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.
Crossing (Levan Akin)
There’s no description of Levan Akin’s Crossing that won’t make it sound like the kind of feel-good dramedy which would have taken Sundance by storm in 2006. It has all the key ingredients: an inter-generational friendship forged between a curmudgeonly retired teacher and a young burnout desperate to escape his hometown; an epic road trip where they come to understand each other more; and the older of the two confronting her internal bigotry as they search for her transgender niece. Above all, any description makes this sound like the worst kind of LGBTQ story, which we finally seem to have moved past as a culture––the story of queer people aimed firmly at a straight audience. It’s understandable why anybody would be skeptical of Crossing, or at least consider it outdated if not ill-intentioned, from a distance. But as with And Then We Danced, his debut that emerged at the 2019 Directors’ Fortnight, Crossing gradually reveals that Akin’s true storytelling talent is finding the authenticity beneath the most formulaic of queer narratives. – Alistair R. (full review)
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
The First Slam Dunk (Takehiko Inoue)
Written and directed by Inoue himself based on his own manga––a rare double-duty distinction he now shares with Akira’s Katsuhiro Otomo––the anime film makes no effort to disguise its status as the offshoot of a serial drama, plunging the audience straight into a climactic showdown whose characters, stakes, and setup are presumed to already be at least vaguely familiar to its audience. Contrary to what the name might imply, The First Slam Dunk is not any kind of prequel to the original series, but situated deep within its plot, as our heroes of the scrappy underdog Shohoku High School team takes on the cocky champs at archrival Sannoh High. – Eli F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Kinds of Kindness (Yorgos Lanthimos)
This one is for the true Lanthimites, the Dogtooth sisters, the biscuit women, The Killing of a Sacred Deer heads, a film to which the callbacks are so abundant that one can’t help but wonder what the connection is for writer-director Yorgos Lanthimos and co-screenwriter Efthimis Filippou behind the scenes, outside of simply sharing tones and themes that all of their other films share. Regardless, the director as we knew him pre-Emma Stone is back (relatively speaking). And this time… with Emma Stone! – Luke H. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu, VOD
Lee Chang-dong: Four New Restorations
Four films from the great Lee Chang-dong recently debuted in new 4K restorations from Film Movement: Green Fish, Peppermint Candy, Oasis, and Poetry. Now available digitally, be sure to read Shawn Glinis’ interview with the director.
Where to Stream: VOD
Napoleon: The Director’s Cut (Ridley Scott)
Now with 48 added minutes to parse to see what Paul Thomas Anderson actually wrote, Ridley Scott’s Napoleon: The Director’s Cut has surprise dropped on Apple TV+. Fran Hoepfner said of the original cut, “he acclaimed director’s latest historical epic––not so much sword and sandal as it is cannon and boots––starring Joaquin Phoenix in the title role, however, is an unfortunate slog: all filler, no killer, stretching into tedium before its rushed ending.” Hopefully, like many Scott director cuts, this one is an improvement.
Where to Stream: Apple TV+
Possession (Andrzej Żuławski)
If you have yet to catch the new restoration of Andrzej Żuławski’s deliriously feral horror thriller Possession, you are in luck. Following the erratically deteriorating relationship of a couple, as played by Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani, the film’s evil surprises are best left experienced fresh.
Where to Stream: Kino Film Collection
Reverse the Curse (fka Bucky F*cking Dent) (David Duchovny)
After getting off to a shaky start, David Duchovny’s second directorial feature Bucky F*cking Dent delivers some hard truths and profound wisdom against the backdrop of a 1978 Red Sox-Yankees American League East pennant game. Adapted from Duchovny’s book of the same name, his follow-up to 2004’s House of D finds Teddy (Logan Marshall-Green), an aspiring novelist and Yankees peanut vendor, returning home to visit his estranged, dying father Marty (Duchovny). His work is rejected by a literacy agent who encourages him to commit a crime, go to prison, and write about it––otherwise he’s just another uninteresting voice in changing times. Fresh from a divorce, the shaggy-haired Teddy is going through an awkward phase, stuck in a profound rut. His dad comments that despite being 33 his son looks both younger and older than he is. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
Trap (M. Night Shyamalan)
Far be it from me to say Shyamalan needs further reclamation or defense––I might instead point you to the most deranged, overcompensating discourse ever waged on behalf of a director––except to argue Trap’s legion pleasures aren’t disconnected from the satisfaction of watching his specific talents meet a distinctly entertaining premise. And if not quite some turning point in Shyamalan’s oeuvre, watching it suggests a coinciding fulfillment of his earlier cultural dominance with the thoroughgoing security established since The Visit defibrillated his career nearly a decade ago. Even at a pace or two too long, while starting to coast on the pure rush of initial, stronger ideas, it’s perhaps his best-engineered work since The Village and arguably the purest piece of entertainment he’s ever made. – Nick N. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Watchers (Inasha Night Shyamalan)
The Watchers follows Mina (Dakota Fanning), an antisocial pet-store clerk tasked with delivering a rare yellow parrot to a client in another town. Her trip brings her to a mysterious forest that has a tendency for swallowing up anyone who enters. With the sun setting and her car nowhere to be found, Mina takes shelter in a strange one-room building (called the Coop) with three others, who are, we learn, fellow captives. Every night, vicious creatures come to watch them through the two-way mirror, studying their appearance and mannerisms. – Gabrielle M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Max
Also New to Streaming
AMC+
Ghostlight
Hulu
Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg
Netflix
Adam Sandler: Love You
The Deliverance
Going Varsity in Mariachi
Paramount+ with Showtime
Sasquatch Sunset
Peacock
Touch
Prime Video
10 Cloverfield Lane
Death Proof
The Man Who Fell to Earth
Outrage