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.
The Actor (Duke Johnson)
For as much light as The Actor is bathed in, it’s equally shrouded in darkness. Duke Johnson’s solo directorial debut is a film of bleary sun and swallowing night and almost nothing in-between. It wouldn’t make sense to depict the in-between. That would be realistic, and The Actor is anything but real. Jubilant strings swell over vintage opening credits as we peer at the peaks of skyscrapers in a still, top-of-the-cityscape shot not too dissimilar from the angle we get on Saffron City in the original Super Smash Bros. The twinkling black-and-white image has a glowy 1950s TV-hour charm, the text surrounded by mid-century atomic sparkle logos (see: poster). It transitions neatly into the doomy film noir scene we open on––the inciting incident. – Luke H. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
Air: Eating, Sleeping, Waiting and Playing (Mike Mills)
A rare look at AIR’s “Moon Safari” tour filmed by Mike Mills (20th Century Women, C’mon C’mon). Mixing backstage interviews with impromptu conversations with fans, Mills’ laidback documentary presents a one-of-kind glimpse at the iconic French band in their early days.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
Bring Her Back (Danny and Michael Philippou)
Horror movies explicitly tackling grief are hardly a recent development, but it’s difficult to argue against the fact that we’ve seen this theme exploited at an increased output to less-satisfying results in the previous decade, adding unnecessary weight to even the sleaziest of slashers. I highly suspect twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou––the YouTubers-turned-cinematic sensations behind 2023’s excellent supernatural shocker Talk to Me––share those exact same reservations about the lazy utilizations of a universally relatable theme that have made their way into multiplexes on a near-weekly basis. Initially appearing to operate in the same realm of dark mysticism as their debut, the wildly ambitious sophomore effort Bring Her Back gradually reveals itself to be a direct statement on the cheap exploitation of grief, channeling the existential nihilism of French New Extremity works like Martyrs to explore just how unhealthy it is to process death at such a surface level. That it’s also one of the most distressing, anxiety-inducing horror films of recent memory when taken at face value is just a bonus. – Alistair R. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Directed by Jacques Rozier
One of the great discoveries of last year was the films of unheralded French New Wave director Jacques Rozier, who was praised by Richard Linklater as he was preparing Nouvelle Vague. “I was lucky and so excited to discover [Jacques Rozier’s] Adieu Philippine earlier this year in France, because it is very little known and not available in the U.S. It’s my new favorite French New Wave film.” Now, his work, including all five features and a selection of shorts is finally available on the Criterion Collection. If you are looking for the ideal starting place, the lovely, surprising Maine-Océan Express is a great starting point. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Female Perversions (Susan Streitfeld)
After getting her start in collaborations with Derek Jarman, Sally Potter, and Joanna Hogg––and before she would breakthrough in films by Danny Boyle, Cameron Crowe, Spike Jonze, Jim Jarmusch, and more––Tilda Swinton made her U.S. debut with an erotic drama that unfortunately has gone little-seen. Susan Streitfeld’s 1996 feature Female Perversions, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival, has been restored and has now arrived digitally following a theatrical and home video release. The evocative film follows Swinton as a bi-sexual lawyer on the edge of professional breakthrough, personal breakdown, and sexual awakening, with a cast also including Amy Madigan, Karen Sillas, Frances Fisher, Laila Robins, Paulina Porizkova, and Clancy Brown.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Miami Vice (Michael Mann)
The best action movie of the 21st century is now streaming on the Criterion Channel. If you’ve been reading this site for any amount of time, you already know our adoration for Michael Mann’s vibrant, visceral, and pitch-perfect adaptation of the hit ’80s series, so grab a mojito and bask in all its glory as summer kicks off.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Rungano Nyoni)
One of our favorite titles from last year’s New York Film Festival was Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not a Witch follow-up On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. Winner of the Best Director prize at Cannes in its Un Certain Regard section (an honor shared with Roberto Minervini’s The Damned), Michael Frank said in his review, “Nyoni’s film becomes a mixture of rage and tackling of Zambian burial rites, a clear-eyed look at the impossibility of these situations for the abused, the affected, the broken. But Shula often doesn’t seem broken. She’s strong, stoic, and often much quieter than those around her. She cares for Nsansa and a young cousin who’s clearly been a victim of her uncle’s horrific actions. Chardy embodies this character with a near-silent anger, a simmering frustration with the systems that push her uncle to the forefront of the community and blame everyone else. Among them are an overwhelmed teenage wife who is constantly compromising, nodding her head to help those who won’t admit her uncle’s wrongdoings, forced to watch while someone who assaulted her be recognized for a local hero. Chardy gives one of the performances of the year in one of the films in a year; I just hope audiences seek it out.”
Where to Stream: Max
Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
Yet Sinners mainly feels so refreshing when this richness of text can easily be overlooked for enjoyment of an unholy hybrid of period drama and horror freakout, Coogler showing as much reverence for the genre as he does the centuries of music which guide this story (and Ludwig Göransson’s excellent score). Most importantly, he remembers that the archetypal vampire tale is an inherently horny one, and he pulls some tricks from Luca Guadagnino’s book for making sexually explicit stories which play even more erotically from what they withhold. Every sex scene features fully clothed actors, but all contain dialogue, or specific kinky details, which serve to remind us that, Dracula onwards, the best vampire stories are carnal ones where characters’ lust is baked into the premise. – Alistair R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Max
Sister Midnight (Karan Kandhari)
Sister Midnight unfolds with a particularly deadpan style in both humor and performance. Kandhari favors simple gags, like the aforementioned handshake or a bit where Uma flees from the beach after being stuck between two sobbing people on either side of her. Apte largely rolls with the punches; when she’s not cursing she’s observing, or making sarcastic observations in-between something of a more unhinged behavior. (An overheard bit of dialogue at a different wedding mentions that her marriage was more an act of convenience, with her being a psycho and him being mostly feckless.) Combined with Kandhari’s studied compositions––especially in the dark––it makes for a rather amusing time, a novelty of Indian cinema even as you may start to wonder where exactly it’s going with all this. – Devan S. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Also New to Streaming
Disney+
Sunshine
The Criterion Channel
65 Revisited
Bad Day at Black Rock
Basquiat
Beyond the Visible – Hilma af Klint
Bona
Bully
Cain and Abel
Caring Cabin
Crumb
The Dreamers
Funny Games
Heat
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
In Celebration
It Felt Like Love
July Rhapsody
Lemmings, Part 1: Arcadia
Lemmings, Part 2: Injuries
Let’s Get Lost
Miami Blues
Notebook on Cities and Clothes
Out of Sight
A Place in the Sun
The Punk Singer
The Rebellion
The Return of the War Room
Rhythm Thief
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
Roman Holiday
Samba the Great
The Sandpiper
Splendor in the Grass
Suddenly, Last Summer
Sympathy for the Devil
Three Paths to the Lake
Kino Film Collection
The American Nurse
VOD
Tornado