With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’re highlighting the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.
Bisbee ’17 (Robert Greene)
Over the past decade, Robert Greene has carved out a place as one of the most vital American documentarians working today, and with Bisbee ’17, he has produced perhaps his most accomplished work to date. A chronicle of the centennial reenactment of the forced deportation of mining workers that occurred in the eponymous Arizona town, the film emerges as a clear-eyed, blistering look into contemporary political divisions through an entire spectrum of viewpoints, while still possessing some of the most lucid and impressive filmmaking of the year. – Ryan S.
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime
The Childhood of a Leader (Brady Corbet)
The feature debut from young actor turned screenwriter-director Brady Corbet, The Childhood of a Leader is an ambitious choice for a first project — a period piece tying together the post-WWI political climate and the upbringing of a child in a chateau outside Paris. The film, premiering in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival, is a huge psychological and tonal balancing act that could crumble at each turn, and yet never does. – Tommaso T. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
The Early Films of Martin Scorsese
With Netflix giving Scorsese the budget he needed for The Irishman, as well as releasing his Bob Dylan film Rolling Thunder Revue, the streaming giant is also spotlighting a few of his early classics. They’ve added his feature film debut Who’s That Knocking at My Door, as well as a trio of his ’70s films: Mean Streets, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, and Taxi Driver. For a more recent taste, they are also streaming The Aviator and his George Harrison documentary. Also, Amazon Prime just added his Nicolas Cage collaboration Bringing Out the Dead.
Where to Stream: Netflix
The Films of Pedro Almodóvar
The Criterion Channel continues to expand their fantastic library, this month bringing us the vibrant films of Spanish master Pedro Almodóvar, perfectly timed for summer viewing before his stellar new drama Pain & Glory arrives this October. Now available on Criterion is Matador, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, All About My Mother, Talk to Her, Bad Education, Volver, The Skin I Live In, and The Flower of My Secret.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Knife + Heart (Yann Gonzalez)
There is a movie within the movie Knife + Heart and it boasts the slightly euphemistic title of Homocidal (although I prefer the working title: Anal Fury). It is, in fact, being filmed as we watch, along with a number of other similarly lewd movies. Homocidal is the latest production of Far West Films, a fictional queer softcore porn studio that acts as the focus of Knife + Heart, a delightfully icky horror movie seeped in beautiful Giallo homage that is the second feature of Niçoise polymath Yann Gonzalez (who you might know as one half of M83). – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
Notes on an Appearance (Ricky D’Ambrose)
Ricky D’Ambrose’s Notes on an Appearance is a sophisticated work that runs the conceptual gamut. At times minimalist, at times overwhelming, the film marks a prominent new voice in the art-cinema–one with a promising arsenal of influences that include Brecht, Bresson, Straub/ Huillet, Heidegger, among others–that will only get better as it further comes into its own. D’Ambrose has developed into an astute aesthetician, fluidly inserting fascinating aspects of the modern metropolitan quotidien such as maps, postcards, and newspaper editorials. Perhaps with this film behind him and more resources towards the next, his fascinating ideas will get their due. – Jason O.
Where to Stream: iTunes
Peterloo (Mike Leigh)
It’s not that Peterloo looks bad, necessarily, but the digital photography and stagy theatrical acting give off the air of a prestige educational TV drama. Nevertheless, it is certainly a film worth seeing, maybe even one people ought to see. As historically detailed as it is demanding, Peterloo tells the story of the St Peter’s field massacre–and all the soured good intentions and abuses of power that lead to it–during which 15 civilians were killed and hundreds injured when cavalry charged into a peaceful rally for parliamentary representation reform (or the vote, if you will). – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime
The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
The Silence of the Lambs‘ feminism is tied to its narrative choices, but the density of its feminist content can also be traced to the cinematic form of longtime Demme collaborator Tak Fujimoto and the brilliance of the extreme close-up. The synchronization of Starling with viewers is key to the success of Lambs and this is in part achieved through the first impression of her superior officer Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn). In the close-up there are slight differences between how we are to perceive these characters. Crawford is framed from a place of aggressive directness with the camera’s point of view looking up slightly at his point-blank stare. Clarice, by comparison, speaks to Crawford with a tilt of her head, oftentimes looking off to the side as she speaks. It’s a sly comment on domination. – Willow M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime, Hulu
Under the Silver Lake (David Robert Mitchell)
David Robert Mitchell is a nostalgic. His debut feature, The Myth of the American Sleepover, paid tribute to such teenage dramas as American Graffiti and the work of John Hughes. Its follow-up, the terrific It Follows, ranks amongst the smartest and most effective specimens in John Carpenter’s vast and variegated suburban horror legacy. Mitchell has now tried his hand at an L.A. noir with Under the Silver Lake, which owes as big a debt to The Long Goodbye, Mulholland Drive, and Inherent Vice (to mention but three of the most conspicuous referents) as it does Thomas Pynchon’s labyrinthine, paranoia-laden narratives. – Giovanni M.C. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime (For more David Robert Mitchell, his first film The Myth of the American Sleepover is now on Hulu)
War and Peace (Sergei Bondarchuk)
The most expensive Soviet film in history has been stunningly restored. Sergei Bondarchuk’s seven-hour-plus drama War and Peace, of course adapting Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel, has been given an update courtesy of Mosfilm Cinema Concern and Janus Films. With it recently arriving on Criterion, it’s also available to stream on their channel. I had the chance to experience it in full in theaters this past winter and it’s certainly the most epic film I’ve seen, making for ideal holiday weekend viewing. Also streaming is King Vidor’s 1956 version starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Also New to Streaming
Amazon
Shazam (review)
Styx
Teen Spirit (review)
Amazon Prime
Bad Lieutenant
Minority Report
True Grit
Criterion Channel
The African Queen
All These Creatures
Angela
Babylon
The Bear
The Bed Sitting Room
The Bigamist
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Bottle Rocket
Burning Bush
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff
Camille Claudel 1915
Che
Diary of a Chambermaid
Easy Rider
Fanny
Fiddler on the Roof
Flanders
The Four Musketeers
Fry Day
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
The Gay Divorcee
The Girl on a Motorcycle
Harold and Maude
High Noon
The Hitch-Hiker
The Knack . . . and How To Get It
L’humanité
La vie de Jésus
Li’l Quinquin
Mademoiselle
Matador
A Matter of Life and Death
Midnight Cowboy
Not Wanted
On Dangerous Ground
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
Personal Velocity
Petulia
Raw Deal
Robin and Marian
The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film
Shall We Dance
Slack Bay
Solar Walk
Swing Time
T-Men
Top Hat
The Three Musketeers
The Trouble with Angels
The Vikings
Hulu
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Lords of Chaos
Married to the Mob
Minority Report
The Panic in Needle Park
Paranoid Park
The Standoff at Sparrow Creek (review)
Superbad
True Grit
Woman at War
MUBI (free for 30 days)
Dr. T and The Women
Fortini/Cani
Sarah Plays a Werewolf
Walk The Walk
Much Ado About Nothing
It’s All Good
Netflix