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.
Behind the Scenes with Jane Campion (Prisca Bouchet & Nick Mayow)
In the wide-open spaces of Montana, a glimpse of the set of Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, which earned her an Academy Award for best directing after a decade-long hiatus. Narrated by Campion herself, it also features her sketches, notes, and visual inspirations.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
Enys Men and Bait (Mark Jenkin)
Perched on the cliff of a windswept island off the coast of Cornwall is a shock of white flowers. Every day a woman studies their petals in religious silence before heading home and jotting notes in a diary. Date. Daily temperature. Observations. The year is 1973, the month April, and that’s about as much contextual information Mark Jenkin’s sinuous, entrancing Enys Men parcels out. We don’t know who the woman is, what or who those notes are for, when she got to the island, when she’ll leave. Penned by Jenkin, its script credits her as “The Volunteer,” whose daily pilgrimages to the cliff feel like a vocation, an act of faith. – Leonardo G. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Gods of Mexico (Helmut Dosantos)
The Aztec story of creation is one of birth through destruction; of life existing because death occurred. According to their myths, in the beginning, the god Ōmeteōtl (who contained both male and female forces) created itself and gave birth to four children, each representing the cardinal points. From these children sprung the elements and creatures, including a powerful sea monster called Cipactli who waged a battle against the gods that ended in its death, from which the cosmos was born. – Jose S. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Little Richard: I Am Everything (Lisa Cortés)
Little Richard: I Am Everything is positively bursting with unforgettable anecdotes, so much so that choosing one standout is virtually impossible. So perhaps offering a personal favorite is more sensible: it was the late ’60s and Richard was performing in the States on a bill that included Janis Joplin. The latter appeared first and destroyed the audience with her passion and verve. Richard, watching from the side of the stage, told a cohort to get to the hotel and retrieve his “mirror suit.” Challenge accepted: when his performance began the lights reflected beautifully off the suit. He was a living mirror ball, resplendent, transcendent. Joplin, watching from the wings, could only utter “Oh my God.” – Chris S. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Personality Crisis: One Night Only (Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi)
David Johansen has been called many names in his life. He’s been the lead singer of the New York Dolls. He’s been Buster Poindexter. He’s been a member of the Harry Smiths. He performs with different personas, with different bands, alternating genres of music. He’s now the subject of Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi’s documentary Personality Crisis: One Night Only, a film focused on his 2020 cabaret show at New York’s Cafe Carlyle. – Michael F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Showtime
The Real Thing (Koji Fukada)
With each scene Tsuji becomes more involved in Ukiyo’s troubles, even offering to pay off a massive loan with his life savings. Aesthetically, Fukada maintains distance from the characters, filming in long takes and few close-ups so as to keep their ulterior motives in question. The Real Thing makes a motif from suspicion, using each scene to deepen the confusion and frustration that helps define this stretched version of messy amour fou. – Glenn H. (full review)
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
Rodeo (Lola Quivoron)
It’s as well-worn a trope as any in the coming-of-age genre: the elusive, underground subculture that draws in a young protagonist, whose discovery of this world helps them learn more about themselves in the process. Director Lola Quivoron’s latest feature Rodeo, an Un Certain Regard prize winner at last year’s Cannes, mercifully sidesteps such cliches in its exploration of a motocross community that exists just off the fringes of suburban Paris. Unfortunately, this is because it becomes overly formulaic in a different way, very quickly transforming into a familiar tale of a young person’s indoctrination into a criminal gang and lacking enough depth in cultural specificities of its surrounding world to ever truly stand out. – Alistair R. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
A Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell)
In the beginning of A Thousand and One, the New York City streets are alive, detailed and humming with swagger. It’s 1993 and Inez struts through Brooklyn after a five-year stint at Rikers Island, readjusting to the rhythms of freedom. The sun bakes the brownstones, hip-hop echoes around storefronts, and kids suck on ice pops––the kind of weather and atmosphere Samuel L. Jackson might be yammering about from his bedroom window. But there’s no time to waste. Inez is looking for Terry, the seven-year-old she left behind and hopes to reclaim. – Jake K.S. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Also New to Streaming
Hulu
Joyride
Poker Face
Quasi
MUBI (free for 30 days)
Dogville and Manderlay
Synonyms
Autobiography of a Princess
A Fish in the Bathtub
Bully
Netflix
The Snowman
Prime Video
Cutthroat Island
Judy Blume Forever
VOD
Cairo Conspiracy
Suzhou River