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.
Backrooms (Kane Parsons)
The opening five minutes serve as an ideal primer for anybody unfamiliar with Parsons’ Backrooms web series, and who maybe need a little extra convincing that a 20-year-old YouTuber has some juice: a found-footage recording of a researcher lost in the endless liminal space who gets chased by some unseen force of evil. Even when seen in the extremely low resolution of period-appropriate early-1990s camcorders, there’s something immediately disquieting about the uncanny production design (courtesy of Perkins’ regular collaborator Danny Vermette), where signs appear as their mirror image, various objects of furniture have melted into the floor, and the only living souls are seagulls. It’s an uncomfortable space to be in before the echoes of footsteps begin gathering speed behind our cameraman, and as this tape ends in offscreen devastation, we flash forward approximately ten days to meet Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a failed architect and owner of the fabulously named furniture store Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire. – Alistair R. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Currents (Milagros Mumenthaler)
Writer-director Milagros Mumenthaler paints an intimate portrait of a woman trying to reckon with her fractured identity, trying not to fall into the grip of madness. Mumenthaler understands that motherhood requires an element of performance that reminds the mother that her life is no longer hers alone. Though the love for her daughter is still there inside, she cowers from it, preoccupied with inspecting the current shape of her life. In therapy, Lina expresses a fear of water’s power and the strength of a current that could wash her away. It’s as if she now knows the fragility of her existence, and that the confidence that once governed her was washed away when she jumped off the bridge. Despite the eccentricity of her fears, the emotions behind them are painfully relatable to any woman who feels that the inertia of her life has taken over. – Jourdain S. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Exit 8 (Genki Kawamura)
Gameplay simplicity and use of the trendy liminal horror subgenre made The Exit 8 a viral success––currently the game has sold over 1.5 million copies––which also saw a boost in popularity from streamers whose videos have amassed millions of views. But how do you create a feature-length film out of a game that could be beaten in a matter of minutes? For director and co-writer Genki Kawamura, it’s to rely on horror’s tried-and-true method of leaning into allegory, with Exit 8’s premise becoming a representation of how routines can trap us in cycles of bad behaviors. The film’s main character is The Lost Man (Kazunari Ninomiya), who we see on his daily commute in the Tokyo subway. While navigating the labyrinthine system of pedestrian tunnels, he gets a call from his recent ex-girlfriend who tells him she’s pregnant, and he has to tell her if he wants her to keep the baby. – C.J. P. (full review)
Where to Stream: Shudder
Jinsei (Ryuya Suzuki)
Maybe it’s harder than it looks to present the end of the world calmly, especially in only 93 minutes. That’s one of the major achievements of the new, relatively lo-fi anime film Jinsei. Over a hundred years—all through the prism of pop music and Japanese identity—one quickly learns how much millennial- and zoomer-doom mindset is just as present in the land of the rising sun. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Marc by Sofia (Sofia Coppola)
Sofia Coppola, Marc Jacobs, and 30 years of friendship between them––this triad was promising enough for A24 to jump on the project and for the Venice Film Festival to host its world premiere (out of competition). Where else if not Italy does a big director show their fashion documentary for the first time? Luca Guadagnino did (Salvatore, Shoemaker of Dreams) well knowing it would go straight to streaming after. Yet the subgenre of fashion documentary portraits has an honesty to it, wearing its formulaic structure, talking heads, and fast-paced supercut editing to match a predictable, zippy rhythm. Fame, beauty, a ruthless industry where one can either be great or good––all those are tropes that sell, but when Sofia Coppola is making such a film about designer Marc Jacobs and his A/W 2024/25 collection, it’s supposedly much more than a well-calculated commission. – Savina P. (full review)
Where to Stream: HBO Max
Mile End Kicks (Chandler Levack)
There’s a reason Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill speaks to Grace Pine (Barbie Ferreira). It’s the same reason her pitch endears a publisher to cut her an advance and contract to publish a 33 1/3 book on the subject: the feminist rage; the honesty; the fact that the world was willing to fork over millions of dollars to listen as a woman bared her soul. There’s catharsis in it, inspiration. What’s stopping Grace from achieving that same success through authentic voice and impeccable taste as a burgeoning music critic in Toronto? The adrenaline rush answers: “Nothing!” The inevitable crash back to earth supplies a revision: herself. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Miroirs No. 3 (Christian Petzold)
Christian Petzold’s fifteenth feature Miroirs No. 3 marks his fourth with Paula Beer, the actor-muse he first directed in 2018’s Transit, a film that shares significant themes with his newest––chiefly that of total strangers inexplicably recognizing each other and immediately feeling a deep, soulful bond with nary a word. Needless to say Miroirs No. 3 is, like the others, an enigma. – Luke H. (full review)
Where to Stream: MUBI
Obsession (Curry Barker)
For as wild and uncomfortable as Obsession becomes, it is less a question of where the film is going than how it’s going to get there and what path it will take. To Barker’s credit, however, it never feels like he’s stalling for time; a lot of the film is spent observing Bear and his other co-workers, including Sarah (Megan Lawless), the owner’s daughter, who perhaps has a bit of a crush on Bear. Both she and Ian find Nikki’s sudden change a bit odd, concerned that Bear may be taking advantage of a mental breakdown. It’s a development that shows Barker has something on his mind, perhaps recognizing that another version of this movie could be horrific in its misogyny. – Devan S. (full review)
Where to Stream: Peacock
Also New to Streaming
Fandor
Anything That Moves
Kino Film Collection
The Souffleur
MGM+
Is God Is
Prime Video
Lorne
VOD
The Python Hunt
Stop! That! Train!
The post New to Streaming: Miroirs No. 3, Backrooms, The Currents, Obsession & More first appeared on The Film Stage.
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