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.
Almost Holy (Steve Hoover)
The most fascinating part of Steve Hoover‘s latest documentary Almost Holy is how its subject Gennadiy Mokhnenko parallels the life of well-known Russian cartoon Krokodil Gena. The latter deals with a lonely crocodile zoo worker named Gena and his friend Cheburashka: a young, abandoned creature rejected by the establishment employing him. The two therefore construct a home for the lonely as a result so nobody will feel their pain again. This show is the only thing to come out of the former Soviet Union that Mokhnenko remembers fondly, his drive to clean Ukraine’s streets of drugs aligning with the promise of a European Union membership in direct opposition of everything the USSR was. The kids he shelters call him Pastor Crocodile, the savior of Pilgrim House. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino)
Despite a loose script that justifies little, Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s follow-up feature to his glorious melodrama I Am Love is a sweaty, kinetic, dangerously unpredictable ride of a film. One is frustrated by the final stroke of genius that never came, but boy was it fun to spend two hours inside such a whirlwind of desires, mind games, delirious sights and sounds. Based on the 1969 French drama La piscine (The Swimming Pool), the story essentially begins as Marianne (Tilda Swinton) and Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts) – a couple vacationing on an Italian island – get an unexpected visit from her former lover and record producer Harry (Ralph Fiennes), along with his daughter Penny (Dakota Johnson). Harry, a raging bohemian who still harbors affections for Marianne, and Penny, a confident Lolita-type who has her sights set on the hunky Paul, will make sure feelings old and new get kindled, leading to frictions that may end up being more than harmless. – Zhuo-Ning Su (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Brooklyn (John Crowley)
Presented with the tale of an Irish immigrant, one would perhaps expect a dreary and brutal film about the hardships of moving to America. In a way, John Crowley‘s Brooklyn is that movie, but, really, it’s so much more. While the Nick Hornby-scripted adaptation isn’t without its tough drama, Crowley’s picture is also full of kindness and laughs. In the 1950s, Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) is moving to America, thanks to her wonderful sister (Fiona Glascott). Eilis leaves her sister, mother, and the small shop she hates working at to go to Brooklyn, where a job and home has been set up for her. Initially, she’s isolated and alone in her new home. She’s not particularly good at her job and doesn’t get along well with her housemates. Her feelings towards the city soon change when she meets Tony (Emory Cohen), who’s basically a total dreamboat with no flaws to speak of. Tony quickly falls for Eilis, and even his Italian parents are smitten by her sweetness. Soon after she falls in love with America and Tony, tragedy strikes and she must return to her small Irish town. Ultimately she’ll have to choose between two homes and two men, the other suitor played by Domhnall Gleeson. – Jack G. (full review)
Where to Stream: HBO Go
Disorder (Alice Winocour)
Disorder tackles the home-invasion thriller on an unusual front, emphasizing paranoia and uncertainty over any nightmare of intruders coming to get you; the home isn’t even invaded until rather late into the plot. Until then, it’s a character study of Vincent (Matthias Schoenaerts), a soldier who, despite being eager to get back to the front, knows he won’t be able to because of his hearing loss and PTSD. In need of work, he joins in on a buddy’s personal security company, and ends up assigned to be a bodyguard for Jessie (Diane Kruger) and her young son for 48 hours. Soon, though, it emerges that Jessie’s husband’s shady business dealings have put her in danger, and Vincent has to hold it together in order to protect her and her son. – Dan S. (full review)
Where to Stream: iTunes
The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer)
An exploration of movement, motion, liminality, childhood and racial politics, The Fits is a fascinating psychological study of Toni (fearlessly played by Royalty Hightower), an 11-year0old living in Cincinnati’s West End. Set almost entirely within the walls of the neighborhood Lincoln Rec Center, we first find Toni taking up boxing, trained by older brother Jermaine (Da’Sean Minor). Abandoning the rigor of the boxing — requiring sprints across an overpass after hitting the speed-bag — Toni finds herself drawn to the dance troop practicing across the hall, where what she finds is nothing short of her voice. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Hitchcock/Truffaut (Kent Jones)
The world of cinematic discourse was a markedly place when François Truffaut interviewed Alfred Hitchcock Nowadays, high-profile filmmakers are talking about their craft whenever someone turns on a recorder, and few people doubt the greatness of this text’s main subject. This might explain why the decidedly old-fashioned degree to which Kent Jones’ documentary honors the book seems out-of-place. What Jones (most often identified as an essayist / critic) settles upon is a chance to expand the field, and he slyly does so by letting new authors — be it Scorsese or Fincher or Assayas — give point-by-point illustrations of how they read scenes, more fully revealing what they find valuable in cinema. The final result probably won’t change your own conceptions of the form, but a bit of insight never hurt. – Nick N.
Where to Stream: HBO GO
Imperium (Daniel Ragussis)
People forget that before 9/11 our idea of a terrorist was a lone wolf type: domestic white Neo Nazis with agendas that warped their intellect into working towards creating chaos to spark a cleansing. It’s therefore interesting to look at the constituency of Donald Trump, a candidate running on a ticket that not only incites race wars but also ensures white Catholics’ safety becomes synonymous with the “nation’s safety.” I guess the idea posed in The Turner Diaries may have been proven correct as each subsequent attack by locals, foreign agents, or both has brought us to this juncture in time. Fear and paranoia has set in, our sights focused on the “other” rather than ourselves. It’s a landscape ripe for a battle to destroy us all. This is the world of Daniel Ragussis‘ Imperium, one where the theft of Caesium-137—a volatile, radioactive element—is of course profiled as an act of Muslim terrorism. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Krisha (Trey Edward Shults)
Though writer-director-editor Trey Edward Shults hardly turns the dark family drama genre on its head, Krisha compensates with exceptional acting and an infectious atmosphere of dread. If the bare bones of cliché are there simply so that artists can pack on their own meat, then Krisha Fairchild surely makes the most of the provided opportunity. Though I increasingly grow perturbed over “raw” performance in modern film that is maybe / sort of just misery porn, her three-legged-dog embodiment of Krisha’s mounting desperation is undeniably riveting. She attempts to tamp down her neuroses the same way she keeps her medications in a lockbox, but her every attempt to reach out to estranged siblings and in-laws and such is hobbled by the fear (or maybe resigned knowledge) that she will be rebuffed. – Dan S. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (Werner Herzog)
From the grand, savage outdoors to the inner chambers of those awaiting certain death, Werner Herzog has gone to the ends of the Earth to capture our innermost dreams and fears in his documentaries. For his latest, Lo and Behold: Reveries of The Connected World, he looks to the unwieldy unknown of the Internet and how its evolution has immensely affected the way we communicate, for better or worse. Told in 10 distinct chapters, from “The Early Days” to “The Future,” each has enough intriguing substance to be the foundation of its own documentary, which makes Herzog’s latest a rapidly entertaining ride through the rise of technology where certain sections might feel thematically underdeveloped. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman)
Master of poisonous tongues and vicious schemes in the world of the rich and the poor, Love & Friendship is perhaps writer/director Whit Stillman‘s most potent mix of comedy and social commentary. He’s got Jane Austen to thank, whose novella ‘Lady Susan’ serves as the inspiration for this tale of Lady Susan Vernon (a pitch-perfect Kate Beckinsale), a widow with a flirtatious reputation, determined to well re-marry well at whatever the cost. Often laugh-out-loud funny and downright mean at the same time, Stillman is in top form here. – Dan M.
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
The Measure of a Man (Stéphane Brizé)
The Measure of a Man is not a film that will be lauded for its direction nor for its cinematography, screenplay or editing. It’s a film that will be remembered for its absorbing lead performance. Vincent Lindon takes one deep into the mind of Thierry, a man who has recently lost his factory job and is now trying desperately to find work. Unfortunately, obstructions of the modern world, from the current state of the economy to the introduction of technology in the workplace, prevent him from doing so and thus he struggles to support his family financially. – Eli H. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie)
Nineteen years in and the Mission: Impossible franchise shows no signs of slowing down. Much of the credit goes to the unbreakable Tom Cruise, a movie star who continues to succeed and persevere where fellow movie star contemporaries (Will Smith, Tom Hanks) have begun to falter. As written and directed by frequent Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation works simultaneously as a direct sequel to Brad Bird’s fourth Mission installment Ghost Protocol, a unabashed highlight reel of Cruise doing ridiculous stunts, and a clever homage to the spy films of lore. This time around Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the gang (Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, and Ving Rhames) are up against The Syndicate, an “anti-I.M.F.” run by a rogue ex-spy named Lane, played with impressive menace by Sean Harris. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime
Money Monster (Jodie Foster)
Considering the talent involved — Jodie Foster, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Jack O’Connell — Money Monster seemed to fade quite quickly earlier this summer. While it’s a bit too on-the-nose with its views on today’s economy, if one is looking for a 1990’s-esque drama fitting for endless TNT re-runs, you could do a whole lot worse. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Morris From America (Chad Hartigan)
Coming to Sundance with his tender character study This is Martin Bonner a few years back, director Chad Hartigan triumphantly returns with the coming-of-age comedy Morris From America, a stylistic leap forward that still retains a keen sense of humanity. Telling the story of our title character attempting to keep his identity while making friends in the foreign land of Germany, it’s also an acutely funny testament to single parenting and the specific bond it fosters when both sides put in their all. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone)
It’s all about #brand loyalty for The Lonely Island in their first “official” movie, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, which stays true to the absurdist, bite-sized comedy that made their name. The musical comedy trio – comprised of Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, and Jorma Taccone – has been around for over a decade, breaking out through their digital shorts on Saturday Night Live. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
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