With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’re highlighting the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.
Colette (Wash Westmoreland)
Keira Knightley is back in her beloved genre, the period piece, for Colette, and it looks to be one of her strongest roles. The story of the famous French author finds her trying to balance her newfound success, her exploration of her sexuality, and a marriage to her dominating husband Willy (Dominic West). Coming from Still Alice co-director Wash Westmoreland, whose husband and co-director Richard Glatzer passed away in 2015, Colette is now on VOD following a fall theatrical release and acclaim from Sundance.
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Inception (Christopher Nolan)
Inception is an arthouse movie with blockbuster aspirations. Or perhaps it’s the other way around. It is the product of a director given free rein by his studio, and a film that challenges its audience as much as it seeks to delight them. Who can forget the dream-within-a-dream world building, or the visually stunning action sequences such as the one that takes place inside a rotating hallway? Dizzying, beautifully scored and edited, and filled with memorable performances (including the role that properly introduced Tom Hardy to many American viewers), Inception is without a doubt one of the most influential and respected films to emerge from the genre in recent years. – John U.
Where to Stream: HBO Go
Lizzie (Craig William Macneill)
The morning of August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden discovered the bodies of her father and stepmother who had been axed to death in their house. She went on to become the prime suspect in the murders, and even though she was eventually acquitted, history turned her into a folk tale used to instill fear in little children who shudder at the idea of her cursed axe. How could it not? After all, Borden became the embodiment of everything a woman was not supposed to be: wealthy, outspoken and unmarried. In Lizzie, director Craig William Macneill and screenwriter Bryce Kass don’t attempt to further acquit her, but sticking to the idea that Borden indeed murdered her parents, they create a feminist case for her. Not that murder is justifiable of course, but rather than focusing on Lizzie as a figure out of a horror movie or creepy folk tale, she is portrayed as a woman who found liberty only through the death of her oppressors. – Jose S. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos)
The eminently idiosyncratic films of Yorgos Lanthimos revile the societal constructs that stifle and pervert human interaction. In laying bare these structures’ inherent hypocrisies, the films exaggerate their logic to absurd extremes, with conformity’s noxious ramifications always at the crux of Lanthimos’ critique. His exceptional breakthrough Dogtooth eviscerated the institution of the modern family, representing it as emblematic of society’s greater normative oppression. Dogtooth’s similarly incisive yet less warmly received follow-up Alps exposed the pretence fundamental to the forming of social identity. His newest film, The Lobster, takes on the rigid preconceptions surrounding relationships. – Giovanni M.C. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (Andy Serkis)
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is a strange beast. It’s a dark re-imagining of the world from The Jungle Book, familiar to anyone that saw Jon Favreau’s 2016 reboot to the Disney classic of the same name. Helmed by Andy Serkis (shot before his debut Breathe, but released after), this take on the man-boy Mowgli and his pack of jungle pals strides in technically bold new directions while also wading through narratively thin waters. The result is a film brimming with visual marvel that at first blends seamlessly with its ideas, then begins to unravel once we’re left with the scraps of its story. – Mike M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Tangerine (Sean Baker)
Like a bat out of hell does Tangerine begin, the new film from Sean Baker. Shot entirely on iPhones, this film has a very specific style and Baker is determined to shove it down the viewer’s throat. It’s a bold, visceral piece of work about a certain part of Los Angeles and the people who live there. Our heroes are two transgender prostitutes named Alexandra (Mya Taylor) and Sin-Dee (Kiki Kitana Rodriguez). It’s Christmas Eve and Sin-Dee, just back from a 28-day stint in prison, learns from Alexandra that her pimp/boyfriend Chester (a scene-stealing James Ransone) has been cheating on her with a woman whose name starts with a “D.” And so begins a day-long odyssey for Sin-Dee to find “D” and confront Chester, while Alexandra walks around town inviting anyone and everyone to a solo-singing performance of hers at 7pm. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
This Time Tomorrow (Lina Rodriguez)
Lina Rodriguez’s This Time Tomorrow delivers its thesis through three clear demarcations in time — or, rather, extended shots, beginning on a sunlit tree, coming into the middle with a lone coffee pot, and ending with clouds drifting through the sky. One could say Rodriguez is evoking Ozu’s similar shots that give a sense of the life that pulses through empty rooms and the spaces between, clearly separating the almost indifferent world from the characters who inhabit it. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
Tyrel (Sebastián Silva)
Not giving into audience expectations and thus creating something more terrifying in its relatability, Sebastián Silva’s TYREL follows a testosterone-heavy weekend and the anxiety-inducing isolation one character is faced with. Jason Mitchell plays Tyler, the only black man invited to a Catskills cabin for a birthday weekend, the kind of place where an overlarge, inflatable Santa resides in the front lawn. As more alcohol is consumed and clumsy jokes are thrown around, Tyler’s feeling of ostracization balloons and, with a perceptive eye, Silva captures every miniscule jab, all deeply felt by our protagonist with almost no remorse from his cabin mates. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: iTunes
Also New to Streaming
Amazon
1985
Back Roads
Pope Francis: A Man of His Word
On Her Shoulders (review)
MUBI (free for 30 days)
L’Animale
Counting
Señoritas
Treasure of the Bitch Islands
Pina
House On Bare Mountain
Netflix
8 Mile
Christine
Dumplin’
Friday franchise
Hellboy
Meet Joe Black
Shaun of the Dead
The Big Lebowski
The Last Dragon
Continue: Where to Stream the Best Films of 2018
