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.
Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)
Aside from a couple of films he made about a certain crime family, Francis Ford Coppola‘s crowning achievement is his extraordinary look at the Vietnam War with Apocalypse Now. Following Ben Willard’s (Martin Sheen) journey to track down a presumably insane Colonel named Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando), it’s a towering work due to not only it’s epic scale, but its deep exploration into the darkest recesses of one’s soul. Arriving on Netflix this week in both its original form and the Redux version — which adds about 50 minutes — we recommend giving the first version a spin before you head to the divisive additional cut. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Netflix (or the Redux version here)
Dying of the Light (Paul Schrader)
Getting a great turn from Nicolas Cage — a disturbingly physical performer who can go from 0 to 10 in the blink of an eye — requires the considerate crafting of an emotional logic. Cage has worked with many great directors (Scorsese, the Coens, David Lynch) and many not-so-greats, which has led to an extremely varied judgement of his career. Though he has certainly been meme’d for big, showy moments in films (especially those of ill-regard), the fact is that it takes a certain process and energy in any individual scene for Cage to arrive at that point. There’s a rhythmic method to Cage’s madness, and that ability to show how and why he reaches such forceful and manic moments can be the difference between believing in and scoffing at them. This is to say there’s likely a truly great Cage performance in Dying of the Light, a CIA thriller written and directed by Paul Schrader, but it’s not one shown on screen. – Peter L. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
The Hundred-Foot Journey (Lasse Hallström)
With Chocolat and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen under his belt, The Hundred-Foot Journey isn’t anything approaching new territory for director Lasse Hallström. But if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right? Honestly, if he can continue making feel-good tales like this—bona fide crowd-pleasers—we should all be happy since it keeps him busy and away from the allure of helming a hat trick of Nicholas Sparks adaptations. There may be no surprises in this cinematic version of a novel Oprah Winfrey selected as part of her 2010 summer reads (she produces the film, too), but sometimes that’s exactly what the doctor ordered. It gets a little shaky during the third act turning into culinary sci-fi horror, but it pairs nicely with Chef to make this a summer of food. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
I Origins (Mike Cahill)
The follow-up to his previous Sundance entry Another Earth, Mike Cahill‘s I Origins similarly mixes together sci-fi elements based loosely in real science with somewhat-clichéd romantic threads. The narrative’s thematic crux focuses on the age-old debate of faith versus science. How can we acknowledge that a divine presence exists without empirical evidence or blind faith? To a scientist, this is even more of a fundamental question. Much of their lives are devoted to discovering relevant data points, all in the hopes of better understanding the nature of the universe. While these are grand concepts that have been studied and debated for centuries, the incarnation of this debate within the film’s larger fabric feels stripped of any insightful conclusions, instead focusing on deceptive ploys to lure the audience into some false sense of pathos. – Raffi A. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Magic in the Moonlight (Woody Allen)
Magic in the Moonlight’s pending release has granted marketing types an opportunity to note Woody Allen’s supposed penchant for magic. For this to be the hobby of someone we don’t know is one thing; for it to supposedly be a passion of someone whose decades-spanning career has essentially been built upon exposing his neuroses and desires is far more intriguing. Notwithstanding some obvious exceptions — The Purple Rose of Cairo, Scoop, Midnight in Paris, and one of his greatest works, the 1989 featurette Oedipus Wrecks — Allen’s oeuvre is a bit cleaner than this might suggest, more often leaning toward the rational way of assessing life’s various aberrations. (Or, at least, how his damaged characters might dare to define “rational.”) If we’re then to consider both the consistency of his worldview and the way that worldview has, time and time again, been channeled through the helmer’s now-perfunctory onscreen surrogate, there aren’t numerous ways his scripting of the romance between a stand-in skeptic and a supposed medium might turn. – Nick N. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
The Maze Runner (Wes Ball)
The low, grumbling whine of the elevator creaking to life is the first sound to permeate the darkness that begins The Maze Runner. When Thomas wakes up, he’s in unfamiliar surroundings, trapped within a caged confine and lacking any memories of who he was prior to this moment. When daylight finally breaks in, he’s being hauled out into the light, surrounded by young men of similar age, all of them standing in an idyllic pastorale called The Glade. On all sides are the towering, monolithic walls of the Maze, a labyrinth that cuts them off from any other form of civilization. This is the terse but effective set-up for what ends up being a strong new contender in the young adult dystopia genre, a sturdy and thrilling drama that diminishes early turgid world-building in favor of a ‘boy’s own’ adventure atmosphere. – Nathan B. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Panic Room (David Fincher)
Much of the recent discussion surrounding David Fincher rightfully has to do with his adaptation of Gillian Flynn‘s Gone Girl, recently crowned his biggest worldwide hit. However, his Fight Club follow-up, the contained thriller Panic Room, has recently become available on Netflix to stream. Following a mother (Jodie Foster) and daughter (Kristen Stewart), it’s perhaps Fincher’s finest example of a straight-up thriller, aided by his extreme technical precision. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Netflix
The One I Love (Charlie McDowell)
The driving force behind the very clever two-handed chamber piece The One I Love is communication. How we talk to those we love and those that love us. Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss play Ethan and Sophie, a married couple at a crossroads. When we meet them, they’re engaging in some silly-looking couples therapy with a very aloof Ted Danson. At the end of one of their sessions, the good doctor recommends that the couple take a retreat to a nearby cottage for the weekend and “reset the reset button.” – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Oculus (Mike Flanagan)
We all know the game in a horror film these days. Something evil is going to prey on our protagonists and likely try to scare the crap out of us in the process. But it’s not often that the protagonists also know the score and what to do to keep from being overtaken. That’s what Oculus is all about: fighting back against a known evil to the best of your abilities. Karen Gillan‘s Kaylie shines here as the woman that has it out for a magic mirror (stay with me here) that has been wreaking havoc on its owners for centuries. She does plenty of research and seems to have been preparing for the last 11 years when her brother Tim (Brenton Thwaites) is finally released from a mental hospital and she asks for his assistance. What she gets is a surprise, as he was once tormented by what happened, but has been through so many psychological evaluations that he is a disbeliever of the clear evil in the same house. – Bill G. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
The Skeleton Twins (Craig Johnson)
With Saturday Night Live serving as their initial platform, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader have enjoyed substantial comedic careers in Hollywood, both behind and in front of the camera. One can imagine the initial shock found in their latest film, the small-scale character drama The Skeleton Twins, when it opens with the pair attempting suicide on opposite ends of the country. Estranged for a decade, Milo (Hader) is coming off a bad break-up with his boyfriend in Los Angeles, while Maggie (Wiig) is having marital problems in New York, both left to feel relatively aimless when it comes their lives. When Milo’s failed wrist-cutting causes the hospital to interrupt his sister’s own endeavor to down a handful of pills, they are reunited. As one might expect, the reasons for their shared depression is slowly (and a bit too neatly) revealed. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Thief (Michael Mann)
Thief is a film of flows, one both about and made through them. Because cinema is essentially a medium that communicates the flows of movement over time (even Warhol’s Empire is based on what we see moving), thinking about this might seem a little too broad. The German film theorist Siegfried Karcauer noted his interest in cinema for showing the “flows of life,” here referring to an interest in everyday movement that has been captured in reality as opposed to being designed by a director. But Thief’s flows are, often, of a different nature — they are more attuned toward an elemental sense: the flows of light, water, metal, and more. This is what embodies Thief, now out in a spectacular Blu-Ray from The Criterion Collection, and, in particular, what embodies the larger oeuvre of Michael Mann. – Peter L. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
This is Where I Leave You (Shawn Levy)
This Is Where I Leave You is Franny and Zooey meets The Big Chill. Before one starts throwing accusations of hyperbole, hold on a second and let me explain. Jonathan Tropper is not J.D. Salinger and Shawn Levy isn’t Lawrence Kasdan. While overall quality comparisons would be delusional, the general connection is still sound if you’re willing to take it with a grain of salt. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Tusk (Kevin Smith)
The quintessential midnight experience, Kevin Smith’s next outing as he transitions from slacker comedy to dark horror is, like most of his films, for the fans. Green-lit on Twitter with the confidence of fans who voted with their hashtags, Tusk delivers essentially what Smith’s weekly “Smodcast” does: a mix of light and dark humor told through the sweet and sincere voice of Smith and longtime partner Scott Mosier (who helped Smith develop this story on air, but is not credited as a producer here). – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay)
We Need to Talk About Kevin represents an immensely exciting piece of filmmaking from Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar). That might seem like an odd label for this adaptation of Lionel Shriver‘s best-selling novel, considering the relentlessly harrowing subject matter in question, but it’s hard to come up with any other phrase to describe the sheer vivacity of Ramsay‘s directorial approach. This is indeed a film that keeps your emotions in constant flux — terrorized by the actions of the titular character in one moment, happily floored by Ramsay’s consistently fresh choices the next. – Danny K. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime
Also New to Streaming
Amazon
Criterion on Hulu+
Netflix
Ali
Almost Famous
American Beauty
The Dark Crystal
For Your Eyes Only
Friday the 13th Series
From Russia with Love
G.I. Jane
Goldfinger
The Grand Seduction
The Hustler
A Knight’s Tale
Knights of Badassdom
Labyrinth
Last Night
Live and Let Die
The Living Daylights
Never Say Never Again
One from the Heart
The Other Sister
Out of Time
Saturday Night Fever
Seven Years in Tibet
Tetro
Trailer Park Boys: Don’t Legalize It
The Truman Show
A View to a Kill
You Only Live Twice
What are you streaming this weekend?