With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. 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, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Author: The JT Leroy Story (Jeff Feuerzeig)
Author: The JT LeRoy Story relives the literary hoax of the early aughts, the truly weird and out of control tale of JT LeRoy. An allegedly gender-fluid HIV positive son of a West Virginia truck stop hooker, he rose to the heights of indie stardom befriending the likes of Courtney Love, Shirley Manson, Lou Reed, Michael Pitt, Billy Corgan and filmmakers Gus Van Saint and Asia Argento (both would “adapt” works by LeRoy). An anonymous experiment originally conducted by Laura Albert, the myth grows out of control when she hires Savannah Knoop, her sister-in-law, as an avatar. The real Laura Albert had been described by media accounts as a Brooklyn housewife, but here director Jeff Feuerzeig dives deeper. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Blue Jay (Alex Lehmann)
Sometimes you just can’t escape the past. Moments that have shaped you and made you who you are today can happen at any time without you even knowing it. They could occur when you’re just a kid or even when you’re way past adulthood. In director Alex Lehmann’s slight, but competently made Blue Jay, a chance meeting between two former high school sweethearts (as played by Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson) is all about past wounds that haven’t seemed to escape either of their lives. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Frank & Lola (Matthew M. Ross)
Frank & Lola, a noirish erotic thriller from journalist-turned-director Matthew M. Ross, finds leads Michael Shannon and Imogen Poots in top form. They excel as lovers in this tightly-wound psychosexual love story that has elements of the best of Eyes Wide Shut. – Ed F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Kate Plays Christine (Robert Greene)
Actors put themselves in others’ skins — or they put others’ heads inside their own. Television journalists adopt a persona and try to deliver important information. Women erect calculated fronts to navigate environments not built for them. Many people suffering mental illness do their best to maintain a semblance of “nothing’s wrong.” Film directors orchestrate elaborate works of emotional manipulation. Documentary film directors do so with factual material. Such performances often overlap in the course of life and work; all of them intersect in Kate Plays Christine. – Dan S. (full review)
Where to Stream: iTunes
The Magnificent Seven (Antoine Fuqua)
Rather than the 1960 version or the film it was based on, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, Antoine Fuqua‘s The Magnificent Seven brought deja vu of the unexpected sort. The score pounds in with a familiar melody, Denzel Washington’s Sam Chisolm is approached by a (not-quite) damsel in distress to come and fight an evil man who’s been terrorizing her small town, and the thing that kept poking me to realize it was there finally hit its target. ¡Three Amigos! Yes, ¡Three Amigos! was a spoof of Seven Samurai and sadly it proved to be the only “western” I ever truly watched until my late teens. I couldn’t help chuckling to myself because separating the two became impossible. But it wasn’t necessarily a fault of the film on the whole as much as it was the further unfortunate proof that directors aren’t able to utilize the newfound star power of Chris Pratt effectively. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Other People (Chris Kelly)
Just a year since the cancer dramedy Me and Earl and the Dying Girl won big at Sundance, this year’s festival opened with another in the subgenre – albeit without the former’s teen-movie trappings – and it wears Sundance tropes like garlands (death, queer themes, quirky characters). Despite its tendency to fall into familiar characterizations, there’s much to like in its playful storytelling, not least from a winning performance by Jesse Plemons. – Ed F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Sully (Clint Eastwood)
You know the inciting incident because it is not quite like any in recorded human history, and you could stare at the foreboding, nigh-apocalyptic poster to no end before being fooled into anticipating a conclusion that’s anything but triumphant — the sort of victory we can find comfort in almost expressly because it’s so expected. So there’s the question of why and how Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s “Miracle on the Hudson,” a three-minute-long event, necessitates the big-budget cinematic treatment, other than, of course, “it’s cinematic!” (A plane sitting between two cities is a great image, no matter the danger endured by ordinary people so we could get it.) Clint Eastwood never directs pictures with so simple a follow-trough, and, sure, Tom Hanks is always a welcome presence. Thus there is Sully, just such a big-budget film centered on the scariest few minutes anybody ever came away from almost entirely unharmed. – Nick N. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
The Wailing (Na Hong-jin)
Since the early aughts, South Korea has been one of the most prolific and exciting exporters of genre cinema, giving us such indelible gems as Oldboy, The Host, Snowpiercer, to name but a few. The country made its prowess felt again at this year’s Cannes Film Festival with no fewer than three high-profile titles covering historical suspense (The Handmaiden), zombie action (Train to Busan), and, perhaps most memorably, supernatural horror in the form of The Wailing. – Zhuo-Ning S. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Also New to Streaming
Amazon
As I Open My Eyes
Burn Country
Harry Benson: Shoot First
The Hollars
Howards End
FilmStruck
Cinema Paradiso
Il Posto
Lucky
The River
Persepolis
My Life as a Dog
Adios
Carmen
A Touch of Zen
The Last Emperor
Master of the House
Black River
Courage For Every Day
The American Soldier
Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven
Uncle Yanko
Junkopia
Grey Gardens
The Marathon
HBO Go
MUBI (free 30-day trial)
Baden Baden
Project A
Project A2
The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Pictures
Tenderness of the Wolves
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Melancholia
Netflix
Diary of a Chambermaid (review)
Mad (review)
Spa Night (review)
Sundance Now
Vimeo