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.
Fiume o morte! (Igor Bezinović)
Learning about Gabriele D’Annunzio’s 16-month occupation of Fiume, a tale vividly retold in Igor Bezinović’s new, Tiger Award-winning documentary Fiume o Morte!, I spared a thought for Yukio Mishima. D’Annunzio’s life didn’t end so theatrically, but the two men––celebrated writers and hyper-nationalists with hubristic military dreams and similarly contested legacies––certainly shared a taste for the quixotic and chaotic. Was D’Annunzio a fascist colonizer, as those who still remember him in Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) claim, or was he the admirable dreamer as romantic as his poems? A century later, the jury’s still out. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Glastonbury Fayre (Nicolas Roeg and Peter Neal)
As the iconic Glastonbury Festival observes a fallow year to let Somerset farmland recover, we’re showcasing a rarely-shown look at its kooky beginnings, shot by Nicolas Roeg (who left the project to direct his masterpieces Walkabout and Don’t Look Now) and completed by Peter Neal (who passed away earlier this year, and directed Jimi Hendrix: The Experience). Made over a crazed week in far-out farmlands, Glastonbury Fayre captures the music and spirit that has come to define the English festival. It’s a wonderful time-capsule of the hippie experiment replete with frenzied dancing, mud-bathing, and sun meditations that deserves a place alongside festival docs like Monterey Pop and Woodstock.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
Obsession (Curry Barker)
For as wild and uncomfortable as Obsession becomes, it is less a question of where the film is going than how it’s going to get there and what path it will take. To Barker’s credit, however, it never feels like he’s stalling for time; a lot of the film is spent observing Bear and his other co-workers, including Sarah (Megan Lawless), the owner’s daughter, who perhaps has a bit of a crush on Bear. Both she and Ian find Nikki’s sudden change a bit odd, concerned that Bear may be taking advantage of a mental breakdown. It’s a development that shows Barker has something on his mind, perhaps recognizing that another version of this movie could be horrific in its misogyny. – Devan S. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Prisoner (Patrick McGoohan)
I don’t know if The Prisoner is actually the greatest TV series ever made, but it sure feels that way whenever I watch it. Despite creator-writer-director-star Patrick McGoohan’s sci-fi spy series anticipating (or being outright cannibalized by) so much that supposedly innovated the medium, little has even approached the gauntlet thrown down nearly sixty years ago—making it more or less the best possible addition to the Criterion Channel’s ongoing expedition into TV programming. It’s hard to talk about The Prisoner sans hyperbole—best set design, best Beatles cue, best finale, best show—so I’ll leave it (and whatever chosen episode order) to you before the long-rumored big-screen remake, perhaps from the just-as-long-rumored Christopher Nolan (whose love of the series is most evinced by “A. B. and C.,” a staggering bit of imagination that frankly trounces anything in Inception or Tenet). – Nick N.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Project Hail Mary (Phil Lord and Chris Miller)
Adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name by Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary has an insufferable opening act that feels like the product of two comedy filmmakers irritated that the previous Weir adaptation––2015’s The Martian––was categorized as a comedy by the Golden Globes and want to show what an actual comic adaptation of his work could look like. That the film manages to course correct with ease after this prolonged opening stretch is a minor miracle, blossoming into an unexpected character-driven buddy picture that doesn’t need to dumb down its lead for lazy laughs. It lives up to the lofty expectation you might have for an irreverent-but-heartfelt Lord-Miller take on this material, even if it doesn’t fully compensate for the clumsy opening act. – Alistair R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Prime Video
Silent Friend (Ildikó Enyedi)
Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi is best known for her 2017 Golden Bear-winning film On Body and Soul, where an unlikely pair of characters met in a dream and, as deer, fell in love. This remarkably tender Berlinale winner is, in many ways, the precursor to Enyedi’s newest film, notwithstanding the fact that in-between came The Story of My Wife (2021), a period drama of an obsessive love affair starring Léa Seydoux. Not to say the latter is irrelevant: the English-language debut allowed Enyedi to expand the details of her singular worlds beyond language and cement herself as a European auteur to whom actors flock. While Silent Friend stars the indomitable Tony Leung (and also Seydoux in a small role), the real star of this film is a ginkgo tree. If On Body and Soul was fauna, Silent Friend is flora. – Savina P. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Super Happy Forever (Kohei Igarashi)
A cool sea breeze provides a breath of fresh air. Super Happy Forever sidesteps the expected Japanese romantic drama approach to memory, opting instead for a wistful and character-focused stroll along the shores of time. Taking a similar snapshot approach to Aftersun, but imbued with an exhilarating formalism reminiscent of filmmakers such as Jia Zhangke and Hong Sangsoo, Super Happy Forever is a special film, and the most profoundly romantic this year. We can’t turn back time— we lose things, and we lose people— but there’s always healing and resolution to be found in retracing our steps. I’ll be returning to Super Happy Forever for years to come. – Blake S. (top 10 films of 2024)
Where to Stream: Fandor
Also New to Streaming
The Criterion Collection
Bad Influence
Bigger Than Life
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Buzzard
Christine
Cool Hand Luke
Desert Fury
Escape from New York
Farewell, My Lovely
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Ghost World
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction
The Last Temptation of Christ
Leave Her to Heaven
Married to the Mob
Niagara
The Silence of the Lambs
Some Came Running
Something Wild
Straight Time
Test Pattern
Vulcanizadora
Kino Film Collection
Luminous Motion
MUBI
The Great Silence
24 Hour Party People
Shy People
Neruda
In Pursuit of Silence
Transit
Ali & Ava
Tarpon
Ennio
Self-Criticism of a Bourgeois Dog
Phantoms of July
Wasteman
VOD
Blades of the Guardians
The Devil Wears Prada 2
She’s the He