Home cinema highlights

Now’s the time to stream or rent some of the best movies of 2019 that probably went under your radar!

Check your streaming service for availability.

Action, Adventure, Family 

The kid who would be king (PG)

A band of kids embark on an epic quest to thwart a medieval menace. The Kid Who Would Be King recalls classic all-ages adventures — and repurposes a timeless legend — for a thoroughly enjoyable new addition to the family movie canon.

Starring: Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Denise Gough, Dean Chaumoo

Director: Joe Cornish

Comedy, Family

Mary Poppins Returns (PG)

Michael Banks learns that his house will be repossessed in five days unless he can pay back a loan. His only hope is to find a missing certificate. Just as all seems lost, Michael and his sister receive the surprise of a lifetime when Mary Poppins arrives to save the day.

Starring: Emily Blunt, Ben Whishaw

Director: Rob Marshall

Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

Dora and the lost city of gold (PG)

Having spent most of her life exploring the jungle, nothing could prepare Dora for her most dangerous adventure yet — high school. Accompanied by a ragtag group of teens and Boots the monkey, Dora embarks on a quest to save her parents while trying to solve the seemingly impossible mystery behind a lost Incan civilization.

Starring: Isabela Merced, Eugenio Derbez, Michael Peña

Director: James Bobin

Documentary, History

Apollo 11 (PG)

Apollo 11, chronicles the 1969 U.S. moon landing, and was crafted from roughly 11,000 hours of audio recordings and previously unseen footage. Director Todd Douglas Miller creates a pulse-pounding, bracingly intimate look at this historic event and how it united a nation.

Starring: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin

Director: Todd Douglas Miller

Adventure, Drama, Mystery

Ad Astra (PG-13)

Brad Pitt is a captivating leading man in James Gray’s elegiac space drama, about a mournful astronaut who travels to the outer reaches of the galaxy in search of his dad (Tommy Lee Jones), who went missing on a Neptune mission decades earlier. It’s a heartbreaking story about family, connection and the sacrifices of achieving greatness, made richer by stunning cinematography and jaw-dropping action sequences.

Starring: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones

Director: James Gray

Action, Fantasy

Aquaman (PG-13)

Atlantis is an underwater kingdom ruled by the power-hungry King Orm. With a vast army at his disposal, Orm plans to conquer the world. Standing in his way is Aquaman, Orm’s half-human, half-Atlantean brother and true heir to the throne.

Starring: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard

Director: James Wan

Comedy, Drama

The Upside (PG-13)

Phillip is a wealthy quadriplegic who needs a caretaker to help him with his day-to-day routine. He decides to hire Dell, a struggling parolee. Despite coming from two different worlds, an unlikely friendship starts to blossom.

Starring: Kevin Hart, Bryan Cranston

Director: Neil Burger

Drama, Mystery, Romance

The Souvenir (R)

A young film student in the early ‘80s becomes romantically involved with a complicated and untrustworthy man.

Starring: Neil Young, Tosin Cole, Jack McMullen

Director: Joanna Hogg

Drama, Music

Her Smell (R) 

Elisabeth Moss gives the best performance of her career in Alex Ross Perry’s feverish, relentless and ultimately affecting drama, in which the “Handmaid’s Tale” actress plays a self-destructive punk rocker struggling with sobriety while trying to recapture the creative inspiration that led her band to success.

Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Cara Delevingne, Director: Alex Ross Perry

Drama, Mystery, Horror

Midsommar (R) 

A couple travels to Sweden to visit a rural hometown’s fabled mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.

Starring: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Vilhelm Blomgren

Director: Ari Aster