False Positive was released on June 25, 2021 and is available for streaming exclusively on Hulu. Ilana Glazer (Broad City, 2014-2019) and Justin Theroux (The Spy Who Dumped Me, 2018) play a happy married couple struggling to conceive a child. After meeting with a fertility doctor, played by a smarmy Pierce Brosnan (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, 2018), they achieve a pregnancy. But the excited mother-to-be faces unexpected decisions, simmering suspicious, and shocking emissions...of blood.

Adapted from the famous musical first produced on Broadway in 2008, In the Heights presents a vibrant kaleidoscopic view of the New York City neighborhood Washington Heights and the hopes and dreams of its Latinx residents.

Oscar-winner Emma Stone (Battle of the Sexes, 2017) plays the title role in the dark and snazzy origin story of Cruella DeVil, one of the most flamboyant villains in the canon of Disney animated films who was first brought to life on the big screen in 1961's One Hundred and One Dalmatians (and followed by a handful of sequels and remakes).

With newly released thrillers The Woman in the Window directed by Joe Wright (Darkest Hour, 2017) and Those Who Wish Me Dead directed by Taylor Sheridan (Wind River, 2017), mainstream film looked promising May 14-16. But both these films proved disappointing mainly from trying too hard and using too many cliches. So I was pleasantly surprised to see another new film released May 12 on Netflix called Oxygen that elevated my weekend viewing from a dish at Sizzler to least a dish at The Cheesecake Factory. Oxygen is a tense cerebral mystery about a young woman who wakes up alone in a cryogenic sleeping pod and has to figure out how to survive before her oxygen is depleted but with no memory of how she got there or who she is. Through patchy phone calls, internet searches, and answers from the ghostly voice of a computer interface system, our panicked woman gradually assembles pieces of her life.

First of all, let me explain this film is not the gritty drama from 2003 starring Charlize Theron as a real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos. This Monster was filmed in 2018 and was just released on May 7 through Netflix.

For those of you who did not watch the Academy Awards ceremony on April 25, let me explain that much of the ceremony felt like a desperate, yet restrained, plea to get viewers to return to movie theaters as soon as it's possible and safe.

Shalayne Smith Needham: Flix at 48 is up next with our film critic Casey T. Allen. Hi, Casey.

Thunder Force is a superhero comedy first released on Netflix April 9th, and it inspired me to send a personal message to the film's leading actress, Melissa McCarthy (Superintelligence, 2020). The message reads like this: "Dear Melissa McCarthy, Please stop making movies with your writer/director husband Ben Falcone. Sincerely, Casey T. Allen. The end."

Choosing to produce a fresh contemporary horror film is so often a bad decision, like rollerblading as an adult, or naming a newborn infant Kenneth. Thankfully, the film Relic has proven me wrong with a horror film that is lasting, patient, and chilling. Relic was officially released in July 2020 but has recently become available through both Amazon Prime and Redbox.

Shalayne Smith Needham: Our conversations recently have focused on award season for the film industry. There has been a lot of talk about the Oscars, which are coming up in about a month from now. It's been a difficult year for the industry, of course, with COVID-19. First, tell us how will the 93rd Annual Academy Awards be different this year?