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.
Antlers (Scott Cooper)
Scott Cooper is comfortable in the mud. The American director routinely finds himself in the confines of the lowdown and dirty, in gritty landscapes with working-class characters overcoming their shortcomings and often turning to violence to solve their problems. While his previous two features Black Mass and Hostiles failed to find tension in their deliberately tedious pacing, Antlers strikes the balance between methodology, terror, and blue-collar dynamics. – Erik N. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Arrebato (Iván Zulueta)
That Arrebato has waited more than 40 years to receive a bona fide U.S. theatrical run is wild; it lives up to the cult-classic status it’s held since 1979. (The marketing push highlights it being Pedro Almodóvar’s favorite horror film.) Its parts recall many later works as diverse as Trainspotting and The Ring, its depiction of addiction and stasis leading us towards a legitimately brilliant ending that brings the whole thing into meta territory with its film-within-a-film coaxing us to enter the fray ourselves. Our need for answers ratchets up to a potent boiling point, as is surely Zulueta’s intent. He’s not interested in the release, just the rapture. He wants us to chase the high and live in its glorious potential. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven)
Many of the best qualities of early and late Verhoeven combine in Benedetta, a tale of sex, blood, and sacrilege in 17th-century Italy. Based on the American historian Judith C. Brown’s 1986 non-fiction book Immoral Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (quite the title), its story focuses on the life of Benedetta Carlini, a nun in Precia who entered a sexual relationship with another woman in her convent. Paul Verhoeven originally adapted the book with his longtime collaborator Gerard Soeteman (Black Book, Turkish Delight), but the screenwriter stepped down when it became too “sexualized.” In the opening act there are not one, but two fart jokes. We are also, in many instances, offered evidence of the director’s well-founded appreciation for mommy’s milkies. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
C’mon C’mon (Mike Mills)
Shot in a striking black-and-white featuring the traffic, buildings, and general bigness of America’s biggest cities (e.g. Los Angeles and New York), C’mon C’mon celebrates the smallness within these towers. It doesn’t want to veer from its message of understanding, kindness, and love. It wants to challenge any idea of what’s normal. The messages can be simple to glean—from “We all deserve time and attention” to “Nobody knows what they’re doing.” But they still resonate because relationships are hard and life is even harder. Sometimes, in the case of Mills, saccharine just equals sweet. – Michael F. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Cryptozoo (Dash Shaw)
The current state of American animated cinema is more than a little disappointing; Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks, and more regurgitate the same formula and offer nothing new but a juxtaposition of cartoon designs and hyper-realistic imagery; animation for adults is all too rare. When something like Dash Shaw and Jane Samborski’s Cryptozoo comes along, it’s easy to recognize as one of the most gorgeous works of American animation in ages. – Juan B. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay)
Articulating why it’s easy to agree with writer-director Adam McKay’s politics while disliking his films isn’t so hard. Though a smart man who can hold his own riffing with Felix Biederman on a Chapo Trap House guest appearance—and also responsible for some of the funniest movies of the past 20 years (Anchorman, Step Brothers)—there still seems some limitation to The Big Short and Vice as both satire and political tracts. If it bears the fault of preaching to the choir’s anger more than offering real structural critique, one has to begrudgingly admire some qualities of his newest film, even as being annoyed for a good portion of the runtime is still expected. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
The Matrix Resurrections (Lana Wachowski)
The Matrix Resurrections is misshapen, haphazard, and some of the happiest a film has made me in 2021, regularly inspiring surprises and enthusiasms the contemporary tentpole long deemed irrelevant. Though less a take-it-or-leave-it gauntlet-toss than Lana Wachowski’s more boldly experimental endeavors, the virtues of her fourth Matrix are often in excess of anything she’s made since the polarizing-but-great sequels, sometimes in contradiction to the matter of us even watching it—a work about the fact that it nearly should not exist. – Nick N. (full review)
Where to Stream: HBO Max
The Nowhere Inn (Bill Benz)
The criticism of any film––narrative or documentary––featuring a musical artist playing him or herself is that it begins to feel more like branded IP than a natural extension of the artist’s work. For some, like Bruce Springsteen, a level of self-awareness about their process and inspiration is a feature, not a bug. For so many others, including the Beatles and Spice Girls, big-screen outings were largely fan service. Now this brings us to the beautiful and enigmatic Annie Clark, who is painfully aware of her persona as woman of mystery. Directed by Bill Benz from a script by Clark and Carrie Brownstein, The Nowhere Inn is a self-reflective comedy wherein Clark plays herself, taking the role of her onscreen persona St. Vincent, who goes in search of truth and authenticity for the creature she has created. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
The Scary of Sixty-First (Dasha Nekrasova)
“She’s a very sick girl and she’s always been into, like, the UK,” says Noelle (Madeline Quinn) about her roommate Addie (Betsie Brown) to her new friend The Girl (Dasha Nekrasova). Sick fascinations are the instruments of demonic evil in Dasha Nekrasova’s debut feature The Scary of Sixty-First. Quinn co-wrote Scary with Nekrasova based on their shared feeling of futility in the aftermath of Jeffrey Epstein’s death. Unsatisfied with the story that Epstein committed suicide, in the summer of 2019 Nekrasova held “Epstein Truther MeetUps” to investigate his death with fellow skeptical New Yorkers. Her truther explorations became an idea for the film and Nekrasova’s Girl character could be a stand-in for the actress, but that isn’t too important. The real story with The Scary of Sixty-First is: if you speak of the devil, he shall appear. – Josh E. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Who You Think I Am (Safy Nebbou)
Every time there is a new Juliette Binoche performance it’s a hearty reminder that she is probably our greatest living actor. The new thriller Who You Think I Am, directed by Safy Nebbou, permits the star to show off a bit. With each passing scene the actress seems to be challenging herself to do more with less. Then, out of nowhere, a monologue in the middle of the film knocks your socks off. The picture ultimately reveals itself to be a masterclass in performance. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime
Wife of a Spy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
We’re in Kobe in 1940 on the eve of war. An English businessman is being forcefully ejected from his factory by a group of soldiers. “What has become of Japan?” he asks despairingly. So plays the opening sequence of Wife of a Spy, a world-weary wartime romance from Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa about an affluent married couple who each must ask themselves a thorny question. Their country is at a crossroads, how best to respond? – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
Also New to Streaming
Amazon Prime
MUBI (free for 30 days)
Alphaville
Mad Love
A Night at the Opera
A Shape of Things to Come
Gritt
Box of Moonlight