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.
Ballad of a Small Player (Edward Berger)
In Ballad of a Small Player, we are given the gift of Colin Farrell overdoing it. Nobody overdoes it like Colin Farrell, and to take this for granted is a disservice. Written by Rowan Joffé (based on Lawrence Osborne’s 2014 novel) and directed by Edward Berger, it stars Farrell as a gambler who calls himself Lord Doyle. He’s been relegated to Macau, the “Las Vegas of Asia,” and has nearly run out of money. He owes all over and cannot help himself. At the last casino in the city that will take a bet from him, Lord Doyle meets Dao Ming (Fala Chen) and sees in her a potential solution to all of his problems. This is, of course, ridiculous––not unlike most of Ballad of a Small Player. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Hedda (Nia DaCosta)
A sharp, stylish, sensual, and tense reworking of Henrik Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler, Nia DaCosta’s Hedda gives Tessa Thompson and Nina Hoss spectacular showcases as a web of misguided decisions and unspoken desires unfolds amongst a 1950s ball. Updating the protagonist to be a queer Black woman, DaCosta’s script smartly focuses on the characters over the message, creating a cacophony of well-orchestrated chaos riding on fiery emotion. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Prime Video
The History of Sound (Oliver Hermanus)
It’s strange to hear backwood Appalachian fiddle folk in a French theater at the hand of a South African director portraying the queer, song-collecting lives of two American men who are madly, delicately in love and played by British stars. Thanks to Paul Mescal, it’s also quite lovely. The History of Sound––Oliver Hermanus’ hushed ode to New England’s rich tapestry of folk history, adapted by Ben Shattuck from his short-story collection of the same name––is a tenderly felt drama sung in whisper and sorrow, the kind that almost guarantees a cry for anyone weakened by a phenomenal homegrown voice or piercing romance. Its alternately hyper-specific and vast range of vocals, styles, and tunes suggest the minor dawning of a lesser-known American sound. – Luke H. (full review)
Where to Stream: MUBI (starting Saturday)
Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor)
Agnes’ (Eva Victor) life is defined by a sense of stagnancy. Four years after completing grad school in rural New England, she’s living in the same house and going to the same building, only now as a professor. Whatever true joy she seems to experience is infrequent visits from her best friend and former roommate Lydie (Naomi Ackie), who has moved on, starting a family in New York City. As Victor assiduously peels back the layers of her sharp, unnerving, witty feature debut Sorry, Baby, the reason for being stuck in time becomes clear: in her final days of grad school she was raped by her advisor, who quickly deserted the town, leaving no culpability and even less sense of justice or closure. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: HBO Max
The White House Effect (Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos, and Jon Shenk)
As climate change deniers continue to plot a course of mutually assured destruction, it’s important to look back at key moments of history to explore what went wrong––and, if there is any hope remaining, to not repeat the same mistakes. The well-researched, damning, and depressing new documentary The White House Effect takes us back to the George H.W. Bush administration, detailing the appalling ways those in power not only pushed against reform that could help save our planet, but also how deeply involved they were in attempting to deny science and shift the media narrative against progress––all funded by the oil companies, of course.
Where to Stream: Netflix
The Woman in the Yard (Jaume Collet-Serra)
While horror films function as an important part of this writer’s interest in cinema, it’s been hard not to feel some growing personal contempt for the genre. The reason being not just the high/low budget demands of the market over-saturating us, but the punishing self-awareness of Gen X and Millennial genre nerds now making them and the post-Get Out flop sweat over needing “metaphor.” So when a new horror film is not just kind of good, but also genuinely scary and tense, it’s cause for celebration. Such is the case with the modest proposal that is The Woman in the Yard. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: Prime Video
Also New to Streaming
Kino Film Collection
The Haunting of Rosalind
Prime Video
The Teacher
The post New to Streaming: The History of Sound, Sorry, Baby, Ballad of a Small Player, Hedda, and More first appeared on The Film Stage.
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