The Upstream: December 2021
10 great movies new to streaming this month.
Is this meme an accurate look at your life? Don’t let it be.
Instead, just trust me and put on one of these ten movies new to popular streaming services (and your time will thank me later). Perhaps a good weekend watch?
Beau Travail, Criterion Channel
If you’re a big fan of Moonlight, you owe it to yourself to see where Barry Jenkins cribbed his arrestingly balletic choreography of bodies in space. He worships at the altar of French director Claire Denis, a true master of the form with a singular perspective that’s tough to describe in words. Just let this film wash over you. Allow the images to work their strange alchemy on you, knowing that the way characters move says more than any dialogue that leaves their lips.
Days of Heaven, Hulu
Terrence Malick’s “hands running through wheat in a field” is now somewhat a lazy visual shorthand for ~a serious and prestige-y look at our connection to nature~ (though I blame his overzealous acolytes and lazy ad agency creatives for this). See that aesthetic attached to weighty storytelling in his breathtaking Days of Heaven, a story of two lovers on the run in 1910s Texas that takes on a parable-like quality. Fun fact: the cinematographer built the film’s central house on a turntable so he could always turn it to get the light he wanted for a shot.
Enough Said, HBO Max
If you’re not familiar with the cinema of Nicole Holofcener … please change that, first of all! She’s one of our foremost chroniclers of well-off woes, showing the lives and conflicts of the one percent without ever indulging their whims or treating their status as neutral. While perhaps not as trenchant in its commentary, Enough Said is a delightfully funny rom-com about two empty-nesting divorcees who find they share an emotional connection … until Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Eva sabotages herself by getting a stream of compromised information on James Gandolfini’s Albert. If you find yourself gravitating toward this genre but are tired of pure formula, this should be your next movie night!
The Family Stone, Peacock
I don’t care if you want to hate on this movie! Point out all the absurdities and illogical things about The Family Stone all you want … I will nod and probably agree with you. And then still enjoy this movie anyways. Movies about family tensions at the holidays are often the kinds of things we enjoy less because of the film and more because of how they’ve nestled their way into our own lives and traditions. The movie stays the same, and it is we who change. Seeing our own reflections in them often helps clarify what those transformations are. (Anyways, I’m done waxing poetic about a movie that features SJP at her sloppiest as well as most stern!)
Her Smell, Hulu
This was my favorite movie of 2019 — another cause celebre I’ve spent years screaming at friends to watch. This look at the wave of mayhem caused by a ‘90s female punk rocker (think Courtney Love) is quite the stressful maelstrom to observe … until it’s not. Alex Ross Perry shows what endears us to self-destructive talents, what repels us, and what encourages us to stick around to help them achieve greatness.
Limbo, HBO Max
I’ve been ranting and raving about how much I love Ben Sharrock’s little miracle of a movie for over a year. Now it’s on HBO Max, removing a big barrier for many of you to finally watch the movie I won’t shut up about. Do it! Please! Help me grow the coven! (If you need further convincing, here’s a review I penned earlier this year for The Playlist that I’m quite proud of.)
Looper, Netflix
We’ve probably all consumed our fair share of time travel movies in recent years, though one that certainly deserves another look is Rian Johnson’s Looper. He’s unparalleled in terms of his ability to understand both why a genre works (heist, sci-fi, murder mystery) and inject the missing humanity into it. This yarn about how a bounty hunter gets hunted down by his future self has real moral weight, and you feel the difference with the empathy squeezed between the thrills.
The Power of the Dog, Netflix
I’m notably a bit more muted on Jane Campion’s latest film than many friends and writers (you can read my measured take out of Venice for Decider). But nonetheless, this is very clearly going to be a major Oscar player, so you should watch it if that's something you try to stay on top of. And it’s not without its many virtues, from Kodi Smit-McPhee’s soulful performance to Jonny Greenwood’s searing score.
Ratcatcher, Criterion Collection
I caught this gorgeous new restoration of Lynne Ramsay’s debut feature at the New York Film Festival this year and … it absolutely floored me?! I had seen Ratcatcher once a few years ago, maybe in college, and I remember feeling totally indifferent about it then. No more. I think this might be on its way to becoming an all-timer for me Ramsay is a true master of the niche subgenre that I think might be my favorite thing to watch: poetic social realism.
The Royal Tenenbaums, Prime Video
It might not be my favorite Wes Anderson movie (though it is toward the very top!) — but The Royal Tenenbaums is probably his best work. It’s the first time he fully realized his signature aesthetic, and you can feel the harmony of idea and image reverberating throughout. It’s also got a real novelistic sense of story and character that puts some real humanity within the frame as well. A recent rewatch confirmed just how special it is; I’d encourage you to do the same.
WHAT I WATCHED
It’s F-Y-C-eason! (For Your Consideration season, to simplify some industry lingo.) Finally caught up with House of Gucci and then was fortunate to be at the world premieres of West Side Story and Nightmare Alley.
Also, to those who read last week’s Downstream … note the first movie I watched after sending that. Promises made, promises kept!
Also, if you haven’t seen this heartfelt clip of Andrew Garfield talking about how his tick, tick… BOOM! performance functions as a tribute to his late mother, you really need to take a few minutes to watch this:
WHAT I HEARD
After falling fairly hard for West Side Story, or at least getting caught up in the vortex of the magical spell it cast at the premiere…
…I’ve spent most of the last few days listening to various versions of the music, especially in the wake of Sondheim’s passing. Today the new soundtrack is out, so you can catch me jamming out to this while I plug away at some reporting at work today 🤓
WHAT I READ
Now that I’ve seen House of Gucci and can engage with The Discourse around it, two things stand out: Kyle Turner in W Mag asking if it’s camp and Alison Wilmore in Vulture on what we really praise when we look at flashy “transformations.”
As someone who grew up outside of NY/LA and often had to wait weeks to see a much-buzzed-about title, I’ve long held a grudge against the platform release. But Owen Gleiberman at Variety makes a pretty good case for what’s being lost as studios just throw specialty titles into wide release.
Some great Q&As/profiles I’d recommend as well:
Mike Leigh (notably less crabby than when I talked with him in 2019)
WHAT I WROTE
A review of one of my favorite movies from Venice, Alexandre Moratto’s 7 Prisoners, is now live on Decider! You can watch this on Netflix now — it’s a gripping moral thriller dealing with the complex ecosystem of modern slavery told in an economical 90 minutes.
I’ll be back with a weekend read for subscribers that I think you’ll find interesting … it’s a bit technical about my process for conducting interviews, but I promise it's relevant for people in any industry. (Apologies to one subscriber who may have heard me deliver an oral version of this newsletter in a corporate setting.)
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall