Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
Wes Anderson has done it all: India by train, Rhode Island by foot, the Mediterranean by sub, France by bike, faux-Germany by hotel, apple-orchard America by fox, animated Japan by dog, motel Texas by friends, New York City by family. But––despite the feeling that this couldn’t possibly be true––he’s never told a story in western America. In setting he hasn’t gone further west than Houston (which is, of course, the south). Until Asteroid City: Arizona desert by quarantine. – Luke H. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Chile ’76 (Manuela Martelli)
Manuela Martelli’s debut film opens with a sequence that perfectly captures the tone and themes Chile ‘76 will explore. Carmen (played by Aline Kuppenheim) is at a paint shop, choosing and mixing the color that she’ll use at the beach house she has with her husband, a shift head at one of the most important medical institutions in Santiago, Chile’s capital. While browsing an almanac with pictures of European cities, pointing at colors of sun-kissed buildings, we can hear a disturbance outside: a woman is being pulled over by the military and yells as she’s taken away. – Jaime G. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Emily (Frances O’Connor)
Emily, the directorial debut for Mansfield Park and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence star Frances O’Connor, is one of the more remarkably assured first efforts in recent memory. Shot with breathtaking beauty and acted with extraordinary emotion and grace, this exploration of the life and development of Emily Brontë is tremendously enveloping. Emily looks deep into Brontë’s life story for evidence of what that really means. While it is unclear how much of the film is historically accurate and how much is conjecture, O’Connor’s account of the author of Wuthering Heights feels respectful and well-reasoned. – Chris S. (full review)
Where to Stream: Paramount+
Instrument (Jem Cohen)
A ragged collage of Washington D.C. punk-band Fugazi by a fiercely independent filmmaker Jem Cohen. Shot over 11 years and made in full collaboration with the band, Instrument offers a vision of a bygone era in American underground music when localized communities formed around artists determined to push the limits of their own experimentation. The film’s form-bending anarchy takes its cues from Fugazi and its fans alike, translating the ethos of punk to the screen.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
L’immensita (Emanuele Crialese)
In films like Volver, Parallel Mothers, Everybody Knows, and now L’immensità, Penélope Cruz has cornered the market on playing mother figures that are both larger than life and movingly earthy. As Clara, the loving Spaniard expatriate trying to raise her children while staying married to an unfaithful man in 1970s Rome, Cruz does some of the best work of her already incredible, multilingual career. – Jose S. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD (plus enter our giveaway of 10 digital codes here!)
Joyland (Saim Sadiq)
Another example of a tasteful but passionless festival film, Saim Sadiq’s feature debut Joyland errs on the side of arch family drama when its most interesting aspects remain almost in the periphery, promising a much better film. Simply put, what seemed like a modern iteration of Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel should have a little more spice, though sadly such comparison might just be the exact projection a critic makes when frankly bored by a film. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Shin Ultraman (Shinji Higuchi)
The film’s hyper-empirical style and procedural focus (cuts are many, expository subtitles abound, and get ready for more than a few boardroom debate scenes) feel like immediate successors to Shin Godzilla, and indeed the opening minutes dive right into a familiar conflict between invading alien titans and the Japanese government agencies tasked with repelling them. Shin Godzilla’s postmodern take on kaiju used its own orgy of empiricism—bureaucratic titles, intelligence reports, security footage, social-media posts—to establish a simple, film-length duel between mankind (specifically the nation of Japan) as a complex, messy collective entity and Godzilla as a singular force of nature. – Eli F. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Starling Girl (Laurel Parmet)
Laurel Parmet’s The Starling Girl finds the first-time feature director treading well-worn terrain. Starring Eliza Scanlen and Lewis Pullman as Jem Starling and Owen Taylor, a 17-year-old and her youth pastor, respectively, the film looks at the very-Christian idea of guilt, blame, and sexual desire. Parmet, who also penned the script, crafts a young woman who wants to explore, without the best role models, the struggle to reconcile her actions with her God. – Michael F. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Also New to Streaming
Film Movement Plus
Diamond Island
Hulu
Vesper
MUBI (free for 30 days)
Ashes of Time Redux
California Split
Kansas City
Gang of Four
Meet Doug
Lady of Burlesque
Buffalo ’66
Netflix
65
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Scream VI
Vivarium
OVID.tv
The Wonders
River of Grass
Prime Video
Barbara
Mother (2009)
VOD
Carmen