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.
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (Josh Greenbaum)
Injecting a sense of delightfully unbridled frivolity to quite a dire era of studio comedy, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar marks Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig’s first project since a decade ago with Bridesmaids. Following best friends as they take their dream vacation in a town that’s being targeted for mass destruction, this is a comedy that understands being dumb doesn’t mean dumbing things down. With a radiant color palette and joke-a-minute delivery, couple with Jamie Dornan’s best performance, this will certainly be the most rewatchable film on this list in the years to come. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Hulu
Blue (Derek Jarman)
Four months before his death due to AIDS-related causes, English director Derek Jarman delivered his final cinematic vision. The entirety of the 76-minute Blue is composed of a single frame of color, featuring voiceover from Jarman (and a few others, including his past collaborator Tilda Swinton) as he poetically and heartbreakingly reflects over his soon-to-expire time on this earth, even playfully adding flights of fancy. As experimental as it is powerful, it’s one of the essential works of not only queer cinema but of personal filmmaking in general. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: OVID.tv
Giants Being Lonely (Grear Patterson)
The final days of suburban American high school provide the backdrop to Giants Being Lonely, a box-fresh cut of expressionistic filmmaking from debut writer-director Grear Patterson, a visual artist whose work to date has focused on a kind of post-modern Americana–a stylistic background that translates efficiently to the screen. Produced by Olmo Schnabel (son of Julian, and paying the bills) and shot beautifully by Patterson himself, Giants tells of a love triangle between three of the school’s students: the gifted pitcher of the baseball team, his coach’s less talented son, and a relatively affluent girl in their class. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime
Let Him Go (Thomas Bezucha)
One is immediately struck by the simplicity of Let Him Go. Following the untimely death of their son, retired sheriff George Blackledge (Kevin Costner) and his wife Margaret (Diane Lane) watch in horror as their daughter-in-law (Kayli Carter) marries into the Weboy Family, their grandson in tow. The Weboys are an unruly sort, holding power over all of those inside and outside of the law around the border of Montana and North Dakota. Big mean fish in a small pond. Unswayed by the violence sure to come their way, George and Margaret set out to rescue their family from certain doom. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: HBO Max
Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time (Lili Horvát)
The hook for Hungarian writer/director Lili Horvát’s second feature doesn’t lack intrigue. Following a doctor who returns back home to Budapest after a chance, love-inducing meeting with another at a surgical conference, Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time––a mouthful of a title for the mystery-first drama––lives in the grey areas of the workplace, relationships, and loneliness. Once Vizy Márta (Natasa Stork) arrives to meet her hopeful-lover, Drexler János (Viktor Bodó), he’s nowhere to be seen, and after she finds him at the local university (and attached hospital), he seems to not recognize her. According to him, he’s never seen her before in his life. – Michael F. (full review)
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman)
It is apropos that Emma Seligman’s Shiva Baby screened in the Toronto International Film Festival’s Discovery platform. It is a discovery, in every sense: the discovery of a new comic voice behind the camera, the discovery of a note-perfect star in lead actor Rachel Sennott, and the discovery of a viewing experience that is at once hilarious, awkward, uncomfortable, and unforgettable. Shiva Baby is a blast of energy and from its first moment to its last Seligman finds the right balance. There is genuine suspense, if not horror; the score, by Ariel Marx, could just as easily fit a summer camp slasher flick. But the greatest feeling for the audience––after discomfort––is excitement. – Chris S. (full review)
Where to Stream: HBO Max
Year of the Horse (Jim Jarmusch)
I am often asked—at parties, on dates, in applications for a bank loan—if I’ve seen every Jim Jarmusch film. Though I say yes, this is in fact a lie: my sole blind spot has long been Year of the Horse, his divisive and little-screened 1997 documentary on Neil Young and Crazy Horse. My excuses, whatever they’ve been, are rendered nil by our friends at Le Cinéma Club, who have begun a week-long stream of the feature that “combines Super 8, 16mm, and Hi-8 footage of Crazy Horse’s 1996 tour, providing unfiltered access into backstage antics.” Hey hey, my my! – Nick N.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
Also New to Streaming
The Criterion Channel
Disney+ Premier Access
Hulu
MUBI
Virtual Cinemas