Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
André Is an Idiot (Tony Benna)
There is an unbridled honesty to André Is an Idiot that is admirable, even if all of it doesn’t really work. It’s a simple, stark subject for a documentary: accomplished advertising creative André Ricciardi neglected to get a colonoscopy at the recommended age and when he finally did get one he learned he had Stage 4 Colon Cancer. In response to this death sentence, André decided to make a film about dying. It’s a bold idea, reflective of many of his ideas for commercials and otherwise. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Drama (Kristoffer Borgli)
Some critics are going to say The Drama is not about race, or that if it is, this is simply an accident born of colorblind casting. There is a reveal—the reveal the entire premise hinges on—early in the film that would perhaps make more sense to people if it had come from a white person. It’s definitely something that, historically, is more associated with troubled white American men. But this is a film, not real life, and The Drama presents us with a character viewers have never seen on the big screen before. – Jourdain S. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Exit 8 (Genki Kawamura)
Gameplay simplicity and use of the trendy liminal horror subgenre made The Exit 8 a viral success––currently the game has sold over 1.5 million copies––which also saw a boost in popularity from streamers whose videos have amassed millions of views. But how do you create a feature-length film out of a game that could be beaten in a matter of minutes? For director and co-writer Genki Kawamura, it’s to rely on horror’s tried-and-true method of leaning into allegory, with Exit 8’s premise becoming a representation of how routines can trap us in cycles of bad behaviors. The film’s main character is The Lost Man (Kazunari Ninomiya), who we see on his daily commute in the Tokyo subway. While navigating the labyrinthine system of pedestrian tunnels, he gets a call from his recent ex-girlfriend who tells him she’s pregnant, and he has to tell her if he wants her to keep the baby. – C.J. P. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Send Help (Sam Raimi)
New Sam Raimi films are few and far between these days, but when one appears, the debate as to whether he’s an inherently mean-spirited director invariably rears its head. His last pure horror movie, 2009’s Drag Me to Hell, is often deployed as the smoking gun for this argument, even though its protagonist represents everything audience members should root against: a loan manager desperate for a promotion who wills evil into her life after making an elderly woman homeless. Released in the wake of the 2008 financial crash, it was a characteristically goofy and gross ghost story that managed to meet its moment, slowly joining the ranks of Raimi’s best-regarded films in subsequent years, where it remained stubbornly topical. Send Help is being heavily trumpeted as Raimi’s first horror effort since, but is far more tantalizing when viewed as a return to that nihilistic strain of corporate satire where anybody who wants to climb the ladder is mercilessly punished for their shameless capitalist aspirations. – Alistair R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
Also New to Streaming
Hulu
Rosemead
Kino Film Collection
American Delivery
Monk in Pieces
MUBI
Abouna
Monangambeee
Our Grand Despair
Taxi zum Klo
VOD
Fantasy Life
Lorne
Love Letters
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come