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
Ali (Michael Mann)
More than a decade after its release, people have finally started seeing Michael Mann‘s “biopic” for what it really is: much less the bullet-point-hitting genre standard and more a story of ascendancy as paralleled in both the public and private eye, examining where these two seemingly disparate experiences might converge. The typical Mann qualities persist — a powerful score, beautiful cinematography, sequences that help one understand the power of cinema as much as ever — but his dive back into historical issues has not lost its, well, punch, and shows many a race-centered drama just how the game is supposed to be played. Oh, and did I mention that its opening sequence is one of the best we have? – Nick N.
Where to Stream: Netflix
Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier)
What remains Lars von Trier‘s best film is, somewhat unsurprisingly, also his most emotionally grueling, a work that strikes its emotional center with such force because it never feels like anything other than straight documentation. (Take that, Dancer in the Dark!) For as miserable as the experience will prove, what some will take / have taken as misery porn is really a journey that, despite all else, concludes with a spiritual awakening worthy of Dreyer. Pair it with Nymphomaniac if you’re looking for a great six hours of cinema. – Nick N.
Where to Stream: iTunes
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg)
The best sci-fi film of 1977 does not cease to amaze 37 years on, in some part because its finer intricacies are forgotten amidst the pervasiveness of a five-tone theme and images of Devil’s Tower. Being less the thrillride of Jaws and more immediately touching than Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters is Spielberg‘s first great film about discovery and placing oneself into the fabric of human history — just not the best fable about fatherhood, either. – Nick N.
Where to Stream: Netflix
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel)
A true story of a man overcoming insurmountable odds, this biographical drama could very easily be received by the viewer as a horror movie. Elle editor-in-chief Jean-Dominique Bauby suffers a stroke and is completely paralyzed. He is unable to speak or move any muscle in his body — any muscle except for his left eye lid, that is. Imprisoned inside his own body, like being trapped underwater in an old metal diving suit, he must learn to communicate through eye blinks to his therapist. Over a period of 14 months Bauby communicated a memoir of his life struggles, letter by letter, via blinking his left eye to his therapist and publisher’s assistant who transcribed each letter for him. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is an incredibly intriguing, and terrifying, true story of keeping your sanity and continuing to live with “locked-in syndrome.” – Addam H.
Where to Stream: Netflix
Frankenstein’s Army (Richard Raaphorst)
Frankenstein’s Army is a B-movie in every sense of the word. Not without laughs, moments of blood, gore and primitive surgery as its name suggests, the film unfortunately takes on a found-footage approach that doesn’t always work. We are introduced to Sergei (Joshua Sasse), a young filmmaker from the Soviet National Film School who shoots with what looks like a bolex (the camera even has a hand crank). It’s so high quality that it looks like footage shot on a DSLR or Red One and manipulated in after effects with “grain.” His sound is excellent too, and he’s certainly lucky to have nice lighting, even the in the creepiest of settings. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
The Graduate (Mike Nichols)
A year after his debut, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Mike Nichols delivered this coming-of-age drama that was, well, one for the ages. Dropped into the fishbowl that is Benjamin Braddock’s (Dustin Hoffman, in his break-out performance) world, The Graduate is a flawlessly directed masterpiece that I’ve returned to again and again. With a haunting finale, if you have yet to seek it out, it’s now streaming on Netflix and, if you couldn’t tell, it’s a must-see. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Netflix
Philomena (Stephen Frears)
Philomena arrived at the Toronto International Film Festival from its world premiere Venice waving a flag that read “crowd-pleasing,” and that can be a scary proposition. That description can mean many things: inane, lowest-common-denominator, spoon-fed pablum. But Stephen Frears’s film is that rarity – a work that is genuinely crowd-pleasing, but also smart, funny, touching, and often surprising. In short, it’s a film your mother will love, and unlike most Oscar-bait, so will you. – Chris S. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller)
In the press notes for Ben Stiller’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the following is written underneath the film’s title: “Walter Mitty: n. An ordinary person given to adventurous daydreams far grander than real life.” Clearly, this isn’t your film studies professor’s idea of a notable New York Film Festival entry: Stiller’s film, his fifth feature as a director, is unabashedly nice, crowd-pleasing, and earnest, and the movie’s globe-spanning scale is perhaps too daunting a task for Stiller’s modest formal ambitions. But taken purely as a pleasant, holiday-season studio release, there’s really not much to take issue with here, especially because Stiller’s front-and-center presence — his choices as a director are always in permanent harmony with his character’s emotional state — effectively gives the film the feeling of a passion piece, making it easy to forgive and even disregard potential nitpicks. – Danny K. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Roger Dodger (Dylan Kidd)
A bit silly, more than a bit self-satisfied, and incapable of maintaining a consistent formal code, but written with the sort of verve that’s been missing from much of independent American cinema in recent years. While the young Jesse Eisenberg is an impressive sight all his own, you’ll be left to wonder why Campbell Scott didn’t have more of a film career in him, given how startlingly he inhabits the picture’s title character. Look out for the park scene, which could sustain itself as an all-time-great short. – Nick N.
Where to Stream: Netflix
The Yards (James Gray)
Before The Immigrant is finally released (albeit dumped), catch up with James Gray‘s excellent second feature in HD, as its terrific cinematography (from the late Harris Savides) would essentially demand. If not the most dramatically thrilling crime film you’re bound to see, it contains the writer-director’s uncanny sense of mood, atmosphere, and character, evincing an understanding how all three can be transposed from the real-world to cinema without a loss for anything essential. See this, and you’ll want to catch up on the rest before next month. – Nick N.
Where to Stream: Netflix
Zatoichi (25-Film Collection)
A Criterion jackpot, the unparalleled distributors have released their entire 25-film collection of Zatoichi features on Hulu Plus. Produced between 1962 and 1973, the films recently got the box set treatment, but if you haven’t shelled out for that yet, this works as a perfect primer. Per their official description,” Like the James Bond of Japanese film, Zatoichi is the longest-running action series in Japanese history, starring Shintaro Katsu as the legendary Zatoichi, a blind masseur and sword master who lives by the yakuza code and answers his foes with a deadly cane sword.” – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Hulu Plus
Also New to Streaming
Amistad
Amores Perros
Angel Heart
Ass Backwards
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Death Wish
The English Patient
The Fifth Element
For a Few Dollars More
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
The Last Days on Mars
Mean Girls
Rocky (1-5)
The Running Man
Spanglish
The Terminator
The Thomas Crown Affair
The Unknown Known
What are you streaming this week?