Stream This: The Verdict, Black Widow, Holding the Man, and More.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 5:32PM In the effort to stay au courant we'll alternate between Netflix and Amazon Prime for streaming news, last chance viewings and newly available. We'll freeze frame select titles at random places just for fun and see what image comes up - you know how we do.
LAST CHANCE NETFLIX
-A present? Nice. It looks just like our horse
-Should I bring it inside?
-It'd be rude not to.
Mr Peabody and Sherman (2014, expires August 11th)
A little Trojan War humor for you there. Critics were marginally kind but our own Tim Brayton said...
here we are, with the latest in a long line of remakes that simultaneously gloss up, flatten, and embalm an old classic that needs none of those thing.
So moving on with 9 more titles after the jump...
[screams and gasps]
Inside Man (2006, expires August 16th)
Uff, this is such a good Spike Lee joint, however atypical. We revisited the picture earlier this year for its 10th anniversary. Eric wrote:
The most interesting thing about the film ten years ago was that Spike Lee was doing a studio picture at all, his first unabashedly commercial film. It was a for-hire job for a director usually accustomed to building and directing personal films. The result still feels electrifying...
-Working undercover?
- It's a full service job.
Charlie's Angels (2000, expires August 15th)
Awww, I miss Drew Barrymore. Do you?
NEW TO NETLIX
You have a very beautiful home.
Black Widow (1987)
Not to be confused with Marvel Studios' Black Widow (2037). In the 1987 film Debra Winger is an FBI agent suspecting Theresa Russell's Crimped Hair of multiple murders. I remember NOTHING about this movie but I saw it when it came out because it was Debra Winger and that's what young actressexuals did in the 80s.
God help you if you're a poofter or a junkie or a prostitute.
Holding the Man (2015)
Oooh, wanna see this one. It's an LGBT Australian drama that was up for several Australian Oscars last year against Mad Max Fury Road and The Dressmaker. The only actor I recognize in the image above is Sarah Snook who has kind of exploded out of the gate (at least in Australia) this past year or so via Predestination, Holding the Man, The Dressmaker, and Steve Jobs. Next up for Snooks is Glass Castle from the director of Short Term 12 opposite Brie Larson, Naomi Watts and Woody Harrelson.
-Do you know who I am, boy?
-You're like the Justin Timberlake of Japan?
Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Remember when this franchise was not something that grossed a billion dollars worldwide? And when Lucas Black hadn't given up on being a movie star and accepted that NCIS job?
For the rest of my life I could never be as sorry about anything as what I did to you.
Pay It Forward (2000)
Helen Hunt is apologizing to Haley Joel Osment about something or other. I forget what. Little Haley Joel could do childhood heart hurt better than anyone. I have no memory of this movie other than that Kevin Spacey was annoying and I think Jim 'Jesus' Caviezel was homeless?
The teacher/student relationship is a very complex one. You have to be friendly and yet keep your distance at the same time.
Teacher's Pet (1958)
Clark Gable pretending to be a night school student to land teacher Doris Day. Why not!? Romantic comedies need outlandish plots.
Constable, you have not asked me how I hurt my hand since yesterday. Which would have been polite.
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Back when Tim Burton movies were still great. Back when Johnny Depp was still exciting to watch. Back when Miranda Richardson was cast with more regularity and always delivered. (Miranda is 58 now. I look forward to her sixtysomething years because perhaps the movies will have use of her again in larger roles? The cinema is so weird about women and part of that weirdness is their refusal to look at actresses between, say, 45 and 60. After 60 you can sometimes swing back into demand for the grande dame, the savvy elderly professional or society player, or the warm granny roles.)
Take it easy, okay, okay.
The Verdict (1982)
Paul Newman is having a time in the tense acclaimed drama that received 5 top Oscar nominations. 1982's Best Actor race was so BIG.
Also New:
The American Side (2016)
An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
APEX: The Story of the Hypercar (2016)
Beethoven's Christmas Adventure (2011)
Big Daddy (1999)
The Confirmation (2016) on August 6th
Critical Condition (1987)
Deadfall (2012)
Destination: Team USA (2016)
Funny or Die Presents: Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie (2016)
The Family Man (2000)
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
Final Destination 3 (2006)
Flight of the Butterflies (2012) on August 11th
From the Terrace (1960) this left Netflix 3 months ago and now its back. Weird
Holding the Man (2015)
How to Win the U.S. Presidency (2016)
In the Shadow of the Moon (2007)
ISIS: Women Unveiled (2016)
The Little Prince (2016) on August 5th
Memoria (2015)
The Naked Prey (1966)
No Country For Old Men (2007) on August 11th
Punks Dead: SLC Punk 2 (2016) on August 5th
The Real Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
Sliding Doors (1998)
St. Vincent (2014) on August 10th
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
T-Rex (2015) on August 9th
The Wedding Planner (2001)
What Women Want (2000)
Young@Heart (2007)
Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)
Reader Comments (20)
I just bought Black Widow on dvd,Spooky.
Nat: Dude, they'll probably do a Black Widow movie. Maybe (If Doctor Strange isn't successful enough to justify it) taking the November 2019 slot that they'll almost certainly announce, but definitely somewhere between that slot and one of the 2021 slots.
Pay It Forward--ok, I will. Don't watch this movie.
Black Widow is iresistible camp. Awesome tag line--"she mates. she kills."
One of the greatest Oscar travesties is Paul not winning for The Verdict. Fucking brilliant.
Black Widow is one of those movies that was always on TV when I was a kid but I've never seen it. I know Winger is the most accomplished of its cast, but Theresa Russell has done some pretty interesting work. Any particular thoughts on her?
I miss Drew Barrymore as well! I can't wait for her Netflix series to come out next year. She has a juicy role, apparently. I still need to watch Miss You Already as well.
I need to see BLACK WIDOW in the way that I love/hate movies like that. I'm thinking of stuff like PACIFIC HEIGHTS. '80s trash thrillers are the best.
HOLDING THE MAN is so good. I recommend everybody see it, obviously.
I saw Holding the Man for the first time a week ago and I must say I haven't responded to a film like it for a long time. I've seen it six times since and each time I'm a blubbering mess each time. While the film does have its flaws (a couple of strange time shifts), it's incredibly compelling, particularly knowing where the story will inevitably lead. I'm editing my best of 2015 to put it joint first with BROOKLYN.
Definitely one to watch as soon as you can, Nathaniel!
There should be a recall, and Paul Newman should win the Oscar for The Verdict posthumously.
No, that Oscar should be Hoffman's for Tootsie.
Hoffman should have lost his Kramer vs Kramer Oscar to Roy Scheider in All That Jazz.
Paul Newman should have won for The Hustler, in spite of the fact the year he gave he best performance ever, in Hud, he was not the best of the year because of Richard Harris in This Sporting Life.
Sidney Poitier should have won for In The Heat of the Night instead of Roy Steiger.
Black Widow -- "I saw it when it came out because it was Debra Winger and that's what young actressexuals did in the 80s."
LOL and Amen
The preview for Black Widow always seemed to be on every video we rented from the late 80s. That and The Bedroom Window.
I have quite an affinity for Black Widow. The costumes (muted browns and greens to denote a dreary government life, black for death, bright red for passion and sexy killing ... ha!). The lesbian subtext ("Can I borrow your hair? What about your hairdresser?" ... the "kiss" between Winger and Russell). The quick cuts. Diane Ladd camping it up with those long fingernails. I mean ... what is not to love. I think it is a great movie.
Nathaniel, Miranda Richardson has just finished filming two quite interesting roles (or so it seems). She's playing Jake Gyllenhaal's mum in the Boston bombing drama Stronger, and she's also Churchill's wife in Churchill with Brian Cox, both expected next year.
So maybe that resurgence will come quicker than anticipated!
Adam Lewis -- True! Oh, the memories!
I must disagree, cal, Maximillian Schell deserved his Oscar, as did Poitier, as did Steiger.
OMG--Black Widow. I saw this in the theaters and was fascinated by the relationship between Russell's and Winger's characters. And for every movie/TV show James Wong did after that, I always flashed back to him as that creepy drug-addict PI.
Seeing that pic with Drew, why doesn't Sam Rockwell get more roles? He is such an interesting actor.
Yes, Paul Newman should have won the Oscar in 1982.
I remember finding Pay It Forward hilariously awful when HBO was running it nonstop in the early aughts. Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt did not exactly make a convincing romantic couple.
1982: Is it the best lineup for best actor in Oscar history? Maybe. No questionable or inferior performance anywhere.
cash, it is a formidable lineup. I hate that Albert Finney wasn't nominated for Shoot the Moon. But who would be removed? A puzzlement.
"Black Widow" is such a strange movie. If only they had gone a little further with the lesbian subtext, and who was the casting director who chose that guy to be the man to come between the two of them? It's such an odd choice, and very, very far from conventional.