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 Alex van Warmerdam Collection
If you only know the work of Alex van Warmerdam as it pertains to his breakout psychological thriller Borgman, one know has a chance to dive into five other films from the Dutch director. Abel, The Northerners, The Last Days of Emma Blank, Schneider vs. Bax, and his new re-edit of Grimm are now on Film Movement Plus. We said in our review of Schneider vs. Bax, “Hitman films tend to be action-packed and heavy with tropes familiar to that particular sub-genre of thrillers. Yet Dutch filmmaker Alex van Warmerdam hopes to subvert those expectations by crafting an almost absurdist, Beckett-style drama between two contract killers hired to take out the other.”
Where to Stream: Film Movement Plus
Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven)
Many of the best qualities of early and late Verhoeven combine in Benedetta, a tale of sex, blood, and sacrilege in 17th-century Italy. Based on the American historian Judith C. Brown’s 1986 non-fiction book Immoral Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (quite the title), its story focuses on the life of Benedetta Carlini, a nun in Precia who entered a sexual relationship with another woman in her convent. Paul Verhoeven originally adapted the book with his longtime collaborator Gerard Soeteman (Black Book, Turkish Delight), but the screenwriter stepped down when it became too “sexualized.” In the opening act there are not one, but two fart jokes. We are also, in many instances, offered evidence of the director’s well-founded appreciation for mommy’s milkies. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
Cyrano (Joe Wright)
There is a moment forty minutes into Joe Wright’s Cyrano where everything kicks up a notch. As a military regiment practices their swordcraft on a stunning pier in Sicily the titular Cyrano de Bergerac (Peter Dinklage) crafts an agreement with new recruit Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). He will write beautiful poetry as correspondence to Roxanne (Haley Bennett) from Christian—who lacks the words—thereby espousing his own love for the same woman. “I will make you eloquent while you make me handsome,” Cyrano explains, convinced they do not live in a world wherein someone like him could be with someone like her. Christian breaks into song and the camera runs away, darting through the regiment training on the pier. Soon enough we cut above the action, taking in the pier and the seas that surround it. The sequence is exhilarating and the film’s pace does not slow from there. Roxanne has her own problems. Namely: she’s broke and needs to get married, ideally not to a poor soldier like Christian. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Directed by Radu Jude
If last year’s Golden Bear winner Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn was your first introduction to the films of Romanian director Radu Jude, The Criterion Channel now have you covered in terms of what to catch up with next. Their series features Aferim!, Scarred Hearts, I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians, The Exit of the Trains, and Uppercase Print. For more, check out our recent interview with the director.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Feast (Tim Leyendekker)
In the mid-2000s several men committed a heinous crime in the Netherlands: they would bring men to their home for sex parties, drug them, and then inject them with their own HIV-infected blood before dumping them on the street. Filmmaker Tim Leyendekker tackles this notorious story in his first feature Feast with a unique approach, splitting his film into seven parts that deal with the crime in different ways—real documentary interviews, faux documentary interviews, dramatic recreations among them. The specificity and horror of what happened would be enough for a director to create something more conventional from this true-crime story, but Leyendekker refuses to make a single minute of his film go down easy. Each vignette reframes the incident in a new light, challenges assumptions, and at some points comes close to sympathizing with the perpetrators’ romantic view of what they did. One of 2021’s most provocative films, Feast bucks the current inclination to make up viewers’ minds—perhaps why it’s unlikely to release in North America. – C.J. P.
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
The Humans (Stephen Karam)
Everything is wrong in The Humans, Stephen Karam’s adaptation of his Tony-winning play. Set entirely in a New York apartment building, Karam’s one-act play transitions to film with one big hook: it’s an intimate drama conceived as a horror film, monsters and ghosts replaced by the rot of a family unit shaken up by a world that’s getting harder to endure. It’s a confident gamble, especially for a first-time director; confidence can only take it so far. – C.J. P. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Lingui, the Sacred Bonds (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)
In Chad, whose two main languages are Arabic and French, “lingui” is a distinct term meaning a “bond or connection”; the film’s alternate title gives it a more pious hue—the “sacred bonds.” But what’s fascinating and most novel about African cinema great Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s new drama is the lack of an overtly religiose aura: the bonds created by its generation-spanning units of women are uplifting and resilient, while sought independently from Chad’s ruling, patriarchal class. To compare with conditions in the West, an analog would be to radical women’s networks, or even experiments in collective living and solidarity like communes. – David K. (full review)
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
The Scary of Sixty-First (Dasha Nekrasova)
“She’s a very sick girl and she’s always been into, like, the UK,” says Noelle (Madeline Quinn) about her roommate Addie (Betsie Brown) to her new friend The Girl (Dasha Nekrasova). Sick fascinations are the instruments of demonic evil in Dasha Nekrasova’s debut feature The Scary of Sixty-First. Quinn co-wrote Scary with Nekrasova based on their shared feeling of futility in the aftermath of Jeffrey Epstein’s death. Unsatisfied with the story that Epstein committed suicide, in the summer of 2019 Nekrasova held “Epstein Truther MeetUps” to investigate his death with fellow skeptical New Yorkers. Her truther explorations became an idea for the film and Nekrasova’s Girl character could be a stand-in for the actress, but that isn’t too important. The real story with The Scary of Sixty-First is: if you speak of the devil, he shall appear. – Josh E. (full review)
Where to Stream: Shudder
Turning Red (Domee Shi)
After a sequel-filled slump for much of the past decade, Pixar has regained its footing as of late with a string of original projects, and following last summer’s blissful, small-scale adventure Luca, this year’s Turning Red is among their most imaginative. Coming from Oscar-winning Bao director Domee Shi, the metaphor-heavy, mystical story of a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl’s coming of age bursts with such specificity, warmth, and wit that even the super-sized, derivative finale doesn’t wholly devour much of preceding charm. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Disney+
Also New to Streaming
Amazon Prime
The Criterion Channel
Hulu
Mark, Mary, and Some Other People (review)
MUBI (free for 30 days)
Near Dark
Whose Streets?
Autre fois J’ai Aime Une Femme
When Women Kill
Tender Mercies
Shudder
VOD