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 Animal Kingdom (Thomas Cailley)
In The Animal Kingdom, an Un Certain Regard-selected science-fiction romp from France, human-animal mutations are the new norm. Director Thomas Cailley begins things in media res with a familiar disaster-movie scene: François (Romain Duris) and Émile (Paul Kircher)––father and son, respectively––are stuck in traffic, making chit-chat, when something slowly begins capturing the attention of other drivers. An ambulance across the way begins to rumble. Then a man with a large winged arm bursts out, causing some damage before scurrying down a tunnel. Only mildly ruffled, François exchanges a jaded aphorism with another driver over: “Strange times.” – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
The Bikeriders (Jeff Nichols)
Using photographer Danny Lyon’s iconic The Bikeriders’ imagery as a jumping-off point, Jeff Nichols’ latest feature imagines a fictionalized Chicago motorcycle club, the Vandals. Motorcycle club culture might be a distinctly American phenomenon, but Nichols casts two Brits in the lead, with varying returns: Jodie Comer as Kathy narrates the story in a clear Goodfellas conceit, adopting a Midwest accent flashy (and divisive) enough to ensure sustained awards-season chatter; Tom Hardy is Johnny, a truck driver who gets the idea to start a motorcycle club while watching Marlon Brando’s The Wild One. This low-stakes “why not?” starting point for founding the club works early in the film, until, following the Goodfellas trajectory, it all comes crashing down. Without Thelma Schoonmaker’s editing prowess, The Bikeriders’ rise-and-fall narrative ultimately plays too conventional. – Caleb H. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Convert (Lee Tamahori)
Since his breakthrough 1994 feature Once Were Warriors, a troubling and fiery coming-of-age story indie set in New Zealand’s Maōri community, Lee Tamahori has almost exclusively resided in the realm of pulpy B-grade action cinema. From directing Pierce Brosnan’s final Bond in Die Another Day to Ice Cube in XXX: State of the Union to making a Guy Ritchie-lite actioner about Saddam Hussein’s son (The Devil’s Double), Tamahori has a strong familiarity with cheesy espionage plotlines and passable entertainment. Both sides of Tamahori’s filmography come together in his latest historical epic The Convert––results are expectedly mixed. – Soham G. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Ennio (Giuseppe Tornatore)
“A director can’t understand the final result from a description. You cannot describe music; it needs to be listened to.” So says Ennio Morricone in one of many talking-head sections that comprise Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary. But Ennio, as it’s aptly titled, can feel part-documentary, part-video essay, and, yes, part-talking head compilation. It’s 156 minutes, but even the first four hint at its simplicity. A barrage of musicians, producers, and filmmakers spout what the film quickly compresses into glorified soundbites. Morricone was a towering artist. Audiences already knew this. But Tornatore doesn’t fully unpack the composer’s impact; he does more to describe it. – Matt C. (full review)
Where to Stream: Prime Video
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: VOD
Godard Cinema (Cyril Leuthy)
With a title that invokes both the specific (cinema of Godard) and the universal (cinema is Godard), Cyril Leuthy’s Godard Cinema finds itself in conversation with another formulation: Everything is Cinema. Richard Brody’s 2008 study of the filmmaker, is beautifully sentenced, dare-ing criticism; one wonders, sometimes, if his honest contrarianism is the result of a theoretical attempt to widen the possibilities for transmission and reception of image and narrative. Such an attempt finds a natural bedfellow in the mercurial cinema of Jean-Luc Godard. Leuthy’s hagiographic documentary, on the other hand, is an awkward fit for Godard’s polyrhythmic image collisions. – Frank F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Kino Film Collection
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (Wes Ball)
The recent Planet of the Apes prequel trilogy fizzled out by its third installment, as any form of social allegory it carried over from the original franchise had all but disappeared, with Matt Reeves’ War completing the saga’s slow transition into generic dystopian survival epic. Because the recent Fox-Disney merger has ensured that the only movies getting produced and released theatrically under the former studio’s new ownership are tied to familiar brand names, we’re returning to this post-apocalyptic Earth 300 years after the death of Andy Serkis’ Caesar for what is being tipped as the start of a new trilogy, bridging the gap between recent reboots and the original Charlton Heston vehicle. Surprisingly, for a project that was likely greenlit for non-creative reasons, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has surprisingly lofty aims, aiming to unpack the legacy of an ape-led revolution many generations later, when sharp divides have arisen between those who believe the facts, and those who choose to invest in a more fantastical legend. – Alistair R. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love (Nick Broomfield)
An intimate window into the lifelong love affair between Leonard Cohen and his muse Marianne Ihlen. Combining sun-soaked footage of the ‘60s art scene in the Greek isle of Hydra (including rare 16mm by DA Pennebaker) with interviews from the pair’s close friends and collaborators, Marianne & Leonard considers the profound impact the enigmatic Norwegian bohemian had on Leonard Cohen’s life and career.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
The Peasants (DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman)
After 2017’s Loving Vincent and Toronto International Film Festival world premiere The Peasants, it is clear that DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman have developed a gorgeously distinct, personal, ludicrously involved style of filmmaking. Loving Vincent, a clever biography of Vincent Van Gogh, was sold as “the world’s first fully painted feature film,” and indeed it was. The painting process returns in The Peasants, an adaptation of Władysław Reymont’s early 1900s, Nobel Prize–winning novel. A staggering 40,000 frames of film were painted to bring The Peasants to life. – Chris S. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Sorry/Not Sorry (Cara Mones, Caroline Suh)
No institution can dodge Louis C.K.’s comedic legacy and sexual allegations, TIFF included, where he appeared immediately pre-#MeToo with his film I Love You, Daddy. I squirmed slightly recalling C.K.’s appearance at the festival as I watched Cara Mones and Caroline Suh unpacking the case, his survivors, and his humor in Sorry/Not Sorry. The documentary follows entertainment journalists re-contextualizing the controversial comedian’s achievements in the present, along with testimonies from his assault survivors (and talented comedians in their own right) Jen Kirkman, Abby Schnacher, and Megan Koester. – Edward F. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Twice Colonized (Lin Alluna)
What does it mean to confront the colonial sins of the past and truly make reparations for the erasure of cultures? Lin Alluna’s Twice Colonized directly explores this question through its subject: Aaju Peter, a lawyer, activist, and grandmother who travels the world to address a growing crisis of opportunity in the Arctic. Without opportunity, traditions cannot continue. Early she takes offense to Seal Hunt activists, asking for an Inuit exemption so hunters can continue to hunt as they’ve done for generations. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Wildcat (Ethan Hawke)
Wildcat is a film of one misguided choice after another, the difficulty in articulating the creative process through non-corny means leading Hawke down a path straying from conventional drama, yes, but perhaps he should’ve taken a cue from Terence Davies’ recent poet biopics A Quiet Passion and Benediction instead of indulging in lame sense of humor. The film essentially documents the writing of the famous Southern novelist’s first full-length work Wise Blood (you’ve possibly seen John Huston’s adaptation, at least), and all that goes through her head doing so, including the people in her life being transplanted onto the characters of her work via daydreams, etc. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Also New to Streaming
Kino Film Collection
Alphaville
Last Year at Marienbad
Max
Faye
MUBI (free for 30 days)
Dammi
Shudder
Arcadian
The post New to Streaming: The Bikeriders, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Wildcat & More first appeared on The Film Stage.
