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.
Arabian Nights (Miguel Gomes)
In lauding Miguel Gomes‘ three-part, six-and-a-half hour behemoth, it’s perhaps important to consider his background as a critic. Not just in terms of the trilogy’s cinephilic engagement with Rossellini, Alonso, Oliveira, etc.; also in its defiant nature. While it’s easy to assign the trilogy certain humanist and satirical labels from the get-go and just praise these films for following through on them, Gomes continually seeks to mutate and complicate his of age-of-austerity saga. Far from perfect, and so much more exciting for that very reason. – Ethan V.
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Coming Home (Zhang Yimou)
I kept trying to think about what films Zhang Yimou‘s Coming Home reminded me of while watching. Obvious ones came to mind like Away From Her and Amour where Gong Li‘s Yu was concerned and even Atonement for Huiwan Zhang‘s Dandan. But it was a fellow audience member as we walked out who said it best: 50 First Dates. The selection resonated with me because until three-quarters of the way through I thought people laughing were crazy. This is a sensitive drama with heart-wrenching performances. Around act three, though, I began to realize the humor may have been intentional after all. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson)
Dense and lacking the playful quality of his more straightforward work, this represents a new multi-narrative direction for Maddin, and a kind of rabbit hole. Working within the art world verses the film world, Maddin’s work, style and influences have a tremendous amount of power applicable to cinema within the space of a gallery installation. Night Mayor, his first collaboration with the NFB, fictionalized the tension between the NFB’s mission and government controls, capturing the inherently cinematic story of an immigrant inventor who dreams of transmitting images made by Canadians to Canadians. The Forbidden Room, while often brilliant upon first viewing, seems to overstay its welcome. A challenging feature representing a new ambition for Maddin, it’s a step forward, a reinvention, and a difficult film to describe and process. I imagine my admiration for it may grow upon future viewings, even if a first viewing had me fearing it lacks substance beyond the disjointed narrative. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (Francis Lawrence)
The long road to rebellion finds a surprisingly satisfying close in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, that rare blockbuster that finds a compelling middle ground between thoughtfulness and big, splashy spectacle. Longer and a little more dour than it really needs to be, Francis Lawrence’s final segment of the saga that re-launched a thousand second-rate dystopias manages to achieve something the imitators have largely floundered at: poignancy and pathos. Those qualities are almost exclusively products of Jennifer Lawrence’s tremendous performance, who continues to wear this particular post-apocalypse extremely well. – Nathan B. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Me Him Her (Max Landis)
You have to give Max Landis credit for trying to breathe fresh air into Hollywood tropes through his genre-merging scripts, whether you believe they’re effective or not. Chronicle‘s sci-fi, found-footage, horror thriller combo was well-received, while American Ultra‘s stoner Bourne Identity meets Mr. & Mrs. Smith was mostly reviled, although the latter’s reaction may have hinged upon people’s inability to remove his Twitter-celebrity-the-world-loves-to-hate-on from the work. His latest foray in the millennial screenwriting annals is a play on the romantic comedy that’s as much a Hollywood insider satire as it is a genre embellishment turning the homosexual as outsider trope upside down. And this time no one can blame or praise the director’s interpretation of his words. Yes, Max Landis is now Director Max Landis. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes
Paris Belongs to Us (Jacques Rivette)
One of the original critics turned filmmakers who helped jump-start the French New Wave, Jacques Rivette began shooting his debut feature in 1958, well before that cinema revolution officially kicked off with The 400 Blows and Breathless. Ultimately released in 1961, the rich and mysterious Paris Belongs to Us offers some of the radical flavor that would define the movement, with a particularly Rivettian twist. The film follows a young literature student (Betty Schneider) who befriends the members of a loose-knit group of twentysomethings in Paris, united by the apparent suicide of an acquaintance. Suffused with a lingering post–World War II disillusionment while also evincing the playfulness and fascination with theatrical performance and conspiracy that would become hallmarks for the director, Paris Belongs to Us marked the provocative start to a brilliant directorial career. – Criterion.com
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Regression (Alejandro Amenábar)
Absurdity turns quickly to boredom in Alejandro Amenábar’s Regression, the latest picture unceremoniously dumped by The Weinstein Company to your local multiplex with excess capacity. Set in a 1990 rural Minnesota, the story follows the adventures of Detective Bruce Kenner (Ethan Hawke) as he investigates a local “outbreak” of demonic possession that comes across his desk. Enlisting Professor David Rains (David Thewlis), they go on a wild adventure that eventually finds them briefly in Pittsburgh chasing a cult and a dark family secret that, at first glance, is less than what it might have been. Who would have thought a small town police department had those kinds of resources? – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, Google
River of Grass (Kelly Reichardt)
Kelly Reichardt’s River of Grass is a “lovers on the run” film, but the main characters aren’t lovers, and their version of the lam is spending a few days at a flop-house in an adjacent zip code. Originally released in 1994, Reichardt’s debut is a digressive walkabout into a world of delayed responsibility and halted potential. It’s a story that’s perfectly aligns with the mythic Americana themes that have emerged over Reichardt’s career, while also feeling formally radical. Re-released this year through a Kickstarter from Oscilloscope Laboratories, River of Grass isn’t able to reach the peaks of Reichardt’s later monumental work, but it’s educational in mapping out her concerns as a filmmaker, and a stirring reminder of her abilities as a visual stylist. – Michael S. (full review)
Where to Stream: Fandor
Spy (Paul Feig)
You never knew you wanted an R-rated comedic take on the action spy genre until halfway through Spy and you’re caught wondering why it has never been done quite this well before. Despite some rough patches peppered throughout, Paul Feig‘s latest film manages to continue rolling without much care for its missteps. Years after her break-out in Bridesmaids (also from Feig) and many films later, you’re going to either despise Melissa McCarthy’s wild antics or you’ll roll with the punches. McCarthy plays CIA agent and analyst Susan Cooper who spends her time at a desk with a mic in the ear of the Bond-like covert operative Bradley Fine (Jude Law), helping guide him with numerous technologies like thermal vision and layouts of buildings. “There are three men rapidly approaching the door up ahead,” and various other tips and commands are given by her, but things go wildly astray when Fine is murdered and the various agents in the field are exposed. – Bill G. (full review)
Where to Stream: HBO Go
Victoria (Sebastian Schipper)
Per se, single-shot films are hardly novel any longer. Even excluding sleight of hand à la Rope or Birdman’s digital suturing, there are plenty of films besides Russian Ark that solely consist of one unedited take, yet they were instantly forgotten because that was their only notable attribute. Victoria won’t suffer that fate and the reason is simple: it’s not merely impressive; it’s also intelligent, affecting, and thoroughly electrifying cinema. – Giovanni M.C.
Where to Stream: Netflix
Also New to Streaming
Amazon
Camino
Daddy’s Home
Hyena Road (review)
They Look Like People (review)
The Vanished Elephant
Netflix