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Celebrating its 45th anniversary, director Andrew Davis’ first film “Stony Island” will make its digital debut on major VOD platforms and DVD on Nov. 17. That same day, there will be a theatrical screening of the film at the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago. Following the one-night-only screening, Davis and his brother Richie Davis will host a Q&a session.

“Stony Island” tells the story of “two struggling musicians who buck the odds in their attempt to form an R&b band and take it on the road,” according to a release provided to Variety. It follows Richie Bloom, the only white kid on the block, who forms a band with his best friend Kevin Tucker. Aging sax legend Percy Price mentors them as they pull together a funky supergroup. Armed with little resources and facing heavy losses, the musicians must unite to make their smash debut.

The film received accolades...

In its opening scene, Canadian dramedy Good Dog directly references Curb Your Enthusiasm. Its lead character, neurotic TV producer George (Ken Finkleman), is planning an unnecessary trip to Los Angeles to get Larry David’s blessing to use the title “Embrace Your Enthusiasm” for a planned fly-on-the-wall series about his life. It feels like a move intended to undercut criticism that Good Dog‘s a “Canadian Curb“, but one that doesn’t work. If anything, it just draws additionally attention to the fact this is a poor man’s version of the Emmy-winning Curb, and possible the worst comedy pilot I’ve seen in years.

It doesn’t help that I had no idea who Ken Finkleman was, and therefore no opinion of him to subvert. He’s an award-winning writer-producer-actor, who created and starred in a hit Canadian TV series called The Newsroom in the ’90s, amongst other things,...