The Film Experience

If you're new to the site this is how we share new streaming offerings for the month. We select a handful or two of titles and just randomly hit a place on the scroll bar to see what the film looks like - no cheating. Ready? Let's play...

[Eavesdropping]
Mum: Look at the lovely sunshine all the other boys are out their playing in the water.
Dad: Pick up your knife.
Mum: You're just like your father.

The Witches (1990) on Netflix
The Grand High Witch watches a young child eating. She hates children! Has any actor had as genius a double feature as Anjelica Huston did in 1990 with The Witches and The Grifters? (Besides Kidman in 2001, of course!) Good lord she was on fire in the late 80s and early 90s. If you've never seen this you should watch it before the remake with Anne Hathaway starts filming.

And that guy over there!

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020) on Netflix
Uff. This was so painfully unfunny. And yet people really like it! Perhaps I am merely allergic to Will Ferrell who I have enjoyed in approximately nothing. At least Dan Stevens was a hoot.

Hamilton (2015-now) on Disney +
This doesn't arrive until tomorrow so we can't 'streaming roulette' it. But we're excited to see it again. We're feeling so terrible for anyone in the theatrical industry because their entire world has vanished. No Broadway shows will be reopening in 2020 and some rumors say it won't be until April 2021 when Broadway shows resume. That will be over a full year without Broadway theaters which bring in billions each year to New York's economy. Dark times we're living through right now.

Where are the scissors?

Young Ahmed (2019) on the Criterion Channel
This Dardenne brothers drama about a teenager embracing terrorism, not unsurprisingly, won a prize at Cannes (best director). The Dardennes always win something at Cannes no matter who the jury is. We've always found that an odd feature of Cannes that the juries rotate but the favourites who nearly always win something (see also Xavier Dolan & Michael Haneke) rarely vary. Despite the Cannes prize it didn't generate the usual outside of Cannes buzz as their other films often have (the Dardennes have been Oscar submitted more than another other Belgian auteurs, four times, but they've never been Oscar nominated). There was one notable prize outside of Cannes: Idir Ben Addi won "Most Promising Actor" in Belgium's annual awards, the Magrittes.

-Is this really the best time to defrost the freezer?
-Will you shut up?

The Client (1994)
Oh look. We were just celebrating the career of Joel Schumacher (RIP) and here is the only Oscar-nominated performance he directed, fresh to streaming: Susan Sarandon in The Client. Love her with a southern accent. Random confession: Had a huge crush on Anthony Edwards (debating the freezer here) in the 80s/early 90s.

[Leopard Growling]

Tarzan (1999) on Disney+
How many little boys do you think Disney's Lord of the Apes turned gay with that physique and those huge round nipples? We wrote about that film in our miniseries "Swing, Tarzan, Swing".

Only my father understood me. But they're divorced now.

Loves of a Blonde (1966) on Criterion Channel
Oscar Nominee Best Foreign Language Film! It lost to France's A Man and a Woman. The "Czech New Wave" (roughly 1962-1970) was very popular with Oscar voters and this Criterion program has all the nominees and winners from that stretch of Czech film.

-Welcome back, Isabel!
-WOOOOOO

Hollow Man (2000) on Amazon Prime
What do you suppose Elisabeth Shue had her hand on when filming this before they stuck the CGI gorilla in? Do you ever think how absolutely wild it is that the director who made Elle (2016) and Turkish Delight (1971) and Showgirls (1995) also made a bunch of sci-fi grotesqueries like Total Recall, Hollow Man, Robocop, and Starship Troopers in a 13 year stretch of time?

My employer would like a little demonstration -- just to make sure the devices do what you say.

Charlie's Angels (2019) on Hulu
Action/comedies always have such ridiculous plots, don't they? Feel so cheated that we landed on this screenshot which includes NONE of the angels.

6 Souls (2010) on Hulu
Have you ever seen this supernatural thriller with Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers? It's so bad. Frances Conroy has just slapped JRM in this scene screencapped above. The movie has gone by multiple titles and it's always bad but is still regularly streaming.