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.
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang)
Though far better known by its English title, the appropriately elegiac Goodbye, Dragon Inn, Tsai Ming-liang’s 2003 masterpiece bears a rather different name in Mandarin (rendered here via pinyin): Bú sàn, which roughly translates to “never leaving,” or—if one prefers the Sartre connotation—“no exit.” It forms the root of two distinctly contradictory Chinese idioms, which perfectly encapsulate the lamentation and beauty of Tsai’s film: Tiān xià méi yǒu bù sàn de yán xí, the infamous “all good things must come to an end,” and Bù jiàn bù sàn, which more or less means “even if we don’t see each other, don’t give up and leave,” or “I’m not leaving until I see you.” – Ryan S. (full review)
Where to Stream: Metrograph at Home
The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal)
One of the particular pleasures of The Lost Daughter, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal’s debut feature as a director, is wondering which of the handful of sizeable female roles in the film she’d best excel at playing. Would it have been Olivia Colman’s, the literature lecturer Leda in the film’s present-day thread? Or even the younger version of the character, incarnated by Jessie Buckley, in a way that you can just about see the imperious matriarch she would grow into. There’s also a supporting role played by Succession’s Dagmara Domińczyk, with a Gyllenhaal-like gait––the kind of perky minor role she often found herself consigned to at prior stages in her career. To wit, in author Tom Shone’s recently published interview book with Christopher Nolan, the director offers the suggestion that a film’s lead actors consciously or unconsciously imitate the mannerisms of the director they’re acting for. – David K. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Mass (Fran Kranz)
Set in the meeting room of a modest Episcopalian church, two couples meet under tragic circumstances. For his directorial debut Mass, accomplished actor Fran Kranz is determined to wring out four incredible performances from four incredible character actors through the discussion of an extremely tough subject. It is mission accomplished as Kranz succeeds in finding understanding in the unthinkable. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Redacted (Brian De Palma)
Redacted can hardly settle in one place, though it uses a plurality of visual forms — surveillance-camera footage; desktop observations of jihadist sites, YouTube (or YouTube-like) posts, and tribute pages by soldiers’ loved ones back home — for the same point: war is bad, the Iraq War is especially heinous, and it can only be expected that bad things will happen when overworked, paranoid soldiers are left to their own devices. This message’s simplicity is at odds with the complicity of its vector, Angel, never more so than in the central rape sequence that created a firestorm of controversy in 2007. We’re only made witness to this act because the aspiring film student observes it as a means of making his war document a more complete, stirring experience — or so he, the film’s controlling force, says. We certainly can’t claim to know him well enough to get his full perspective on the event; all that’s left is a fallout of grief, self-hatred, and a desire (if not total strength) to make right what’s been wrong. – Nick N. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime
Tangerine (Sean Baker)
Like a bat out of hell does Tangerine begin, the new film from Sean Baker. Shot entirely on iPhones, this film has a very specific style and Baker is determined to shove it down the viewer’s throat. It’s a bold, visceral piece of work about a certain part of Los Angeles and the people who live there. Our heroes are two transgender prostitutes named Alexandra (Mya Taylor) and Sin-Dee (Kiki Kitana Rodriguez). It’s Christmas Eve and Sin-Dee, just back from a 28-day stint in prison, learns from Alexandra that her pimp/boyfriend Chester (a scene-stealing James Ransone) has been cheating on her with a woman whose name starts with a “D.” And so begins a day-long odyssey for Sin-Dee to find “D” and confront Chester, while Alexandra walks around town inviting anyone and everyone to a solo-singing performance of hers at 7pm. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
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