The Downstream: January 2025
10 great movies to watch before they leave streaming this month.
Greetings from up in the air on my way to Sundance, where I’ll get the pleasure of waking up at the true crack of dawn to revel in tomorrow’s Oscar nominations!
It’s a great time to check out the paid tier of Marshall and the Movies as those folks will get my full rundown out of the festival, which may top my all-time record of titles screened. You also get other benefits, such as this personal essay about the decline of my local movie theater (a real treat for my Houston friends):
But for today, here’s a familiar format for you: 10 movies worth watching before they leave their current streaming homes.
The Babadook, Netflix (expires 1/25)
Before this Australian monster became an improbable gay icon — something I still don’t fully understand — he was just really, really scary. The Babadook is not the first movie to take trauma as its source of horror, but in retrospect, it did seem to kick off the Jamie Lee Curtis “trawma” meme era of horror. This psychologically haunting film follows the tormenting of widowed mother Amelia (Essie Davis) and her young son Sam, who displays some behavioral affectations that raise alarm with school administrators. Their life seems tough enough without the looming presence of a monster. Amelia reads the tale of The Babadook, a creature from a pop-up book found at their house, and it suddenly assumes a very real form. It seeps into their consciousness and begins to drive their behavior.
Baby Boom, Amazon Prime Video
If you want a great double feature about how much (and how little) the workforce has changed for women and mothers, you should watch 1987’s Baby Boom (written by Nancy Meyers) alongside 2015’s The Intern (written and directed by Meyers). I didn’t end up referencing it in the 2022 retrospective I wrote on the latter film, but a rewatch crystallized my understanding that she’s had a remarkably consistent read on “having it all” for decades. The Meyers fantasy is not to bend the world to the will of the protagonist (like in Legally Blonde), nor to force her to change herself to integrate into the system (akin to The Devil Wears Prada). It’s to realize that the rubric for success is wrong and she must measure herself against something outside of that system — which might require removing herself from it entirely. As Diane Keaton’s ambitious yuppie becomes an unexpected caretaker to a small child, her insights into the deficiencies of the American workplace are deeply structural rather than merely symptomatic.
David Lynch: The Art Life, Criterion Channel (free for all)
If you’re mourning the loss of David Lynch — or just want to know why all your friends who got into film in college were posting on their Instagram Stories about this guy — a great place to start would be David Lynch: The Art Life. The Criterion Channel has graciously made this free for all to watch until the end of the month, even if you don't have an account with the streaming service. (But, like, you should…) This is more than just a DVD extra-style documentary portrait; it’s recognized as a Criterion release in its own right! The film provides beautiful insight into why Lynch leaves such a big hole in our culture. It’s not just that he made great cinema; it’s that those works represented such a clear throughline to a man of great intellect and compassion. (If you want the 200-level Lynch course, graduate to Lynch/Oz also on Criterion Channel.)
Den of Thieves, Max
Did I stutter?
I’m sad it took me all these years when I could have been enjoying all the Gerard Butler/“Big Nick” meme fodder of Den of Thieves — don’t let the chance pass you by to get in on the fun. While Pantera in theaters is much more of a true heist thriller, its predecessor has a lot to offer as a scuzzy, cynical crime drama as well.
Murder by Contract, Criterion Channel
Plenty of B-movies can be Grade A-quality. Case in point: Murder by Contract, a nifty little noir flick that shaped the work of Martin Scorsese. (I’m convinced the score to The Departed is an homage to the plucky jazz guitar music here.) Irving Lerner’s 80-minute slender thriller is about as far from the schlock you generally expect from the less prestigious output of mid-century American studios. It glides on vibes and visuals rather than plot and dialogue as a contract killer sets out on a mission to eliminate a trial witness. The filmmaking, which never toots its own horn, is sneakily excellent.
Parasite, Max
I’ve accepted that my happiness over the next few weeks may derive entirely from knowing that Bong Joon-ho is out doing press again. (With Robert Pattinson! And my queen, his translator Sharon Choi!) With his Mickey 17 finally due to hit theaters on March 7, don’t miss a chance to rewatch Parasite again before it gets harder to stream. I’ve somehow never had a chance to recommend this essentially perfect movie since starting my newsletter, and now I can! If you want to go deeper into this brilliant movie, might I recommend reading my interview with its Oscar-nominated editor, Jinmo Yang, from 2020?
The Peanuts Movie, Max
I had strong reservations when Fox announced that the BlueSky animation team would adapt the Peanuts comics into CGI, yet the way they capture the essence of Charles Schulz’s squiggles with the latest technology proves quite fun to watch. The whole movie, directed by Steve Martino, manages that tricky balance between appealing to the old guard of fans while extending a welcome to the new generation. Unlike a Pixar outing, which plays differently for children and adults, “The Peanuts Movie” works for kids and kids at heart. The Peanuts Movie packs a wealth of wisdom with its simplicity of spirit, embracing the old-fashioned charm with little modification.
Three Monkeys, Metrograph
Niche streaming services, like the one offered by NYC’s repertory theater Metrograph, are great because they may well be the only place you can watch a movie online. That’s the case with Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s gripping Turkish drama Three Monkeys (at least until February 1). If you’ve never seen a Ceylan film, here’s a great place to start before you dive into some of the real endurance tests. The Palme d’Or-winning director does not shy away from the banal, slow-moving, and quotidian elements of daily life. It’s like Ceylan all the dull bits Alfred Hitchcock cut out to make what he called "drama" assembled in one place to tell a story of intrigue and interpersonal rivalry in Istanbul. All the major events that affect the cast of characters are easily discernible without Ceylan having to show them. Affairs and deaths are portrayed all the time in movies, usually with a sensationalism that makes them unbelievable. But Ceylan grounds them in Three Monkeys by focusing as much on their ensuing effects, thus privileging human emotion over cinematic spectacle.
Twilight, Hulu
I rolled my eyes at all my female peers lining up for the Twilight saga premieres in high school, and I can now say I was far too quick to judge. (An adolescent boy coming to a rash and ill-considered worldview? No.) At least Catherine Hardwicke’s 2008 franchise launcher is a pleasant teen film in large part because no one involved has started seeing dollar signs in their eyes yet. It captures the central tensions of a vampire romance — a forbidden, yearning love — with a disarming earnestness. And when I finally watched it in 2017 for a big essay on Robert Pattinson that predated his more widespread mainstream appreciation, Twilight was a valuable key to unlocking his acting style and not just his stardom. “The hallmarks of his acting have remained constant throughout his work — most prominently, Pattinson’s stone-faced stoicism through a still face betraying little emotion,” I wrote. “Pattinson’s subdued restraint requires viewers to project their feelings onto his blank slate, and it can easily pass for non-acting when foiled against someone like Kristen Stewart, whose every exhalation and twitch hints at a psychological undercurrent.”
The Visit, Max
I wish I could say that I rode as hard for M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap as some of its very online fans (though I’ll acknowledge Josh Hartnett’s committed and captivating performance). But I’ve got kinder things to say about his 2015 film The Visit, a remarkably scrappy and DIY reset for a filmmaker reeling from the flop of After Earth. In this found footage horror film, all action comes from the camera of teenaged Rebecca Jameson (Olivia DeJonge). She’s an aspiring Albert Maysles who thinks she and her brother Tyler’s (Ed Oxenbould) upcoming trip to their grandparents’ rural Pennsylvania home might make a good subject. Since their mother Paula (Kathryn Hahn) has been estranged from them for years, this visit will mark the first time they meet. The film boasts a remarkable rigor of style and storytelling, something not often true of found footage. The limitations of his chosen narrative technique force him to exhibit more creativity and less bombast, both of which he does quite well here in this gray scare flick.
Now that it’s starting to roll out more widely, it might be a good time to read my review of I’m Still Here on The Playlist. I was one of the more muted voices out of Venice, but even I can’t deny the power of Fernanda Torres’ Golden Globe-winning performance.
However, I was much higher on Presence out of *last year’s* Sundance Film Festival. You may see this review of mine from The Playlist being used as an ad on Instagram…
You can keep track of all the freelance writing I’ve done this year through this list on Letterboxd.
You can always keep up with my film-watching in real-time on the app Letterboxd. I’ve also compiled every movie I’ve ever recommended through this newsletter via a list on the platform as well.
Here’s another banger of an A24 podcast episode — this time, featuring two of the Whitman brothers from my beloved The Darjeeling Limited.
This tribute by Kyle MacLachlan to David Lynch (NYT gift article) was exceedingly lovely.
If you saw any of the “controversy” sprouting up over the weekend around The Brutalist and AI usage, Sam Adams offers a good breakdown in Slate that goes beyond hysterical tweets claiming Adrien Brody should be disqualified for Best Actor.
Back next week talking Oscar nominees! The mountains call.
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall