With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below, and shoot over suggestions to @TheFilmStage
Begin Again (John Carney)
To answer the former title’s question—Can a Song Save Your Life?—writer/director John Carney says “yes.” A song can save someone from jumping off a subway platform and someone else from the searing emotional pain of being scorned in love. Music in general is an art form that can move us to tears with one simple chord or touchingly real lyric. It alters us in a way that can’t be explained; the same song telling a person there is purpose while the guy standing a foot away might hear nothing. In other words, it’s not the song that does the saving necessarily, but the specific moment in time it comes into contact with its target. A beauty can resonate, reach your heart, and tell you everything is going to be okay. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Breathe In (Drake Doremus)
In nearly every possible way is Drake Doremus‘ Like Crazy follow-up, Breathe In, a more mature, confident and impressive piece of work. For the first hour at least. Featuring quietly devastating performances from Guy Pearce and Amy Ryan, who play a couple at the bitter end of a 17-year old marriage, Doremus allows his actors to act, slowly letting us into this family that is broken to pieces once foreign exchange student Sophie (Felicity Jones) comes to stay. He and cinematographer John Guleserian let the camera stay put for the most part, a welcome change of pace from the handheld shakery that consumed Like Crazy. It’s a handsomely shot film that makes the very most of its Upstate New York setting. At once dreary and serene, the color tone of the picture very succinctly meshes with the emotional pull going on inside this home. All is wrapped together with a beautiful score from Katie Byron. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Camp X-Ray (Petter Sattler)
There’s a noble attempt in Camp X-Ray, written and directed by Peter Sattler, to make a war movie that’s about individuals rather than ideals. Set in Guantanamo Bay, the film is essentially a long conversation between Private Amy Cole (Kristen Stewart) and a GITMO detainee named Ali (Peyman Moaadi). Cole is green, newly transferred to the station. Ali, on the other hand, has been held by the United States for nearly a decade. What begins as a long-form test of Cole’s patience by Ali, who’s already got a history as a uncooperative detainee, slowly morphs into something deeper. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
The Debt (John Madden)
There is a fantastic film in The Debt. With a director like John Madden behind the camera, it’s a bit surprising that he didn’t churn out something of a higher caliber, especially when there’s plenty of scenes that show signs of a competent, meticulous storyteller at work. And, sure enough, when those scenes play out – a tense train station sequence in particular – they outweigh the film’s less impressive qualities. – Jack G. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Hours (Eric Heisserer)
Paul Walker, who will forever be remembered as an action star, is an interesting choice to leadEric Heisserer’s Hours, a drama with elements that seem borrowed from an action film. It never revs up into kinetic action movie territory, however, instead remaining a contained, smart dramatic thriller. Walker stars as Nolan, whom we learn very little about despite the film’s flashback structure. What we do learn is that he’s married to the beautiful Abigail (Genesis Rodriguez), whom he met at random when the two strangers accidentally prevented a bank robbery — this and a lot of other would-be action sequences remain off screen. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Housebound (Gerard Johnstone)
Housebound takes the sealed bottle horror genre and waltzes right up to it, telling it that everything you expect, the characters expect as well, and lets things fall where they may. Everyone is immediately on top of their game when the haunted house aspect is revealed, but no one seems particularly good at keeping the bad stuff from happening. Perhaps general ineptitude is where most of the hilarity in director Gerard Johnstone’s newest film comes from, but since when is that anything but funny in spurts? Kylie Bucknell (Morgana O’Reilly) is a 20-year-old rebel that manages to fail at the big details during a heist and is sentenced to house arrest at her mother Miriam’s (Rima Te Wiata) house. That wouldn’t be too bad, but between all of her sudden free time and Miriam’s doting, but gossipy, personality she feels like it might just be apt punishment. – Bill G. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz)
While Lav Diaz’s Norte, the End of History may not be easily classified or explained — it could be summarized in terms of basic narrative trappings, but not as far as intent or accomplishment are concerned — it conjures an intoxicating psychology, transplanting all of its socio-political concerns through the eyes of characters so wholly realistic that we feel we’ve actually met them. Diaz, whose works are known both for their langorous observations of very human systems and their overwhelming attention to spiritual / psychological details, has concieved a work as ambitious as any made by the humanist directors of yester-year. (Kenji Mizoguchi particularly comes to mind.) Drawing some of his inspiration from Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Diaz tells one encompassing story from three essential viewpoints, although the summation of these interspections are more thematic than narrative, introducing us to characters who wind up on different spectrums and on different receiving ends of various social pressures that exist within the Phillipines. The film’s extensive running time — upwards of four hours, and with nary a shot or moment I can imagine cutting — and Diaz’s own distinctive, hypnotic visual style — long master shots and intuitive relocations of space — do make Norte something of a challenge, but it’s been a long time since a filmmaker rewarded with so much in exchange for our patience. – Nathan B.
Where to Stream: iTunes
Palo Alto (Gia Coppola)
In the opening shot of Gia Coppola’s feature-length debut, Palo Alto, the camera slowly zooms in from afar on a parked car where two teens, Teddy (Jack Kilmer) and Fred (Nat Wolff), are getting high. The content of the shot, a pair of youths in disarray, and the voyeuristic camerawork echoes the dynamic home robbery sequence in 2013’s The Bling Ring, a film by another member of the Coppola family. – Zade C. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)
While its tone wildly varies, when it comes to the glut of horror remakes, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon‘s new spin on The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a slight step ahead of the standard batch. This is a brutal and dark slasher flick that also has time–perhaps to its detriment–to be intensely sweet at times. Building characters that one roots for, the film drops in elements that messes with their world and also maintains a duality where pop-rock music can introduce a character that is brutally murdered just minutes later. In a way it can feel refreshing, but it can often leave one mystified about what the film is trying to achieve. This pseudo-documentary-meets-slasher-flick surrounds real murders and isn’t afraid to crib off of those famous Texarkana killings and the original movie it inspired. – Bill G. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Venus In Fur (Roman Polanski)
Even in an advanced age and with a slightly reduced rate of output, Roman Polanski is still considered one of the most influential filmmakers alive and operating. His previous film, Carnage, was adapted from a piece of theater by scribe Yasmina Reza and is constrained to a single interior location; following suit with similar meta-theatrics, Venus in Fur is the second adapted play for Polanski, this time taking from playwright David Ives‘ tale about an actress auditioning for a dominatrix-inspired role. Turning this into what could have easily been titled Fifty Shades of Polanski, he examines the roles of sexuality between a man and a woman. – Raffi A. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Wish I Was Here (Zach Braff)
The great adventure at the heart of Zach Braff‘s Wish I Was Here is the search for purpose. An answer to the question, ‘why are we here? And for what reason?’ Even though our protagonist Aidan Bloom (Braff) seeks for an answer, that the film ultimately dissolves into a collection of scenes without much reason is perhaps its biggest revelation. A hot commodity well before Sundance thanks to its controversial funding process, Wish I Was Here boasts a very impressive supporting cast, including but not restricted to Mandy Patinkin, Kate Hudson, Jim Parsons, Josh Gad and Ashley Greene, as well as some nifty production value and an expectingly well-placed soundtrack. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Witching and Bitching (Álex de la Iglesia)
The pacing is relentlessly silly at times, but all I could think while watching Witching and Bitchingwas how wild the experience was. Witness the opening sequence, where robbers are dressed as street statues. One is an Army Man named Tony (Mario Casas), complete with a green machine gun. Another, Jose (Hugo Silva), is dressed as a metallic Jesus with a cross in tow (inside, a shotgun). The way the opening heist, as laughs abound, is almost completely bungled sets up exactly how competent the two crooks are. – Bill G. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Young Ones (Jake Paltrow)
Young Ones, from writer/director Jake Paltrow, opens with a bang, and spends the rest of the time trying to live up to its promise of smart and entertaining science fiction. Set in a future dystopia where water is near-extinct, a recovering alcoholic named Ernest Holm (Michael Shannon) is trying to survive on top of dry crops. His son, Jerome (Kodi Smit-McPhee), is his partner, while his daughter, Mary (Elle Fanning), wears a permanent scowl on her face. She’s got a crush on rebel Flem Lever (Nicholas Hoult), wayward son of the local fat cat. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Also New to Streaming
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Why Stop Now
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What are you streaming this weekend?