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 platforms. 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, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Evolution (Lucile Hadžihalilovic)
Near the beginning of Evolution, there’s a shot that hangs underwater, showing a seemingly harmonious aquatic eco-system that’s glimpsed just long enough to create the sense of something that, while somewhat familiar, is distinctly outside the human world. This fleeting image though shows the promise of the film Evolution could’ve been. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Fire at Sea and Sacro GRA (Gianfranco Rosi)
Over the course of the European refugee crisis, the name Lampedusa became so fraught with political agenda one could easily forget it’s an actual place with inhabitants and their everyday worries, a destination millions died trying to reach from across the Mediterranean Sea. The genius of this deeply affecting documentary, then, is how it never breaks into the blame game but simply restores, with disarming, enchanting poise, the human aspects of a tragedy happening right under our eyes. In this time of hyperbole and judgment, hearing what a child with a slingshot has to say and having the stories of the nameless and displaced told through their silent faces prove to be riveting, essential viewing. – Zhuo-Ning Su
Where to Stream: Netflix
Julieta (Pedro Almodóvar)
A woman recalls the pivotal moments of her adult life in Julieta, the latest film from Pedro Almodóvar and his fifth to screen in competition here in Cannes. It’s adapted from a series of short stories of Canadian Nobel prize-winning author Alice Munro and marks a return to the female-centric dramas with which the director made his name, having recently tried his hand at musical (I’m So Excited) and psychological horror (The Skin I Live In). It’s charmingly self-aware in its use of kitsch and melodrama — almost to the point of self-parody — and, while small in scope, it’s also one of his lusher and leaner offerings. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Laurence Anyways (Xavier Dolan)
Xavier Dolan‘s nearly three-hour drama was little-seen in the United States, buy Laurence Anyways remains his finest film yet. Tracking the ten-year relationship between Laurence Alia (Melvil Poupaud) and Fred Belair (Suzanne Clément), Dolan’s film explodes with passion and color, perhaps the best ode to French New Wave in recent cinema. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
Neruda (Pablo Larraín)
Pablo Larraín is not finished wrestling with his nation’s psyche. His first three films, Tony Manero, Post Mortem, and No, formed a loose triptych that confronted the trauma of the Augusto Pinochet years from different angles. His fourth, The Club, was a blistering attack against the contemporary institution of the Catholic Church in Chile, which accused it of deep-seated corruption and of collusion with the Pinochet regime. With Neruda he returns to the past, back to 1948, the year the eminent poet and Communist senator Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) went into hiding after the Chilean president outlawed Communism in the country. – Giovanni M.C. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch)
Jim Jarmusch proved he was back in a major way with Only Lovers Left Alive a few years ago, and the streak continues with Paterson, a calm, introspective drama with such positive views on marriage and creativity that I was left floored. In following the cyclical life of Adam Driver‘s Paterson, a bus driver in Paterson, New Jersey, who also has dreams of being a poet, Jarmusch superbly shows that one’s own life experience — however seemingly insubstantial — is the only requirement to produce something beautiful. Moreso than any other film in 2016, this is the kind of world I want to live in. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Gareth Edwards)
There will be a lot of praise for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story predicated on it being “dark,” as some sort of return to the tone of The Empire Strikes Back. (To this day, a film program classmate declaring that Empire was the best Star Wars film “because it’s the darkest” echoes in my head.) But while the first in the “Star Wars anthology” films certainly aims for more moral ambiguity than any of the main series, it only goes so far, and it still doesn’t feel terribly different. When a space battle sequence features a Rebel commander who is a fish-man like Admiral Ackbar but not the same kind of fish-man as Admiral Ackbar, it sets my teeth on edge. When there are cameos by those two dudes Obi-Wan carved up in the Cantina (yes, really), it makes me wonder how low these movies can stoop for cameos. When the universe “expands” in this way, it actually makes it seem so much smaller. – Dan S. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Train to Busan (Yeon Sang-Ho)
Dozens of zombie films come out every year, and yet every one of them is being dictated by a rigid moral logic. Characters are placed into categories of heroes and villains – the characters who care about themselves, and those who care about others. Few zombie films have ever made this schematic more transparent than Yeon Sang-Ho’s Train to Busan, an occasionally smart, and very entertaining zombie film that makes final judgments about nearly every major and minor character within thirty seconds of their first appearance. – Michael S. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Also New to Streaming
Amazon
Bokeh (review)
Office Christmas Party
Amazon Prime
FilmStruck
Letter Never Sent + Touching the Void
Stray Dog
Double Suicide
Revenge
Orpheus
Ugetsu
A Separation
MUBI (free 30-day trial)
Wake Up and Die
Kill and Pray
The Dark Valley
The Beast
One Sings, The Other Doesn’t
Paradise: Love
Netflix
Déjà Vu
The Square
The Most Hated Woman in America
Welcome to New York (review)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit