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.
12 O’Clock Boys (Lotfy Nathan)
When we first meet Pug he’s a bright 13-year-old living in a rowhouse in Baltimore, spending his time idolizing the dirt-bike gang that tears and zips through downtown. Lotfy Nathan’s 12 O’Clock Boys features the titular daredevils and their hair-raising bike stunts—they are so named because they ride with their bike handles pointing vertically like the hands of a clock—but its true focus is this young man, an innocent pulled and pushed by the allure of the bikers and diminished options he faces at home. When some friends suggest that the dirt biking is a positive activity, and a far superior alternative to drug-dealing, the lack of nihilism in the thought keeps us open-minded even if unspoken doubts remain. – Nathan B. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
The Art of the Steal (Jonathan Sobol)
When you’re looking to create a successful heist flick it’s usually a good idea to keep things simple — make everything as airtight as possible, don’t try for too many twists and turns, and maybe throw in a double cross to add a bit of intrigue. This is something that the underrated television show “Leverage” excelled at, allowing its stellar cast to shine above its crime of the week formula. When the theft itself is a foregone conclusion and you know it will all end in a winking smirk, you’ll find that the ability to merely enjoy the players doing their thing proves much more enjoyable than some convoluted ordeal hiding plot holes with even more outlandish plot holes. I didn’t think Jonathan Sobol‘s The Art of the Steal would be one of these gems when I sat down to watch. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: iTunes, Google
The Broken Circle Breakdown (Felix Van Groeningen)
The Broken Circle Breakdown may yield only a single moment of genuine subversion, but one can at least appreciate it having arrived with the very first image: as the credits begin to roll in Flemish, there’s the rather clear tune of bluegrass music delivered in dually-confusing English and, stranger yet, a southern drawl — only to be conjoined, via hard cut, to a group of men crooning like some good ole boys down south. – Nick N. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Dallas Buyers Club (Jean-Marc Vallée)
How do you stretch having thirty days left to live into seven years? You put in the work. Ron Woodroff (Matthew McConaughey) didn’t journey towards opening up the Dallas Buyers Club in order to stage a revolution against the FDA — he simply sought to prolong his own life. DirectorJean-Marc Vallée’s film depicts this evolution as Woodruff’s homophobic cowboy becomes a champion of the LGBT community and a leader in the fight against government AIDS profiteering. It’s a story twenty years in the making as screenwriter Craig Borten met with the real Woodruff a month before his death in 1992, enlisted Melisa Wallack’s help to rework his script in 2000, and finally saw its debut at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. And it proves much more than a vehicle for the headline grabbing weight loss of its stars. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Fear and Desire (Stanley Kubrick)
Although Stanley Kubrick widely disregarded this debut effort, there’s much to glean when it comes to the master filmmaker’s beginnings. In easily the biggest coup of rundown, the little-seen feature has now gone through an archival restoration by the Library of Congress and it’s available to to stream. Tracking soldiers who have crash-landed behind enemy lines, it comes with a high recommendation. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes
A Field in England (Ben Wheatley)
“A coward becomes a man” is, I suppose, the crux of Ben Wheatley’s newest thriller, A Field in England. We find Whitehead (Reece Shearsmith) hiding in the bushes while mortars explode around him during battle, weeping and praying to God to keep him hidden now that his mission (finding an elusive old comrade) seems all but futile and far too dangerous. He runs, meets a few other deserters in a mid-17th-century English Civil War pitting the Parliamentarians against the Royalist monarchy, and moves forward towards a chance at prolonging his life while, along the way, martyring himself for personal failures. A scholar amongst blue-collar men, Whitehead’s chance to prove himself once more comes courtesy of a serendipitous stumbling upon the object of his search in an overgrown field. Chaos ensues. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes
Filthy Gorgeous: The Bob Guccione Story (Barry Avrich)
Intimately told by those that were closest to Penthouse Magazine founder Bob Guccione, Filthy Gorgeous by Barry Avrich is a rich, fascinating and entertaining portrait. I approach this material cold as a product of the internet age, and the film points out the niche Playboy and Penthouseonce filled, which has been replaced by Maxim. Folks like Guccione and Hugh Hefner won the sexual revolution, later fighting the “Moral Majority” and the Reagan Administration on freedom of speech. Guccione spent the later part of his career as the publisher of Penthouse, exposing the hypocrisy of the religious right and when they attacked him, he exposed who they were sleeping with on the side. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Nurse 3D (Douglas Aarniokoski)
If you’re looking for fun trash, reviews suggest you can’t do better than this effort. Featuring Paz de la Huerta as a nurse by day and seemingly half-naked killer nurse by night, we suppose there’s not much else to be said about this film. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: iTunes
Thor: The Dark World (Alan Taylor)
There’s the issue of Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) forays on Earth being the most outlandishly comical of Marvel’s stable, his fish-out-of-water presence mostly played for the laughs typical and expected of that subgenre. So, how would Thor: The Dark World writers Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus, and Stephen McFeely, alongside director Alan Taylor, take it to the next level without getting mired? Loki (Tom Hiddleston) already exposed Earth to the destructive power that otherworldly beings possess, the Tesseract’s arc found completion, and Iron Man 3 showed the psychological toll our Brave New World took on mankind. The second Thor film was thus poised to give those ramifications a universal scale, while proving its titular hero was more than just a pontificating, short-tempered, ego-driven pretty boy. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Also Available to Stream:
Adore
Airplane! and Airplane II: The Sequel
The Armstrong Lie
Broken
Bubba Ho-Tep
City of Men
Concussion
A Fistful of Dollars
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Harold and Maude
A Life Less Ordinary
MASH
Marathon Man
Nobody’s Fool
Patriot Games
Sunset Boulevard
The Usual Suspects
What are you streaming this week?