The Downstream: May 2024

10 great movies to watch before they leave streaming this month.

We’re so close to Memorial Day, stateside readers, and the official kickoff for summer! I hope you have bright, sunny skies with warm but not scorching temperatures. But if Mother Nature doesn’t want to cooperate and strands you inside, here are ten movies about to leave their streaming homes that are worth your time this May.

Beasts of the Southern Wild, Hulu

There is something so magical about Benh Zeitlin’s Bayou-soaked take on the childhood adventure. Beasts of the Southern Wild somehow manages to hold in one hand the boundless imagination of its pint-size protagonist Hushpuppy and a social realist eye toward the abject poverty around her. This is risky, big-swing filmmaking at its finest. If you somehow missed this soaring tale when it made a surprise showing in the 2012 Oscar nominations, now would be a great time to catch up with it.

Bridesmaids, Apple TV+

It is inconceivable that after nearly 3 years of writing this newsletter, I have never found an occasion to champion Bridesmaids. Does this endlessly rewatchable and quotable comedy feel like the last of its kind, or did it just come out a week before I graduated high school? Maybe in denial of it being the latter, I wrote a sprawlingly researched piece for Decider a few years back about why it is the defining movie of comedy’s GIF era. I’m still proud of it, so give it a read if you have some time!

Double Lover, MUBI

If you’re still riding that Challengers high and want something with a little kink but a lot of freak, I suggest François Ozon’s erotic thriller Double Lover to satisfy your thirst. Mostly, I just want to relay an anecdote from my interview with Ozon that’s stuck with me over the years. When I asked him about why he reteamed with his leading actor Jérémie Renier as a psychiatrist with a dark secret, he confessed that the actor was not his first choice. But when it came down to a late addition in the script where his client Chloé (Marine Vacth) pegs him, a more famous French actor balked at being so vulnerable. Here’s how it went down, per Ozon:

“When he read that he said, ‘I didn’t sign for that. You cut this scene, or I don’t do your movie.’ And I said, ‘Okay, you don’t do my movie.’ Then I went to Jérémie, who is afraid of nothing.”

The Great Gatsby (2013), Netflix

Nothing will ever be a substitute for just luxuriating in Fitzgerald’s prose. But for those who need something more visually stimulating, the Bazmataz of 2013’s The Great Gatsby translates the Jazz Age to the screen with mostly successful results. The made-for-3D spectacle is a bit tawdry, sure, and the bludgeoning literalism of the symbolism (especially the green light!) can get exhausting. But there’s a gnawing sense of emptiness buried in the opulence that Baz Luhrmann manages to excavate in partnership with Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Netflix

I’m still not entirely sure why we needed the Joker origin story of President Snow from The Hunger Games in last year’s prequel (I liked the first of the two movies jammed into The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes), beyond the obvious money grab in Lionsgate rejuvenating their IP for a sale. We should be content with the original quadrilogy — especially Catching Fire. This second installment captures all the texture of Suzanne Collins’ nightmarish dystopia, which spawned from the collision of images from the Iraq War and reality TV, yet also fits quite nicely into the model of big-ticket blockbuster entertainment. It’s the rare sequel that finesses the balance of building on a great original work while still providing more of what people already liked.

The Impossible, Netflix

Having nearly 15 years of your writing publicly accessible is more a curse than a blessing. But every once in a while, you remember it’s good for proving when you called someone’s stardom early. Appreciate the congrats on immediately seeing the potential in Tom Holland from his breakout role in the (problematically whitewashed but still good) tsunami disaster film The Impossible:

“[Naomi] Watts is phenomenal as usual, but Tom Holland is a true revelation. Perhaps it was some of what I projected of myself onto the character, but I found his performance to be exceptionally moving. Though Watts gets the more showy, Oscar-type scenes, Holland really gives the film its muscle with his budding heroism and fortitude in the face of tragedy.”

The Little Hours, Hulu

Between Immaculate and The First Omen both releasing this spring, the naughty nuns were freaking it (scary). If you want to balance the scales by seeing the naughty nuns freaking it (sexy), spend an hour and a half with The Little Hours. This irreverent comedy finds a lot of laughs by simply having an attractive man played by Dave Franco stumble into a convent … and letting a trio of nuns (including Aubrey Plaza and Alison Brie) get hot and bothered while trying to hold to their vow of chastity.

Red Road, Metrograph (check out this NYC theater’s streaming service if you aren’t familiar!)

As stated in last week’s Cannes Film Festival preview, I’m rooting for everybody Andrea Arnold. While her debut feature is very much a debut feature, I still think Red Road makes for an interesting watch (if for no other reason than a preview of the world that was to come). Kate Dickie stars as CCTV operator Jackie, a woman who finds herself so lonely that she begins to internally narrativize the people she observes on her screens. But one day, she takes it a little too far after watching a man and a woman fornicating in an abandoned lot. Her target is Tony Curran’s Clyde, a figure with a connection to Jackie’s painful past that she unsuccessfully attempts to bury in her mind. To say much more would only serve to spoil the suspense, but in her slow burn towards an intriguing end of the road, Arnold gives the viewer ample time to contemplate the ethics of voyeurism and interference.

Stronger, Netflix (leaves 6/4)

A ripped-from-the-headlines biopic about a Boston Marathon bombing survivor has no business being as good as Stronger is. There’s an unflinching honesty from director David Gordon Green and star Jake Gyllenhaal as they chart Jeff Bauman’s journey forward after losing both his legs cheering at the finish line. Neither indulges tropes of the perfect victim or the noble martyr as they shine a light on the challenges of physical and mental recovery from tragedy. By the end, you’ll feel a sense of triumph because their image of Jeff isn’t afraid to show his selfishness, bitterness, and irritability.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Criterion Channel

I am once again begging for anyone who loves movies to read Mark Harris’ biography Mike Nichols: A Life. Here’s one of my favorite quotes about how he had to adjust his bearings when bringing Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a battle of wits:

“To a great extent, emotion and tensions are discharged in laughter. [But] you don’t stop or slow down for laughs in movies. Therefore, the movie would have to be far more emotional than the play. The recruiting of the audience as a participant in the battle was no longer possible … that prizefight element of the play was gone, which left me with the heart of it.”

If you need further convincing, I rounded up my favorite insights here:

I Like (M)ike

It was a good week to be a paying subscriber to Marshall and the Movies with two great exclusive posts. The first was a reflection on a gallery installation that toyed with rewriting the ending of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver to better reflect the film’s racial overtones…

Can You Rewrite a Movie's Ending?

…and the second was a conversation about the father of African cinema, Ousmane Sembène, with friend and fellow film critic Leila Latif:

Cinema Sembène

You can keep track of all the freelance writing I’ve done this year through this list on Letterboxd.

Another great perk of paid membership that often goes underutilized: the Marshall’s Movie Mixtape feature!

For full subscribers, I’ll curate a ten-film list based on whatever prompt or theme you provide me. Thanks to subscriber Ellie Stackhouse for the latest, which has a very noble purpose: she wanted a watchlist for a friend with an extended hospital stay. Naturally, what better vibes for such a challenge than “Adventure a la old Spielberg”? Here’s what I cooked up:

Send your thoughts, prayers, good vibes, etc. — and if you’re interested in one of these for yourself or a friend, get started by smashing that button below.