian outback, the duo is more comfortable in each other’s company but just as entangled in trouble — this time with stakes that are personal, and potentially deadly.

THE RAINMAKER marks the latest chapter in the life of John Grisham’s best-selling legal drama, following its 1997 feature film adaptation with a serialized reimagining for television. Rather than retelling the story beat for beat, the series takes the core setup and expands its scope, using the longer format to develop side characters, parallel investigations, and a more sustained sense of danger.

MOSQUITOES (LE BAMBINE) takes the notion of a summer friendship and turns it into something far more complex and revealing. Set in 1997, the film follows eight-year-old Linda as she leaves her grandmother’s Swiss villa with her mother, Eva—a woman more like an unpredictable older sister than a parent. Their path leads them to Ferrara, Italy, where Linda meets sisters Azzurra and Marta. What begins as a chance encounter becomes an alliance, the three forming a self-declared gang to protect their youth and each other from the unreliable adults surrounding them.

Olivier Assayas’ SUSPENDED TIME is as much a diary entry as it is a feature film, built from the in-between moments of pandemic life and anchored by a deeply personal connection to its setting. In the spring of 2020, as lockdown reshaped daily life worldwide, Paul Berger (Vincent Macaigne), a filmmaker not far removed from Assayas himself, retreats to his childhood home in the Chevreuse Valley. He’s joined by his partner, Carole (Nora Hamzawi), his brother Etienne (Micha Lescot), and Etienne’s new girlfriend Morgan (Nine d’Urso). The arrangement quickly turns into a personal, sometimes claustrophobic microcosm of the broader uncertainties outside their walls.

THE DIABOLIK TRILOGY from the Manetti Brothers is a bold, three-film return to one of Italy’s most enduring pop culture icons, adapting the long-running comic created by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani. Spanning three years and two actors in the title role, this Kino Lorber collection brings together DIABOLIK (2021) and DIABOLIK: GINKO ATTACKS! (2022), and DIABOLIK: WHO ARE YOU? (2023) in a single package that embraces the source material’s style while testing the patience of audiences expecting modern comic-book pacing. It’s a set that’s at its best when it leans into its sleek production design and the magnetic presence of Miriam Leone’s Eva Kant, but not every chapter delivers with the same precision.

Some home video releases arrive and serve as simple preservation projects; others feel like a chance to step into a time capsule. Kino Lorber’s Pre-Code Classics [CONFESSIONS OF A CO-ED | LADIES OF THE BIG HOUSE] is firmly in the latter category, resurrecting two early-1930s Paramount melodramas with all the forbidden allure of pre-Code Hollywood. Both star a radiant, still-rising Sylvia Sidney and showcase just how far studio storytellers could push the boundaries before the Production Code began tightening its grip. Viewed together, they not only highlight Sidney’s remarkable screen presence but also reveal two sides of the same coin — scandal in collegiate halls and desperation behind prison bars.

REPUTATION didn’t need a sprawling city or a sprawling runtime to make an impact. Set in a small Lancashire town still scarred by tragedy and soaked in tension, Martin Law’s 83-minute feature debut delivers a brutal yet empathetic look at male identity, loyalty, and the illusion of escape. For all the familiar elements—drug deals, toxic friendships, and spiraling violence—there’s a freshness here rooted in direction, confident performances, and a deep understanding of working-class lives.