weekend watchlist: the unbearable wait for massive success
plus a subtle dystopia and a subtle nervous breakdown
Don’t spend hours scrolling the menus at Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other movie services. I point you to the best new films and hidden gems to stream.
Movies included here may be available on services other than those mentioned, and in other regions, too. JustWatch and Reelgood are great for finding which films are on what streamers; you can customize each site so that it shows you only those services you have access to.
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both sides of the pond
The always delightful Andrew Garfield earned an Oscar nomination this year for his performance in tick, tick… BOOM! — and it was well deserved. He’s wonderfully engaging in this rock musical about the creative trials and tribulations of composer Jonathan Larson, based on the one-man stage show written by Larson himself. He would go on to write the genre-busting, critically acclaimed, long-running stage musical Rent, but this earlier work is a bittersweet wail that captures his struggles as an artist in late-80s/early-90s New York City. (The title is an allusion to the clock he hears counting down to his imminent 30th birthday, which feels like an important deadline for him to achieve something.) This film is also the directorial debut of Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of In the Heights and Hamilton; its his tribute to one of his creative inspirations. The fact that Larson died, unexpectedly, aged only 35, literally the night before Rent’s off-Broadway premiere, and so never knew what a phenomenon his work would become, renders this all the more poignant.
globally: streaming on Netflix
US
leaving HBO Max soon
After you’ve enjoyed Andrew Garfield in tick, tick… BOOM!, check out one of his early performances in the quietly chilling low-key sci-fi drama Never Let Me Go, from 2010. Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, this is science fiction for people who think they don’t like science fiction, set in a dystopia in which no one understands they’re living in a dystopia. This is a movie about culture as brainwashing and human awareness of our mortality wrapped up in a tale of cloned young people raised to be organ donors for their much older progenitors (although we glean all of this mostly through subtext). Featuring excellent performances by Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan, this is a gorgeously delicate, exquisitely lovely film that it’s also completely horrific. (Read my review.)
streaming on HBO Max through April 30th; also available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
Hulu hidden gem
An article in the Guardian today (via my critical colleague Anne Billson) about Sigurður Hjartarson, proprietor of The Icelandic Phallological Museum, reminded me of the funny and enlightening documentary about him and his work, The Final Member. From my 2014 review:
[T]he museum has a specimen on display from every mammal that can be found in Iceland… all but one, that is. Hjartarson needs a homo sapiens penis to see his life’s work finished. This is not so easy. While none of the penises on display, from a hamster’s to a whale’s, have come from animals that were killed for the museum or because of the museum, gathering those specimens was nevertheless comparatively simple.
I’m glad to hear that, eight years on, Hjartarson is still around, and still pursing his dream. (Read my review.)
streaming on Hulu; also available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
UK
new on Disney+
I admit that I was initially skeptical about a miniseries about antifeminist fundie-Christian American activist Phyllis Schlafly, particularly if she was being portrayed by Cate Blanchett, goddess and cinematic force of nature, precisely because I did not want to see this awful excuse for a woman portrayed in any way that was sympathetic. But I was won over by Mrs America, because it is very much about exploring what makes a woman turn against her own self-interest, her own humanity. And for all that this is set in 1970s and early 80s America, there is so much that continues to apply to politics and cultural today, and beyond the United States. (Read my review.)
streaming on Disney+; also streaming on BBC iPlayer
new on Mubi
There’s a big movie opening this weekend about people who love movies — *cough* The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent *cough* — and it’s fine. But here’s one that is infinitely better: Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter. Weirdly funny and weirdly sad, this is one woman’s slo-mo nervous breakdown, tied up in her fandom of the film Fargo. The beautifully subtle central performance by Rinko Kikuchi — who made an impressive appearance in 2018’s Pacific Rim: Uprising and is currently appearing in the HBO Max series Tokyo Vice, soon to debut in the UK on Starzplay, and airing later this year on the BBC — transforms this into an exercise in pathos that is unforgettably poignant. (Read my review.)
streaming on Mubi; also available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
find lots more movies to stream at Flick Filosopher
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