One week left in April! Hope all the showers, be they proverbial or literal (as we’ve been experiencing in NYC), bring all the May flowers.
It’s time for The Downstream, my end-of-month round-up for all you procrastinators who need a firm deadline to do timely watching. (I get it!) You might notice something different about this edition: there’s nothing from Max. They seemingly are no longer going to provide information on what’s leaving the platform, which I find deeply frustrating and annoying. I’ve tried emailing the platform’s PR reps and got no response. Never let it be said I don’t put in the legwork for you, subscribers!
But nonetheless, I’ve still managed to home in on 10 solid titles worth clearing a few hours in your month for.
Argo, Apple TV+
As a reminder, Apple TV+ has finally started investing in some library titles (but seemingly not for very long periods!) While Argo ranked near the middle of my Best Picture power ranking last year, I think it’s a very (re)watchable and fun movie — a perfect at-home because of its zippy geopolitical heist/hostage rescue. As I wrote last year, “Affleck seamlessly recreates the look and feel of the era's political thrillers, providing a period-appropriate reason for the throwback feel. It's a pulse-pounding ride that connects at every moment while still managing to feel somewhat disposable after.”
Dances With Wolves, Amazon Prime Video
We’re headed for a summer of Kevin Costner with not just one but two movies in his Horizon: An American Saga headed for movie theaters. It seems as good a time as any to make sure you’re up on Costner lore with his Best Picture-winner Dances with Wolves. I had to watch this for the first time last year as part of the aforementioned Best Picture project and found it a much more interesting and complex work than I was led to believe it would be. “The film is at its best when Costner lets his character John Dunbar soak in the solitude of the lone cowboy mythology,” I wrote ranking it at #57, “The first hour in particular is quite remarkable because he brings a real depth of feeling to the archetype's obvious signifiers.”
Edge of Tomorrow, Apple TV+
Already shutting down anyone who is tempted to say the upcoming release of The Fall Guy shows that Emily Blunt has real chops as an action star. We’ve known for over a decade thanks to Edge of Tomorrow, a severely underrated time loop movie that manages to overcome what appears like a good bit of studio interference. As a companion to Tom Cruise’s army major in the endlessly repeating cycle of trying to beat back an invading alien force, she’s a perfect mixture of steeliness and sincerity.
God’s Creatures, Amazon Prime Video
I recommended this movie as part of a subscriber-only post for odd double features in 2022, but now let me give a second push for the remarkable God’s Creatures. This is peak “boys will be boys held accountable” cinema as an electric Paul Mescal returns from Australia to his Irish fishing village home to take up the family business. This brings him back into contact with an old flame and gets him into trouble, which his doting mother Aileen (Emily Watson) is all too happy to try and help him avoid. I had the opportunity to talk to both Mescal and Watson about the film, and I especially loved the way they described acting in a film that has such an impressive aural landscape. (Seriously, turn your sound UP!)
Ghostbusters, Hulu
If you want to see or remember what the fuss is about with Ghostbusters, here’s a chance to watch the original. You can probably just piece this movie together from the new series given how obsessed they are with weaponizing nostalgia, but why not just go directly to the source? Sigourney Weaver is a real delight as well in addition to all the male comedy legends.
The Glass Castle, Netflix
I realize there’s some irony in recommending a somewhat glossy, Hollywood-ized depiction of poverty like The Glass Castle just a week after my poetic social realism recommendations. Nonetheless, this is a better movie than its “This Had Oscar Buzz”-esque trajectory might make you think! Director Destin Daniel Cretton (previously of Short Term 12 fame, later of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and co-writer Andrew Lanham poke at something profound in their portrayal of some unconventional (and, yes, dangerous) parenting tactics. The ideals of freedom, independence, and self-reliance, so baked into the American psyche, are inventions of a wealthy class of men for other landed men. When followed by people without resources and social standing, it can lead to the dangerous ends depicted in this film.
Mad Max: Fury Road, Apple TV+
BIG mistake for Warner Bros. not to find some way to put Mad Max: Fury Road back on the big screen before Furiosa’s release on Memorial Day. Nonetheless, if you want a rewatch before the new installment, here’s your best bet. I am not AS crazy about this as some people — they just drive to the end of the desert and back with vaguely feminist sign-posting? — but the visceral thrills are hard to deny.
A Matter of Life and Death, Criterion Channel
If you’re the kind of person who makes a point to watch It’s a Wonderful Life every Christmas, then you’re exactly the kind of person who NEEDS to watch A Matter of Life and Death. This is a high-concept morality play at its best, so much so that I almost put it on my lo-fi sci-fi list from earlier this month! (Pixar’s Soul pretty shamelessly ripped this movie off.) After a British air pilot cheats death at the close of WWII, he must plead his case for why the love and life waiting for him on Earth is worth preserving. It’s always nice to hear an affirmative case made for why we go on living each day.
The Terminator, Amazon Prime Video
In case the Charlie Chaplin paper didn’t scare you enough, maybe one day I’ll have to hit you with my freshman year English class essay on The Terminator. Suppose you want to think about something other than a jacked Arnold Schwarzenegger plowing his way through the ‘80s to kill the mother of humanity’s savior. Might I interest you in how I called out the faux feminism of James Cameron’s film? Analyzing The Terminator’s protagonist Sarah Connor, I observed she does not “represent significant progress for women in movies as [her] power derives solely from men as opposed to their own femininity.” (The movie is still good, though — it’s fine to enjoy things that don’t validate all your views and beliefs.)
Whiplash, Netflix
I’ve talked to an inordinate amount of (millennial) guys recently who told me Whiplash is one of their all-time favorite movies. I have some theories about this: it’s basically a sports movie for creative types, it’s about the very crux of maturity in a high-achievement culture, and it’s just really obviously well-made. So anyways, if you’re the type of person who’s inclined to think Damien Chazelle’s breakthrough is one for the record books, hurry up and give it another watch before it disappears off Netflix.
I updated my A24 ranking for Decider, albeit before getting a chance to include Civil War. (You can see where it falls, along with the studio’s upcoming releases I Saw the TV Glow and Janet Planet, on Letterboxd.)
Subscribers also got to read my conversation about the state of independent film exhibition with my former employer Lawren Desai, the curator of a/perture cinema in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
You can keep track of all the freelance writing I’ve done this year through this list on Letterboxd.
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