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. Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below, and shoot over suggestions to @TheFilmStage.
Barbara (Christian Petzold)
What’s so greatly appealing about Christian Petzold‘s Barbara is that, for a good chunk of its 105-minute runtime, the film douses itself in an atmosphere of restrained mysteriousness, as if to suggest the possibility that layers upon layers will be peeled back if we only remain attentive and patient. In particular, Nina Hoss‘s lead performance — as the title character, an intelligent, mature-looking doctor relegated to work in a deserted village after attempting to flee the German Democratic Republic of 1980 — seems to be an exercise of almost pictorial passivity, hinting at a second gear that we’re sure is going to be unleashed in due time. – Danny K. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Charlie Countryman (Fedrik Bond)
Point in fact, very little is necessary about Fredrik Bond‘s mostly dreadful feature debut Charlie Countryman. Starring Shia LaBeouf as the titular Charlie and Evan Rachel Wood as the young woman from Bucarest who steals his heart, Countryman is a visually and audibly distracted aggravation of a movie, constantly searching for a reason to keep going and constantly failing to make a valid case for itself. The basic gist of this disaster is that Charlie’s mom has just died, so he decides to go to Bucharest to “find himself.” In the process, he falls in love with a mysterious woman named Gabi (Rachel Wood) who’s still married to an abusive gangster named Nigel (Mads Mikkelsen). What follows is some version of the star-crossed lover story, with a lot of drugs and nudity and Sigur Ros and M83 music. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: iTunes, Google
Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
Mild, existing vestiges of its star’s “mumblecore” origins and its director’s acidic social preening are ultimately rejected in Frances Ha, a film that shows itself to have more kinship with the likes of Woody Allen’s Manhattan. (The black and white cinematography set amidst New York City being a bracingly obvious touchstone.) In its spirit, an alternately loose-limbed and tight-wired current runs through the Noah Baumbach–Greta Gerwig picture, thanks to an inextricable bond between image, script, and performance: the camera casts a patient glance on people in apartments, subways, bars, and restaurants, capturing the casual doling out of personal revelations which, set over a brisk 80-or-so minutes, accumulate into the portrait of human beings that is often painful but, somehow, always an undiluted pleasure. – Nick N.
Where to Stream: Netflix
Grabbers (Jon Wright)
We’ve seen aliens turn up in New York City, Tokyo, Los Angeles, London and many more locales around the world, but they picked the wrong place to invade in the latest creature feature. In Jon Wright‘s Irish horror comedy Grabbers, their one weakness is alcohol and yet they landed in the Irish countryside. After premiering at Sundance Film Festival last year, the film which follows a fishing village that comes under attack by some nasty, face-sucking monster, is now available to stream on Netflix.
Where to Stream: Netflix
A Hijacking (Tobias Lindholm)
A Hijacking revolves around the unraveling of the mystique of bravery and its risks and rewards. To be brave does not mean to be smart. When Danish cargo ship MV Rozen, with seven crewmembers, is hijacked by Somali pirates, an outside consultant is hired by the corporation that owns the boat to help in negotiations and tactics. Instead of following his specific advice, though, the CEO of the company wants to handle the direct negotiations instead of utilizing an outside negotiator. We learn early on that he runs a hard bargain when dealing with clients, but those matters aren’t life and death. While we see the tremendous toll and pressure that it places on the CEO, we also learn what it’s like to be part of that seven man crew as well. – Bill G. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Jobs (Joshua Michael Stern)
Jobs is the kind of biopic that I arrive at with baggage; while I did not personally know Steve Jobs, I’ve been a follower of his life, from his famous product keynotes at Apple to Walter Issacson’s excellent biography. Joshua Michael Stern‘s biopic is not terribly insightful, but it’s a film that knows what it is, just a notch above an original cable movie. The script, by Matt Whitele, brushes over some key biographical moments and along with its lead – Ashton Kutcher as Jobs — it lacks the pretensions of a studio prestige film. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, Google
Man of Steel (Zack Snyder)
Although the unflappable hero — not once tempted, dissuaded, or conflicted about the matters of right and wrong — is an object of intense personal desire, it’s also a character type which has failed to thrive in the post-9/11 world occupied by gritty Batman and Bond reboots. This presents a seemingly unconquerable problem for the most well-known and, once, well-liked protagonist of them all: Superman. From what one can tell, there’s the hint of waning popularity, this ultimate symbol of American greatness — his status as an immigrant only further strengthening the appeal for a nation built on national outsiders — carrying little stock in a post-millennial age. Nowadays, the perfect, Eagle Scout demeanor veers Krypton’s most famous son into the orbit of slight, vague dullness. What do you still say about the being who can do anything and everything, yet always knows to do the right thing regardless? – Nick N. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn; 2013)
There’s little way to look at it: Only God Forgives is a thoroughly minor career entry — if not, however, a poor or overtly familiar one. While Nicolas Winding Refn often shows himself to be infatuated with the comic absurdity of violence — even the aftermath of Drive’s elevator scene is worth a chuckle — its corresponding brutality is, here, taken to a different height, frequently imparting the sense of a darker-than-night comedy about the worst familial strain we could dare dream up. It works, for the most part, a soft register be damned. Credit, too, for avoiding the easy route: this is not the film most would’ve made after they landed themselves in multiplexes, even more so when one of the world’s most famous men is positioned as your central star. – Nick N.
Where to Stream: Netflix
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Gore Verbinski)
With a few thrilling setpieces, Gore Verbinski‘s The Lone Ranger perhaps deserved a slightly better fate at the box-office this summer, but audiences made it clear that his reteam with Johnny Depp was far removed from his most successful series of films, Pirates of the Caribbean. Arriving on Netflix Instant this week — ten years after it hit theaters — is Verbinski’s most accomplished blockbuster yet, a thrilling, funny work that introduced us to Jack Sparrow and despite the lackluster sequels that followed, it’s a prime example of what a Disney tentpole should be. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Netflix
What Maisie Knew (Scott McGehee & David Siegel)
Stories like What Maisie Knew are tough pills to swallow because of their authentic depiction of human selfishness. It’s easy to label the subject matter overwrought and hyperbolic due to the actions of its adults until we realize how prevalent such attitudes are in today’s society. With the safety of the titular grade-schooler’s world crumbling around her, we witness those morally and ethically responsible for her not being so while those who shouldn’t be burdened are. Amidst an ugly divorce between two monsters blinded by ego from understanding how important the concept of humility is when raising a child, Carroll Cartwright and Nancy Doyne’s script takes its audience through the ringer in large part because Maisie is too young to fully experience the pain. There really should be a test one needs to take in order to become a parent. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
The World’s End (Edgar Wright)
Shaun of the Dead opened with the notes of classic horror layered over studio logos from the 21st century. The initial aural-visual impressions from Hot Fuzz are police sirens scattering through a soundtrack as title cards transform to the will of these invasive tones. As the Focus Features banner fades in at the start of The World’s End, a voice pleading for freedom and independence — as transmogrified through the classic sampling in Primal Scream’s “Loaded” — fills our ears, only in its suggestions instantaneously vaulting us back to an experience since erased by time and personal adjustment. In seconds, the three-piece seam has been formed: a crossing of the past and present; a dive into the single-minded visage of another; and that throbbing desire to break from a norm, finding oneself consumed by their past. – Nick N. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
What are you streaming this week?