With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we believe it’s our duty to highlight the recent, recommended 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, and shoot over suggestions to @TheFilmStage.
20 Feet From Stardom (Morgan Neville)
You wouldn’t expect a documentary film about thwarted back-up singers who never quite made the big time to be filled with this much infectious joy, but that’s exactly the quality that director Morgan Neville brings to the table. For music fans, this 90 minute spotlight on the unsung singers behind the big names is a must see movie event. Even when the lot of this particular career profession results in frustration, the film itself never stops soaring. You won’t discover the definitive history of backup singers here, but what you will find is a collection of women whose stories are compelling, poignant and, in cases like Merry Clayton talking the Stones’ Gimme Shelter, the stuff of legend. – Nathan B.
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (David Lowery)
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is a particular kind of film, one that was probably never destined to find a wide audience. While the basic story, about a jailed robber escaping prison to return to the love of his life and their child, may sound like a fairly rote plot, the earnestness and poeticism of the film could drive people away. But between the lovely cinematography, the deeply-felt performances, and the stirring narrative, this is a film that was unfairly overlooked on its release. Whether the simplicity or art house airs kept audiences away, this film deserves to be a classic. – Brian R.
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Closed Circuit (John Crowley)
Director John Crowley is a man with a good eye for picking dynamic screenplays. His feature film debut Intermission is a fun Irish romp, while his sophomore effort, drama Boy A, is criminally underrated and shamefully ignored. So, seeing him sign onto a project written by the man behind Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises – Steven Knight – was an exciting discovery, especially after finding the thriller’s trailer to be intriguing enough without spoiling too much of its conspiratorial plot. And everything does work harmoniously for the majority of Closed Circuit, to create the exact taut mystery of governmental corruption and legal system loopholes I desired. However, while the plotting kept me riveted in watching each new secret reveal itself, a tiny detail crucial to helping put the main pieces in play ultimately transforms into its greatest liability. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Don Jon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)
One has to give props to the multi-talented Joseph Gordon-Levitt for pulling off something special with his directorial debut Don Jon’s Addiction. In addition to crafting the script and starring as the titular character, JGL does an effortless job in making the experience both entertaining and oddly poignant. A cross between Jersey Shore and Shame makes for an odd combination on the surface, but it perfectly summarizes the bizarre balance that this new director is able to achieve. Complete with definite traces of the various accomplished filmmakers Levitt has worked with, he particularly uses the fast editing montage style of Rian Johnson (with whom Gordon-Levitt has worked with on all his films thus far). The cinematic trifecta of writing, directing and acting seems like an impossible task to pull off, but in the capable hands of JGL it all seems effortless. – Raffi A. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Hours (Eric Heisserer)
Paul Walker, who will forever be remembered as an action star, is an interesting choice to leadEric Heisserer’s Hours, a drama with elements that seem borrowed from an action film. It never revs up into kinetic action movie territory, however, instead remaining a contained, smart dramatic thriller. Walker stars as Nolan, whom we learn very little about despite the film’s flashback structure. What we do learn is that he’s married to the beautiful Abigail (Genesis Rodriguez), whom he met at random when the two strangers accidentally prevented a bank robbery — this and a lot of other would-be action sequences remain off screen. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
The Lone Ranger (Gore Verbinski)
Although not remotely in the same pitiful camp as Wild Wild West or Jonah Hex, The Lone Ranger is far from the boisterous, colorful adventure that marked jovial throwbacks like The Mask of Zorro or Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Conflicted and erratic in tone, this Ranger has many of the same problems that afflicted the Caribbean sequels — too dark, too bloated — without any of those films’ sense of rampant, wild creativity. Depp’s Tonto, reconfigured from proud Comanche to damaged, vengeful tracker constantly feeding the kitschy dead crow on his head, is presented as the story’s magnetic center. There’s even an unconvincing and bizarre book-ending sequence that features an aged Depp, ala Little Big Man, telling a little boy the Ranger’s tale inside a Wild West museum in 1930’s New York. – Nathan B. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Not Fade Away (David Chase)
In an ironic way, Not Fade Away is perhaps most interesting when it’s explicitly referencing the small-screen roots of its writer-director, Sopranos honcho David Chase. Sprinkled throughout the film, which is Chase’s feature debut, are magical moments of characters sitting in front of a black-and-white television screen, allowing themselves to be transformed by what they see. A delicate close-up of Bella Heathcote basking in a Rolling Stones rendition of “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” a farther-back view of James Gandolfini tearing up to a tune from South Pacific — these are affecting touches that let the actors peel back the layers of the screenplay’s relatively regimented characterizations. – Danny K. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Paradise (Diablo Cody)
Juno toyed with convention, subverted cliché, and actually created its own. Seriously—how many copycats tried to capture its hipster chic cuteness afterwards to middling success? Add Paradise o the list as it takes Cody’s own clichéd, heightened reality and unabashedly tries way too hard in doing so. You can’t get more convoluted than a story about a programmed Catholic girl from Montana getting a second chance at life after being burned alive in a plane crash who renounces God and goes to live in the one place her naïve mind can think to be a hedonistic wonderland of sinfully delightful experiences: the Las Vegas Strip (aka Paradise, NV). It’s so hamfisted that her first friendly encounter there jokingly asks whether she’s stepped into the first five minutes of a porno upon hearing the set-up. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Riddick (David Twohy)
One must give David Twohy’s Riddick credit for caring about its protagonist and the world he inhabits, so much so that the first twenty minutes of this pulpy sci-fi concoction are just Vin Diesel and his alien canine wandering around the planet he’s been abandoned on. Intent on scaling the character back to his savage, minimalist roots the creative team is gunning for the fan base, but there is more retread here than you are expecting. – Nathan B. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Runner Runner (Brad Furman)
Runner Runner is one of those movies that plays like it was based off its own trailer. Maybe director Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer) and writing team Brian Koppelman and David Levien didn’t actually shoot a series of disconnected, pulpy clichés and then dream up the online gambling premise to hold it all together. It doesn’t really matter though, because watching Runner Runner makes one think that’s exactly what they did. It’s easy to be suspicious when the movie begins with the ins-and-outs of the gambling operation, yet finds its pivotal scene with Ben Affleck covering his enemies in chicken fat and dumping them in a gator pit in Costa Rica. – Nathan B. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
The Spectacular Now (James Ponsoldt)
Returning to Sundance Film Festival just one year after his overlooked drama Smashed, director James Ponsoldt shows a mature step forward with his coming-of-age film The Spectacular Now. Both featuring powerhouse lead performances (with Smashed‘s Mary Elizabeth Winstead even returning in a supporting role here), his latest film feels like a wholly accomplished work, familiar in content, but one that packs an emotionally-devastating punch without an ounce of pretension. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
We Are What We Are (Jim Mickle)
Writer-director Jim Mickle is no stranger to indie horror films, having had a fairly successful run with his 2010 vampire thriller Stakeland. That same year, another independent horror film, We Are What We Are, was also playing festivals alongside Stakeland and caught the attention of Mickle, who decided to reinterpret it with his writing partner Nick Damici. Having not seen the original, it’s impossible to comment on the differences between the two, but it is clear that this reinvention works extremely effectively on its own. Stylishly directed and unnerving to its core, Mickle’s We Are What We Are is a prime example of horror done right. – Raffi A. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
What are you streaming this week?