The Upstream: October 2024
10 great movies new to streaming this month.
It’s Friday, and if you’d rather listen than read … I've got a treat for you. I guested on this week’s Truth & Movies podcast to talk Joker: Folie à Deux and A Different Man!
But if you are ready for the written word, I’ve got ten movies new to these streaming platforms that are all worth adding to your watchlist!
Babes, Hulu
I fell a long way from mentioning Babes as one of my under-the-radar most anticipated movies of summer 2024 to … catching it on my plane ride to Venice. And you know what? It worked great in that environment! This dual-pronged comedy about two friends pursuing very different versions of maternity is the right mixture of silly, sweet, and sincere. Ilana Glazer’s script, co-written with Josh Rabinowitz, feels refreshingly honest about the real impacts that kids have on friendship.
Heathers, Criterion Channel
In fairness, Heathers has been on Amazon Prime Video for, like … ever. But now it’s Criterion Channel-certified! This month, the streaming service launched the featured collection “Starring Winona Ryder” which naturally features this breakout turn from the star. I remember feeling my horizons open when an “edgier” friend of mine recommended I watch this in high school, and it was like learning how to spit in the face of John Hughes directly. This brilliant fusion of mean girls cliques with the rising tide of repressed young male violence was way ahead of its time.
I’m Not There, Peacock
Two years ago, I put together a list of some of my favorite biopics that did away with the “great man” framework or the Wikipedia plot summary of a person’s life…
…and no such list would be complete without Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There. This portrait of Bob Dylan refuses to nail him down to a single persona or incarnation, instead splitting him into seven different characters all portrayed by different actors. (The original Eras Tour, perhaps.) This film transcends the form by bowing to its obvious limitations, acknowledging that no one can ever truly be known. Good luck with your Dylan movie measuring up this Christmas, Timothée Chalamet!
Knives and Skin, MUBI
“If you filtered a classic character-driven film like The Last Picture Show through a giallo color palette and infused it with impending dread of a horror flick,” I wrote for /Film back in 2019, “you'd get something that looked a lot like Jennifer Reeder's Knives and Skin.” If you prefer your spooky season viewing more ambiently creeping than outright gory, this might be the right move for you. Reeder is particularly smart about reworking some of the problematically misogynistic tropes of the various genres in which she’s playing, be it coming-of-age or horror. (I interviewed her, too, if you really want to go all in on this one.)
Laggies, Amazon Prime Video
I saw Laggies by Lynn Shelton (RIP) when I was in college, situated somewhere between the flailing twentysomething played by Keira Knightley and the overconfident teenager played by Chloe Grace Moretz. I don’t think I fully “got” the movie at the time, but then I rewatched it later when I was closer to the Knightley character’s age … and I really got it. This offbeat, low-key comedy really captures something singular about the way aging people (even in their twenties) glom onto younger friends like social vampires, trying to suck out the vitality that they feel slipping away. Any time I find myself cozying up to someone below the age of my usual peer set, I always find myself wondering if I look as pathetic (and yet sympathetic) as Knightley’s Megan during her quarter-life crisis.
The Mole Agent, Netflix
Maybe it didn’t interest you when I recommended a Chilean documentary in last year’s Hispanic Heritage Month roundup…
…but what if I told you that the same movie, Maite Alberdi’s The Mole Agent, is now on Netflix because next month the platform will be premiering a TV series based on it? And that show stars Ted Danson? And the showrunner is Mike Schur of Parks & Recreation and The Good Place fame? Do I have your attention now? This is a special movie, and I hope this adaptation encourages you to watch it. What starts like a spy thriller inside a retirement home ultimately opens up into an exploration of how a society enacts care for its elderly.
Orphan, Paramount+
The direct-to-streaming prequel to Orphan was hot garbage, save yourself a watch there. But the 2009 original starring Vera Farmiga as a distraught adoptive mother who begins to suspect something off with the newest arrival into her household? Now that still got my blood racing on the rewatch! It’s a shame we lost this film’s director, Jaume Collet-Serra, to the franchise machine of Jungle Cruise and Black Adam. He has a real knack for squeezing every last drop of tension from a simple concept.
Shopgirl, Amazon Prime Video
You know Steve Martin from his physical and verbal wit, but he’s also a stylist in the written realm as well. People balked when I called Shopgirl, which is adapted from one of Martin’s novellas, a “rom-com” because it has some moodier moments. But this love triangle between Claire Danes’ glove counter worker, Martin’s wealthy businessman, and Jason Schwartzman’s humble graphic designer has all of the comedian’s humor … just in subtler, finer shadings. I found this a very satisfying watch that not enough people know about because it’s part of that vanishing middle-tier of adult dramas. (For the many You’ve Got Mail fans who read this newsletter, I’m sorry to report to you that this has no ties to Meg Ryan’s AOL username.)
Silkwood, Hulu
If you like paranoid conspiracy thrillers, Mike Nichols’ Silkwood will be right up your alley. (Though if you’re just expecting a plug-and-play genre flick, know that this is the first screenplay ever written by the great Nora Ephron!) It’s big business, not the state, who targets Meryl Streep’s Karen Silkwood for being ready to blow the whistle on a nuclear power plant’s harm to workers. This film has long been particularly difficult to stream — even rent — so don’t squander this chance to watch a great film while it’s still easily accessible.
Will & Harper, Netflix
There’s something quite noble about what Will Ferrell does in the documentary Will & Harper, though the brave one on the road trip would be his longtime friend, the recently transitioned Harper Steele. Ferrell leads with love and wants to play his part in creating a world where his pal feels comfortable in her new gender identity … and their relationship evolves accordingly. Their documentary journey through America is a bit of a contrivance, sure, but sometimes we need these artificial structures to point the way toward authenticity. Along their journey, the two have time and space to ask each other those delicate questions as they arise organically. It’s a touching experience for them to share and for us to observe. May the grace it generates extend well beyond the screen and out into the world.
Over the weekend, paid subscribers got to read the 10 rules that guide how I write my reviews:
As mentioned above, a small indie called Joker: Folie à Deux opens this weekend. Here’s what I thought of it out of Venice.
You can keep track of all the freelance writing I’ve done this year through this list on Letterboxd.
Also, wonder what I could have possibly asked Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and Austin Butler that had them looking at each other like this for a minute?
Warner Bros. cut it out of the official record of this Dune Part Two Q&A — in the words of Lady Gaga, I have to laugh — but you can see it here.
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’ve listened to Joaquin Phoenix go OFF on Terri Gross, the GOAT of audio interviews, so it is quite the accomplishment that Sam Fragoso kept him on mostly good behavior in this podcast episode.
This New York Times profile of Aubrey Plaza and her big September (gift article) is well worth a read through to its incredibly apropos kicker.
An October surprise for subscribers this weekend.
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall