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 best titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop 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.
Any Day Now (Travis Fine)
Mature, yet far from subtle, Travis Fine’s Any Day Now is a strong portrait of an improbably gay couple, a drag queen (played by Alan Cumming) and a junior associate DA (Garret Dillahunt) who take in a mentally handicapped teen, Marco (Isaac Leyva, in his first role). Marco has abandoned after his mother is arrested on a drug charge – wondering around 1970s LA until Rudy (Cumming) takes him in, doing the best he can. After a tryst with Paul (Dillahunt) leads to a more domestic situation, they attempt to adopt Marco, jumping through several political hoops with no end in sight. The story’s ending strikes the right cord and is an parallel to the current gay marriage debate. Rachel Morrison’s cinematography is brilliant, along with strong performances, Any Day Now is an entertaining exploration of loneliness, joy and pain. – John F.
Where to Watch: Netflix
The Avengers (Joss Whedon)
After raking in over $1.5 billion, chances are if you’ve wanted to see this superhero team-up, then you’ve done so by now. But for those wanting revisit Joss Whedon‘s blockbuster, the film has recently hit Netflix’s streaming platform. Having recently taken the opportunity to do so myself, it certainly loses a great deal of appeal on the small screen, but Whedon’s energetic dialogue and the team’s camaraderie during extended action scenes warrants a re-watch for fans. While I much prefer another Marvel actioner that’s currently streaming, this one makes for fitting lazy Sunday afternoon screening. – Jordan R.
Where to Watch: Netflix
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (Werner Herzog and Dmitry Vasyukov)
A pleasant B-side to 2005’s man-versus-nature doc Grizzly Man, this Werner Herzog effort has him returning to similar thematic territory, albeit with less complexity and investigative energy. In fact, Happy People’s one-note quality (which is a pleasurable note, to be sure) can perhaps be explained through its production: Herzog didn’t actually shoot the footage himself, but instead stumbled upon a few films made by the Russian filmmaker Dmitry Vasyukov and was compelled to shuffle them into a standalone feature. Unsurprisingly, the snowy glimpses of the village of Bakhtia are gorgeous, and the detailed craftsmanship of the film’s subjects are often transcendent. But whereas Grizzly Man generated a lot of tension out of Herzog’s disagreements with Timothy Treadwell, Happy People features a Herzog completely enamored with the wilderness existence of the people he’s studying. If this ultimately makes for a rather breezy exercise, well, Herzog’s voice is still irresistible. – Danny K.
Where to Watch: Netflix
Natural Selection (Robbie Pickering)
Before up-and-coming director Robbie Pickering makes his studio break-out next year with Sony’s horror comedy The Kitchen Sink, it’s in your best interest to see the film that helped him get his start. Natural Selection features comedic actress Rachael Harris in her most acclaimed role yet, as she helped her husband find his illegitimate son. As we said in our SXSW review, the film “is a parable about the dangers stemming from the repression of basic human desires. The comedy maintains a tight balance between the probable and the sad: there is emotional honesty throughout Robbie Pickering’s script which pulls it back from the brink of otherwise being a predicable plot, with several darkly comic moments.” – Jordan R.
Where to Watch: Netflix
Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)
It’s only natural that Spring Breakers is hitting streaming devices right now, with Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring — another A24 release about contemporary American values filtered through the viewpoints of greedy teenage girls — currently playing nationwide. (Read our full-length comparison of the two films here.) Where Coppola opts for a clinical remove, though, Korine prefers jacked-up pizzazz, and the result is his most formally polished film to date. Gone are the seedy, micro-budget flavors of Gummo and Trash Humpers: Spring Breakers is all about compulsively digestible surfaces and fluid sequences that are so cool and savvy you can’t help but get drowned in their flow. While the film may be more problematic from an ideological standpoint — for me, it’s a less cogent satire than The Bling Ring, if only because I can rarely tell how Korine feels about his own subjects — its aesthetic thrills are more than enough. – Danny K.
Where to Watch: Amazon Video, iTunes, VUDU
Supporting Characters (Daniel Schechter)
As we said in our Tribeca review, “as films about film go, Daniel Schechter‘s Supporting Characters is relatively low-fi stuff,” but despite the no-frills approach, the emerging filmmaker has crafted a relatable, personal story of friendship, Starring Girls actor Alex Karpovsky (and even including a brief appearance by Lena Dunham), this small drama following two film editors and their work and relationship struggles is a reminder of how low-budget films can succeed with the right chemistry. – Jordan R.
Where to Watch: Netflix
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis)
Although last year’s Flight featured its fair share of CGI, it was refreshing to see director Robert Zemeckis back in the world of drama following his motion-capture obsession. For those that want to revisit when he got bit by the animation bug, his groundbreaking work Who Framed Roger Rabbit is now available to stream on Netflix. Shot between Back to the Future and its sequel, the hybrid animation is just as entertaining today as it was twenty-five years ago. As we await news on the oft-rumored follow-up, make sure to give this classic another view.
Where to Watch: Netflix
What are you streaming this week?