Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
BlackBerry (Matt Johnson)
In BlackBerry, the rise of a blue-chip tech company sets the stage for the dissolution of a longstanding friendship. Sound familiar? Just wait ‘til you hear the score. Directed by Matt Johnson, it tells the true story of Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin, software engineers who founded the company RIM in the mid-80s and later invented a cellphone that could handle email. The film begins on the day when they meet Jim Basillie (Glenn Howerton), a Rottweiler who, alongside Lazaridis’ genius, turned RIM’s invention (only later christened BlackBerry) into the world’s most ubiquitous mobile device––at least for a time. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Hole in the Fence (Joaquín del Paso)
69 years on from Lords of the Flies and its source of influence seems ever-flowing. The latest film to take inspiration from the set-up comes from Joaquín del Paso, whose visually exacting sophomore feature The Hole in the Fence follows a group of boys at a religious summer camp as they receive intense training. As mysteries start to pile up, the film reveals itself to be a biting commentary on class in Mexican society. While the script can feel a bit flat and obvious in spots, the film’s power lies in its unflinching, sobering depiction of how violence can breed under the guise of purportedly holy leadership.
Where to Stream: VOD
Hypnotic (Robert Rodriguez)
This is probably an odd thing to say, but whenever watching a modern potboiler I find myself asking, “What would Bertrand Tavernier think?” The kind of French cineaste that found themselves most at home in the company of the disposable American crime film, the esteemed director could wax poetic on the most disreputable of pictures. If you squint during Hypnotic––a collaboration between Robert Rodriguez and Ben Affleck that’s likely been cooking since they first met at a 1997 Miramax holiday party––you can see faint traces of a classic noir like Otto Preminger’s Whirlpool, or something of such ilk. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Method Acting
Another new series on The Criterion Channel delves into the art of method acting. Kicking off with a great new conversation between Isaac Butler, Ethan Hawke, and Vincent D’Onofrio, the series also features such iconic classics as A Place in the Sun (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), 12 Angry Men (1957), The Misfits (1961), Something Wild (1961), Splendor in the Grass (1961), The Haunting (1963), The Pawnbroker (1964), Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Graduate (1967), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Rachel, Rachel (1968), Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968), Five Easy Pieces (1970), Wanda (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971), The French Connection (1971), and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974).
Where to Stream: Criterion Channel
Padre Pio (Abel Ferrara)
The film is grounded in the reality of Italian life shortly after World War I, as socialist ideas gained currency amid calls for a transformation of society and the populace imagined a better way of life following their army’s traumatic return from the battlefield. The town of San Giovanni Rotondo, located in the country’s southeast, is conceived by Ferrara and first-billed co-screenwriter Maurizio Braucci (who appositely worked on Martin Eden) as a microcosm of this societal shift, where the ruling class harass their charges and dispute the results of a key national election in an apt parallel to Trumpian America. – David K. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke)
On December 2, 1966, director Shirley Clarke and a miniscule film crew gathered in her apartment at the Hotel Chelsea. Bestowed for twelve hours with the one-and-only Jason Holliday, Clarke confronted the iconic performer about his good times and bad behavior as a gay hustler, on-and-off houseboy and aspiring cabaret performer. As the cameras rolled and Holliday spun tales, sang songs and donned costumes through the night, a mesmerizing portrait formed of a remarkable man. Ingmar Bergman called it “the most extraordinary film I’ve seen in my life,” but audiences may know it better as Portrait of Jason, a funny, stinging and painful meditation on pride and prejudice through the eyes of a legendary figure.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
Pride Month
As Pride Month kicks off, look no further than Criterion Channel for your viewing needs. Across three separate series, they’ve collected essential works and new discoveries. LGBTQ+ Favorites brings together Je tu il elle (1975), Jubilee (1978), Querelle (1982), Desert Hearts (1985), Tongues Untied (1989), Paris Is Burning (1990), Weekend (2011), and more. Masc, curated by Jenni Olson and Caden Mark Gardne, examines masculine identity as it exists outside the realm of cisgender men, featuring Vera (1986), Shinjuku Boys (1995), By Hook or By Crook (2001), Lifetime Guarantee: Phranc’s Adventure in Plastic (2001), Southern Comfort (2001), The Aggressives (2005), Tomboy (2011), Stud Life (2012), Chavela (2017), and No Ordinary Man (2021). Last but not least curator Michael Koresky’s latest Queersighted series examines the gay best friend with Easy Living (1937), Adam’s Rib (1949), The Strange One (1957), A Taste of Honey (1961), Rachel, Rachel (1968), Knightriders (1981), The Fisher King (1991), Single White Female (1992), Six Degrees of Separation (1993), and Irma Vep (1996).
Where to Stream: Criterion Channel
Reality (Tina Satter)
A good conceit can go a long way. In 2017, a former U.S. Air Force member-turned-NSA translator named Reality Winner leaked a document to The Intercept exposing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. On June 3rd of that year, two FBI agents appeared on her lawn and began questioning her. She didn’t ask for a lawyer and, after roughly 90 minutes, was arrested. In Reality, directed by Tina Satter from her own acclaimed play Is This a Room, that transcript is performed to the letter. Then a curious kind of alchemy occurs: as the actors laser-in on the transcript’s every detail, Satter’s fascinating film moves away from the rhythms of political thriller and into the eerie realm of the uncanny. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Max
Safe (Todd Haynes)
Although the “Horror” segment of Poison is more easily identifiable as a conventional, well, horror film–especially for playing up the kitsch of low-budget B-movies from the 1950s–Safe might be his horror masterpiece. His tale of a 1980s housewife who becomes allergic to her suburban world is chilling in its articulation of anxiety and alienation, one that is at once universal and capitalizes on specificity. Though there are no out queer characters in the film, Haynes’s use of the housewife archetype, Carol (Julianne Moore), lets him mine gay culture to present a form of estrangement that feels especially potent for queer people. While its coldness and austerity lends an Antonioni-esque and Kubrickian feel, the brand of dread and isolation (identity as social construct) belongs only to Mr. Haynes. – Kyle T. (full feature)
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
Sátántangó (Béla Tarr)
The most stunning experience I had in a cinema in recent years was witnessing the new restoration of Béla Tarr’s 7-5 hour masterpiece Sátántangó. Now available on MUBI, the story of those in a small village as Communism crumbles makes for the ideal marathon viewing. A potent combination of humanity and brutality, the journey is one of truly setting the viewer in its intimate world, captured with stunning cinematography by Gábor Medvigy in every meticulous frame.
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
To Leslie (Michael Morris)
British-born Andrea Riseborough deserves credit for her ability to seemingly morph into any character like a chameleon. With veteran TV director Michael Morris’ feature debut To Leslie the actress brings a tremendous level of sympathy to her West Texan title character. The story is quite straightforward, hinging upon Riseborough’s ability to carry a script with both hope and cruelty. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Also New to Streaming
The Criterion Channel
The Doom Generation
Screwball Comedy Classics
Starring Marilyn Monroe
Disney+
Indiana Jones series
MUBI (free for 30 days)
This Must Be the Place
John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection
Inspector Ike
Mélo
Is This Fate?
Prime Video
The Exiles
Violent Night
VOD
Monica