weekend watchlist: the warring voices inside women's heads
plus a not-satire about America, and a satire about a British TV show that doesn't exist
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
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better depiction of the internal monologue that many, perhaps most, modern women have with ourselves than how the 2019 Canadian indie Mouthpiece handles it: it deploys the audacious conceit of having two women play Cassandra, a 30-year-old Toronto writer, in the 48 hours between when she learns that her mother has died and when she delivers the eulogy at her mother’s funeral. Actors Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava developed this story as a play, and then worked with director Patricia Rozema to adapt for the screen in what feels like an incredible act of generosity all around: among artists and creators, among women young and older. The space that Mouthpiece gives to Cassandra’s emotional and psychological struggle with the world and with her relationship with her mother is extraordinary, poignant, vulnerable, and so damn refreshing. Women are so rarely heard with such candor. (Read my review.)
US: streaming on Mubi, including on Mubi on Amazon Prime (7-day free trial); available for rent or purchase on Apple TV
UK: streaming on Mubi, including on Mubi on Amazon Prime (7-day free trial); streaming free for Prime members; also available for rent or purchase on Prime and Apple TV
In case you missed last weekend’s watchlist:
where to stream (almost) every Oscar nominee
(my Oscar prognostications coming tomorrow!)
US
Prime/Apple hidden gem
Take a movie like Close Encounters of the Third Kind or Starman, slow down its final act, and put its primary players under an emotional microscope: that’s what Midnight Special is doing. The always riveting Michael Shannon stars as a dad on the run with his very special young son from the religious cult that has some strange ideas about him, and from the government agent (Adam Driver) who has some urgent national-security questions for the kid. This is an intensely gripping drama — full of smart, thoughtful, personal twists on some familiar science-fiction ideas — about the driving forces of paranoia and self-preservation, but also about the power of love and hope. (Read my review.)
available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
HBO Max hidden gem
Hugh Jackman is at the peak of his powers as the school-district superintendent of a well-off suburb of New York City where things are not running as smoothly or with quite the financial prudence as they appear. A laugh-until-you-cry dramedy burlesque, brilliantly structured and horrifically compelling, Bad Education feels like satire, but it really happened. This is a true story about one instance that highlights some ugly truths about America: that what passes for an economy is nothing but endless grift, and that just about everything is broken, even the stuff that looks like it’s working great. (Read my review.)
streaming on HBO Max; also available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
UK
new on Disney+
You remember Mindhorn, don’t you? The hit 80s British detective show about the detective with the bionic eye that could “see truth”? Mindhorn the movie is a wonderfully silly sendup of fandom and nostalgia that might half convince you this was a real show. Its washed-up star, Richard Thorncroft (Julian Barratt, of comedy troupe The Mighty Boosh), is a talentless hack with delusions of celebrity grandeur who can’t get a gig these days… until a murderer on the loose taunts police with telephone calls during which he insists that he will talk only to Detective Mindhorn, whom he appears to think is a real person. Cue Thorncroft! From the goofy action sequences to the oh-so-80s opening credits — presented in the film with all the charming distortions of an old, overloved VHS recording — Mindhorn is an absolute hoot. (Read my review.)
streaming on Disney+; also available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
new on Netflix
It was the very first movie I recommended in my very first Weekend Watchlist at the beginning of the year, and now the terrific Boiling Point is free on Netflix for your high-wire streaming pleasure. This one-take, one-location wonder stars the always brilliant Stephen Graham in a glorious uncut 90-minute meltdown as the head chef and part owner at a trendy restaurant in east London. Documentary-esque but even more immediate, it’s simultaneously intimate and explosive, an unexpectedly nail-biting thrill. (Read my review.)
streaming on Netflix; 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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Mouthpiece sounds really interesting - I will check it out! It reminds me of a much earlier production, a play written by Alice Gerstenberg in 1916. It's out of copyright now, and you cn read it at:
https://www.one-act-plays.com/dramas/overtones.html
I love this play so much I have staged it on-stage twice, and also featured it at play-readings. It features Harriet/Hetty and Margaret/Maggie - two sides of the two women.
Alice wote a hige number oif plays, most of them now forgotten. I have staged several of them as I love her work. She was an activist, not just a playwrite!