New to Streaming: Spaceship Earth, Feast of the Epiphany, Tsai Ming-liang, The Lodge & More

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 an archive of past round-ups here.

Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov)

The horrors of war are often told through male-centric narratives. Heroes who go through hell on the battlefield, brothers who sacrifice everything for each other, soldiers who return home scarred for life etc., all of which we’ve seen put on the big screen time and again. But wars are of course collective nightmares, tears in the fabric of history that leave no one–men, women, children–unscathed. This is the premise of Russian writer–director Kantemir Balagov’s second feature Beanpole, a radical relationship drama that examines the trauma of war from a distinctly female perspective. – Zhuo-Ning Su (full review)

Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)

Clementine (Lara Gallagher)

We’re introduced to Karen (Otmara Marrero) in bed as her older girlfriend D. (Sonya Walger) wakes her. While the former wants to sleep in, the latter seeks inspiration for a new canvas and wants her prized possession to be a willing participant towards that need. This is why D. tells her lover that her youth scares her by ruminating aloud about how Karen will inevitably break her heart. Rather than say it out of belief, however, she speaks those words to sink her claws in deeper. She’s deflecting from the fact that she’ll eventually break Karen’s instead, letting her feel secure by projecting an image of power that doesn’t exist. It’s therefore no surprise to learn that when Karen mourns their sudden break-up, D. has already moved on. – Jared M. (full review)

Where to Stream: Virtual Cinemas

Driveways (Andrew Ahn)

It isn’t easy making a film like Driveways stand out. We have walked these streets so often before. We know the twists and turns. We expect the darker corners. Yet stand out is exactly what Driveways does. The movie is a bittersweet coming-of-age story about the intergenerational, interracial friendship of an 83-year-old veteran of the Korean war and an Asian-American boy just about to turn 9, who arrives into town with his single mother and considerable emotional baggage. – Rory O. (full review)

Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google

Feast of the Epiphany (Farihah Zaman, Michael Koresky, Jeff Reichert)

What most strikes in Feast of the Epiphany is a sense of conviction and fidelity, a willingness to document things as they are: unvarnished and imperfect. Though the two halves only connect back for a fleeting instant at the very end, and otherwise represent entirely different visions of what a specific place can contain, neither is “incomplete” in and of itself; both are allowed the proper time to linger and settle. Koresky, Reichert, and Zaman’s daring is thus no mere gambit: it registers less as a simple bait-and-switch and much more as a conscious, courageous attempt to recalibrate notions of society and belonging. – Ryan S. (full review)

Where to Stream: Museum of the Moving Image’s Virtual Cinema

How to Build a Girl (Coky Giedroyc)

As a young girl with aspirations to write, journalist Caitlin Moran used her hippie homeschool upbringing to enter literary competitions with potential to open industry doors. The Observer’s “Young Reporter of the Year” at fifteen eventually started her professional career the following year with Melody Maker and never looked back. Did she devolve into the nom de plume Dolly Wild to gleefully trash bands as DM&E’s resident rock gatekeeper extraordinaire? No. But you have to imagine the opportunity to go that route was available. The financial appeal must have been great too at age sixteen because the type of comedic trolling a good writer can perform is exactly what gets global audiences in a frenzy (see social media). So she did the next best thing and imagined it instead. – Jared M. (full review)

Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google

The Lodge (Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz)

Comparisons to Ari Aster’s Hereditary are legitimate from pretty much the opening scene of The Lodge, Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s follow-up to Goodnight Mommy that mixes fanatic Christianity and a snowbound setting for a slow-burning freakshow. Fortunately, despite these many similarities, The Lodge successfully deviates by its chilling finale into something all its own. – Jake H. (full review)

Where to Stream: Hulu

Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind (Laurent Bouzereau)

When it comes to Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind, what you see is what you get. Zipping by at a manageable 100 minutes, established producer and documentarian Laurent Bouzereau pays proper tribute to Natalie Wood, the movie star who perished at the young age of 43 in a boat accident off the coast of California. There will be no grand revelations here, no shocking moments. Guided through her mother’s impressive life by daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner, the documentary focuses primarily on the good that Wood left behind. Famous as a child, Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko had her name changed to “Natalie Wood” by producer William Goetz in honor of director Sam Wood. You may remember the young starlet as the girl in Miracle on 34th Street. – Dan M. (full review)

Where to Stream: HBO

Saint Frances (Alex Thompson)

Saint Frances is a warm-hearted indie comedy that captures the awkwardness of adulthood with real precision. Every one of these awkward moments–and there many–involves Bridget, an aimless 34-year-old beautifully underplayed by star and screenwriter Kelly O’Sullivan. This tone of enjoyable (for the viewer) embarrassment is set in the opening minutes of first-time director Alex Thompson’s SXSW award-winning feature. – Chris S. (full review)

Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes

Spaceship Earth (Matt Wolf)

If the Earth was no longer inhabitable, could we survive inside a self-sustaining biodome environment launched into space? From Silent Running to Elysium, the question is the fodder for many a sci-fi film but in 1991, an eight-person group of men and women embarked on a two-year experiment to actually put this theory to the test. What followed was equal parts inspiring and frustrating as the duplicitous crossroads of innovation and capitalism converged. Spaceship Earth comes nearly three decades after the experiment, as the devastating effects of climate change and humanity’s continued destruction of the place we all call home only continue to grow more apparent, unfortunately making it the ideal time to revisit this story. Equipped with hours upon hours of archival footage thanks to the diligent work of those involved in the experiment, director Matt Wolf goes beat-by-beat not only through the media sensation of the project, but the quarter-century foundation that led to it. The resulting documentary makes for a fascinating story full of twists yet one that could’ve used some more invention and focus in the ways in which this sprawling journey is told. – Jordan R. (full review)

Where to Stream: Hulu

Three by Tsai Ming-liang

As we await the release of Tsai Ming-liang’s first narrative film in some time, The Criterion Channel is sharing a trio of his most acclaimed works: his debut feature Rebels of the Neon God, a striking portrait of teenage malaise; his 2005 film The Wayward Cloud, and his acclaimed recent drama Stray Dogs.

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

The Traitor (Marco Bellocchio)

Despite 55 long and active years in the film industry and a long list of accolades, Marco Bellocchio remains one of the less recognized Italian auteurs of his stature–an unfathomable distinction when considering the palatable (dare I even say fun) nature of his arthouse cinema. The nonagenarian director’s latest work The Traitor, while retaining the politically-charged and controversially thematic nature of his past films, is perhaps his most accessible work yet. Following real-life mafia boss Tommaso Buscetta–a figure ripe for adaptation–the film may better be described as a gangster movie in reverse. Ignore the genre conventions that romanticize the mercurial rise-and-fall nature of organized crime and create easy villains out of snitches with selfish motives. After a gruesome, rapid-paced montage of mob assassinations opens the film and satisfies the expectation of violence, Bellocchio picks up on Buscetta’s life in post-retirement Brazil, faraway and safe. Buscetta’s significance is not in his rank-climbing glory days with the Cosa Nostra crime syndicate, Bellocchio promises, but rather in his active participation in its downfall–as one of the first members to provide information to officials. – Jason O. (full review)

Where to Stream: Amazon, iTunes, Google

Also New to Streaming

Amazon

Arkansas (review)
Porno (review)
The Plagiarists (review)
Rewind (review)
Sweetness in the Belly