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.
Astrakan (David Depesseville)
Astrakhan fur is unique: dark, beautiful, and stripped exclusively from newborn lambs, even ones killed in their mother’s womb. (Stella McCarthy once said it’s like wearing a fetus.) That ruthlessness—a sense of lost innocence; blood sacrifice—runs deep in Astrakan, a new film from France and one of the better in Locarno this year; and if that title isn’t enough to give pause, plenty else in the opening exchanges will. The first act is a procession of flags, both red and false: at the opening the protagonist, Samuel, lightly goads a snake in the reptile house of a zoo; moments later a rabbit is hung and skinned in his kitchen with all the ceremony of a boiled kettle; queasiest of all, an older lad is seen walking toward the house cradling berries in his shirt, just enough that the lip of his underwear and his midriff are left strikingly visible. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: OVID.tv
The Dirty Stories of Jean Eustache
Of the most monumental restorations of the last few years, Jean Eustache’s brief but major output during and following the creative burst of the French New Wave can now be seen in all its glory. While headlined by his towering, intimate 1973 epic The Mother and the Whore, there’s also his near-perfect coming-of-age feature My Little Loves along with a plethora of shorts: Robinson’s Place (1963), Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes (1966), The Virgin of Pessac (1969), Numéro zéro (1971), The Pig (1975), A Dirty Story (1977), The Virgin of Pessac 79 (1979), Alix’s Pictures (1980), Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Delights (1981), and Employment Offer (1982).
Where to Stream: Criterion Channel
Girls State (Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss)
Four years later, McBaine and Moss have returned to Sundance with Girls State, the proverbial, gender-swapped sequel that attempts to achieve likeminded goals. Perhaps because Boys State didn’t acknowledge this parallel sister program, Girls State is at once a chance to redeem that oversight, make an easy bid for Apple TV+ to build out a digital double feature, and offer a compelling counterpoint to the original’s testosterone-fueled endeavor. Instead of parachuting into Texas, the filmmakers––and their 30 camera operators––set up shop in Missouri. The major difference? The state scheduled both programs to happen at the same time on the same campus, inviting comparison and adding a new wrinkle into this future-building exercise. – Jake K. (full review)
Where to Stream: Apple TV+
How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker)
Touching down in Heraklion, on the Greek island of Crete, marks the beginning of summer holidays for Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce), Skye (Lara Peake), and Em (Enva Lewis), a trio of best friends who have just taken their A-levels and for whom school is the last thing on their mind. The first thing is… well, the title gives it away. British teens on holiday at a Greek resort means booze, booze, and more booze, but Molly Manning Walker’s debut film has the power to take these prosaic cultural archetypes (teenhood, virginity, youth drinking culture) and use them as tools to tell a poignant story about the ambivalences of growing up, female friendships, and consent. – Savina P. (full review)
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
Snack Shack (Adam Rehmeier)
Evolving the zippy, punk aesthetic in his previous feature Dinner in America, director Adam Rehmeier’s Snack Shack is an entertaining Dazed and Confused-esque summer comedy, bolstered by the spirited performances of its leads, Conor Sherry and The Fabelmans‘ Gabriel LaBelle. Following the always-scheming best friends’ journey as they attempt to strike rich when they take over the snack shack of the local pool, the narrative ends up hitting some expected beats, but there’s a comfort in its familiar nature––conveying a throwback nostalgia that doesn’t overshadow its characters. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: VOD
Spermworld (Lance Oppenheim)
While many companies were affected by shortages brought on by COVID-19’s disruption, some may not be top of mind when it comes to everyday commerce. Enter filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, whose latest work Spermworld depicts the evolution of sperm banks. There’s been high interest from potential parents for receiving the male sperm, and the limited regulations of in-person sperm banks (e.g. donors can’t give their sperm to more than 25 or 30 families) have made donors run their business online. After contributing to the New York Times article The Sperm Kings Have a Problem: Too Much Demand, Oppenheim has now crafted a mind-boggling moving-image companion piece with backing from the outlet. – Edward F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
La Syndicaliste (Jean-Paul Salome)
I’ll admit I didn’t expect to see an overt Vertigo homage in the middle of this rather matter-of-fact Isabelle Huppert procedural. Fixating for a second on the bun on the back of her noticeable-through-the-runtime blonde wig, La Syndicaliste affords some time, in the middle of all its backroom dealings and court hearings, to ponder her as a star and film history. For all the dramatic proceedings surrounding her, the icon––who’s essentially been anointed France’s Meryl Streep (though far less annoying and mechanical a performer)––is given some opportunities to “serve” throughout; chiefly she looks very poised answering her cell phone. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: Kino Film Collection
The Unseen River (Phạm Ngọc Lân)
Two couples chart the Mekong River in opposite directions––reminiscing on the past and contemplating their future––in this mesmerizing short by emerging Vietnamese filmmaker Phạm Ngọc Lân. Commissioned for an anthology film about the future of the Mekong River, Lân’s film fuses together varied musings on time, love, and technology into a dreamy portrait of the Mekong.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)
In a media era increasingly shaped by immersive experiences, it’s hard to imagine another work as provocative, imaginative, and necessary as The Zone of Interest. Every Johnathan Glazer film arrives with the promise of glimpsing the artform’s creative frontier (Johnnie Burn and Mica Levi, take a bow), but the director’s first in a decade brought so much more. It was always going to stoke certain evergreen debates, but few could have expected it to hold such a mirror to our own doom-scrolling passivity. Martin Amis’ death falling within 24 hours of its Cannes premiere felt poignant. The timing of its eventual release has been another thing entirely. – Rory O.
Where to Stream: Max
Also New to Streaming
The Criterion Channel
After Hours
Directed by William Friedkin
Films by Makoto Shinkai
Heat
Hong Kong in New York
House of Pleasures
Mambar Pierrette
Nocturama
One Night
Peak Noir: 1950
Personal Shopper
The Strangler
Surreal Nature Films
The Taking
Werckmeister Harmonies
The Witches of the Orient
Hulu
The Big Lebowski
Take Shelter
True Lies
Metrograph at Home
Asako I & II
Il Buco
Caniba
La Flor
Kate Plays Christine
Nocturama
Streetwise
Sweetgrass
MUBI (free for 30 days)
45 Years
Amores perros
Barking Dogs Never Bite
Brawl in Cell Block 99
The Death of Stalin
The Host
Keep an Eye Out
Stavisky…
Yannick
Weekend
Netflix
Amadeus
The American
American Graffitti
Birdy
Body Double
Inside Man
Kill Bill
The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions
A Passage to India
Starman
You’ve Got Mail
Paramount+ w/ Showtime
Talk to Me
Prime Video
Apocalypse Now Redux
The Aviator
The Last Temptation of Christ
Bad Lieutenant
The Host
The Limey
Nebraska
Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountains
Rosemary’s Baby
Thief
Titanic
To Catch a Thief
We Own the Night
Witness
Tubi
Death Becomes Her
Death Proof
Heat
Gloria
Jackie Brown
Last Action Hero
The Thing
They Came Together
VOD
The American Society of Magical Negroes
Knox Goes Away
Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter