New to Streaming: If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Train Dreams After the Hunt Megadoc , and More
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.
After the Hunt (Luca Guadagnino)
“It’s a fucking minefield, Alma,” the Dean of Humanities at Yale warns Julia Roberts’ Dr. Imhoff. Barely a few days have passed since her colleague, Hank (Andrew Garfield), has “crossed the line” with one of her students, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), and Alma, a philosophy professor on the verge of tenure, is trying to navigate the aftermath of a sexual assault that’s forcing her to reconsider her allegiances. (Maggie is her favorite pupil; Hank is her best friend and, no trivial detail, onetime lover.) Several characters in Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt will give their two cents on our post-MeToo era—a “shallow cultural climate” (Hank’s words) ruled by “the abusive patriarchal agenda” (Maggie’s). But of all the attempts to sum up our zeitgeist, the Dean’s is the one that comes closest to encapsulating this film’s clumsy handling of the horrific act at its center. After the Hunt aims to tackle our so-called cancel culture, but wrestling with that weighty topic isn’t the same as meaningfully reckoning with it; if there’s anything genuinely uncomfortable about Guadagnino’s film, it’s not button-pushing issues but the reactionary way it squanders them. – Leonardo G. (full review)
Where to Stream: Prime Video
Anniversary (Jan Komasa)
Jan Komasa’s Anniversary should be in the running for least-subtle movie of the year. It should also be in the running for most terrifying. This ruthlessly effective thriller rarely beats around the bush with what it’s trying to say, nor does it ask its famous actors to rein in their performances––despite occasionally needing to––but it certainly hits its mark with unnerving accuracy. Watching it at the opening of the Warsaw Film Festival on Friday night (the Polish director’s home turf), I was reminded of Michel Franco’s New Order, a similarly brutal totalitarian nightmare. As well as, better yet, Paul Lynch’s Booker Prize-winning novel Prophet Song: another fable about a nation’s slide into fascism, and another story told from the POV of a disbelieving mother. Anniversary might be overacted and blunt to the point of preaching, but I could never quite work out where it was going, and I was never not locked-in. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Featherweight (Robert Kolodny)
Robert Kolodny, who worked on the cinematography team of All the Beauty and the Bloodshed and Procession, makes his feature debut with The Featherweight, capturing the comeback of worn-out boxer Willie Pep (James Madio) facing mounting family and business pressures in his life. Taking on a compellingly slippery conceit, the film is shot as if a documentary crew were following Pep’s every turn, including direct-to-camera confessionals from the boxer. The gamble offers a fascinating narrative bridge and one that, thanks to Adam Kolodny’s 60s-esque grainy cinematography, keeps us immersed in every step of his journey. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: MUBI
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein)
Many films, from the classic melodrama Mildred Pierce to last year’s playful dramedy Nightbitch, have tried to depict the unique struggles of motherhood with a focus on the special intimacy of child-rearing. Mothers have long borne the brunt and most of the blame for how their children behave in the world. Fatherhood is considered more optional, and the bar to clear for being good at it is much lower. These may seem like obvious statements, but they bear repeating in an American society that villainizes birth control and abortion. America wants women to bear children and then provide them with none of the emotional or monetary support for them to thrive and have their own personal lives. In recent years, filmmakers have tried to illustrate the darker side of motherhood, with films like Tully getting at the exhaustion and loss of self that can happen therein. In the aforementioned Nightbitch, Amy Adams plays a woman who realizes how lost and hopeless she feels as a stay-at-home mother, having given up her career to spend more time with her son. No matter how often they cry out for help, our patriarchal society pressures them to push themselves all the way to the edge. – Jourdain S. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
MEGADOC (Mike Figgis)
A risky filmmaking project with Francis Ford Coppola––what could go wrong? Or more accurately: imagine what might go legendarily right. Not all of his films have had troubled, turbulent productions, but the essential chaos of creativity he tries to harness––and the necessary friction that results with his collaborators––is how he ultimately thrives. Subtract all of these factors, and the result probably turns out like Jack. – David K. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Riefenstahl (Andres Veiel)
It is fascinating what the human mind will allow. Riefenstahl, a documentary directed by Andres Veiel about the life of Leni Riefenstahl, explores the rationalizations the filmmaker allowed herself in order to explain her collaborations with the Nazi Party in Germany during their time in power. Until the day she died (at 101 years old in 2003), Riefenstahl refuted accusations that she was aware of the crimes being committed around her. “I never saw any atrocities happening,” she says in an interview from 1976, after the interviewer presents her with an account of her witnessing the murder of 22 Jews. She denies it adamantly. Throughout the film, we watch her deny much, while separate information suggests she was more aware of the evil around her than she ever let on. How much did Leni Riefenstahl know when she was working directly with Hitler and his team of monsters? – Dan M. (Riefenstahl Review: A Portrait of the Artist as a Nazi Collaborator”>full review)
Where to Stream: Kino Film Collection
Train Dreams (Clint Bentley)
There is a moment in Train Dreams, directed by Clint Bentley, where a tree gracefully falls to the earth, surrounded by lush green. Particles explode from the impact, the sunlight illuminating these small, insignificant specs. As the frame holds for an extra few seconds, these particles gleam as beautiful as anything else in the image. It’s a powerful exclamation that underlines the larger theme of the film: there are wonders both big and small. Tragedy, too, and who will remember any of it? And, perhaps more importantly, does it matter if anybody does? – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Also New to Streaming
Hulu
Armand
Kino Film Collection
The Apartment
Shudder
Good Boy
VOD
The Balconettes
Sauna
