The Downstream: September 2023
10 great movies to watch before they leave streaming this month.
đ¶ Do you rememberâŠthe 21st night of September⊠đ”
Hopefully youâre out there making tonight a night to remember, but if youâre looking for one thatâs a little more low-key as we transition to Meg Ryan szn, here are ten titles to catch before they depart their current streaming homes.
Citizenfour, Amazon Prime Video
I havenât seen this one in quite some time, but I can imagine the filmmaking holds up even if a number of the people involved in the Snowden leak (cough, Glenn Greenwald) donât. Citizenfour is a remarkable document of history being made that unfolds like a political thriller because ⊠well, it is! The â70s have nothing on the level of paranoia this documentary can inspire.
District 9, Max
âI guess District 9 is positive and had a positive effect when it came out,â its director Neil Blomkamp testily told Uproxx earlier this year as he promoted his latest film. 'âNow letâs move on.â Frankly, Blomkamp shouldnât because he hasnât made anything that could possibly stand toe-to-toe with this sci-fi Apartheid allegory. (Though I welcome any of the South African readers of this newsletter â donât scoff, friends, they do exist â to tell me if there are more complicated feelings about this in its home country!)
Everybody Knows, Netflix
Iâve had a half-written newsletter about Asghar Farhadi, the twice-Oscar-winning director of Everybody Knows, in my Substack drafts for about a year. Whyâs he worth spilling the ink, you might ask? Well, this is easily one of his worst movies, and itâs still head-and-shoulders over your average kidnapping thriller. This intriguing tale of family secrets revealed by a stunning disappearance in small-town Spain will keep you reeled in until the final shoe drops
Kick-Ass, Amazon Prime Video/Hulu/Netflix
Pre-Deadpool, this was the blue-print for the foul-mouthed parodic superhero. It was better here before the gambit got so smug and self-aware. Kick-Ass is a movie by the nerds, for the nerds about the real insecurities and complexes that lead people to don their capes. Also â itâs genuinely quite funny with some expertly realized gags!
Kill Bill, Amazon Prime Video
Still a fan even though Iâm salty ⊠whoops, wrong one! Only sweet feelings toward Tarantinoâs Kill Bill, a raucous pastiche of martial arts flicks featuring a never-better Uma Thurman on a roaring rampage of revenge. Even though I feel the juvenile homage more on each rewatch, heâs also having so much fun that itâs hard to deny myself the joy of strapping in for the ride.
The Killing, Criterion Channel
Stanley Kubrickâs first widely acclaimed film is among his simpler watches, yet itâs still more complex than most filmmakers could ever pull off. The title refers less to a murder as it does to a big haul from a heist that Sterling Haydenâs Johnny Clay thinks he can make off a racetrack. If you want an Oceanâs-style caper with a grittier grounding in film noir, hereâs a classic watch for you.
Last Night in Soho, Max
âTake the anti-nostalgic magical realism of Midnight in Paris, fuse it with the feminine psychodrama of Ingmar Bergman's Persona, then dip it in a giallo horror color palette. The result would be something like Edgar Wright's new action thriller Last Night in Soho," I wrote out of Venice in 2021. Thought this one would be a bigger hit, honestly, but it really came and went in a still-recovering post-pandemic box office. I think itâs worth a watch to see one of the masters of recent British comedy take a stab at a different genre â itâs the kind of evolution and risk-taking I wish to see from more filmmakers.
Star Trek, Netflix
No, I will not be factoring in how J.J. Abrams ruined the Star Wars franchise into how I feel about how he revitalized Star Trek. This is the platonic ideal of the reboot to me â reintroducing characters to a new generation without pandering or patronizing. The casting of stars like Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, and Anton Yelchin goes a long way to making this feel like the start of something new, not just warmed over scraps at the behest of corporate overlords.
The Truman Show, Amazon Prime Video
âI think that this film has the perfect tone,â Apples director Christos Nikou told me last year. âIt has a perfect balance between comedy and drama. I love when you can feel a cocktail of emotions in a film, and you can laugh and cry maybe at the same time.â Heâs missing one other key feature of The Truman Show, which turned 25 this summer â it feels prophetic about the surreal, surveilled world we inhabit now.
Zombieland, Netflix
The fact that I didnât bother to see the sequel may not be the highest recommendation of Zombieland, but I thoroughly enjoyed this irreverent comedic take on the zombie survival flick. You might think Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone would mix like oil and water on screen, but their comic energies mesh shockingly well with each other. (And I love that Stone produced Eisenbergâs directorial debut last year! What a partnership!)
I saw my first film of NYFF tonight! Hereâs what else Iâve been watching for the last three weeks.
You can always keep up with my film-watching in real-time on the app Letterboxd. Iâve also compiled every movie Iâve ever recommended through this newsletter via a list on the platform as well.
A good listen on the state of the strike.
Caught up on this interview with recent Oscar-winner Sarah Polley on the Roger Deakins podcast â I learned so much about leadership that extends far beyond a film set from her.
This New Yorker profile about Film Forumâs Karen Cooper is an excellent story about the movies in New York, which is to say itâs an excellent story about movies in America.
For Decider, I said stream it to El Conde on Netflix and skip it to Rotting in the Sun on MUBI.
You can keep track of all the freelance writing Iâve done this year through this list on Letterboxd.
Enjoy the transition to autumn and Libra season!
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall