With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we believe it’s our duty to highlight the recent, recommended titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week (or bi-weekly, depending on the worthy selection), 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, Hulu, Amazon Instant Video, and more. Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below, and shoot over suggestions to @TheFilmStage.
About Sunny (Bryan Wizemann; 2013)
Angela (Lauren Ambrose) never had an opportunity to escape once her ex-husband left. She had to stay behind and do her best. This meant working at a call center, moonlighting as a janitor, and frequenting a local strip club to pick up guys in hopes of a little sympathy cash once they woke to find her daughter standing at the bedroom door. There’s no time or money to tutor eight-year old Sunny (Audrey P. Scott), so when her boss Ted (David Conrad) offers a chance to triple a two grand investment overnight we know it can only end bad or worse. About Sunny works when its plot grows darker and darker once its abyss of convenience threatens to usurp bigger questions about motherhood and family. – Jared M.
Where to Watch: Netflix Instant
Eddie the Sleepwalking Cannibal (Boris Rodriguez; 2013)
An original spin on generic horror tropes, Boris Rodriguez’s Eddie the Sleepwalking Cannibal provides a nice mix of bloody mayhem and darkly comic wit. Centered on a seemingly washed up Danish painter named Lars (Thure Lindhardt) as he looks to reinvent himself as a teacher in Canada, the creative juices begin to flow freely again when his new ward Eddie (Dylan Smith) begins to gnaw on the neighbors. The blood helps him put paint to canvas which than in turn helps raise money for the school and win the heart of fellow teacher Lesley (Georgina Reilly). When the carnage begins to dissipate, however, we discover who the real monster is in a gory climax that hopes to inject some psychological terror into the otherwise campy fun. – Jared M.
Where to Watch: Amazon Video
Antiviral (Brandon Cronenberg; 2013)
After watching Antiviral, the debut feature film from Brandon Cronenberg, there is a sense that the young filmmaker has been influenced by a myriad of different types of films and genres. Son of one of the kings of paranoid sci-fi, David Cronenber, lil’ Cronenberg is definitely paying homage not just to his father but iconic auteurs such as Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch. It sounds like a potential winning formula for fans of bizarre and surreal futuristic cinema, yet Anitviral‘s effectiveness is underwhelming due mostly to the first-time filmmaker’s pitfalls, most of the film feeling like an amateurish, high-budget student film. – Raffi A.
Where to Watch: Netflix Instant
Arbitrage (Nicholas Jarecki; 2012)
Just when it seemed the man was settling into the fade out so many once-movie stars face, Richard Gere reminds us why he became a star in the first place. Plainly said, he’s got the kind of charisma that could make a snake empathetic. And here, in Nicholas Jarecki‘s directorial debut, one of the most common, most-hated snakes in recent memory: a big wig New York financial wiz. This particular master of the world’s name is Robert Miller (Gere); his company, Miller Capital, shows a constant profit, a blueprint for success only matched by Miller himself. He’s got a smart, beautiful wife (Susan Sarandon) and a daughter (Brit Marling) poised to follow in his footsteps. – Dan M.
Where to Watch: Netflix Instant
Erased (Philipp Stölzl; 2012)
Something of a low-budget companion to James Mangold’s The Wolverine, in that it’s an action film that, at least for its first two acts, trades primarily in drama and character detail. This one stars Aaron Eckhart as an ex-CIA agent living in Belgium who shows up to work one morning to find that his employers have — you guessed it — erased his identity and all traces of the work he’s been doing at the company. (Things take a turn for the sinister when Eckhart locates the bodies of his former co-workers in a morgue.) All of this proves immensely difficult to explain to Amy (Liana Liberato), Eckhart’s daughter, whom we’ve already learned is rather skeptical of her dad’s single-father abilities. Commendably, the movie commits itself thoroughly to the human drama between Eckhart and Liberato, and, because she’s a much stronger actress than the prevailing norm for action-movie daughters, Erased works well enough for quite a while. But things take a turn for the disposable once the mysteries begin to reveal themselves, and director Philipp Stölzl doesn’t show enough consistent formal chops for the movie to maintain its high pitch. — Danny K.
Where to Watch: Netflix Instant
Desperado (Robert Rodriguez; 1995)
Every Robert Rodriguez movie is dumb, but a select few hit the right chord of idiocy — a successful balance of tone and intent that makes for a fun, bloody time at the movies. Desperado is one of the better selections, and the finest of his Mexico Trilogy: it incorporates Western narrative tropes far more deftly than Once Upon a Time in Mexico, while also abandoning any misplaced art house pretensions found in El Mariachi. On a low budget and small scale, Rodriguez can key us into the simple fun of a guitar player able to tear up a room of bad guys with both song and death, doled out in equal measure — much of which is thanks to the reliable Antonio Banderas. Look out for a cameo by Quentin Tarantino (not that you could miss it), back when he still thought acting was a good idea. – Nick N.
Where to Watch: Netflix Instant
It’s a Disaster (Todd Berger; 2013)
While Hollywood throws us into apocalyptic, impossible to comprehend situations right alongside the one unlikely hero about to serendipitously move into position to save us all, writer/director Todd Berger wonders how the other half will fare in his brilliantly dry comedy It’s a Disaster. While government officials, scientists, and soldiers rally the troops and suppress their emotions to solve what could be an unsolvable problem, people like you and me are stuck in our homes unaware to what’s happening with friends and family. We won’t automatically assume there was an attack when the phone, internet, and cable go down. No, we’ll be swearing aloud about how our provider is the worst corporate entity in the world. – Jared M.
Where to Watch: Netflix Instant
Lovelace (Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman; 2013)
While Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Boogie Nights took an enthralling look inside the porn industry, Lovelace is its duller, more conventional cousin. After tackling the Beat Generation with their Howl biopic, directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman have returned to capture the life of Linda Lovelace, star of the the 1972 pornographic film Deep Throat. One of the must successful films of its kind, grossing the contentious number of around $600 million, it marked a mainstream breakthrough for the industry and catapulted its star to the spotlight. But as we we’ve learned time and time again, fame has a price. – Jordan R.
Where to Watch: iTunes
Prince Avalanche (David Gordon Green; 2013)
Despite the hilarious Pineapple Express, there’s no denying David Gordon Green has been on a downward spiral with each new step into the world of studio comedy. So it came as a wonderful surprise last summer when it was revealed he secretly shot an independent road comedy with Emile Hirsch and Paul Rudd. A remake of Iceland’s Either Way, Prince Avalanche was revealed Sundance Film Festival and it’s a welcome return to form for the writer/director. Despite some misgivings, the relaxed, lively Prince Avalanche shines with a strong heart and it’s now available on VOD. – Jordan R.
Where to Watch: Amazon Video
Touchy Feely (Lynn Shelton; 2013)
Something of a Sundance darling, Lynn Shelton mastered the art of the micro-drama with Humpday and Your Sister’s Sister, two small indies with high concepts and wonderful, personal performances thanks in large part to a strong screenplay. This time around we get Touchy Feely, a slightly more ambitious, far less successful, project from Shelton, starring Rosemarie DeWitt, Josh Pais, Ellen Page, Scoot McNairy, Allison Janney and Ron Livingston. The ambition gets lost somewhere amongst this large and talented cast, Shelton retreating to some worn plot contrivances in the third act. – Dan M.
Where to Watch: Amazon Video
The World Before Her (Nisha Pahuja; 2013)
One only need look at third world nations like India to discover his/her life is far from the tragedy easy hyperbole pretends. Nisha Pahuja’s The World Before Her takes us into the lives of four young girls caught on very disparate ends of the spectrum where freedom and responsibility are concerned. All Hindu and proud, each is put through a “factory” of sorts run by either the Hindu Nationalists or middle class liberals looking to bolster their numbers in a battle for India’s future. With unparalleled access inside an extremist camp run by the Durga Vahini, we see the juxtaposition of its violent rhetoric against the beauty pageantry of a modernized public in Bombay with aspirations to Westernize the country. Both want a new, strong India to stand with the world’s superpowers, but each has its own idea on how to get there. The film captivatingly shows the young girls caught in between on the frontlines of the fight. – Jared M.
Where to Watch: Amazon Video
What are you streaming this week?