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. Starting this 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.
A Late Quartet (Yaron Zilberman)
When the cellist of a world-renowned string quartet discovers early onset Parkinson’s is taking away the dexterity needed to continue playing, the will of the entire group is shaken. Conversations about a replacement, questions about continuing, and attempts to keep their friend’s desire to play alive unsurprisingly ensue while a comic series of sexual trysts add to the fun. This is Yaron Zilberman’s A Late Quartet — a tale of the conflicts inherent in any collaboration spanning twenty-five years mixed with silly asides doing more to sensationalize than service a plot. A light comedic drama with an A-list cast (including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener and Christopher Walken), the film’s saccharine undertones prevent it from being more than a throwaway rental. – Jared M.
Where to Watch: Netflix
High Tech, Low Life (Stephen T. Maing)
After touring the world on a festival run in 2012, Stephen T. Maing‘s documentary High Tech, Low Life had a small theatrical roll-out earlier this year, and is now available to stream. Following the journey of two of China’s first citizen reporters as they travel the country (chronicling underreported news and social issue stories), this looks to be a relevant peek into the world of social media across a country that harnesses such technology. As our friend David Ehrlich said, it’s a “riveting doc on how China is being impacted by digital culture,” adding that it’s “revelatory, inspiring and elegantly assembled.” – Jordan R.
Where to Watch: Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, VUDU
Kaboom (Gregg Araki)
Kaboom’s greatest success is its fearlessness to risk turning off the mainstream. Targeted at those willing to put aside societal constraints and moral codes of decency to go inside an artistic mind’s tapestried pleasure center, Gregg Araki’s film possesses a visual style keyed to arouse your senses as it connects you with characters stuck in a four-year collegiate hiatus of screwing around and making mistakes before life begins. Thrust into a rabbit hole leading towards a nuclear cleansing that may or may not be playing out in the delusional landscape of his mind, Smith’s (Thomas Dekker) odyssey unfolds against a soundtrack of music defining the beginning of a century ruled by youth without borders, limitations, or fear. It’s a paranoia-induced, heightened reality emblem of a generation that’s well worth giving a chance. – Jared M.
Where to Watch: Netflix
Miami Connection (Y.K. Kim and Woo-sang Park)
Ass-kicking Tae Kwan-Do rock bands. Motorcycle ninja gangs. Do I have your attention yet? Only a decade as erratic and experimental as the ’80s could produce a movie like Miami Connection, which trumps even the likes of Solar Babies or Gymkata for low-budget absurdity. When Korean-born Y.K. Kim decided to make a serious action film extolling the pacifist virtues of a martial-arts ethos, he couldn’t have known it would have ended up like this. Filled with cheerful, silly (but deadly serious, within proper context) rock songs about friendship, and erratic street fights with those aforementioned coke-addled ninjas — all moored by Kim’s own defiantly bizarre performance — Miami Connection is no pretender to the throne of “so bad it’s good cinema” — it’s a legitimate, no-contest champion. A beer and pizza event for the ages. – Nathan B.
Where to Watch: Netflix
The Playroom (Julia Dyer)
We’ve all seen stories about the effect alcoholism has on children – for better, worse, and often somewhere in that underwhelming middle ground. And while I’m not averse to this mold, so long as it’s crafted with care, one of the main pleasures to be found in The Playroom is director Julia Dyer‘s tendency to — sometimes in a literal, visual sense — put the perfunctory conflicts and confrontations that would typically stem from this in the background, opting to place the children of a troubled husband and wife at the center of things. Set almost exclusively in a suburban home in the fall of 1975, The Playroom revolves around four children (Olivia Harris, Ian Veteto, Jonathon McClendon and Alexandra Doke) living in a household run by two parents (John Hawkes and Molly Parker) who, though not dysfunctional on the surface, are slowly pulling themselves apart with the trappings of alcohol. I know it sounds familiar, but, again: The Playroom is, at its damaged heart, really an examination of the ways in which we sometimes need to rely on our peers when our elders fail us. – Nick N.
Where to Watch: Netflix
Twixt (Francis Ford Coppola)
Largely maligned upon its premiere at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt barely saw anything resembling a release outside Europe. Luckily, with both its streaming availability and forthcoming Blu-Ray release, you’ll be able to see that it’s actually kind of good: Twixt is the work of a man with nothing left to prove but, still, something intensely personal to express. Though an utter breeze in treating kitsch with a winking eye, it’s hard not to see Val Kilmer’s frustrated artist as an avatar for Coppola himself. Look out for the most potent audio/visual combination: the sound of a Skype call bleeding into a dream and effectively ending it. – Ethan V.
Where to Watch: Amazon Instant Video
Super (James Gunn)
Before James Gunn truly buries himself into the hearts of fanboys everywhere with Marvel’s 2014-bound Guardians of the Galaxy, one owes it to themsevles to see his take on a very different kind of superhero. The twisted, dark, compelling Super teams an eager Ellen Page and a down-and-out Rainn Wilson as they violently fight crime and take down the villainous Mr. Kevin Bacon himself. With heavy gore, warped sex, and its rough-and-tumble approach, it’s no wonder the film debuted to a divisive reaction back on the 2011 film festival circuit — but, for those who want a little edge to their superhero tales, it’s a must-watch. – Jordan R.
Where to Watch: Netflix
Upstream Color (Shane Carruth)
The unorthodox release pattern continues for Shane Carruth’s self-handled Upstream Color, with its streaming availability arriving just two months after its small-scale theatrical release. (It’s already available on Blu-ray, too.) While it, like any good film, may lose a bit of momentum in its transition from theaters to laptops and televisions, the repeat-viewing access offered by streaming services are more beneficial than usual when considering a storyteller such as Carruth. If Upstream Color doesn’t necessarily reach the jargon-heavy dizziness of its director’s previous film — the 2004 time travel scrambler, Primer — it’s still experimental by conventional standards, and the ability to rewatch scenes and sequences is something that could easily come in handy. (Read our breakdown of the film’s narrative here.) More than anything else, though, the film marks a major step forward formally for Carruth: whereas Primer charmed people with its $7,000, DIY inventiveness, there’s nothing amateur about the construction of Upstream Color, from Carruth’s mathematically precise editing to the award-winning sound design. – Danny K.
Where to Watch: Netflix, Amazon Video
What are you streaming this week?