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.
Babes (Pamela Adlon)
Transitioning the naturalistic comic sensibilities that made Better Things a success, Pamela Adlon’s feature debut Babes manages to co-opt the rhythms of a romantic comedy to explore the relationship between two best friends at opposite points of their lives. – Christian G. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
Dìdi (弟弟) (Sean Wang)
While trying to chat up classmate Madi (Mahaela Park) on AIM, Chris (Izaac Wang) skims her MySpace for an “in”. Then, beneath all the Paramore pictures and low-res GIFs is a list of her favorite movies. Oh, A Walk to Remember is one of them. He fakes loving it; “its helllllla good,” he says. Now he has to maintain that––at least for a few scenes. This sort of thing happens throughout Sean Wang’s feature directorial debut. The character moments flow on a moment-to-moment basis and the period detail is quite good beneath it. Ultimately, Dìdi (弟弟) works despite its untapped potential. – Matt C. (full review)
Where to Stream: Peacock
Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
A quiet, funny, confounding mystery, Evil plays out amongst the forests and streams of a remote village close to Tokyo. Tensions are raised when two representatives for the glamping company, Takahashi (Ryuji Kosaka) and Mayuzumi (Ayaka Shibutani), arrive to talk things over. The locals, in particular a man named Takumi (a tightly wound performance by Hitoshi Omika, a star of Fortune and Fantasy), voice their concerns about how it might affect the town’s drinking water. The proprietor of a noodle restaurant wonders if her Udon will taste the same. “Everything that happens upstream,” an older man sagely explains, “affects what happens downstream.” When the reps’ attempts to dissuade anxieties fail, they decide to meet with Takumi to hash it out. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Horror on The Criterion Channel
A quartet of stellar series are coming to The Criterion Channel to spook you this month: Japanese Horror, Horror F/X, Witches, and Stories by Stephen King. Featuring Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Eraserhead, The Fly, Rosemary’s Baby, Cure, Audition, Pulse, Creepy, Christine, The Lawnmower Man, and much more, there’s something for every horror fan.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
It’s What’s Inside (Greg Jardin)
There are few things better than when a good idea blossoms into a great movie. It’s What’s Inside, written and directed by Greg Jardin, achieves this rare feat. DIY in both aesthetic and narrative build, it suggests a labor of love. The premise is simple: a group of old college friends party at a big house the night before one of them gets married. Things seem sinister before anything bad has even happened. Or maybe the bad things already happened a long time ago. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Lee Chang-dong: Three New Restorations
Three films from the great Lee Chang-dong recently debuted in new 4K restorations from Film Movement, Green Fish, Peppermint Candy, and Oasis, which are now available to stream. Before watching, be sure to read Shawn Glinis’ interview with the director.
Where to Stream: Metrograph
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger (David Hinton)
There’s an argument to be made that the single image which best exemplifies pure cinematic wonder is the Archers logo. The introductory title reel belonged to the production company of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, a guarantee that whatever film followed would whisk the viewer away to a world of ecstatic imagination. The British filmmaking duo delivered sweeping, epic tales on a vibrant cinematic canvas painted with a style uniquely their own, and often found themselves on the periphery of their country’s popular cinema during their careers. While they came to be appreciated in the decades that followed the peak of their creative output, they have long passed, so David Hinton’s riveting new documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger brings the most qualified voice possible to speak on their contributions to the medium: Martin Scorsese. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
La Práctica (Martín Rejtman)
While its release was unfortunately digital-only, we’re excited that a year after seeing it at the New York Film Festival, Martín Rejtman’s first film in a decade has arrived on streaming now. Nick Newman said in his NYFF review, “You’re plenty absolved for not knowing the deal. It’s been 30 years since Martín Rejtman’s debut feature (Rapado), almost 10 from his last (Two Shots Fired), and nearly everything he’s made is only accessible through darkweb torrent networks I wouldn’t name here for fear of losing membership. In recent years, still, a small-even-by-small’s-standards cult has emerged, a just-enough status for this master of incident, image, and interactions––hilarious as in funny-ha-ha, not the dread ‘arthouse humor.’ If there’s anything to account for a non-pareil comedic director falling so out-of-step with means of exposure, consider what the landscapes––financing, exhibition, distribution––roundly not-great for just about anybody would do to a sui generis Argentinian. A near-decade’s absence hasn’t futzed with skill: La Práctica continues Rejtman’s reign as Argentina’s purveyor of mirthful chuckles, his characteristically patient and absurdity-spotted lens now trained on the lives of recently divorced yoga practitioners.”
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
Red Rooms (Pascal Plante)
One of the most unsettling thrillers of the years, Red Rooms marks a gripping start to the fall movie season. Alistair Ryder said in his review, “Arriving more than a year after its Karlovy Vary premiere, Canadian thriller Red Rooms feels most like a dark companion piece to Saint Omer in its perspective-shifting analysis of a courtroom observer, although that’s where the similarities end. Director Pascal Plante’s tale of true-crime obsession pushed to one of its most uncomfortable logical extremes doesn’t attempt to rip up the rulebook of how courtroom dramas operate so much as it tries grappling with the sensationalized allure of murder cases, and the disastrous consequences of third-party observers feeding off the personal trauma of others. That it manages to be so critical whilst succeeding as a nihilistic thriller at face value––albeit one closer in tone to Olivier Assayas’ Demonlover than David Fincher, to whom it has been regularly compared––is its greatest achievement, a stealth satire of which Paul Verhoeven would be proud.”
Where to Stream: VOD
Sebastian (Mikko Mäkelä)
There is plenty in Sebastian, written and directed by Mikko Mäkelä, that is provocative. It’s a focused, often handsome piece of work. It’s also never entirely convincing as a character study. Max (Ruaridh Mollica) is a young, aspiring writer in London. He’s got a plum gig writing for a respected magazine and a short-story collection set to be published. Next up is his debut novel, and Max is determined to examine the inner life of the sex worker. To do this, he begins a double life: writer by day, escort by night. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Vortex (Gaspar Noé)
Stories from multiple perspectives have been onscreen at least since Rashomon, but even the great Akira Kurosawa might have found something to like in the new Gaspar Noé. The agent provocateur returns to remind us that death is inevitable and rarely dignified. His newest film is Vortex and it takes place in Paris, specifically the apartment of a married couple on the final furlongs of life. It opens on the pair enjoying an evening on the balcony: “life is a dream,” the wife says; to which the husband responds, “a dream within a dream,” quoting Poe; then a clip of Françoise Hardy (“I’m one foot in the grave,” she sings) over a black and white image of a wilting rose. The mind wanders to Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuel Riva in Amour, another story of wilting roses in the French capitol. (For once, though, Haneke looks the sentimentalist.) – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: OVID.tv
Also New to Streaming
Hulu
Barbarian
MUBI (free for 30 days)
Silvia Prieto
Rapado
The Magic Gloves
Shakti
The Babadook
The Nightingale
Knives and Skin
Goodnight Mommy
Nocturama
Swallow
Falcon Lake
Bloodiest
The Blue Room
The Loneliest Planet
A Place Without Fear
Metrograph at Home
Claire‘s Camera
Hahaha
In Another Country
Inferno
Introduction
Night and Day
The Stendhal Syndrome
The Woman Who Ran
Netflix
Collateral
We Grown Now
Prime Video
Heaven’s Gate
Indiana Jones 1-4
The King of Comedy
The Long Goodbye
Lost in Translation
Phantom of the Paradise
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
VOD
The 4:30 Movie
Speak No Evil
Strange Darling