Director's Intent: Kaleidescape 4K

The Greatest Showman is a musical inspired by the life of Phineas Tayler “P.T.” Barnum, creator of the world famous (and now defunct) Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus. It’s the story of how an ambitious and imaginative entertainer rises from humble beginnings to become a showbiz pioneer and one of the best looking and sounding movies available on home video.

1923 — exclusive on Kaleidescape through early August — is a prequel to the popular TV show Yellowstone that follows the Dutton family in the early 20th century as they struggle to survive the harsh realities of the American West. Set in 1923 during Prohibition — a time of cascading hardships including drought and the lead-up to the Great Depression — the Duttons must fight to keep their Montana ranch and preserve their way of life amid challenges by new enemies and rapid change brought on by the transition to electricity, modern appliances, and automobiles.

HBO has a long tradition of creating “must watch” shows over the past 25 years. Their latest hit, The Last of Us, is based on the video game of the same name that was developed by Naughty Dog and released back in 2013 for the PlayStation 3. The series is created by Craig Mazin, known for his work on the HBO series Chernobyl, and Neil Druckmann, the writer and creative director of the video game.

Written and directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, this is my personal favorite to win multiple Oscars this year. The film follows the story of Maureen Folan, who during a contentious IRS audit discovers she is connected to multiple parallel universes and must navigate through them in order to save her family from an ancient evil.

We first meet Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle) as a young boy in New Jersey venturing out to the movie theater to watch The Greatest Show on Earth. After witnessing the horrific train crash in the film, the young man experiences nightmares and decides the only way to get the image out of his head is to recreate the crash using the Lionel train set his parents gave him for Hanukkah while capturing it on film using his father’s 8mm camera. This stoked a creative spirit in the young boy that would last a lifetime.

Yellowstone is back for its fifth season and the issues facing the Dutton family couldn’t be more intense. The patriarch of the family, John (Kevin Costner), has just been elected governor of Montana and his number one priority is ensuring the survival of his ranch. This determination is going to land him in some hot water with constituents and before he knows it, he’s embroiled in a political scandal initiated by a vindictive adversary.

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi begins with the words, “This is a true story,” not “based” on one, with a screenplay by Chuck Hogan that is based on the book from Michael Zuckoff. It steers mostly clear of the politics surrounding the attack and tells the story from the perspective of the people who were on the ground during the attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. Regardless of the politics, four Americans lost their lives that night: Ambassador Chris Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and CIA operatives Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, both former Navy SEALs who were civilian contractors working out of a secret CIA Annex near the compound.