The Upstream: January 2023
10 great movies new to streaming this month.
Welcome back to the grind, folks! For those who are already wondering what they’re going to watch tonight after unplugging, here are 10 great options from new arrivals on streaming.
American Hustle, HBO Max
David O. Russell’s latest film, Amsterdam, was the kind of bad where I left the theater wondering if all his other movies were actually bad as well. But Silver Linings Playbook only got better on rewatch last month, so I have to assume American Hustle still holds weight. While it’s taken on somewhat of a mixed reputation since scoring 10 Oscar nominations, I still maintain this is his masterpiece. Five (ok, really four) of our greatest actors get to explore the art of conning, which really becomes each of their treatises on the art of acting altogether. At the very least, you’ll remember not to put metal in the science oven after watching.
Election, Amazon Prime Video
I’m generally against decades-delayed sequels, but count me intrigued that both star Reese Witherspoon and director Alexander Payne signed on for a follow-up to Election last month. Long before 2016 forced a cultural reckoning with the in-your-face female striving for elected office, the character Tracy Flick asked us to see how long we’d hold on to our values before cultural misogyny kicked in watching her travails. I’m curious to see what they can do with this archetype in today’s world … and if not, we still have this perfect movie.
Harold and Maude, Amazon Prime Video
I did a hard turnaround on Hal Ashby’s dark comedic classic Harold and Maude during the pandemic — something I wrote about in greater depth in my newsletter at the time. To quote from my 2020 recommendation, the titular characters’ “gleefully misanthropic adventures are the stuff of black comedy gold, executed with such impeccably staged visual and physical panache that it could make silent stars like Chaplin blush. It doesn’t even feel too weird when their relationship snowballs into a May-December romance!”
Heat, Hulu
You could frankly have a great movie night just watching the clip of Al Pacino screaming “GREAT ASS!” from Heat on a loop for three hours. But you should probably just watch this action-thriller in its entirety instead because director Michael Mann is an expert practitioner of the form. This crime saga about the faceoff between an aging cop (Pacino) and a career criminal (Robert De Niro) who share a begrudging respect for one another is a masterclass in escalating tension. And if you don’t take my word for it, then maybe you’ll listen to Mann-ly boy Christopher Nolan when he talks about the film’s influence on him.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E., HBO Max
Now that Henry Cavill gave up The Witcher and got fired as Superman, there’s really only one logical option for his career now. They should revive The Man from U.N.C.L.E. series, still the best showcase for his debonair charms to date. There’s the matter of recasting Armie Hammer, but they can figure that out. Seriously, this Cold War-era spy thriller is the kind of sexy, silly, and scintillating action movie that studios have all but forgotten how to make. This one taste of brilliance shouldn’t be all we get.
The Master, HBO Max
Spoiler alert for free subscribers: last month, I named The Master my top movie of 2012 when re-ranking my top 10 a decade later.
As I wrote, “This film is sublimely slippery. The second you think you’ve pinpointed what it’s about, Anderson shifts the ground from under your feet.” Come learn for yourself just why. Join The Cause.
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, Hulu
Did you know the creator of the Wonder Woman cartoon was involved in a committed polyamorous relationship back in the 1940s … and that if you believe Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, it’s central to the creation of the character? This kinky but wholeheartedly sincere romantic drama tried to piggyback on the success of the DC Comics movie in 2017, but the film wound up getting buried because Annapurna had no idea how to market it to mass audiences. The film is worth discovering now on streaming for the way it handles a topic with tenderness that could be reduced titillation.
Reservoir Dogs, Netflix
There was a time when if you wanted to hear a gaggle of men dropping bizarrely tangential reads on pop cultural texts such as Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” you couldn’t just pick up your phone and hear it on a podcast. You’d have to watch something like the hyperliterate cinema of Quentin Tarantino. While I’ve soured some on the filmmaker’s recent work, his debut Reservoir Dogs still crackles with tight plotting and snappy dialogue.
Strange Days, HBO Max
The time to watch Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, the 1995 cyberpunk thriller channeling all sorts of Y2K anxieties, would have been in the lead-up to New Year’s Eve. But alas, this frequently un-streamable title was not anywhere to be found online last year, so you’ll just have to trust me that it’s a great watch even though its topical window has passed. While she’s often reduced to just a representational milestone, don’t forget that Bigelow can direct the hell out of a movie.
White Noise, Netflix
To answer a question I’ve fielded from a few people around Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, which he adapts from the dense novel of the same name by Don DeLillo — no, I don’t think you need to have read the book to get the movie. This postmodern take on the meaning of life and death in the consumerism-crazed ‘80s is not going to make much sense in the traditional sense in either format, so I think you might even be better off starting with the movie and then reading the novel. Either way, I really liked this movie out of Venice (my full review here) and think everyone should at least give it a chance.
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.
While it didn’t make my top 10 list, I’m still fascinated by all the dialogue around TÁR. I’ve found its writer/director Todd Field somewhat frustratingly cagey in his promotion of the film, but this conversation on Happy Sad Confused is a rare exception. Maybe it’s just my fascination with his extended discussion of working in advertising…
As I do every year, I devoured Slate’s year-end Movie Club. This multi-part conversation about 2022 in movies features a flurry of takes from Dana Stevens, Bilge Ebiri, David Sims, and Beatrice Loayza that are given the full room to breathe and develop. It’s like sitting in on 16 great conversations.
Because I forgot to share last month, I ranked all Noah Baumbach’s films for /Film in honor of White Noise’s release. You may be surprised what took #1!
I contributed a blurb on Netflix’s Inventing Anna to The Playlist’s Guilty Pleasures of 2022 list.
For Decider, I said stream it to Last Looks on Hulu and Stuck with You on Netflix.
Here’s to a great movie year!
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall
White Noise and Strange Days are definitely on my radar this month.