The Upstream: March 2023
10 great movies new to streaming this month.
Happy March! Last call to tell me your favorite (or least favorite) Best Picture winner if you want your voice featured in next week’s newsletters. Reply to this email privately or drop a comment on this post.
The Brothers Bloom, HBO Max
I’ve found that movies about con artists are the most revealing about the directors who made them. (See also: American Hustle.) What is a movie but a well-executed lie meant to present itself as the truth? I think there’s one line in Rian Johnson’s sophomore outing The Brothers Bloom that functions as a skeleton key for unlocking his work through to Glass Onion: “The perfect con is one where everyone involved gets just what they wanted.”
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Criterion Channel
Subscribers already heard me sing the praises of Michelle Yeoh’s singular performance in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But for everyone else, check out this film as part of the Criterion Channel’s “Michelle Yeoh Kicks Ass” series in March — I, for one, am excited to watch some of her early, stunt-heavy work that made her the only person who could play the lead in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Duck Soup, Amazon Prime Video
Not to spoil anything that’s coming up, but I’ve been watching many movies from the early days of sound recently that have absolutely no idea how to use audio. That’s absolutely not the case for the Marx Brothers’ hyperverbal comedy in Duck Soup. My goodness, Groucho Marx can just rattle them off like it’s no one’s business. If you’re burned from watching deeply unfunny streaming comedies like Shotgun Wedding and Your Place or Mine in the last month, come see how it’s really done.
EO, Criterion Channel
If you wondered where on earth you were going to watch some quality poetic donkey cinema when I ranked EO in my top 10 movies of 2022, now you can watch it at home! And then read my interview with its now-Oscar-nominated director to get a better appreciation for a film that gets to the core of what life really means for humans and animals alike.
Good Will Hunting, Amazon Prime Video
I’m outsourcing this evaluation to a time when I was fresh off a rewatch for my former newsletter, The Distancer, and was pleasantly surprised by how much I still enjoyed Good Will Hunting:
“It’s easy for the memory to fade given all the toughness and bravado of Damon and Affleck’s later action roles, but they are both sincere and raw in their sentimentality in their showcase film. Only Damon cries, but you can feel both of their hearts poured into the fabric of the movie. It crackles with the energy of their youthful, uncynical view of life, love and humanity. Even as some of the plot mechanics of Good Will Hunting felt a little ‘screenwriting 101’ on further inspection, I still got swept up in the titular janitor/genius sorting through his emotional baggage all the same.”
L.A. Confidential, Hulu
I think I watched L.A. Confidential before I’d ever seen an actual movie from the film noir genre it’s so clearly riffing on. I’ve since revisited it after getting to know the sordid tales of personal vice, and it’s even better. (But if you just want this as a gateway into film history, I think you could also really enjoy watching this star-filled cast smolder across the screen!)
M3GAN, Peacock Premium
She’s an icon, she’s a legend, and she is the moment. The unrated cut of M3GAN that goes harder than the PG-13 theatrical version is now streaming on Peacock, huzzah! (And then read one of my most unhinged pieces ever after if you want to overthink its most insane moment.)
Pulp Fiction, Amazon Prime Video
I was recently listening to a podcast that was dreading the prospect of Everything Everywhere All at Once winning Best Picture because of the bad ripoffs it would inspire, all of which might take the wrong lesson. The reference point here was clearly Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino’s groundbreaking pastiche that triggered a generation of imitators. I’m here to set the record straight that none of these tributes have dulled Pulp Fiction for me in the slightest. This movie still rocks (Bruce Willis’ annoying girlfriend aside) and is worth the cost of all pale imitations it would trigger.
Things to Come, Criterion Channel
If the idea of renting my favorite Mia Hansen-Løve movie didn’t sound appealing after reading my paean to her talents last month, then maybe you’d be willing to take a chance on it now that it’s on Criterion Channel? Things to Come is such a wonderful meditation on the passage of time and our capacity for self-reinvention in the face of change. This is the 2016 movie Isabelle Huppert deserved her Oscar nomination for, and I will die on that hill.
Vanilla Sky, Amazon Prime Video
As much as I love Tom Cruise in his peak form as Top Gun/Mission: Impossible franchise steward, I do miss him doing genuinely weird dramas like Vanilla Sky! This bonkers movie is among the last real risks he took as a performer, and even if it doesn’t entirely pan out, it’s a fascinating thing to watch unfold as Cameron Crowe’s surrealistic screenplay swings for the fences.
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.
If you want a good primer on the scandals that line the history of the Oscars, this interview with Oscar Wars author Michael Schulman will certainly whet your appetite:
I should have put it together earlier, but Scott Tobias on The Reveal drew the line between the “meme movie” Cocaine Bear and its Web 1.0 predecessor: Snakes on a Plane.
Producer Ted Hope penned a very interesting newsletter tying together a trend of recent movies he calls “committed cinema.” It’s worth seeing what he groups together as part of a new wave:
A brilliant analysis by Alison Willmore of Vulture: “Paul Mescal Is Our Disappointment Heartthrob.”
A friend and subscriber passed along this fun New York Times recommendation (gifted for those of you who don’t also subscribe there) about staying through the closing credits of movies.
Subscribers got to read me getting personal about going to the movies alone (and why you should do it, too):
For The Playlist, I reviewed the disappointingly tame Cocaine Bear.
For Decider, I said stream it to All That Breathes (on HBO Max) and Spin Me Round (on Hulu) but skip it to Slayers (on Hulu).
You can keep track of all the freelance writing I’ve done this year through this list on Letterboxd.
Subscribers will be getting some ballot help for the Oscars over the weekend!
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall