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.
The Boy and the Beast (Mamoru Hosoda)
Two worlds collide once young Kyuta (Shôta Sometani) and warrior Kumatetsu (Kôji Yakusho) meet in Mamoru Hosoda‘s The Boy and the Beast. The former was recently orphaned after his mother’s death (she had divorced his father years ago and her family refuses to get in touch with him), currently working his way towards becoming a solitary street urchin full of dark rage aimed at the human race for causing him such pain. The latter is a candidate to replace the Beast Kingdom Jutengai’s lord—a fighter of immense power but little discipline who probably won’t stand a chance against his opponent Iozan (Kazuhiro Yamaji). One needs a father and the other an apprentice. One to learn strength and love while the other discovers humility and patience’s immense value. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, Google
Every Thing Thing Will Be Fine (Wim Wenders)
A three-hankie weepie that harks back in its melodramatic rhythms and constantly moves forward (or so it at least thinks) with its use of digital 3D, Every Thing Will Be Fine, Wim Wenders‘ first narrative feature since Palermo Shooting, is always flirting with being a white elephant. It would only require, say, two more bad scenes — more bizarre choices with regard to the performances, more bits of dialogue that get to the heart of a character’s grief with the grace of a drunk lumberjack, or at least fewer pretty images — to teeter into chaos. And this is what ultimately makes the picture most worthwhile: even those moments that raise the eyebrows sky-high still have a weird integrity and determination skating under the surface. – Nick N. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
King Jack (Felix Thompson)
An impressive debut feature from Felix Thompson, King Jack is a powerful day-in-the-life drama following two lower-middle class families at war with each other for reasons unknown. Set in upstate New York over the course of a few days, King Jack follows a kid destined to follow in his brother’s footsteps. Jack, known as “Scad” (Charlie Plummer), is a summer school attendee heading down a dangerous path. The opening moments find Jack defacing a garage owned by the family of his rival, a bully Shane (Danny Flaherty) who at his age should have moved on to fry bigger fish. Thompson’s portrait of place is spot-on; despite its Hudson Valley setting the film evokes childhood in any small town that’s fallen on harder times. The day that the film chronicles represents a kind of coming-of-age for the 15-year old Jack and cousin Ben (Cory Nichols), who is humiliated in a shockingly realistic scene of suburbia brutality. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Le Amiche (Michelangelo Antonioni)
This major early achievement by Michelangelo Antonioni bears the first signs of the cinema-changing style for which he would soon be world-famous. Le amiche (The Girlfriends) is a brilliantly observed, fragmentary depiction of modern bourgeois life, conveyed from the perspective of five Turinese women. As four of the friends try to make sense of the suicide attempt of the fifth, they find themselves examining their own troubled romantic lives. With suggestions of the theme of modern alienation and the fastidious visual abstraction that would define his later masterpieces such as L’avventura, L’eclisse, and Red Desert, Antonioni’s film is a devastating take on doomed love and fraught friendship. – Criterion.com
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes
Love & Mercy (Bill Pohlad)
A worthwhile biopic on Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson, Love & Mercy follows both Paul Dano and John Cusack playing different iterations of the legendary musician. Directed by Bill Pohlad, the accomplished producer behind The Tree of Life, 12 Years a Slave, and Brokeback Mountain, we said of it in our review, “With strong performances and unique insight that above all feels emotionally and artistically honest, Love & Mercy is a bittersweet triumph with a lot of pain along the way.” – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg)
After making one of the most authentically emotional films of his career with A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg has begun exploring the world of artificiality. Cosmopolis, which may end up standing as the director’s best film, explored the idea of capitalism in the digital age by creating a language, a series of green screen windows, and, essentially, a society in which numbers and data trumped any factors that might be described as physical. The same could be said for Maps to the Stars, except the target here is the artifice of Hollywood. – Peter L. (full review)
Where to Stream: HBO Go
The Martian: Extended Edition (Ridley Scott)
If the last few years are any indication, Hollywood has a revitalized interest in turning their head towards the vastness of space. Rather than a focus on alien-occupied science-fiction, we’ve seen a string of major-budget fall releases that question our place in the universe and the boundless exploration therein. The latest in this category, Ridley Scott‘s The Martian, lacks the wall-to-wall tension of Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity or the ambition of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, but for the most part, it’s a rollicking space procedural that depends on some logic, and a great deal of luck. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, HBO Go (theatrical edition), Google
Midnight Special (Jeff Nichols)
Ambiguity might be the most useful item in the science fiction toolbox. Blade Runner’s mysteries still rob people of sleep, and you’d need a wall chart to work out Shane Carruth’s Primer. However, when used in rash abundance — as in this latest film from Mud and Take Shelter director Jeff Nichols — the results can leave the viewer in a rather less complimentary state of bafflement. The details in Midnight Special, Nichols’ homage-heavy sci-fi thriller set in his signature Deep South locale, are sometimes so scant as to be jarring. Yes, less is often more in Hollywood, but it can also be just plain less. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman)
The presence of a mother is quite clear in Chantal Akerman’s best-known work, whether it be the one communicated back and forth to in News From Home or the titular Jeanne Dielman, a woman relegated to homemaker and cook for her son. Assuming the influence this woman has had on one of cinema’s most rigorous formalists and staunch feminists, making a film on her final years may conjure up a certain mental image, yet many will be surprised by the ensuing two hours. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes
Take Me to the River (Matt Sobel)
After premiering at Sundance last year, Matt Sobel‘s debut finally arrives on VOD today after a limited release earlier this spring. We were big fans of it, saying in our review, “Aided by the editing of Jacob Secher Schulsinger (Force Majeure), each scene builds a unique rhythm and tension and we’re not quite sure where its going or what has exactly happened. Haunting and brutally honest in its restraint and narrative simplicity at times, Take Me to the River captures above all a unique and unsettling tone: mixing comedy, drama and thriller elements, it’s a dark and exhilarating watch.”
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
The Treasure (Corneliu Porumboiu)
Though regularly grouped with the directors that comprise the Romanian New Wave, Corneliu Porumboiu’s brand of social realism is all his own. Dispensing with the shaky cam so popular amongst his peers, his fictional features capture the world through contemplative long takes, their duration and frequent immobility allowing for careful observations of the subjects’ relationship to their environment, which is always reflective of wider-reaching concerns. The Treasure, his fifth feature and the winner of this year’s Un Certain Talent Prize, is the latest gem in the director’s exquisite filmography — another tightly focused, minimalist and enchantingly humane story of individual struggle within the broader social reality of contemporary Romania. – Giovanni M.C. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
A War (Tobias Lindholm)
In only his second outing as sole director after 2012’s acclaimed A Hijacking, Tobias Lindholm is commanding unusual levels of respect and anticipation with A War – undoubtedly earned with the establishing of a very personal brand of filmmaking, rooted in observation, deliberate pacing and a terse directing style. Viewers familiar with his previous film, a hostage drama detailing the hijacking of a Danish cargo ship by Somali pirates, will find the same approach at work in A War: protagonist Pilou Asbæk returns to shoulder much of the dramatic weight, aided by familiar faces like Søren Malling and Dar Salim and a roster of non-professional actors with relevant backgrounds. – Tommaso T. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Also New to Streaming
Amazon
Careful What You Wish For (review)
Cell
Fathers and Daughters
Len and Company (review)
Lenny Cooke (review)
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (review)
Amazon Prime
The Program (review)
Remember (review)
Netflix