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 Damned (Roberto Minervini)
A filmmaker whose work always renders as thrillingly intimate and alive, Roberto Minervini (Stop the Pounding Heart, What You Gonna Do When The World’s On Fire?) took another unexpected turn in his latest film. The Damned, which picked up the Un Certain Regard Best Director prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, heads to the frontier of the Civil War as we follow a group of volunteer soldiers. Jake Kring-Schreifels said in his review, “While The Damned sometimes resembles a reenactment, Minervini makes a valid attempt to highlight war’s aimless priorities on its marginalized and unheralded members. Throughout his career, the Italian director (who’s lived in the United States for more than two decades) has aimed to blur the boundaries between documentary and narrative (Stop Pounding the Heart, The Other Side, What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?), capturing the forgotten and mundane aspects of life with non-professional actors whose ambiguity and lack of star power invite authenticity. He’s interested in the ways landscapes and conditions impact people, toggling between fiction and reality and using that tension to mine a deeper truth.”
Where to Stream: VOD
Honey Don’t (Ethan Coen)
While no one would argue that the Coens have more creative success together than apart, the rather extreme negative reactions to Ethan Coen’s solo work have been rather puzzling. Neither Drive-Away Dolls nor Honey Don’t reach the comedic highs of his past work, but both are perfectly entertaining B-movie, midnight movie-esque romps that find their respective ensembles clearly having a lot of fun with the crime hijinks. Yes, one desperately wants the pair to reunite when the time is right, but for now, these will do just fine. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: VOD
Sister Midnight (Karan Kandhari)
Sister Midnight unfolds with a particularly deadpan style in both humor and performance. Kandhari favors simple gags, like the aforementioned handshake or a bit where Uma flees from the beach after being stuck between two sobbing people on either side of her. Apte largely rolls with the punches; when she’s not cursing she’s observing, or making sarcastic observations in-between something of a more unhinged behavior. (An overheard bit of dialogue at a different wedding mentions that her marriage was more an act of convenience, with her being a psycho and him being mostly feckless.) Combined with Kandhari’s studied compositions––especially in the dark––it makes for a rather amusing time, a novelty of Indian cinema even as you may start to wonder where exactly it’s going with all this. – Devan S. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
Warfare (Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza)
Warfare’s first images are from the ’80s aerobics-throwback music video for Eric Prydz’s “Call On Me” from 2004, an obnoxious-albeit-undeniable dancehall earworm that paired well with Madonna’s last great track, “Hung Up,” in terms of sound and iconography. The brief wave of Daft Punk-sounding Top 40 is probably a metric of many a millennial for “The Bush Era,” which was eight years perhaps largely defined by images of American imperialistic hubris taking place alongside the gaudiest pop culture imaginable. Possibly the natural culmination of this was Green Day’s extended “Wake Me Up When September Ends” video that functioned as a mini-movie about little midwesterner Jamie Bell signing up for Iraq. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: Max
Weapons (Zach Cregger)
For as long as we’ve known about Weapons, writer-director Zach Cregger’s hotly anticipated follow-up to his 2022 blackly comic splatter sensation Barbarian, we have heard endlessly that it’s the supernatural horror genre’s epic equivalent to Magnolia––not exactly the most marketable elevator pitch, but one designed to make the average cinephile sit up and take notice. Cregger himself has done little to dissuade such comparison, citing PTA’s operatic Los Angeles drama as his biggest inspiration, and thanks to a mysterious marketing campaign, it’s arriving on screens shrouded in secrecy, coupled with only the vague promise of a bold vision from an emerging auteur. If knives do fittingly come out for Weapons, then it’s because Cregger has only nailed the sprawling, ambitious, genre-hopping nature of that ensemble drama without ever getting to grips with the emotions driving his flawed characters while, wherever possible, shying away from exploring their moral murkiness. It’s an entertaining film, but not a particularly resonant one considering the charged subject matter; it’s structured like a parlor trick, keeping one at a deliberate remove until working out how its constituent pieces fit together rather than caring about the people within them. – Alistair R. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Also New to Streaming
AMC+
Hot Milk
Kino Film Collection
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
Maedchen in Uniform
Paramount+
The Wedding Banquet
The post New to Streaming: Weapons, Honey Don’t, The Damned, Sister Midnight & More first appeared on The Film Stage.
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