With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, 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, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
All These Sleepless Nights (Michal Marczak)
Blurring the line between documentary and fiction like few films before it, Michal Marczak‘s All These Sleepless Nights is a music-filled ode to the ever-shifting bliss and angst of youth set mostly in the wee hours of the day in Warsaw, Poland. Marczak himself, who also plays cinematographer, is wary to delineate the line between narrative and nonfiction, and part of the film’s joy is forgoing one’s grasp on this altering perspective, rather simply getting wrapped up in the immaculately-shot allure of its location. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Beatriz at Dinner (Miguel Arteta)
If you could sit face-to-face with Donald Trump, what would you say? Beatriz at Dinner doesn’t imagine exactly that, but the scenario it presents is undeniably analogous, even if the character crafted in POTUS’ likeness is far less insecure and destructive to humanity. Presenting a clash of socio-economic classes and the ensuing discourse of morals and politics, the latest dramedy from Miguel Arteta is an observant, but not entirely successful outcry for the agency of the under-represented. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: iTunes
Donald Cried (Kris Avedisian)
Donald Cried opens in medias res on Peter (Jesse Wakeman), in a cab ride through a snowy suburb, realizing that he lost his wallet, and from there gives successive details of him present due to the death of his grandmother and this, our setting, being his childhood home in small-town Rhode Island — a good omen for this comedy being in the milieu of the Farrelly brothers. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach)
It’s been two years since Ken Loach took Jimmy’s Hall — a rather muted film by his standards, rumored at the time to be his swansong — to the Competition here at Cannes. It was a fine piece of work, although somehow quite nostalgic and uncharacteristically resigned. There was a lingering sense that the passion might have gone, but the great social realist has returned to the Croisette this year with fire in the belly and injustice on the mind. I, Daniel Blake is his most urgent and perhaps finest film in years. It follows a man of a certain age as he attempts to scale a mountain of welfare bureaucracy in order to be granted the necessary benefits to get by. It’s often warm and quite funny, but is, at heart, a damning critique of the Tory government in Britain and their belt-tightening austerity measures, as well as a rallying cry for those who fall through the cracks. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google
Lemon (Janicza Bravo)
Lemon opens with a title card disclaimer: “This film was photographed and recorded in its entirety in Los Angeles, California.” It’s clear why the setting is important. This isn’t Hollywood, home to celebrities and various success stories. This is L.A., and the amateurishness and desperation of locals looking to make it big is in the air. The film plays to the setting quite a bit. The city’s cultural diversity is explored as director-writer Janicza Bravo and writer-star Brett Gelman inject aspects of their own heritage (and possibly relationship? — the two are married in real life) into the film. Then there’s the heat, which turns the film’s aesthetic as deceivingly bright as its title fruit, and a constant over-reliance on cars that serves as a sort of inside joke for the inhabitants of the city, who become neutered without a means of transportation. – Jason O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes
Rules Don’t Apply (Warren Beatty)
Eighteen years after Bulworth and fifteen after Town & Country (his last time directing and acting for a feature film respectively), Warren Beatty returns to the big screen with a fictionalized biography of Howard Hughes forty years in the making. It’s a passion project and vanity project: two endeavors worthy of an auspicious return to the spotlight even if the latter isn’t always the best decision for retaining a renowned legacy. Rules Don’t Apply won’t taint peoples’ image of him, but it’s not going to mark any sort of resurgence in popularity either. If anything it simply reminds us of his onscreen charisma and endearing humor, his handle of Hughes’ descent into eccentricity and insanity proving memorably entertaining. While he’s not the lead, he is the glue. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: HBO Go
Something Wild (Jonathan Demme)
We recently looked at a trio of Jonathan Demme films to coincide with BAMCinematek’s current retrospective of the director, who sadly passed away earlier this year, and now FilmStruck is streaming another — and one of his best. Something Wild, starring Jeff Daniels, Melanie Griffith, and Ray Liotta is a road movie of sorts with an abundance of personality and warmth, thanks to Demme’s singular tone. Also, keep your eyes peeled for appearances by John Sayles and John Waters. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: FilmStruck
Also New to Streaming
Amazon
6 Days
Chuck (review)
Dave Made a Maze (review)
Shot Caller
FilmStruck
Six Men Getting Sick and Fantastic Planet
Buena Vista Social Club
Daisy Kenyon and Sudden Fear
All My Good Countrymen
Palermo Shooting
The Passionate Friends
The Masseurs and a Woman
HBO Go
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (review)
MUBI (free 30-day trial)
Brooks, Meadows and Lovely Faces (review)
La Marseillaise
The Gold Bug
The Parrot and The Swan
Castro
Rich and Strange
The Skin Game
Netflix