There\u2019s a pleasing predictability to director Mira Nair\u2019s underdog sports drama \u201cQueen of Katwe,\u201d which tells the true story of Phiona Mutesi, an uneducated Ugandan peasant who became a chess champion with the help of coach\/missionary Robert Katende. The beats here are very familiar: A youngster shows promise, shocks her competition, suffers setbacks and then endures, inspiringly. But newcomer Madina Nalwanga is absolutely winning as Phiona \u2014 as is Lupita Nyong\u2019o as her struggling mother and David Oyelowo as her coach \u2014 and Nair draws on her decades of experience in putting poverty on film to give a Disney-approved feel-good film a vivid sense of place.
(Special features: A Nair commentary track, deleted scenes and featurettes that dig deeper into the lives of the real Phiona and Robert.)
\u201cThe Witness for the Prosecution\u201d (available Jan. 30 exclusively on Acorn TV)
Don\u2019t dial up the new BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie\u2019s short story \u201cThe Witness for the Prosecution\u201d expecting anything like Billy Wilder\u2019s beloved 1957 adaptation. The older version was more of a straightforward courtroom drama \u2014 with the twist being that the trial\u2019s in Britain, with all its arcane procedures \u2014 while the new one focuses more on the personal lives of the characters, following a frail solicitor (played by Toby Jones ) as he defends a murder suspect despite receiving no help from the man\u2019s chilly wife. Writer Sarah Phelps (who previously adapted Christie\u2019s \u201cAnd Then There Were None\u201d to great acclaim) returns to the original text, with its crueler twists and turns, and then fleshes it out into a haunting mystery-play, rooted in the trauma and regrets of World War I.
Kristen Stewart enjoyed the free-form aspect of making her short film, \u00ab\u00a0Come Swim\u00a0\u00bb which is showing at the Sundance Film Festival. She doesn’t see that as a directorial stepping-stone to full-length features.
The young women in \u00ab\u00a0Step\u00a0\u00bb demonstrate a routine at the L. A. Times photo studio during the Sundance Film Festival. The documentary is about senior girls in a Baltimore high school step team as they prepare to be the first in their families to attend college.
Casey Affleck talks about the way Kenneth Lonergan uses everyday language to convey deep emotion in \u00ab\u00a0Manchester by the Sea. \u00a0\u00bb
For her role as Jackie Kennedy, Natalie Portman says, \u00ab\u00a0It’s not a fashion story,\u00a0\u00bb but the clothes do tell a story.
Joel Edgerton talks about staying truthful to the real-life story of \u00ab\u00a0Loving. \u00a0\u00bb
\u201cVictoria: The Complete First Season\u201d (PBS DVD, $49.99; Blu-ray, $59.99)
PBS\u2019 \u201cMasterpiece\u201d is angling for another \u201cDownton Abbey\u201d-level ratings smash with the historical drama \u201cVictoria,\u201d which looks at the class differences and courtly codes of mid 19th century England. Jenna Coleman plays a young Queen Victoria, who assumes the throne at age 18 and then has to learn from her prime minister and mentor (played by Rufus Sewell) how to be a strong leader, lest she become the puppet of European aristocracy. This series doesn\u2019t spare the political intrigue, but it\u2019s first and foremost an elegant primetime soap about romance, betrayal and the wide gaps between the wealthy and their staff.
(Special features: Featurettes)
\u201cPinocchio: Signature Collection\u201d (Disney DVD\/Blu-ray, $39.99)
Back in 1940, Walt Disney suffered a rare box-office disappointment with his studio\u2019s animated adaptation of Carlo Collodi\u2019s moralistic fable \u201cPinnochio,\u201d about a puppet that yearns to be \u201ca real boy.\u201d Now though, the movie is rightly regarded as a classic because of its refreshingly dark tones and painterly beauty. Disney softened Collodi\u2019s hard edges with comic relief, along with sentimental songs like \u201cWhen You Wish Upon a Star.\u201d Yet \u201cPinocchio\u201d retains a hard punch, capturing the feeling of what it\u2019s like to be a child sweating out the judgment of grown-ups. It look like a 19th century European storybook, but it tells a timeless tale about how we can only hope to be better because we\u2019re all so crummy to begin with.
(Special features: Featurettes)
\u201cJack Reacher: Never Go Back\u201d (Paramount DVD, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99; 4K, $49.99; also available on VOD); \u201cMasterminds\u201d (20th Century Fox DVD, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.99; also available on VOD); \u201c Tyler Perry ‘s Boo! A Madea Halloween\u201d (Lionsgate DVD, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.99; also available on VOD).<\/p>\n