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.
10 Cloverfield Lane (Dan Trachtenberg)
Forget the Cloverfield connection. The actors who were in this film didn’t even know what the title was until moments before the first trailer dropped. Producer J.J. Abrams used that branding as part of the wrapping for its promotional mystery box, but the movie stands perfectly alone from 2008’s found-footage monster picture. Hell, 10 Cloverfield Lane perhaps doesn’t even take place within the same fictional universe as that film — although a friend asked if it’s secretly a Super 8 sequel, and, honestly, you could think of it as one without contradicting anything in either movie. Whether the Cloverfield name fills you with wariness or enthusiasm, it would be unwise to burden Dan Trachtenberg‘s film with such prejudices. – Dan S. (full review)
Where to Streaming: Amazon, iTunes, Google
City of Women (Federico Fellini)
Federico Fellini‘s epic 1980 fantasia introduced the start of the Maestro’s delirious late period. A surrealist tour-de-force filmed on soundstages and locations alike, and overflowing with the same sensory (and sensual) invention heretofore found only in the classic movie-musicals (and Fellini’s own oeuvre), La città delle donne [City of Women] taps into the era’s restless youth culture, coalescing into nothing less than Fellini’s post-punk opus. Marcello Mastroianni appears as Fellini’s alter ego in a semi-reprise of his character from 8 1/2, Snàporaz. As though passing into a dream, the charismatic avatar finds himself initiated into a phantasmagoric world where women–or an idea of women–have taken power, and which is structured like an array of psychosexual set-pieces, culminating in a bravura hot-air balloon that decisively sticks the “anti” up into “climax.” – Official Synopsis
Where to Streaming: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Eddie the Eagle (Dexter Fletcher)
The 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary attracted more absurd hopefuls than coffee shops in Los Angeles. The collection of oddballs meant that the Jamaican bobsledders of Cool Runnings weren’t the least plausible competitors to be led by a disgraced American pro that year: there was also a stubborn, tubby amateur skier named Eddie Edwards. Eddie the Eagle’s charming true story, facts futzed to create a more Disneyfied tale (no living in a mental institution due to poverty, etc) and dismissed by Edwards himself as about 10% accurate, tracks the unlikely Edwards (a wonderfully engaging Taron Egerton) from amateur to England’s record-holding Olympian. – Jacob O. (full review)
Where to Streaming: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)
It can be argued that no film has dealt with memories and their repercussions with greater affection than Michael Gondry‘s crowning achievement, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Now available to stream on Netflix, the drama takes place mostly in the mind of our protagonist (Jim Carrey) as we weave in and out of his memories of a relationship with an ex-girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet). – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Netflix
Hello, My Name is Doris (Michael Showalter)
As odd as it is endearing, Michael Showalter’s Hello, My Name is Doris is a rare character-driven comedy that hinges upon the believability of its central relationship between Doris (Sally Field), a shut-in who has taken care of her recently departed mother, and an art director John (Max Greenfield), 34 years her senior. Inspired by a self help guru (played by Peter Gallagher), she pursues a relationship with John, although her long-term plan is uncertain. Living in the moment for the first time, Doris is sympathetic in what seems to be a realistic portrait although, truth be told, I cannot be sure too sure of this as a 30-something man. If anything, Showalter demystifies an aspect of fantasy without much context to Doris’ history behind her last ten years. Cutting his teeth in sketch comedy, individual scenes have the kind of short term pay-off you’d find in that context — while Doris may be the punch line in a sequence, she’s taken seriously overall. – John F. (full review)
Where to Streaming: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Janis: Little Girl Blue (Amy Berg)
A chance oddity has occurred in the great European festivals this year. With no clear discernable connection between them, biopics of arguably the three most famous members of the infamous 27 Club have coincidentally surfaced in Berlin, Cannes and now Venice consecutively. Bret Morgen took Kurt Cobain to the German capitol with Montage of Heck; Asif Kapadia brought Amy Winehouse to the south of France; and now acclaimed documentary maker Amy Berg brings her study of Janis Joplin to the Lido. Janis screens in the documentary-heavy Out of Competition selection and, as far as these things go, it’s a fairly generic depiction. Meteoric rise? Check. Seminal tunes? Check. Tragic fall? Check. But hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and Jurassic Park III
As Juan Antonio Bayona preps to shoot a sequel to Jurassic World, the first three features in the franchise have now landed on Netflix. While it’s hard to argue that Steven Spielberg’s original is the best of the bunch, there are some sequences in its subsequent follow-ups that provide the dino-centered thrills (and even a few memorable character moments) that one wishes Colin Trevorrow‘s blockbuster had more of. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Netflix
Wim Wenders’ Road Trilogy
While a low-budget feature shot in black-and-white on 16mm, the first installment of the trilogy contains a kind of sprawl not afforded to many today, filming on-location in New York, South Carolina, Germany, and the Netherlands. Yet this is wholly appropriate for the subject of a German photojournalist, Philip — played by Rudiger Vogler, who stars in every film of the trilogy — assigned with capturing America. Being past his deadline, there’s a palpable frustration over the dwindling romanticism of his trek: spending too much of his time in cheap hotel rooms watching television, at one point early in the film taking to destroying his set — even if it’s John Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln gracing the screen. This predates a later sentiment by Wenders in his 1985 documentary Tokyo-Ga, on his own journey to capture a foreign land that inspired him so, that “every shitty television set has become the center of the world.” – Ethan V. (full feature)
Where to Stream (click titles): Alice in the Cities, Kings of the Road, and Wrong Move
The Wonders (Alice Rohrwacher)
Alice Rohrwacher’s national background makes it understandable, albeit a bit too easy, for one to draw connections between her latest writing-directing effort, The Wonders, and tenets of neorealist and post-neorealist Italian filmmaking. This sense is immediate in the moment — the costuming, the farm life (speaking for both work and environment), the dramatic conflict at its center — and a bit ineffable in retrospect. Take it with a grain of salt, then, when I say this is a film that not only understands the myriad feelings tied to poverty, but how they can so often collide with one’s hope for their future like two cannonballs fired at full speed. – Nick N. (full review)
Where to Streaming: Netflix
Also New to Streaming
Amazon
Above and Below (review)
Approaching the Unknown (review)
London Has Fallen (review)
Sleeping Giant
Urge
HBO
Netflix
7 Chinese Brothers (review)
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Cape Fear
Cold in July (review)
The Color Purple
Full Metal Jacket
The Hustler
J. Edgar (review)
Meadowland (review)
Meet Joe Black
Traffic
The Usual Suspects