Great Movies
What a great couple of weeks for Netflix and On Demand. Remember the days when Netflix added a movie a day and it was usually of the straight-to-DVD variety to their streaming service? (And remember when their "HD" looked like watching something through a dirty window?) They're getting so consistent with their new releases that we may have to turn this feature into a weekly one. While the first version of the Streaming Consumer Guide focused on a wave of Hollywood blockbusters hitting the system and the second saw a series of great indie films added to the New Releases section, this week sees a bit of both. And so I tried to reach into different genres, different countries of origin, and different budgets for this week's ten movies to add to your Netflix queue. That's followed by the most interesting films new to On Demand and "The Best of the Rest."
Three great documentaries, at least one acknowledged classic, a recent horror film that Matt Zoller Seitz gave 4 stars, Francis Ford Coppola's most underrated film, AND a Metallica movie? Seriously, why do we leave the house any more?
10 NEW TO NETFLIX
"100 Bloody Acres"
"Anatomy of a Murder"
"Bram Stoker's Dracula"
"City of Lost Children"
"Encounters at the End of the World"
"From Dusk Till Dawn"
"Metallica Through the Never"
"Muscle Shoals"
"Oslo, August 31"
"Winged Migration"
4 NEW ON DEMAND
There are four movies either On Demand now or shortly (two of these won't hit your favorite streaming service until tomorrow) from well-known, established directors. The On Demand market has seemed to be on the cusp of changing film-going for years but when films by Lucky McKee, Atom Egoyan, Richard Ayoade, and Ti West are available on a Friday in your living room, it feels like we're even further across that threshold. You'd have to be living in New York or L.A. to have as wide of an array of interesting things to watch this weekend. Previews below and come back tomorrow for Matt Zoller Seitz's review of "Devil's Knot" and Glenn Kenny's take on "The Double." (We'll hit the West film when it hits theaters in June.)
"All Cheerleaders Die"
"Devil's Knot"
"The Double"
"The Sacrament"
THE BEST OF THE REST
The other services have been quiet since we last offered up a guide. Hulu Plus added a few classics to their Criterion section (arguably the best reason to have a Hulu subscription), including "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" and "The Last Emperor." They also added that Lindsay Lohan Lifetime TV Movie "Liz and Dick." Do with that information what you will. We won't judge. Amazon has been even quieter in the last two weeks, continuing to impressively build their exclusive TV show library but remaining slight in the film department. If you haven't seen "Boys Don't Cry," "Paper Moon," or "The Jewel of the Nile" and have a Prime membership, now you can. That's about the extent of it.
Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.
