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.
’90s Horror, Art-House Horror, and Pre-Code Horror
It’s October, which means you are likely crafting an endless queue of horror films to consume. When it comes to a single streaming service to dedicate your eyes to this month, The Criterion Channel takes the cake with three different series. First up, ’90s horror brings together such films as The Rapture (1991), In the Mouth of Madness (1994), The Addiction (1995), and Ravenous (1999), while Art-House Horror features Häxan (1922), Vampyr (1932), Eyes Without a Face (1960), Carnival of Souls (1962), Onibaba (1964), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Sisters (1973), Eraserhead (1977), House (1977), Suspiria (1977), Arrebato (1979), The Brood (1979), The Vanishing (1988), Cronos (1993), Cure (1997), Donnie Darko (2001), Trouble Every Day (2001), Antichrist (2009), and more. Lastly, Pre-Code horrors brings together ’30s features such as Freaks (1932), Island of Lost Souls (1932), The Old Dark House...
’90s Horror, Art-House Horror, and Pre-Code Horror
It’s October, which means you are likely crafting an endless queue of horror films to consume. When it comes to a single streaming service to dedicate your eyes to this month, The Criterion Channel takes the cake with three different series. First up, ’90s horror brings together such films as The Rapture (1991), In the Mouth of Madness (1994), The Addiction (1995), and Ravenous (1999), while Art-House Horror features Häxan (1922), Vampyr (1932), Eyes Without a Face (1960), Carnival of Souls (1962), Onibaba (1964), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Sisters (1973), Eraserhead (1977), House (1977), Suspiria (1977), Arrebato (1979), The Brood (1979), The Vanishing (1988), Cronos (1993), Cure (1997), Donnie Darko (2001), Trouble Every Day (2001), Antichrist (2009), and more. Lastly, Pre-Code horrors brings together ’30s features such as Freaks (1932), Island of Lost Souls (1932), The Old Dark House...
- 10/6/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
While it’s understandable that many’s most-anticipated films at a festival are also some of the biggest titles of the season––evidenced by the instant sell-outs of the latest from Hayao Miyazaki, Yorgos Lanthimos, Sofia Coppola, Andrew Haigh, Jonathan Glazer, and more at the 61st New York Film Festival––one of the true joys of the experience is seeing work one may never find again. For this year’s edition of Film at Lincoln Center’s annual celebration of world cinema, we’ve gathered eight recommendations that currently don’t have U.S. distribution. While we imagine news will be announced soon for some of these selections, a release might not occur until next year, so be sure to catch them if you can.
We should also make a special note for Revivals, NYFF’s lineup of restorations, which features Paul Vecchiali’s haunting, captivating portrait of alienation The Strangler...
We should also make a special note for Revivals, NYFF’s lineup of restorations, which features Paul Vecchiali’s haunting, captivating portrait of alienation The Strangler...
- 9/26/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
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.
Bottoms (Emma Seligman)
It’s beginning to feel like South By Southwest is the Rachel Sennott Festival. After breaking out there three years ago with Shiva Baby (the movie premiered as a short in 2018 and would have again as a feature in 2020 if not for the pandemic), she made waves last year in Austin with sleeper horror hit Bodies Bodies Bodies. Now Sennott’s back with Bottoms, one of two new movies she’s headlining this week, and which adopts many characteristics of an SXSW offering: it’s gay, it’s bloody, and it’s horny. – Jake K. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Cassandro (Roger Ross Williams)
Rather than reverting to a traditional biopic structure––i.e. a greatest hits (and...
Bottoms (Emma Seligman)
It’s beginning to feel like South By Southwest is the Rachel Sennott Festival. After breaking out there three years ago with Shiva Baby (the movie premiered as a short in 2018 and would have again as a feature in 2020 if not for the pandemic), she made waves last year in Austin with sleeper horror hit Bodies Bodies Bodies. Now Sennott’s back with Bottoms, one of two new movies she’s headlining this week, and which adopts many characteristics of an SXSW offering: it’s gay, it’s bloody, and it’s horny. – Jake K. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Cassandro (Roger Ross Williams)
Rather than reverting to a traditional biopic structure––i.e. a greatest hits (and...
- 9/22/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
With the summer movie season now quietly winding down, the fall movie season is upon us and while we expect a handful of release dates to change as writers and actors fight for what they deserve, it’s time to look at what’s on the horizon. As we do each year, after highlighting the best films offered thus far, we’ve set out to provide an overview of the titles that should be on your radar.
Featuring 40 films, the below preview includes both the best we’ve already seen (with full reviews where available) and the anticipated with (mostly) confirmed release dates over the next four months. A good amount will premiere over the next few weeks at Telluride, Venice, TIFF, and NYFF, so check back for our reviews. Dates below are theatrical releases unless otherwise noted.
Astrakan (David Depesseville; Sept. 1)
Astrakhan fur is unique: dark, beautiful, and stripped exclusively from newborn lambs,...
Featuring 40 films, the below preview includes both the best we’ve already seen (with full reviews where available) and the anticipated with (mostly) confirmed release dates over the next four months. A good amount will premiere over the next few weeks at Telluride, Venice, TIFF, and NYFF, so check back for our reviews. Dates below are theatrical releases unless otherwise noted.
Astrakan (David Depesseville; Sept. 1)
Astrakhan fur is unique: dark, beautiful, and stripped exclusively from newborn lambs,...
- 8/25/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
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.
Blue Jean (Georgia Oakley)
The Blue Jean of David Bowie’s 1984 hit was a girl with “a camouflage face,” not unlike the singer and the two personas he splintered into for the song’s video: a djinn-like rockstar dancing onstage and his ordinary, besuited doppelganger watching from below. So it is for the young woman at the center of Georgia Oakley’s own Blue Jean. A Pe teacher stranded in Tyneside, England, Jean (Rosy McEwen) is a divorcée in a same-sex relationship that no-one––least of all her pupils and co-workers––must ever know about. For the year is 1988 and Britain’s grappling with the revolting aftermath of Section 28. The bill passed by Thatcher’s government banned “the promotion of homosexuality” by local authorities,...
Blue Jean (Georgia Oakley)
The Blue Jean of David Bowie’s 1984 hit was a girl with “a camouflage face,” not unlike the singer and the two personas he splintered into for the song’s video: a djinn-like rockstar dancing onstage and his ordinary, besuited doppelganger watching from below. So it is for the young woman at the center of Georgia Oakley’s own Blue Jean. A Pe teacher stranded in Tyneside, England, Jean (Rosy McEwen) is a divorcée in a same-sex relationship that no-one––least of all her pupils and co-workers––must ever know about. For the year is 1988 and Britain’s grappling with the revolting aftermath of Section 28. The bill passed by Thatcher’s government banned “the promotion of homosexuality” by local authorities,...
- 7/28/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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.
Armageddon Time (James Gray)
Armageddon Time is the sort of film usually invoked as a “portrait of the nation” or “state of the union address,” something taking the temperature of a country—most likely the United States—at a particular time in history. But it’s also a work that makes self-consciousness a virtue: its wonderful writer-director, James Gray, is informed up to his eyes about the virtues and pitfalls of films like these, and here makes something so idiosyncratically his own but that audiences and critics might still mislabel with one of those aforementioned ideas. – David K. (full review)
Where to Stream: Prime Video
Godland (Hlynur Pálmason)
Featuring onscreen text explaining how the film was inspired by left-behind photos taken by...
Armageddon Time (James Gray)
Armageddon Time is the sort of film usually invoked as a “portrait of the nation” or “state of the union address,” something taking the temperature of a country—most likely the United States—at a particular time in history. But it’s also a work that makes self-consciousness a virtue: its wonderful writer-director, James Gray, is informed up to his eyes about the virtues and pitfalls of films like these, and here makes something so idiosyncratically his own but that audiences and critics might still mislabel with one of those aforementioned ideas. – David K. (full review)
Where to Stream: Prime Video
Godland (Hlynur Pálmason)
Featuring onscreen text explaining how the film was inspired by left-behind photos taken by...
- 6/23/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
It’s been 15 years since Steven Spielberg had the Indiana Jones character dust off his famed fedora and whip to return to the silver screen. And while Kingdom of the Crystal Skull eventually settled into a sillier, less exciting reworking of past Indiana Jones adventures, its opening act brought something fresh and exciting to the series with its pulpy rendering of Cold War paranoia and 1950s America. Sure, the film gave us the rightly derided scene where Jones (Harrison Ford) survived an atomic blast by hiding in a refrigerator, but for a spell, it at least served as a compelling arena for another of the irascible archeologist’s rousing adventures.
Set in 1969, just after the flower children of the Summer of Love began to wilt and myriad civil rights and political leaders were assassinated, James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny could have mined this new cultural...
Set in 1969, just after the flower children of the Summer of Love began to wilt and myriad civil rights and political leaders were assassinated, James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny could have mined this new cultural...
- 6/16/2023
- by Derek Smith
- Slant Magazine
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.
BlackBerry (Matt Johnson)
In BlackBerry, the rise of a blue-chip tech company sets the stage for the dissolution of a longstanding friendship. Sound familiar? Just wait ‘til you hear the score. Directed by Matt Johnson, it tells the true story of Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin, software engineers who founded the company Rim in the mid-80s and later invented a cellphone that could handle email. The film begins on the day when they meet Jim Basillie (Glenn Howerton), a Rottweiler who, alongside Lazaridis’ genius, turned Rim’s invention (only later christened BlackBerry) into the world’s most ubiquitous mobile device––at least for a time. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Hole in the Fence (Joaquín del Paso...
BlackBerry (Matt Johnson)
In BlackBerry, the rise of a blue-chip tech company sets the stage for the dissolution of a longstanding friendship. Sound familiar? Just wait ‘til you hear the score. Directed by Matt Johnson, it tells the true story of Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin, software engineers who founded the company Rim in the mid-80s and later invented a cellphone that could handle email. The film begins on the day when they meet Jim Basillie (Glenn Howerton), a Rottweiler who, alongside Lazaridis’ genius, turned Rim’s invention (only later christened BlackBerry) into the world’s most ubiquitous mobile device––at least for a time. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Hole in the Fence (Joaquín del Paso...
- 6/2/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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.
Country Gold (Mickey Reece)
The cost of fame sits in the living room wondering aloud whether dad will be home for Christmas. Why these two young boys’ voices have been deepened to sound like they’re 40-year-old drunks slurring through a bender is beyond me (an assumption of it being a dream or game is squashed once mom enters without the effect being called out), but their words have meaning. Troyal’s (Mickey Reece channeling Garth Brooks) star has risen to unimaginable heights and he’s embraced it to the point where his “good ol’ boy” demeanor can’t quite hide the growing ego beneath a cowboy hat. While Jamie (Leah N.H. Philpott) tries toeing the line of admiring his accomplishments and...
Country Gold (Mickey Reece)
The cost of fame sits in the living room wondering aloud whether dad will be home for Christmas. Why these two young boys’ voices have been deepened to sound like they’re 40-year-old drunks slurring through a bender is beyond me (an assumption of it being a dream or game is squashed once mom enters without the effect being called out), but their words have meaning. Troyal’s (Mickey Reece channeling Garth Brooks) star has risen to unimaginable heights and he’s embraced it to the point where his “good ol’ boy” demeanor can’t quite hide the growing ego beneath a cowboy hat. While Jamie (Leah N.H. Philpott) tries toeing the line of admiring his accomplishments and...
- 4/14/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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.
Directed by David Lynch
On the occasion of the home video and streaming release of the newly remastered Inland Empire (for which we were lucky enough to chat with the man himself), Criterion has put together a fine tribute to David Lynch, also featuring Eraserhead (1977), Dune (1984), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Lost Highway (1997), and Mulholland Dr. (2001). Don’t sleep on the bonus features, including a new conversation between Laura Dern and Kyle Maclachlan. Also, set to arrive on April 1 is The Elephant Man (1980).
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Eric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons
French New Wave master Eric Rohmer’s 1990s project was Tales of the Four Seasons, all of which have now received new restorations. Following...
Directed by David Lynch
On the occasion of the home video and streaming release of the newly remastered Inland Empire (for which we were lucky enough to chat with the man himself), Criterion has put together a fine tribute to David Lynch, also featuring Eraserhead (1977), Dune (1984), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Lost Highway (1997), and Mulholland Dr. (2001). Don’t sleep on the bonus features, including a new conversation between Laura Dern and Kyle Maclachlan. Also, set to arrive on April 1 is The Elephant Man (1980).
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Eric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons
French New Wave master Eric Rohmer’s 1990s project was Tales of the Four Seasons, all of which have now received new restorations. Following...
- 4/7/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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.
Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron)
James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel finally arrived. If not to just wax poetic on the photo-realistic Na’vi and the water they inhabit, one has to admire the megalomaniac yet compassionate director’s knack for a satisfying narrative. Culminating in a perfectly constructed final act which shifts from about four different kinds of action sequence, constantly escalating the stakes and managing to conclude with a lovely, Miyazaki-like grace note… well, you can’t help but admire a blockbuster that has the whole package. – Ethan V.
Where to Stream: VOD
Creed III (Michael B. Jordan)
Just to get it out of the way: the first Creed is the best Rocky film. They share the same formula,...
Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron)
James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel finally arrived. If not to just wax poetic on the photo-realistic Na’vi and the water they inhabit, one has to admire the megalomaniac yet compassionate director’s knack for a satisfying narrative. Culminating in a perfectly constructed final act which shifts from about four different kinds of action sequence, constantly escalating the stakes and managing to conclude with a lovely, Miyazaki-like grace note… well, you can’t help but admire a blockbuster that has the whole package. – Ethan V.
Where to Stream: VOD
Creed III (Michael B. Jordan)
Just to get it out of the way: the first Creed is the best Rocky film. They share the same formula,...
- 3/31/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Spike Lee, Chantal Akerman, Wong Kar-wai, Steven Spielberg, Claire Denis, Pedro Almodóvar, Guillermo del Toro, Christopher Nolan, Kelly Reichardt, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Charles Burnett, Lynne Ramsay, Lee Chang-dong, Yorgos Lanthimos, Mia Hansen-Løve, Bi Gan, Michael Haneke, and Hou Hsiao-hsien. Those are just a few of the directors who have been featured at New Directors/New Films throughout its 52-year history.
With this year’s edition, taking place at NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center at the Museum of Modern Art, kicking off this Wednesday, we’ve rounded up 17 features worth seeing––some of which we caught at Sundance, Berlinale, Locarno, and beyond, and others new to us at the festival. All in all, this 52nd edition presents another exciting example of the boundless creativity of emerging filmmakers and points to a bright future for the medium.
Check out our picks to see below and learn more here.
Astrakan (David Depesseville)
Astrakhan fur is unique: dark,...
With this year’s edition, taking place at NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center at the Museum of Modern Art, kicking off this Wednesday, we’ve rounded up 17 features worth seeing––some of which we caught at Sundance, Berlinale, Locarno, and beyond, and others new to us at the festival. All in all, this 52nd edition presents another exciting example of the boundless creativity of emerging filmmakers and points to a bright future for the medium.
Check out our picks to see below and learn more here.
Astrakan (David Depesseville)
Astrakhan fur is unique: dark,...
- 3/28/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
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.
Alcarràs (Carla Simón)
Big agriculture and a renewable energy company (of all people) threaten the livelihood of a Catalonian peach farming family in Alcarràs, Carla Simón’s latest sunny pastoral and her first since the 2017 debut Summer 1993. Alcarràs is set in the present day, though you’d hardly notice, and like many of its characters it looks towards the past. That idea––that time has a way of sometimes flattening out––feels central to Simón’s film and distinguishes it from similar works of social realism: Alcarràs appears simple, even slight at first, but is deceptively far-reaching; enough at least to have impressed a Berlinale jury led by M. Night Shyamalan (and including no less than Ryusuke Hamaguchi), who collectively awarded Simón the Golden Bear.
Alcarràs (Carla Simón)
Big agriculture and a renewable energy company (of all people) threaten the livelihood of a Catalonian peach farming family in Alcarràs, Carla Simón’s latest sunny pastoral and her first since the 2017 debut Summer 1993. Alcarràs is set in the present day, though you’d hardly notice, and like many of its characters it looks towards the past. That idea––that time has a way of sometimes flattening out––feels central to Simón’s film and distinguishes it from similar works of social realism: Alcarràs appears simple, even slight at first, but is deceptively far-reaching; enough at least to have impressed a Berlinale jury led by M. Night Shyamalan (and including no less than Ryusuke Hamaguchi), who collectively awarded Simón the Golden Bear.
- 2/23/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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.
Armageddon Time (James Gray)
Armageddon Time is the sort of film usually invoked as a “portrait of the nation” or “state of the union address,” something taking the temperature of a country—most likely the United States—at a particular time in history. But it’s also a work that makes self-consciousness a virtue: its wonderful writer-director, James Gray, is informed up to his eyes about the virtues and pitfalls of films like these, and here makes something so idiosyncratically his own but that audiences and critics might still mislabel with one of those aforementioned ideas. – David K. (full review)
Where to Stream: Peacock
The Civil Dead (Clay Tatum)
For Clay, the man at the center of The Civil Dead, there isn’t much happening in life.
Armageddon Time (James Gray)
Armageddon Time is the sort of film usually invoked as a “portrait of the nation” or “state of the union address,” something taking the temperature of a country—most likely the United States—at a particular time in history. But it’s also a work that makes self-consciousness a virtue: its wonderful writer-director, James Gray, is informed up to his eyes about the virtues and pitfalls of films like these, and here makes something so idiosyncratically his own but that audiences and critics might still mislabel with one of those aforementioned ideas. – David K. (full review)
Where to Stream: Peacock
The Civil Dead (Clay Tatum)
For Clay, the man at the center of The Civil Dead, there isn’t much happening in life.
- 2/17/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Following part one of our 2023 preview, we’re counting down our 50 most-anticipated films of the year.
50. Emmanuelle (Audry Diwan)
After winning the coveted Golden Lion at the 2021 Venice Film Festival with an adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning author Annie Ernaux’s Happening, Audrey Diwan is adapting the erotic novel Emmanuelle with Léa Seydoux tapped to star. The film will convey the sexual journey of a young woman who has intimate encounters with men and women in a series of erotic fantasies, making for a contemplative look at the aesthetics of desire. Diwan has an innate talent in adapting decades-old narratives and making them resonate with striking alacrity, and in a media landscape that is becoming more censorious, Emmanuelle should be a balm. – Margaret R.
49. I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)
Jane Schoenbrun’s Sundance breakout We’re All Going to the World’s Fair was one of the most-celebrated features...
50. Emmanuelle (Audry Diwan)
After winning the coveted Golden Lion at the 2021 Venice Film Festival with an adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning author Annie Ernaux’s Happening, Audrey Diwan is adapting the erotic novel Emmanuelle with Léa Seydoux tapped to star. The film will convey the sexual journey of a young woman who has intimate encounters with men and women in a series of erotic fantasies, making for a contemplative look at the aesthetics of desire. Diwan has an innate talent in adapting decades-old narratives and making them resonate with striking alacrity, and in a media landscape that is becoming more censorious, Emmanuelle should be a balm. – Margaret R.
49. I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)
Jane Schoenbrun’s Sundance breakout We’re All Going to the World’s Fair was one of the most-celebrated features...
- 1/6/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
With the New Year upon us, it’s time for our annual tradition of looking at the cinematic horizon. Having highlighted 30 films we guarantee are worth seeing this year and films we hope get U.S. distribution, we now venture into the unknown. We dug deep to chart the 100 films we’re most looking forward to, from debuts to documentaries to the return of some of our most-beloved auteurs, along with a small batch of studio films worth giving attention.
Though the majority lack a set release—let alone confirmed festival premiere—most have wrapped production and will likely debut at some point in 2023. Be sure to check back for updates over the next twelve months (and beyond).
100. El Conde (Pablo Larraín)
Politicians are vampires in El Conde, from Jackie and Spencer director Pablo Larraín. While the plot, in which Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is revealed as a literal bloodsucker,...
Though the majority lack a set release—let alone confirmed festival premiere—most have wrapped production and will likely debut at some point in 2023. Be sure to check back for updates over the next twelve months (and beyond).
100. El Conde (Pablo Larraín)
Politicians are vampires in El Conde, from Jackie and Spencer director Pablo Larraín. While the plot, in which Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is revealed as a literal bloodsucker,...
- 1/6/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
For our most comprehensive year-end feature we’re providing a cumulative look at The Film Stage’s favorite films of 2022. We’ve asked contributors to compile ten-best lists with five honorable mentions—a selection of those personal lists will be shared in coming days—and from tallied votes has a top 50 been assembled.
Without further ado, check out our rundown of 2022 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to stream many of the below picks), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2023.
50. A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia)
Payal Kapadia’s breakthrough work is a quasi-documentary with something of Chris Marker’s postmodern essay films, following a young film school student, “L,” who experiences a romantic and political coming-of-age amidst the anti-democratic changes wrought in Modi’s India. Yet it boldly eschews the informational and concrete approach of many political documentaries, allowing us a filmic...
Without further ado, check out our rundown of 2022 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to stream many of the below picks), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2023.
50. A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia)
Payal Kapadia’s breakthrough work is a quasi-documentary with something of Chris Marker’s postmodern essay films, following a young film school student, “L,” who experiences a romantic and political coming-of-age amidst the anti-democratic changes wrought in Modi’s India. Yet it boldly eschews the informational and concrete approach of many political documentaries, allowing us a filmic...
- 12/22/2022
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
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.
This week’s New to Streaming column is sponsored by Matthew Heineman’s Retrograde, now streaming on Disney+, courtesy of National Geographic Documentary Films.
Retrograde (Matthew Heineman)
There’s a common view that one needs distance and perspective to truly process and reconcile current events before making a worthwhile film on any particular subject, be it narrative or nonfiction. Throughout his intrepid career, Matthew Heineman has refuted this notion, immersing himself in the Syrian conflict, on the front lines of the Mexican drug war, and NYC’s early days of Covid-19. In each instance he has delivered full-bodied, cinematic portraits of considerable immediacy, humanity, and discernment of the events unfolding around him. His work not only provides vital dispatches of ongoing conflict,...
This week’s New to Streaming column is sponsored by Matthew Heineman’s Retrograde, now streaming on Disney+, courtesy of National Geographic Documentary Films.
Retrograde (Matthew Heineman)
There’s a common view that one needs distance and perspective to truly process and reconcile current events before making a worthwhile film on any particular subject, be it narrative or nonfiction. Throughout his intrepid career, Matthew Heineman has refuted this notion, immersing himself in the Syrian conflict, on the front lines of the Mexican drug war, and NYC’s early days of Covid-19. In each instance he has delivered full-bodied, cinematic portraits of considerable immediacy, humanity, and discernment of the events unfolding around him. His work not only provides vital dispatches of ongoing conflict,...
- 12/9/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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.
This week’s New to Streaming column is sponsored by Alex Pritz’s The Territory, now streaming on Disney+, courtesy of National Geographic Documentary Films.
The Territory (Alex Pritz)
There are about 180 Uru-eu-wau-wau people left in the Brazilian Amazon. This community lives off the land, protecting the Amazon from deforestation, constant threats of violence, and an expanding base of anti-Indigenous sentiment, streaming from the far-right emboldened by President Jair Bolsonaro. Over three years, filmmaker Alex Pritz spent time with these native Brazilians for The Territory, a collaborative, vérité documentary that’s both engaging and terrifying. Pritz even hands over the camera to the Uru-eu-wau-wau at one point, as the group closes their borders and prepares for an ongoing fight to preserve their land.
This week’s New to Streaming column is sponsored by Alex Pritz’s The Territory, now streaming on Disney+, courtesy of National Geographic Documentary Films.
The Territory (Alex Pritz)
There are about 180 Uru-eu-wau-wau people left in the Brazilian Amazon. This community lives off the land, protecting the Amazon from deforestation, constant threats of violence, and an expanding base of anti-Indigenous sentiment, streaming from the far-right emboldened by President Jair Bolsonaro. Over three years, filmmaker Alex Pritz spent time with these native Brazilians for The Territory, a collaborative, vérité documentary that’s both engaging and terrifying. Pritz even hands over the camera to the Uru-eu-wau-wau at one point, as the group closes their borders and prepares for an ongoing fight to preserve their land.
- 12/2/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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.
Armageddon Time (James Gray)
Armageddon Time is the sort of film usually invoked as a “portrait of the nation” or “state of the union address,” something taking the temperature of a country—most likely the United States—at a particular time in history. But it’s also a work that makes self-consciousness a virtue: its wonderful writer-director, James Gray, is informed up to his eyes about the virtues and pitfalls of films like these, and here makes something so idiosyncratically his own but that audiences and critics might still mislabel with one of those aforementioned ideas. – David K. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Avatar (James Cameron)
After pulling the film from their service to drum up interest in the theatrical re-release,...
Armageddon Time (James Gray)
Armageddon Time is the sort of film usually invoked as a “portrait of the nation” or “state of the union address,” something taking the temperature of a country—most likely the United States—at a particular time in history. But it’s also a work that makes self-consciousness a virtue: its wonderful writer-director, James Gray, is informed up to his eyes about the virtues and pitfalls of films like these, and here makes something so idiosyncratically his own but that audiences and critics might still mislabel with one of those aforementioned ideas. – David K. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Avatar (James Cameron)
After pulling the film from their service to drum up interest in the theatrical re-release,...
- 11/25/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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.
The Kingdom I (Lars von Trier)
Before his latest opus, The Kingdom Exodus, arrives on Mubi, Lars von Trier has restored never-before-seen director’s cuts of the first two parts of his 1990s series The Kingdom. Set in the neurosurgical ward of the Danish hospital of Rigshospitalet, we’ve been itching to catch up on the series and now thankfully Mubi has afforded the opportunity with the first part, comprised of four episodes, now available the rest coming soon.
Where to Stream: Mubi (free 30 days)
Moonage Daydream (Brett Morgen)
Brett Morgen—venerated documentarian behind Cobain: Montage of Heck and Jane—is the first filmmaker to land a project sanctioned by the Bowie estate. He did not take this for granted. Moonage Daydream is a radiant,...
The Kingdom I (Lars von Trier)
Before his latest opus, The Kingdom Exodus, arrives on Mubi, Lars von Trier has restored never-before-seen director’s cuts of the first two parts of his 1990s series The Kingdom. Set in the neurosurgical ward of the Danish hospital of Rigshospitalet, we’ve been itching to catch up on the series and now thankfully Mubi has afforded the opportunity with the first part, comprised of four episodes, now available the rest coming soon.
Where to Stream: Mubi (free 30 days)
Moonage Daydream (Brett Morgen)
Brett Morgen—venerated documentarian behind Cobain: Montage of Heck and Jane—is the first filmmaker to land a project sanctioned by the Bowie estate. He did not take this for granted. Moonage Daydream is a radiant,...
- 11/18/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
One of the best-curated festivals devoted to Asian cinema begins this week. The San Diego Asian Film Festival, now in its 23rd edition, will feature 130-plus films from more than 30 countries and in upwards of 30 languages. We’ve had a chance to see a number of highlights on the festival circuit and have rounded up our top picks. See below and learn more at the official festival site.
A Confucian Confusion (Edward Yang)
It was once so impossible to imagine that it now appears like a mirage. Or so’s the obvious effect of mere clarity: having only seen A Confucian Confusion on (redundant phrasing) a less-than-sharp Laserdisc rip, this recent restoration of a personal favorite could’ve only been more welcome if it somehow revealed a lost Edward Yang picture in the process. (Which in some ways it has.) Those who’ve waited for this day will be well-rewarded...
A Confucian Confusion (Edward Yang)
It was once so impossible to imagine that it now appears like a mirage. Or so’s the obvious effect of mere clarity: having only seen A Confucian Confusion on (redundant phrasing) a less-than-sharp Laserdisc rip, this recent restoration of a personal favorite could’ve only been more welcome if it somehow revealed a lost Edward Yang picture in the process. (Which in some ways it has.) Those who’ve waited for this day will be well-rewarded...
- 11/2/2022
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
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.
Ambulance (Michael Bay)
The Marvel machine may be the most fortuitous development for Michael Bay. Though the director hasn’t dabbled in the world of superheroes—despite a fondness for a cinematic universe of the robot variety—the homogenized, green-screen wasteland of today’s box-office behemoths has indirectly led to a reappreciation of the director’s schoolboy giddiness for practical effects and continually upping the ante for where he can place a camera. As bombastic and occasionally mind-numbing as his approach may be, there’s distinct poetry to the momentum of a maximalist vision where previs filmmaking vis-a-vis a committee is not only missing from his vocabulary, but a kinetic approach makes such a proposition nigh impossible. With Ambulance, a streamlined spectacle that borrows liberally from Heat,...
Ambulance (Michael Bay)
The Marvel machine may be the most fortuitous development for Michael Bay. Though the director hasn’t dabbled in the world of superheroes—despite a fondness for a cinematic universe of the robot variety—the homogenized, green-screen wasteland of today’s box-office behemoths has indirectly led to a reappreciation of the director’s schoolboy giddiness for practical effects and continually upping the ante for where he can place a camera. As bombastic and occasionally mind-numbing as his approach may be, there’s distinct poetry to the momentum of a maximalist vision where previs filmmaking vis-a-vis a committee is not only missing from his vocabulary, but a kinetic approach makes such a proposition nigh impossible. With Ambulance, a streamlined spectacle that borrows liberally from Heat,...
- 9/30/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
This Friday, the 60th New York Film Festival kicks off its anniversary edition, which, in a fest first, will feature screenings in all five boroughs. Ahead of the annual showcase of the best recent cinema has to offer, we’ve rounded up 15 films that shouldn’t be missed—all of which currently have tickets available.
Also, don’t miss three free editions of Cinephile Game Night during the festival, featuring our own Jordan Raup and Conor O’Donnell, who will be joined by Cinephile Game creator Cory Everett for an evening of movie-related trivia fun.
Check out our 15 picks below, along with complete coverage of other reviews, and stay tuned for more here.
The Adventures of Gigi the Law (Alessandro Comodin)
In the heat of late summer, San Michele al Tagliamento is a humid emulsion of corn fields, cypress trees, and silent streets. Sitting along the border between Veneto and Friuli,...
Also, don’t miss three free editions of Cinephile Game Night during the festival, featuring our own Jordan Raup and Conor O’Donnell, who will be joined by Cinephile Game creator Cory Everett for an evening of movie-related trivia fun.
Check out our 15 picks below, along with complete coverage of other reviews, and stay tuned for more here.
The Adventures of Gigi the Law (Alessandro Comodin)
In the heat of late summer, San Michele al Tagliamento is a humid emulsion of corn fields, cypress trees, and silent streets. Sitting along the border between Veneto and Friuli,...
- 9/28/2022
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
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.
Bitterbrush (Emelie Mahdavian)
Watch an exclusive clip above.
While they don’t know it yet, this is, for friends Colie Moline and Hollyn Patterson, the end of five years range riding together in the American Pacific Northwest. It’s also their most comfortable after trading the usual camper for an old cabin this summer. With only themselves and a crew of herd dogs for assistance, they take to the Idahoan plains in search of the beef cattle and calves they’ve been contracted to reclaim. The work is tiring and tenuous in consistency, but also spiritually and physically rewarding—if not financially. Colie and Hollyn have grown close: an easy rapport and trust that allows director Emelie Mahdavian (and us) a glimpse into their personal lives,...
Bitterbrush (Emelie Mahdavian)
Watch an exclusive clip above.
While they don’t know it yet, this is, for friends Colie Moline and Hollyn Patterson, the end of five years range riding together in the American Pacific Northwest. It’s also their most comfortable after trading the usual camper for an old cabin this summer. With only themselves and a crew of herd dogs for assistance, they take to the Idahoan plains in search of the beef cattle and calves they’ve been contracted to reclaim. The work is tiring and tenuous in consistency, but also spiritually and physically rewarding—if not financially. Colie and Hollyn have grown close: an easy rapport and trust that allows director Emelie Mahdavian (and us) a glimpse into their personal lives,...
- 6/24/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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