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.
The Courier (Dominic Cooke)
Early on in The Courier, directed by Dominic Cooke, British salesman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) realizes he’s sitting at a table with both a MI6 officer (Angus Wright) and a CIA officer (Rachel Brosnahan). Excited, he admits: “I can’t believe I’m having lunch with spies!” It’s a moment of brevity that speaks to the interesting tonal dance the filmmakers are trying at. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Hope (Maria Sødahl)
While writer/director Maria Sødahl never really leaves Anja’s side to focus on what Tomas is feeling, her film Hope makes certain we know. It’s in the big things like his tearful breakdown when the doctor gives them the test results and the little things when his usual workaholic nature is subverted by showing he’s been Googling experimental treatments. Where Skarsgård really shines, however, are those moments where he can do nothing but stare back at Anja and realize that the words she speaks are true no matter how much they hurt. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Virtual Cinemas
Jakob’s Wife (Travis Stevens)
The opening scene of Jakob’s Wife sets the stage for what’s to come as Reverend Jakob Fedder (Larry Fessenden) sermonizes about the love a husband should have for his wife. His partner Anne (Barbara Crampton) is in the front pew listening, but never smiling. She’s not hearing his words and nodding her head in agreement. She’s actually staring daggers at the reality of what his words mean. Because Jakob never says anything about that love being for her benefit. He never says men should love their wives because they deserve respect or equality or even that very love he believes he provides. No. To love your wife is to “love yourself.” Even in what should be a selfless act, this man (and those listening) thinks only of himself. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Paul Thomas Anderson’s not-quite-Scientology-but-maybe-it-is? epic is his most deliciously obtuse puzzle. The Master is all jagged edges, never quite coalescing into anything recognizable, and that’s part of its charm. What other filmmaker would create film of such mystery? And who else would dare to unleash Joaquin Phoenix in such a way? It is easy to forget now, a few years after release, that this was his first film of the post-I’m Still Here era. It is also easy to forget that, remarkably, Philip Seymour Hoffman did not win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his muscular, unforgettable performance as Lancaster Dodd, leader of “The Cause.” (Somehow, the work of Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained was deemed stronger.) The Master represents a dizzy, unsettling high, and one of the unquestioned triumphs of 2010s cinema. – Chris S.
Where to Stream: Netflix
Monday (Argyris Papadimitropoulos)
Director Argyris Papadimitropoulos’ Monday feels like it’s going to be a wild ride right from the start as Chloe (Denise Gough) screams into her phone at the voicemail of an assumed ex-boyfriend ditching their final goodbye before she heads back to America. Utter chaos is unfolding around her as the house party she’s stumbled into threatens to rage into the next morning with music, drugs, sex, and whatever else the Greeks in attendance have up their sleeve. Because the host (Yorgos Pirpassopoulos’ Argyris) hears her American accent, however, he can’t help but drag his equally American friend and DJ (Sebastian Stan’s Mickey) away from the turntable to push him into her like an inebriated Cupid playing matchmaker. Mickey apologizes, Chloe kisses him, and they awaken on the beach. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
New Directors/New Films at 50: A Retrospective
In anticipation of the 50th edition of New Directors/New Films, a selection of past films in the festival are available for free nationwide with a limited number of tickets. Featuring the highly recommended Duvidha by Mani Kaul, Chantal Akerman’s Les Rendez-vous d’Anna (which we discussed on Intermission), Lee Chang-dong’s Peppermint Candy, Eduardo Coutinho’s Twenty Years Later, and Charles Burnett’s My Brother’s Wedding, there’s also early films by Christopher Nolan, Wim Wenders, Gregg Araki, and more.
Where to Stream: Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema
Nobody (Ilya Naishuller)
What if John Wick wasn’t so brooding and his boogeyman was forced to live out his retirement in the real world rather than one filtered through an embellished mythology? Can you see him waking up each morning to yell obscenities at the garbage truck, frustrated that he forgot to leave the tote on the curb again? Can you see him punching a clock every morning to pore over spreadsheets before climbing into bed on the other side of a pillow divider blocking his wife? Of course not. John Wick is man who stole his freedom and protects it with a seemingly infinite amount of cash to never have to do anything. Real-world problems don’t concern him. Only the life he wanted before fate unceremoniously stole it back. Screenwriter Derek Kolstad decides to take that “what if” to heart and retool everything without any filter at all for Nobody. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
A Tale of Autumn (Eric Rohmer)
Rohmer’s seasonal quarter ends valiantly with A Tale of Autumn, the numerous pleasures of which include a perfect case of narrative geometry: watching multiple factions conspire and white lie their way into ensuring their friend’s happiness is equal parts exciting and touching, pleasure à la classic Hollywood transposed to an idyllic French countryside. But there is a sad heart at Autumn‘s center, never hidden yet still shocking in its blunt force at film’s end. – Nick N.
Where to Stream: Virtual Cinemas
Time (Garrett Bradley)
In September 1997, sparked by desperation and noble intentions, Rob Richardson committed armed robbery. He was handed a 65-year prison sentence with no real hope of getting out. His wife, Fox, who was expecting twins at the time and was already a mother to their four boys, was an accomplice, but took a plea deal and was released three and a half years later. The last two decades of a family ripped apart sets the stage for Garrett Bradley’s Time, a formally stunning masterwork of empathy, exhaustion, love, and rage. The title of Time isn’t just a reference to the sentence Rob was given. It’s every moment he’s deprived of as the world continues outside his cell. It’s what Fox and their family sacrifice in their daily struggle to get him out. It’s every instant that the system in power uses to make them wait for an answer. It’s a piece of something that they may be able to win back if Rob was to be released. And it’s a sense of timelessness in which the director captures it all with her black-and-white, symphonic approach, which melds the political and personal in overwhelmingly heartbreaking ways. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: YouTube
Transit (Christian Petzold)
If Malick’s latest film provided a new way to look at the era of World War II, Christian Petzold wholly upends our notion of how the time could be depicted with Transit. The drama adapts the setting of Anna Seghers’ novel 1942-set novel–following a German political refugee in limbo in Marseilles–to the present day without changing the dialogue to reflect its modern era. It’s a touch of genius that, coupled with Petzold’s eye for subtlety and movement (when it comes to both his characters and the camera), makes for the best film of last year. In a career of great accomplishments (the majority of which prior to this thematic trilogy, also including Barbara and Phoenix, have yet to be widely discovered), his new film is the immensely rewarding yet thoroughly enigmatic culmination of his fascination with history, romance, and thrills. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: OVID.tv
Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie? (Pedro Costa)
Deemed “the best film ever made about film editing” by Jean Luc-Godard, Pedro Costa’s Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie?—in theory about the editing of Straub-Huillet’s Sicilia!, in practice a firsthand study of the milliseconds that can dictate an artist’s entire ethos—has been restored by the director and premiered on Grasshopper Film’s Projectr. One needn’t know Sicilia! to appreciate: as Straub rattles off personal philosophy and Huillet slaves over matching the wind in an actor’s hair from one shot to the next, it’s evident Costa captured an unbelievably intimate moment in time, something from which anybody interested in filmmaking can yield great insight.
Where to Stream: Projectr
Also New to Streaming
Amazon Prime
I Saw the Devil
Somewhere
Spontaneous
The Criterion Channel
Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?
Hulu
The State of Texas vs. Melissa (review)
MUBI (free for 30 days)
Valley of Souls
The Return
Cuatro Paredes
The Crazies
Starlet
The Cat O’ Nine Tails
Olivia