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.
The Adventures of Tintin (Steven Spielberg)
Leave it to Steven Spielberg to eke more thrills out of an animated feature than most directors could with every live-action tool at their disposal. The Adventures of Tintin is colored and paced like a child’s fantastical imagining of how Hergé’s comics might play in motion, and the extent to which viewers buy it depends largely on their willingness to give themselves over to narrative and technical flights of fancy. Me? Four-and-a-half years later, I’m still waiting for a follow-up with bated breath. – Nick Newman
Where to Stream: Netflix
The Challenge (Yuri Ancarani)
Falconry is a proud tradition, millennia old, that is part of the common heritage of many cultures spanning multiple continents. The practice was originally developed for the hunt, but also lives as a sport. But that transition from the practical to the ceremonial often piles on arbitrary, sometimes random elements whose absurdity belies the utter seriousness with which the practitioners treat them. While The Challenge is about high-class falconry in Qatar, this holds true for any sport indulged primarily by the rich, like the British fox hunt. This is a sports documentary concerned not at all with the competition at hand, but instead with the series of idiosyncrasies and side moments that come along with the sport. – Dan S. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes
Columbus (kogonada)
The path to becoming a director is one generally accompanied by a profound knowledge of film history, but that passion is rarely more public then when it comes to kogonada. After years of working on visually detailed video essays for The Criterion Collection, Sight & Sound, and more, he’s now made his directorial debut with Columbus, an impeccably composed drama of quiet humanity and curiosity. If his nickname wasn’t enough of a hint, traces of Yasujirō Ozu’s influence can be found, but this first-time director has created something distinctly his own. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
Dawson City: Frozen Time (Bill Morrison)
There is a scholarly theory that proposes films are always telling the story of their creation, singing an endless song about their own history. That seemed to have been literally the case in 1978 when Frank Barrett, a construction worker in Dawson City in the northern Yukon, discovered strips of nitrate film poking out of the earth in the site of a new recreation center — like stubborn blossoms trying to defeat the harshness of winter. Children had taken to lighting the visible strips on fire unaware that in the joy of the pyrotechnic display they were erasing history. Barrett’s unique discovery led to the unearthing of over 500 reels containing films made in the 1910s and 1920s, and considering that it is believed that 75% of all silent films were lost, this might have been the most important finding in the archaeology of film. Taking clips from these reels and solving the mystery of how they ended up buried in the Yukon, director Bill Morrison made Dawson City: Frozen Time which might just be the ultimate found footage film. – Jose S. (full review)
Where to Stream: FilmStruck (along with 18 total films by Bill Morrison)
Gook (Justin Chon)
Winner of the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in the NEXT section where it premiered, Justin Chon’s Gook takes an intriguing perspective when it comes to depicting Los Angeles on April 29, 1992, when the Rodney King verdict was handed out and the riots began. “Warts and all, Gook serves as a perfect example (and reminder) of why the NEXT Section at Sundance is well worth exploring and reviewing and reacting to, perhaps more than any other slate,” Dan Mecca said in his review. “Chon has a vision and a voice and a good story to tell, full of social relevance and fiery emotion. Something this energetic and cared for is hard to criticize all that much. It’s a film worth seeking out and telling others about.” – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (James Gunn)
“I’m gonna make some weird shit.” So says Peter Quill a.k.a. Star Lord a.k.a. not-Han-Solo (Chris Pratt) two thirds into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and — without spoiling it in context — it serves as a hopeful mantra for director James Gunn. Unfortunately for all involved, this second installment only half lives up to its end of that bargain. – Conor O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
mother! (Darren Aronofsky)
Darren Aronofsky must love a good allegory, although making one himself appears to be a different matter entirely in mother!. Starting out as Aronofsky returning to his wheelhouse of paranoia thrillers in the vein of Pi and Black Swan, mother! becomes something much different and flat-out stupid than anything he’s made up to this point. Yes, the usual elements are all here — the mental breakdown of its lead character, the handheld, close-up visuals he adopted since The Wrestler, and the descent into full-blown madness in the final act – but they’re working within a thematic scale around the same size as his biblical epic Noah. The ideas may be big, but Aronofsky’s brain is still as small as it’s always been, leaving mother! as an exercise in watching someone drive their one, ridiculous idea straight off the tallest cliff imaginable. It’s one of the most insane things to grace multiplex screens in years; it’s also one of the most ludicrous. – C.J. P. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Princess Cyd (Stephen Cone)
There are few directors working today that love their characters more than Stephen Cone. After reaching a wider audience with one of 2015’s best films, Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party, he’s returning this year with Princess Cyd. In a rare A-grade review, we said, “Watching his films, one gets a sense that he doesn’t use the medium simply to tell stories but to exercise his curiosity and discover the things that make us human.” – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Stronger (David Gordon Green)
Peter Berg’s take on unsung heroes Patriots Day is barely a year old and here we are with another Boston Marathon bombing film in David Gordon Green’s Stronger. Rather than focus on the event itself, however, John Pollono’s script turns focus squarely onto the shoulders of Jeff Bauman—the terrorist attack’s most recognizable victim. But while he could have easily minimized this man’s struggle into a generic fluff piece of Hollywood inspirational perseverance, he admirably highlights the darkness those “lucky” enough to survive endure instead. We’ve seen the interviews and heard pundits declare Jeff a hero on national TV. We’ve seen his smile waving the Bruins’ flag and throwing a Red Sox pitch. Pollono and Green make it their duty to show what’s missing from those images: the pain concealed beneath. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Trophy (Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau)
Somewhere in America, a man named Philip teaches his young son how to take down a trophy buck. Rifle in hand, eye peaking through the scope, the kid takes the shot. Direct hit. The father makes sure to get a couple of photos of his son, holding up the hunted, proud smile on his face. Moments later, we are in South Africa, where Rhino breeder John Hume and his team find a rhino, sedate it, and trim it’s horns as a means of protection, so poachers will ignore the lesser stumps and move along. It’s an interesting opening to Trophy, a complicated look at big-game hunting from director Shaul Schwarz. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Also New to Streaming
Amazon
The New Radical (review)
The Pirates of Somalia (review)
Victoria & Abdul
FilmStruck
HBO Go
Deepwater Horizon (review)
Wilson (review)
MUBI (free 30-day trial)
Antiporno
Christmas, Again
The Big Feast
Violet
Let’s Spend The Night Together
Détective
This Is Spinal Tap
Looking for more? Where to Stream the Best Films of 2017
