With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
76 Days (Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, and Anonymous)
76 Days, from directors Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, and an anonymous filmmaker,is a heartbreaking work of documentary vérité investigating the emerging COVID-19 outbreak at a single hospital in Wuhan, China, and their response from early February to April 2020, when Wuhan lifted their initial lockdown. Eschewing contextualizing features (narration, title cards, etc.), 76 Days places viewers alongside doctors and nurses as they struggle to control the spiraling implications of COVID-19, dealing with an influx of scared patients, a virus they do not fully understand, and diminishing resources. Though 76 Days proves a hard watch, it’s a profoundly visceral look into how one hospital dealt with the raging virus. – Christian G. (full review)
Where to Stream: Virtual Cinemas
Ammonite (Francis Lee)
Calling a Kate Winslet performance career-best is no easy statement, but her turn as 19th-century English paleontologist Mary Anning in Ammonite is certainly in consideration. Few writer-directors trust their actors to do so much with so little dialogue as Francis Lee. Like Josh O’Connor’s Johnny in Lee’s debut, God’s Own Country, Mary is inward and stoic; we learn about her through her work rather than through her words. The opening scenes of Ammonite are Mary on the beaches of Lyme, scratching mud off of stones, then hitching up her skirt to climb a rock face, her face set but warming slightly at the sight of a challenge. – Orla S. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg)
If you find yourself needing to latch onto an obscure scientific theory to reinvigorate your energy level and live your life as more than a sleepwalking zombie, you’re probably not ready to actually confront the real problem. We know this to be true of the quartet at the center of Thomas Vinterberg’s effective, cathartic drama Druk (known in English as Another Round), since our first impression of Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen), Peter (Lars Ranthe), Nikolaj (Magnus Millang), and especially Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) is that they have lost their spark. Sexually, intellectually, physically, emotionally—whatever spark you can describe in words, they’ve lost it. Call it a mid-life crisis if you want. Call it evidence for needing a therapist like it is. Or, as they decide, retrieve that long-lost courage at the bottom of a bottle. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Virtual Cinemas
Black Bear (Lawrence Michael Levine)
Does a bear standing in the road influence a bear by the boathouse? Or are both animals a manifestation of the same mind to punctuate the climactic conclusions of an ever-escalating series of anxiety-inducing emotional carnage as deus ex machinas? You could easily argue each option where it concerns Lawrence Michael Levine’s intentionally solipsistic and presumably cathartic dramatic puzzle box of a film, Black Bear. Chapter One might be a reality that influences Chapter Two or both might be dueling incarnations of a creative mind attempting to distill her ideas and artistic voice into a viable vehicle for consumption. They infer upon each other, star characters with identical names despite extreme role reversals, and ultimately end up bolstering the fact that all art is a manipulation. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Freaky (Christopher Landon)
After steering two Happy Death Day films marrying slasher and time-loop tropes together for box office success, the question for writer/director Christopher Landon was, “What’s next?” Add Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse and you’d be right to assume it would be another horror comedy of some kind, but what sub-genre would be injected to give it a unique yet familiar flair? Or better yet: whose script would provide that injection with an overall sensibility he could get behind? Landon didn’t write the first Death Day film after all. Nor did he originate the treatment that became Scouts Guide. So when Michael Kennedy approached him with an idea he hoped to pitch to Blumhouse inspired by those films’ narrative inventiveness, Landon immediately asked to join the Freaky party. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Liberté (Albert Serra)
Finally, evil in cinema is back! That was the impression running through the mind of this writer during all 132 minutes of Albert Serra’s Liberté, a film so thoroughly dedicated to bad, evil vibes–and yes, the beauty inherent in them–that it feels like something approaching a howl in the wind against the notions of good taste. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
Luxor (Zeina Durra)
After spending two decades as a British aid worker throughout a war-torn Middle East, Hana (Andrea Riseborough) chooses Luxor as the destination for her leave. Situated on the serene east bank of the Nile, this Egyptian city is the place where her work began with bottomless promise for the future. She found love there in her twenties, and perhaps a return might help resettle her from the psychic horrors she’s since endured. But there’s little possibility to fight the cynicism caused by humanity’s current, brutal decline. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Virtual Cinemas
Mank (David Fincher)
Any number of undergrad papers will tell us David Fincher’s corpus concerns obsession. More pertinent to his endurance as the rare A-list American auteur is its study of accumulation, a nearly interactive 1:1 between formal expression and audience experience. His is a filmography charting years of fixation and dead ends (Zodiac, Benjamin Button), the formation of terrifying ideologies (Seven, Fight Club), documents and photographs as fuel for investigations (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Zodiac again), and competing narratives (The Social Network, Gone Girl). Forget that a screenplay has never been credited to Fincher—it can’t help seeming he’s primary author when we observe these things from a mile back. Who else’s widescreen frames demarcate tension with such hard lines? What working filmmaker so knows how to tighten the coil by cutting just as someone turns their head in recognition of new information? These characteristic rhythms and inclinations key into how and why Mank is, markedly, the least-enjoyable film he’s ever directed, defined by its distended lack of accumulation, friction, traction, or revelation. The exposition-mountain screenplay leaves little to feel just as a devotion to the written word leaves scant room for anything to look at. I’m slightly unsure what anybody involved was hoping to get from the experience, much less what’s the takeaway sans basic admiration for baseline craft. – Nick N. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Mayor (David Osit)
The reign of bigotry and terror from Donald Trump and his administration can often take the form of a myopic view for those in the United States, witnessing on a daily basis how the soon-to-be-ousted leader is further corroding the sharp political divide in his own country. However, the reverberations of his decisions, of course, have a global impact, and David Osit’s riveting new documentary Mayor shows how the President’s heedless actions have exacerbated long-held strife in Ramallah, the Palestinian city in the central West Bank located mere miles from Jerusalem. The ”city in transition” is led by Musa Hadid, a humble Christian mayor who deeply empathizes with his community as they are controlled by the Israelis and surrounded by their encroaching settlements. The threat against their livelihood reaches more peril when Trump officially declares Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017, leaving Palestinians attempting to survive without a place to truly call home. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Virtual Cinemas
Minor Premise (Eric Schultz)
The most important memory for audiences to remember is the one Ethan (Sathya Sridharan) specifically tried to forget. His father (Nikolas Kontomanolis) is sitting at a desk telling him how things work in academia. Any idea, theory, or experiment that occurs in pursuit of a university-driven project belongs to said university. And since Paul is the head of the department, it all belongs to him. That’s not to say Ethan won’t get credit—scientific papers often have multiple authors and names listed below the person in charge. It merely confirms that he won’t receive all the acclaim. Nor should he. Whether Ethan cracked the case or not, the school has always been the catalyst. It’s their money that made it happen and the team that fulfilled its promise. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
If Phantom Thread is truly Daniel Day-Lewis’ final role, as the actor has stated, one might imagine a physical and mental strain rupturing across the screen the likes of which we haven’t seen since Daniel Plainview. That Reynolds Woodcock exudes anything but those qualities is one of the many surprises Paul Thomas Anderson has in store with his sumptuous period drama. Although there’s an egomaniacal vein that runs through that character, an elite fashion designer, there’s also a sly tenderness and comedic warmth that gives startling life to this shape-shifting relationship drama. Deeply engrossing and playful as it seamlessly weaves between romantic, unsettling, funny, and back again, Phantom Thread is defined by the women in Reynolds’ life (played by the astounding Vicky Krieps and Lesley Manville), and it’s a joy to see their three-way psychological game unfold. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: HBO Max
Red, White and Blue (Steve McQueen)
Red, White and Blue, the third and weakest film from Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology series to premiere at this year’s NYFF, suffers because of its programmatic narrative, in which a naïve young Black cop experiences firsthand why institutional racism might be a formidable opponent against his reformist attitude. McQueen and co-writer Courttia Newland didn’t manufacture the story out of whole cloth. Red, White and Blue is based on the true story of Leroy Logan, a former Metropolitan Police Superintendent and founding member of the Black Police Association. Before retiring from the force in 2013, Logan fought to change the Met’s internal culture, especially through high-profile cases, like Stephen Lawrence’s racially-motivated murder and the subsequent Macpherson Report, a public inquiry into the police’s handling of the investigation that concluded the MPS was institutionally racist. He was eventually awarded the MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order) by the Queen and has become a columnist and public advocate for community policing. – Vikram M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime
She Dies Tomorrow (Amy Seimetz)
In any other time and in any other place, She Dies Tomorrow would be a lucid and unsettling film. Screened in the height of a global pandemic, it is difficult to watch without immediately emphasizing the uncertainty, as well as the certainty, that radiates from and beyond the frame. The characters know they’re going to die, and once they know that, it feels inevitable. Amy Seimetz’s haunting and puzzling sophomore feature beings with a verbally violent break-up and quickly morphs into a film about contagion and paranoia. It also briefly veers into absurd comedy when things come to a head at a birthday party where everyone wishes after the fact they could have engaged in social distancing. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
Sound of Metal (Darius Marder)
Sound of Metal opens with Riz Ahmed’s Ruben sitting at a drum kit while guitar distortions deafen us. Eventually, Olivia Cooke’s Lou starts screaming as his sticks connect for a steady beat until all hell breaks loose. We’re in this venue with them, the in-close camerawork proving Ahmed’s lessons paid off because he is in a groove and rocking out (not that he needed help on the second part considering his rap career as Riz MC and one half of Swet Shop Boys). With line drawn tattoos covering his chest, bleach-blonde hair, and that screaming, you’re probably assuming the after show will consist of booze and drugs before the visuals cut to a new day of health shakes and eggs in an RV. Appearances can be deceiving. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime
Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach)
Ken Loach’s follow-up to his Palme d’Or-winning I, Daniel Blake is a masterful indictment of the strain of out-of-control capitalism that has dug its heels into post-crash industrialized nations. Sorry We Missed You is, simply, one of his best films that links the personal and the political. – Ed F. (full review)
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Survival Skills (Quinn Armstrong)
The world isn’t what it used to be no matter how vehemently a Republican believes the opposite when explaining that the 1791 ratification of an American’s “right to bear arms” includes the civilian purchase of military-grade automatic weaponry. Technology exploded exponentially over the past two decades and our laws, infrastructure, and politics have been very slow to adapt. The reason is simple of course: the patriarchy. It’s why our country still believes it holds jurisdiction over a woman’s body. It’s why we funnel finances from education and mental health initiatives to our national thirst for violence a lack of both exacerbates further. It’s why our police force has ostensibly gone to war with the citizens it’s supposed to keep safe. “Protect and Serve” became “Control with Fear” overnight. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Three by Terrence Malick
A trio of films by America’s greatest living director, Terrence Malick, are now on The Criterion Channel. Featuring Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The New World, the series also includes interviews featuring actors Richard Gere, Sissy Spacek, and Martin Sheen; production designer Jack Fisk; costume designer Jacqueline West; cinematographers Haskell Wexler and John Bailey; and more. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Also New to Streaming
The Criterion Channel
Directed by Terence Nance
Films by Rithy Panh
Short Films by Julie Dash
My Sex Life . . . or How I Got into an Argument and My Golden Days
HBO
Hulu
MUBI (free for 30 days)
Tripping with Nils Frahm
Faith
A Simple Life
The Golden Era
Our Time Will Come
VOD
Billie (Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan (review)
Disco (review)