The Upstream: August 2024
10 great movies new to streaming this month.
Summer feeling lost in a memory? Not wanting to let August slip away into a moment in time? Take the opportunity to take stock of what’s new on streaming this month!
Beetlejuice, Max
Maybe you’re like me and need to do some homework before Beetlejuice Beetlejuice officially kicks off the fall season as the opening night film of the Venice Film Festival. (I’ll be there with the first word out!) Luckily, the original Beetlejuice is quite good — much better than I remembered, in fact. I miss this version of Tim Burton before the life drained from his work. This family-friendly horror spectacle about a newly deceased couple trying to drive out the new inhabitants of their house with the help of a shady “bio-exorcist” delivers on the promise of fun and fear. Hopefully, we’ll get some of that imagination back in the sequel.
Cinema Paradiso, Amazon Prime Video
When it comes to movies about loving movies, they don’t get much better than Cinema Paradiso. This tale of a young Italian boy who develops a tender relationship with the projectionist at his local movie theater is as sweeping and sincere as they come. If you’ve ever seen it come up on “best of” lists and always thought it must be obscure or impenetrable, think again. This is a crowd-pleaser of the highest order with great craftsmanship to back it up.
Double Jeopardy, Paramount+
I think Double Jeopardy might have the greatest ‘90s thriller premise of the lot. Ashley Judd’s Libby Parsons heads to the slammer after being convicted of her husband’s murder. Here’s the twist: he faked his death and framed her so he could get a fresh start. Thanks to the double jeopardy clause in the constitution, she can’t face charges a second time for killing him after her release. So she sets out to get the ultimate revenge tale that’s very legal and very cool!
The Full Monty, Hulu
This motley comedy starts from a situation that's become far too familiar in the post-industrial world: a factory town hollowed out after the largest employer departs, leaving a cohort of jobless citizens unclear about how to provide for their families. In the post-Thatcher shell of working-class Sheffield, a group of six unemployed men in need of some dough team up to form a striptease act. The only problem? They can't dance particularly well, and many of them struggle with the fact that they don't look much like Chippendale's dancers. The Full Monty offers a funny, engaging, and toe-tapping watch ... and it wraps up with a crowd-pleasing dance number that’s like a Magic Mike for the modest set!
The streets are saying an early favorite for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars this year is DreamWorks’ The Wild Robot, which is getting a major premiere slot at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. It’d be long overdue recognition for director Chris Sanders, an animator who wrote in the Disney Renaissance (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan) and directed Lilo and Stitch. But he’s probably most closely tied to How to Train Your Dragon, a film deserving of much firmer recognition in the cultural canon. They got the legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins to advise on the aerial photography of the dragon flights, for heaven’s sake! This story of the plucky, unlikely hero Hiccup who learns to befriend the dragon population that his Viking tribe tries to extinguish proves a heartwarming way to learn some unexpected family movie lessons,
Paper Moon, Paramount+
If you were all on board for the cinematic season of the scammer back in 2019 (Fyre Fest, Theranos, Parasite, etc.), then you owe it to yourself to catch up with Paper Moon. Part family movie, part heist movie, part coming-of-age story but all fun, Peter Bogdanovich’s delightful 1973 classic endures as a joyous viewing experience. This tale of two-bit hustler Moze Pray and his estranged daughter Addie (Ryan and Tatum O’Neal, actual father and daughter) who form an unlikely two-person racket swindling vulnerable widows has got to be the most charming movie about grifters ever made.
Terms of Endearment, Amazon Prime Video
One of the films that rose the most in my estimation from rewatching for my full Best Picture ranking last year was Terms of Endearment. James L. Brooks captures several decades in the embittered relationship of a dramatic mother and daughter (Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger) with crisp dialogue and astutely observed acting across the board. I'm glad I rewatched this recently to better appreciate the maturity of the parent-child dynamic, one fraught with bile and undermined by geographic separation ... yet united in a shared struggle they cannot understand until it's almost too late. Brooks really is one of our greats at telling stories that contain both the comedy and drama of living in reality. That sense of naturalism matters for the third-act tragic pivot, which makes for a tearjerker that actually had me weeping with its potent blend of sweetness and sadness.
There Will Be Blood, Criterion Channel
I’ve somehow never found an occasion to recommend There Will Be Blood in the three years of this newsletter, which just feels wrong. Is it the best film of the 21st century as The New York Times declared in 2017? I’d stop short of that, but it does have that “Great American Movie” quality about it. This sweeping epic that identifies the capitalistic fervor of the oil boom as an original sin of the American century is a dense work that never wants you to forget how important it is. For most of the runtime, filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson earns that grandeur … although when I saw it in theaters last year, a repertory audience was intent on turning Daniel Day-Lewis’ terrifying Daniel Plainview into an openly comic character. (I don’t deny some of his lines are a bit self-consciously funny, but he’s not some kind of Apatow invention.)
25th Hour, Criterion Channel
The best 9/11 movie was made in its immediate aftermath. Spike Lee’s 25th Hour didn’t intend to have the fresh rubble of Ground Zero as a backdrop to the last day of freedom for Edward Norton’s drug dealer Monty Brogan before reporting for prison. But that spirit of devastation coupled with the hope of rebuilding something from the ashes finds a potent metaphor in the city that provides the beating heart of Lee’s work. Though Monty is a brash and tough character, his ultimate reckoning moves me to tears now that I live in the same air he breathes. No matter the private opinions you hold of the people who fill the subway cars and clutter the sidewalks, they’ll be there for you in your moment of need. Those are New York values.
White Chicks, Netflix
This is not a joke, nor is it ironic. White Chicks is comedic brilliance, though it took a scholarly introduction by Racquel Gates in 2018 to make me realize what it’s doing. The film got panned upon release 20 years ago for its patently ridiculous makeup to disguise Damon and Marlon Wayans’ FBI agents as white women. But it’s clear to me now: that’s the point. This over-the-top satire is using their heinous, unbelievable drag to highlight the ridiculousness of imitating another race. While we’re seeing “whiteface,” the intended effect is to highlight the absurdity of blackface through its clever inversion. Give it another try, especially if you haven’t watched it since being a teenager like I was when I first encountered White Chicks. We could all stand to be humbled by reminding ourselves we are not always smarter than a movie.
It probably didn’t mean much when I recommended Kneecap back at Sundance, but now that it’s out in theaters on Friday … go see it! Here’s my review over at The Playlist.
You can keep track of all the freelance writing I’ve done this year through this list on Letterboxd.
Well then.
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.
I got Aya Nakamura-pilled during the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics, so I’ve been bumping this banger all week. (Here’s some great background on why her performance meant so much for France.)
Always read
on stars:
If you want a helpful illustration of why Sundance means so much more than just creating overhype for movies among affluent cinephiles in the mountains of Utah, check out this great feature on their directors’ lab.
I found this helpful to try and understand what on earth is going on with Trump repeatedly referencing “the late, great Hannibal Lecter” in his stump speech.
As for the #1 movie in the world right now, David Sims at The Atlantic’s review (gift article) encapsulates many of my feelings.
One more 15th-anniversary retrospective piece coming over the weekend — intended to have it on Monday, but alas, life intervened.
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall