It’s been a whirlwind first 10 days since turning 32, but I’m back before the month is out with the monthly Downstream! If you’re anything like me and respond to firm deadlines, then maybe what will finally get you to watch these 10 movies is to hear that they’ll soon depart their current streaming homes.
Déjà Vu, Hulu
I haven’t watched this one in a while, but I remember the late Tony Scott’s Déjà Vu hitting that sweet spot of a great police thriller with just enough of a high-concept twist to make it stand out from the pack. Among the post-9/11 movies about preventing a terrorist attack, this is among the least tainted by Bush-era jingoism. (Plus, when is Denzel Washington in the lead ever bad?) It’s the perfect amount of clever storytelling without making you scratch your head too hard.
Fish Tank, Criterion Channel
*extremely political text voice* I told you to watch Fish Tank in 2022 when I listed off my favorite movies about the challenges of being a teenager. I told you to watch it AGAIN last week when I talked about the movies that shaped my own mind as a teenager. Is there ANYTHING I can do to get you to watch Fish Tank before it leaves the Criterion Channel this month?! (Some of Andrea Arnold’s short films, including the one that won her an Oscar, are also leaving!)
Get Smart, Max
Being a paid subscriber to this newsletter comes with many unenumerated perks, such as tailored recommendations when a favorite movie of yours comes up in streaming arrivals/departures. So to the person who shares an affection for Get Smart, the underrated comic spy caper with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway, maybe it’s time for a deserved rewatch in the next week?! Assuming you don’t already own it.
The Ice Storm, Max
I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of this quote from the essay accompanying The Ice Storm’s Criterion Collection disc: “In November 2007, Newsweek proclaimed that America was still in the grip of the sixties, unable to wish the decade away or fulfill its promise.” Ang Lee’s drama about parents and children each dealing with the struggles of their respective immaturity during the waning days of the Nixon administration taught me a lot as a young viewer. It’s a stunning evocation of period and mood, with rich details creating not so much a facsimile of a specific moment as it does a haze of time wafting over the characters. (A part of me wonders now if it also subtly shaped my interest in sociology given how James Schamus’ script analyzes how individual decisions operate downstream of wider cultural forces.)
La La Land, Netflix
I feel like I’ve played some part in letting La La Land become something of a punching bag in film discourse since the infamous Best Picture flub of 2017. (For what it’s worth, I was team Manchester by the Sea that year.) It’s crummy that awards season often turns movies into “villains” that do not deserve such treatment, and Damien Chazelle’s movie musical throwback got a big target on its back all that year. This is a movie not without its flaws — namely, an immature outlook on how one reconciles art and life — but also full of magic. If you’ve let this one sour in your mind, give it another chance.
Misery, Max
I’d argue our culture is reaching something of a Stephen King tipping point — he’s like the MCU of horror with a whopping 21 upcoming adaptations according to IMDb. I doubt many of them will measure up to Misery, directed by Rob Reiner (the man who gave us This Is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally, and A Few Good Men — talk about range!) of all people. This chilling two-hander about James Caan’s acclaimed writer who ends up held captive by Kathy Bates’ deranged devotee feels like it was decades ahead of where fan culture is now. You know Annie Wilkes would be posting up a storm on a stan Twitter account asking for Paul Sheldon to run her over with his car or something.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Netflix
I’ve been updating streaming lists for Decider consistently for nearly four years now, and apart from each service’s original films, virtually every licensed title sees rapid turnover on these platforms. The rare exception to that was Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the surrealist spoof of Medieval mythology, which seemed to defy the laws of streaming gravity by staying on Netflix forever. Well, that all comes to an end in October, so get in another watch of this comedy classic before it’s too late!
The Naked Gun, Amazon Prime Video
I came to appreciate the comedic stylings of The Naked Gun through, of all people, Paul Thomas Anderson. When I got to see him give a talk at my first New York Film Festival, he showed a clip from Police Squad (the television forerunner of this movie franchise) that demonstrated the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker comedic flair. Though their sensibility might skew sophomoric, their eye for a great visual gag is really high-minded stuff. This spoof of cop movies might seem like the kind of entertainment you can just lean back into, but I’d encourage you to lean forward. There’s some fantastic execution of bits that span multiple planes within the frame, and you’re going to miss a lot of it if you’re also scrolling your phone.
Practical Magic, Max
I had somehow never seen Practical Magic before this month — which was shocking to me as well. Many friends raved about it like a nostalgic play at Halloween given the frothy ‘90s feeling of Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as sister witches forever doomed in their quest for love. It’s definitely got that element, don’t get me wrong, as embodied by a pop remix of Faith Hill’s “This Kiss” that features prominently on the soundtrack. But this also feels like a movie wildly ahead of its time as a proto-girlboss empowerment fable, which caught me off guard. Practical Magic is ultimately a story of how women band together to form a community against the odds, which I have to imagine is part of why it’s been such a durable fan favorite among my female friends. I’m glad to have been initiated!
Red, Netflix
As a retired and extremely dangerous (hence the acronym RED) former CIA agent, Bruce Willis’ Frank Moses is having a rough time adjusting to life after his time in black-ops. His only joy in adjusting to suburbia comes from chatting with Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), a federal pension phone customer service representative. But whatever normalcy he built in suburbia is shattered as he’s drawn back into the bullet-ridden world by an attempt on his life, which spurs a trigger-happy travelogue through the United States with the unsuspecting Sarah. Red is a wild romp that excites and entertains at a surprisingly high octane for a movie that proudly flashes its AARP card. There’s more to the fun of the movie than Helen Mirren firing away like a madman with a machine gun … but director Robert Schwentke isn’t above reminding us how awesome a sight that can be.
Can't say I anticipated iconoclastic Canadian director Guy Maddin to drop a “brat summer” reference when talking about Rumours, but I should have known to expect the unexpected given the film he made with Galen and Evan Johnson. This fun romp is out in theaters now and is worth a watch. Even though it’s set in the deeply political setting of a G7 summit, it’s refreshingly free of topical-skewing humor. Read our full conversation on Slant Magazine.
You can keep track of all the freelance writing I’ve done this year through this list on Letterboxd.
But none of it was as good as this:
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.
Saturday Night ended up being a great birthday watch for me, and I appreciated the opportunity to decompress through this interview with its co-writer/director Jason Reitman. Two of his works were included in last week’s formative teen movies list, so I’ll always be somewhat inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt despite the relentless, performative vitriol pushed against him online.
This might be a good read for movie-loving friends who also work with data analysis —
talked with Stephen Follows about what he learned from looking at crunching numbers about the horror genre.This is a fascinating feature from The Hollywood Reporter about what happened with the hot Sundance doc Union and why it must cut such a unique path for self-distribution.
Per IndieWire, the third biggest theatrical moviegoing market in America is … Dallas/Fort Worth?! Who knew?
Some spooky season watches are coming this weekend for subscribers!
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall