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
Afflicted (Clif Prowse, Derek Lee)
Like most film festivals, Fantastic Fest is about finding original, exciting voices and Afflictedproves that first-time feature filmmakers Derek Lee and Clif Prowse are a duo to watch for. To take the handheld genre and some creature mythology and push it forward is fun to witness, especially for a work that simply doesn’t feel like a freshman effort. Showing a surprising understanding of what makes a film like this work, the duo gets us to care for our characters before dragging them through hell and back. Additionally, the use of practical effects helps sell the chaos even more, particularly with a low budget. – Bill G. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google Play
Bastards (Claire Denis)
While out at sea, supertanker captain Marco Silvestri (Vincent Lindon) receives an urgent call from his sister, Sandra (Julie Bataille), that beckons him to return to Paris immediately. Sandra’s husband had committed suicide while her daughter, Justine (Lola Créton), has been traumatized by a brutal rape. Determined to bring those responsible for such a heinous crime to justice, Marco embarks on an personal investigation to avenge his niece. When Sandra points the finger of blame on a wealthy businessman, Edouard Laporte (Michel Subor) — who eerily and, perhaps intentionally, bears a distinct resemblance to Dominique Strauss-Kahn — he begins observing Laporte as a means of uncovering clues as to what happened. Marco sells off all his worldly possessions and moves into a posh apartment complex where Laporte’s mistress and son are living; the deeper Marco finds himself in this seedy underground playground of the uber elite, the muddier the waters of truth become. – Raffi A. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Beyond Outrage (Takeshi Kitano)
If you like your imported thrillers of the violent, crazy variety, then you’ve probably already taken a liking to Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano. After debuting Outrage back in 2010, he’s returned for the follow-up, Beyond Outrage, tracking the police’s full-scale crackdown on organized crime and a yakuza battle that follows. With a mix of inventive killings, bloodshed, gunshots and a few laughs, it’s now streaming on Netflix Instant. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Netflix
The Dirties (Matthew Johnson)
If the found-footage concept relies on the belief that hand-held images will instantly signal reality, then it’s refreshing that The Dirties has the intelligence to directly pit verisimilitude against fantasy and subjectivity’s place within it. But as for the subject of the found-footage, we find two best friends, but more definitively. high-school outcasts and film buffs, Matt and Owen (the former played by the director Matt Johnson). They decide to document (with the help of an unseen cameraman) the making of their magnum opus, The Dirties, which sees them getting revenge against the school bullies. Their cast and crew consist virtually of themselves and a few accidental participants from their school and outside; itself mirroring the actual film’s use of real people. Though after their disastrous in-class screening, only making them the objects of even further scorn, it’s back to the drawing board as a far more real and deadly project is devised by Matt. – Ethan V.
Where to Stream: Netflix
Hateship Loveship (Liza Johnson)
There is something appealingly ambiguous about the story at the heart of Hateship Loveship. It goes through the paces and hangs itself on the narrative framework of a romantic drama, and yet it leaves behind all of the various neat bows and long-winded speeches usually associated with the genre. It explores the kind of impossible situation you think you’d only find in a film, but allows the inherent flaws and brokenness of humanity to live and breath. This makes it a hard film toexamine or convene a solid opinion on, but it also makes it one well worth seeing. – Brian R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google Play
Insidious: Chapter 2 (James Wan)
While it seemed make far less a splash then the original, culturally speaking, James Wan‘s sequel to 2010’s major hit still brought in over $160 million worldwide, marking yet another financial smash considering it cost around $5 million. Not to be confused with last summer’s The Conjuring — a film also directed by Wan and starring Patrick Wilson — this projects picks up after the events of the original, featuring the return of our main cast, as all is not well in the Lambert family (again). With what’s likely many jump scares and terrifying setpieces, you can now cower in fear on Netflix. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Netflix
Joe (David Gordon Green)
While it often feels like a brother to Jeff Nichols‘ brilliant Mud, David Gordon Green‘s newest drama Joe even has the same young actor supporting his titular lead: Tye Sheridan, who either has the greatest agent in the world or, simply, possesses the kind of ingrained encyclopedic knowledge and love for the art form that someone like Paul Thomas Anderson had at the same young age. His résumé may not contain a whole lot of diversity, what with its three country boys growing up the subject of abuse — Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life rounding out that trio — but he knows emotional stoicism and unwavering moral centers in a way most adult actors can’t wrap their heads around. He embodies the hardworking boy-who-could-kick-your-butt image perfectly while, too, giving us a troubled soul in desperate need of our compassion and empathy. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google Play
Let the Fire Burn (Jason Osder)
Let the Fire Burn tells the incendiary story of multiple bad decisions made by the City of Philadelphia which lead to the destruction of a densely populated neighborhood in attempt to “evict” the extremist African American liberation group MOVE. Told entirely in archival footage, Osder masterfully captures time and place; we know exactly what was known then, as muddy as the facts are. Framed by testimonials given before a commission investigating the day, the chips fall where they will. A powerful, thrilling, engaging and essential documentary, it’s fresh, speaking to us in the present tense from 1985. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Milius (Joey Figueroa, Zak Knutson)
If one wants to dive into the project of Apocalypse Now and more, one might get use from a new documentary on its screenwriter, John Milius, which is ever-so-appropriately titled Milius. A litany of his collaborators — Coppola, Spielberg, Scorsese, Eastwood, Stone, Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and so on — share stories of his legendary tactics in creating immortal, insane cinema, much (if not all) of which is sure to be equal parts illuminating and amusing. – Nick N.
Where to Stream: Netflix
A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke)
Jia Zhangke’s films often depict an easy overlap between politics and pop culture, whether it be the entertainers of Platform or The World, or the seeming overabundance of accessibility in Unknown Pleasures. This certainly holds true for A Touch of Sin, which — while loosely based on four real stories of violence fuelled by capitalism in contemporary China — plays with the tropes of past popular cinema as many characters come to embody modern Wuxia knights, the brandishing of Zhao Tao’s knife easily recalling the heightened sword strokes of King Hu. But as a public opera of one these classic Wuxia stories directly poses at the end, “Do you understand your sin?” As easy as it may sometimes prove to cheer on these acts of violence, every one comes with their own set of repercussions. – Ethan V.
Where to Stream: Netflix
What are you streaming this week?