With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
About Endlessness (Roy Andersson)
Watch an exclusive clip for the film, which is also now in theaters.
“What should I do now that I have lost my faith?” is the question that animates About Endlessness; this being the new film by Roy Andersson, it is delivered in a doctor’s waiting room, over and over again, in a creaky voice, by a dumpy man in late middle age who continues his plaint even after the doctor and his receptionist gruntingly force him outside into the hallway, from whence they can hear him scratching at the door like a zombie. About Endlessness is Roy Andersson’s fourth film of this century; it looks much like the previous three, and nothing like anything else ever made. – Mark A. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The County (Grímur Hákonarson)
The devolution of a worker-owned entity into that which it was formed to combat probably occurs much faster than you’d expect. Things initially work like they should with successful profits and happy members. The establishment itself is also pleased because it sees little threat of anyone going outside its economic reach when the whole point of forming it was to get out from under the exorbitant costs of external resources. Vote an incoming director with greed in his/her heart that sees how good things are, however, and they’ll start finding ways to personally capitalize on that implicit harmony. Executive salaries are slowly raised, prices are gradually increased, and a new monopoly is eventually formed. And when members finally catch on, they unfortunately realize they’re too late to escape. It’s at this point in the lifespan of one such co-op that writer/director Grímur Hákonarson introduces us to his latest film The County. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Virtual Cinemas
The Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane)
In The Disciple, a dedicated student of traditional North Indian music must grapple with the nagging feeling that he might not be quite good enough. The film is the latest from Chaitanya Tamhane, an Indian filmmaker who made a big splash in Venice in 2014 when his debut feature Court—a naturalistic film that quietly and comprehensively lampooned the Indian criminal justice system––won the Horizons award for best film. He was 27 at the time, still relatively young, yet some called it a masterpiece. Now at 33, Tamhane has followed it with a story about a person who hopes, perhaps in vain, to achieve such acclaim. We suggest approaching with a degree of caution if such doubts sound eerily familiar. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Good Manners (Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra)
Contrasts abound in Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra’s terrifyingly captivating Good Manners, a horror-meets-children’s-movie that uses all the tropes at its disposal to conjure up a piercing discussion of class, race, and desire in present-day Brazil. Six years after their collaborative debut, Hard Labor (2011), the writer-directors return to the theme of social divisions, this time to tackle it through the unconventional lens of werewolf mythology in a fantasy-fueled melodrama that should inject a much-needed revitalizing serum into a stagnating genre. – Leonardo G. (full review)
Where to Stream: OVID.tv
The Human Voice (Pedro Almodóvar)
Short work by great directors is customary at major festivals, but most often it underwhelms. Not here. Perhaps it’s because this is a project with special resonance for Almodóvar. The Human Voice, Jean Cocteau’s one-act, one-character monodrama has echoed across the Spanish great’s career. It’s directly referenced in Law of Desire and informs the plot of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. And Almodóvar’s own debut work in the English-language has been a long-delayed event––past projects he was touted for include Brokeback Mountain and The Paperboy (a bullet dodged?). Tilda Swinton, key collaborator of the greatest working filmmakers, plays the unnamed woman teetering on the verge of yes, a breakdown, but one eventually focused into cataclysmic external force. – David K. (full review)
Where to Stream: HBO Max (note: they’ve also added seven more Almodóvar films, including Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, The Skin I Live In, Broken Embraces, Volver, and Bad Education)
Kino Polska: New Polish Cinema
Polish cinema fans are in for a treat as BAM’s series celebrating the best new filmmaking from the country is now underway. Toplined by the New York premiere of Małgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s Oscar entry Never Gonna Snow Again, Orla Smith said in her review, “The captivating center of Never Gonna Snow Again is Alec Utgoff as Zhenia, a Ukranian immigrant in Poland who works as a masseuse for the inhabitants of a wealthy gated community. Zhenia is a quiet enigma and a grand yet gentle physical presence—all the better for the people of the community to project onto him.”
Where to Stream: BAM’s Virtual Cinema
Labyrinth of Cinema (Nobuhiko Obayashi)
No film I saw in 2020 registered as timely and uplifting like Nobuhiko Obayashi’s farewell opus, Labyrinth of Cinema. With all due respect to Mank, if there is one true “love letter to the movies” 2020 gifted us, this is it. Contagiously optimistic and resolutely pacifist, Labyrinth’s requiem for movie theatre doubles as a journey into the horrors of Japan’s 20th century and the films that portrayed them. Whether or not cinema will ever yield Obayashi’s utopia, here’s a film that celebrates the medium in its noblest, most humanist form: a vehicle for compassion. – Leonardo G.
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
The Mitchells vs. the Machines (Michael Rianda)
Often discerning the right tonal balance between crude humor, clever references to film culture at large, and the bonds that make friends and family strong, the Lord and Miller team have brought us gems like 21 Jump Street, The LEGO Movie, and Spider-Verse in the last decade. Making his feature directorial and writing debut with The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Michael Rianda attempts to enter this realm with the help of the production team, colorful cast, and stunning animation by way of robo-pocalypse but unfortunately just misses the mark. If only the film curtailed the crudeness and violence that would’ve otherwise suited an adult-themed cartoon. – Erik N. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
New Directors/New Films 2021
The 50th edition of New Directors/New Films is now underway and if you can’t make it in person at Film at Lincoln Center, the series celebrating emerging talent also available virtually nationwide. Highlights over the first few days include P.S. Vinothraj’s visually striking debut our coverage for more reviews in the coming days.
Where to Stream: Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema
Things Heard & Seen (Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman)
It is truly incredible how durable the “haunted house” structure has revealed itself to be over time. Case in point: Things Heard & Seen, written and directed by Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman. Based on the Elizabeth Brundage novel All Things Cease To Appear and starring recent Academy Award-nominee Amanda Seyfried, this thriller emerges as an above-average genre programmer. Traditional beats are explored from a different angle, resulting in something quite memorable. – Dan M. (Netflix
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse (Stefano Solima)
Hollywood’s big budget adaptations of Tom Clancy’s literary thrillers range in quality and style. But the one thing they’ve all had in common is the character of Jack Ryan, CIA analyst and shit-starter extraordinaire who’s been played by the likes of Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine. In an obvious attempt to rebrand this espionage franchise that appeals to mostly older white male audiences, Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse focuses on one of the author’s more volatile characters, Navy SEAL John Kelly (played with a give-no-fucks rage by Michael B. Jordan). – Glenn H. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime
Wet Season (Anthony Chen)
Gene Kelly likes to sing in it, Spider-Man is known to kiss in it, but moody old melodrama remains the most reliable companion to rain at the movies. This is at least evident in the new Singaporean film Wet Season, in which a foreigner who teaches Mandarin at a city high school strikes up an increasingly troublesome but mutually vital friendship with one of her students. It buckets down continuously. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Virtual Cinemas
Also New to Streaming
Amazon Prime
Hulu
(free for 30 days)The Fate of Lee Khan
A Man Vanishes
Jibril
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Charles Bukowski Tapes
Virtual Cinemas