Streaming Roulette, Oct: High Life/Noon and Handfuls of Dust.

As is our practice we've selected a handful plus of new-to-streaming titles and frozen them at utterly random moments without cheating (whatever comes up comes up!). After those selections we've listed all the movies from each of the streaming channels. What should you queue up for OCTOBER 2019 ? (★ means we definitely recommend catching them and bold titles are buzzy things we haven't yet seen) 

Let's get started...

[mood music]

HIGH LIFE (2019) on Amazon Prime
Funnily enough this empty shot is exactly as I recall High Life, so much atmosphere and isolation. Humanity is over. (Except for Juliette Binoche who is just living for her disturbing role.) We expect this will end up on some top ten lists at year's end...

Where did you get the wallet?!?

FURIE (2019) on Netflix
Making my way through the Oscar submissions in the International Feature Film category. I've caught 11 of them so far. Perhaps I'll get to this one from Vietnam soon? 

Let's get down to business. You want me to stick, you put the word in for me like I said."

HIGH NOON (1952) on Hulu ★
Oh look it's daddy Bridges (pops to Jeff & Beau). I forgot he was in this because I haven't seen it in a million years and I mostly remember that real time ticking clock, the somber beauty of Gary Cooper, and the fact that robbing Katy Jurado of her Best Supporting Actress nomination caused an inferior nomination for her later on (that's how it often works). High Noon won four Oscars in one of the strangest Oscar vintages of all time... The Bad and the Beautiful won the most Oscars (5) but wasn't even nominatd for Best Picture, High Noon and Quiet Man split the type of prizes that usually go with Best Pictures  (like cinematography, direction, best actor, editing) but The Greatest show on Earth which no one respects and had only five nominations took Best Picture. So apparently that year had several passionate camps and split votting. Weird results! 

[No dialogue]

THE ACCUSED (1988) on Hulu
Wondering how this plays now, after years of vocal activism against rape culture and (one assumes) a broader understanding of the issues among the general populace. At the time the central performance was all the rage but people didn't really take to the movie itself. Of course the culture it which it arrived was much different. But half the way off-topic. Is there any other major star in the history of movies who a great number of people think deserved back-to-back Oscars and won neither of them despite nominations besides Glenn Close? The indignity of Close losing that year after two straight years of iconic star turns in hit films! Competitive Oscar lineup that year but we'd rank it like so Close (Dangerous Liaisons) > Streep (A Cry in the Dark... one of her few underrated performances) > Weaver (Gorillas in the Mist) > Griffith (Working Girl) > Foster (The Accused). But my winner that year (Susan Sarandon, Bull Durham) was not nominated. *sniffle*

I'm not going to miss the freaks in Yoorana

GLITCH SEASON 3 (2019) on Netflix
Have any of you seen this Australian series? The premise is supernatural on in which people come back to life after their deaths. They aren't zombies but fully alive again. Except they are somehow spiritually bound to the town they emerge in and die if they exit its borders. And then it turns into a soap opera of sorts with lots of romantic entanglements and personal secrets. It's actually pretty good if ridiculous. These two above were two of the better characters and that's the very beautiful Sean Keenan as "Charlie," who is the only gay character (whoops. spoiler). He's also in the upcoming True History of the Kelly Gang and he was in that very little seen Nicole Kidman movie Strangerland as well. Perhaps Hollywood will catch on to him since they love to poach Australian talent?

But she's a total zero. You don't even know her name!

SUPERGIRL (1984) on Netflix
OMG-THE-80S-FASHION! Look at Brenda Vaccaro. That outfit is almost as toomuch as Faye Dunaway's gestures. Maybe this would be a fun groupwatch? Whatcha think?

It isn't anything serious.

A HANDFUL OF DUST (1988) on HBO
oh look baby Kristin Scott Thomas. I remember seeing this when I was discovering Merchant/Ivory only it's not a Merchant/Ivory movie (in the late 80s early 90s Merchant/Ivory became shorthand for the whole costume drama wing of film... which wasn't fair to them and diminished their reputation because they're the very best at it) so I was disappointed. That said the cast is very starry: Kristin Scott Thomas, Rupert Graves, Anjelica Huston, Dame Judi Dench, Stephen Fry, Sir Alec Guiness . Perhaps I was probably too young for it at the time? Perhaps a rewatch? (in a related note, Why are there not 100 hours in each day?) FUN FACTS: This film was nominated for Costume Design only and Judi Dench won Best Supporting Actress at the BAFTAs for it.

ISN'T IT ROMANTIC (2019) on HBOGO
First time seeing this the other night when my best friend and I were both exhausted and wanting something light and silly to watch. Twas definitely light and silly. And yet... why wasn't it funnier. The concept was there -- Rebel wakes up inside her own romantic comedy and recognizes the tropes and tries to escape it. The cast is decent. The costumes alternately between totally expected (way too many Pretty Woman references -- there are other romcoms! -- and wonderfully too much... but it was kind of dull and the jokes dont always land and it probably could have been even shorter than its smartly brief runtime (89 minutes). Nevertheless we do not cheat here at streaming roulette and this is literally what we landed on after goofing with the scroll bar. It looks like shade thrown, but it's not!

Have you seen any of these pictures? What'cha think of them?

ALSO STREAMING IN OCTOBER...

• ★ Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me (1992, David Lynch
• The Connection (1961, Shirley Clarke)
• Portrait of Jason (1967, Shirley Clarke)
• Ornette: Made in America (1985, Shirley Clarke)
• Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World (1963, Shirley Clarke) 
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel)
• ★ Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)
• The Living Idol (Albert Lewin)
• The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926, Lotte Reineger)

Oct 6

• I Walked with a Zombie, Jacques Tourneur, 1943
• The Ghost Ship, Mark Robson, 1943
• ★ The Seventh Victim, Mark Robson, 1943
• The Leopard Man, Jacques Tourneur, 1943
• The Curse of the Cat People, Gunther von Frisch and Robert Wise, 1944
• Isle of the Dead, Mark Robson, 1945
• The Body Snatcher, Robert Wise, 1945
• Bedlam, Mark Robson, 1946

Oct 7

• Detour, Edgar Ulmer

Oct 8

• House (Nobuhiko Obayashi)

Oct 9

• ★ Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi)

Oct 10

• I Walk Alone, 1947
• The War of the Worlds, 1953
• Robinson Crusoe on Mars, 1964

Oct 11

• Freaks (Tod Browning)
• Multiple Maniacs (John Waters)

Oct 14

• Out of the Past, (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
• Stars in My Crown (Jacques Tourneur, 1950)

Oct 15

• Jules et Jim (François Truffaut)

Oct 16

• La Cineaga (Lucretia Martel)

Oct 17

• Following (Christopher Nolan)

Oct 18 

• ★ The Devils (Ken Russell)
• ★ Black Narcissus (Powell & Pressburger) 

Oct 19

• ★ The Blob (Irvin S Yeaworth Jr)

Oct 20

• Gates of Heaven, Errol Morris 1978
• Vernon, Florida,  Errol Morris  1981
• The Thin Blue Line,  Errol Morris 1988
• A Brief History of Time,  Errol Morris 1991
• Fast, Cheap & Out of Control,  Errol Morris 1997
• The Fog of War,  Errol Morris 2003
• Tabloid,  Errol Morris 2010

Oct 21

• ★ The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock)

Oct 22

• Fantastic Planet (Rene Laloux)

Oct 23

• Frida (2002, Julie Taymor)

Oct 24

• Kapò, Gillo Pontecorvo 1959
• The Battle of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo 1966
• Burn!, Gillo Pontecorvo 1969

Oct 25 

• ★ The Old Dark House (James Whale)
• ★ Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra)

Oct 26

• ★ Godzilla (Ishiro Honda)

Oct 27

• Carving Magic, Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1959
• Blood Feast, Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1963
• Two Thousand Maniacs!, Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1964
• Color Me Blood Red, Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1965
• The Gruesome Twosome, Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1967
• The Wizard of Gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1970
• The Gore Gore Girls, Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1972
• Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore, Frank Henenlotter and Jimmy Maslon, 2010

Oct 29

• Haxan (Benjamin Christensen)

Oct 30

• ★ A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Armipour) 

• 93 days
• A.M.I.
• Along Came a Spider
• Bad Boys
• Bad Boys II
• Blow
• Carmen Sandiego: Season 2
• ★ Charlie's Angels
• Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
• Cheese in the Trap: Season 1
• Chicago Typewriter: Season 1
• Crash
• Exit Wounds
• Furie
• Glitch Season 3
• Good Burger
• The Grandmaster
• Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay
• Honey 2
• House of the Witch
• Lagos Real Fake Life
• Men in Black II
• Moms at War
• Nikki Glaser: Bangin'
• No Reservations
• Ocean's Thirteen
• Ocean's Twelve
• One Direction: This Is Us
• Payday
• The Politician Season 1
• Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
• Scream 2
• Senna
• Signal: Season 1
• Sin City
• Sinister Circle
• Supergirl
• Superman Returns
• Surf's Up
• The Bucket List
• The Flintstones
• The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
• The Island
• The Pursuit of Happyness
• The Rugrats Movie
• The Time Traveler's Wife
• Tomorrow With You: Season 1
• ★ Trainspotting
• Troy
• Tunnel: Season 1
• Unaccompanied Minors
• Walking Out
•  Living Undocumented
•  Ready to Mingle
• Rotten: Season 2
• Seis Manos

• ★ Big Mouth Season 3
• Creeped Out Season 2
• In the Tall Grass
• Peaky Blinders Season 5
• Raising Dion

Oct 6-9

• Super Monsters Season 3
• Super Monsters: Vida's First Halloween
• Legend Quest: Masters of Myth
• Match! Tennis Juniors
• The Water Diviner
• Deon Cole: Cole Hearted
• The Spooky Tale of Captain Underpants Hack-a-ween
• After
• Rhythm + Flow

Oct 10-12

• ★ Schitt's Creek Season 5
• Ultramarine Magmell
• The Awakening of Motti Wolkenbruch
• El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
• The Forest of Love
• Fractured
• Haunted: Season 2
• Insatiable: Season 2
• La influencia
• Plan Coeur: Season 2YooHoo to the Rescue: Season 2
• Banlieusards

Oct 15-17

• Dark Crimes
• Ghosts of Sugar Land
• Sinister 2
• The Karate Kid
• Unlisted

Oct 18

• Baby: Season 2Eli
• Interior Design Masters
• The House of Flowers: Season 2
• The Laundromat
• Living With Yourself
• MeatEater: Season 8
• Mighty Little Bheem: Diwali
• Seventeen
• Spirit Riding Free: Pony Tales Collection 2
• Tell Me Who I Am
• Toon: Season 1-2
• Unnatural Selection
• Upstarts
• The Yard (Avlu)

Oct 19-22

• Men in Black
• Free Fire
• Echo in the Canyon
• Jenny Slate: Stage Fright

Oct 23-24

• Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
• Dancing with the Birds
• Master Z: Ip Man Legacy
• Daybreak
• Revenge of the pontianak

Oct 25

• A Tale of Love and Darkness
• Assimilate
• Brigada Costa del Sol
• Brotherhood
• Dolemite Is My Name
• Greenhouse Academy: Season 3
• The Kominsky Method: Season 2
• Monzon
• Nailed It! France (C'est du gâteau!)
• Nailed It! Spain (Niquelao!)
• Prank Encounters
• Rattlesnake It Takes a Lunatic

Oct 28-31

• A 3 Minute Hug
• Little Miss Sumo
• Shine On With Reese Season 1
• Arsenio Hall: Smart & Classy
• Flavorful Origins: Yunnan Cuisine
• Kengan Ashura Part 2
• Nowhere Man
• ★ Raging Bull

with Hulu we can't list TV because there's just too much of it

• A Fairly Odd Summer (2014)
• A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
• American Beauty (1999)
• An American Haunting (2006)
• Be Cool (2005)
• Beautiful Creatures (2013)
• Big Time Movie (2012)
• Blade (1998)
• Blade 2 (2002)
• Blade: Trinity (2004)
• ★ Blue Jasmine (2013)
• Blurt (2018)
• ★ Boyz N’ The Hood (1991)
• Brooklyn’s Finest (2010)
• Cadillac Man (1990)
• Cloverfield (2008)
• Constantine (2005)
• Crash (2005)
• Days of Thunder (1990)
• Dead Heat (2002)
• Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2012)
• Eagle Vs. Shark (2007)
• ★ Election (1999)
• Event Horizon (1997)
• ★ Face/Off (1997)
• Fled (1996)
• Forces of Nature (1999)
• Get Shorty (1995)
• ★ Ghost World (2001)
• Hellraiser (1987)
• Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)
• Hellraiser IV: Bloodline (1996)
• Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie (2017)
• ★ High Noon (1952)
• Hoosiers (1986)
• I Spit on Your Grave (2011)
• I Spit on Your Grave 2 (2013)
• I Spit on Your Grave 3 (2015)
• Impostor (2001)
• Into the Blue (2005)
• ★ Kalifornia (1993)
• Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector (2006)
• Little Black Book (2004)
• Love Crimes (1992)
• Major League II (1994)
• Miami Group Murder (2018)
• Mousehunt (1997)
• Much Ado About Nothing (2013)
• Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)
• Never Back Down (2008)
• No Way Out (1987)
• North Dallas Forty (1979)
• One Direction: This Is Us (2013)
• Patriot Games (1992)
• Permanent Midnight (1998)
• Pieces of April (2003)
• Platoon (1986)
• Play it Again, Sam (1972)
• Primal Fear
• Project Nim (2011)
• Rain Man (1988)
• ★ Rango
• Rent (2005)
• Saturday Night Fever (1977)
• Saw (2004)
• Saw 2 (2005)
• Saw 6 (2009)
• ★ School Ties (1992)
• Set Up (2011)
• ★ Sixteen Candles (1984)
• Snakes on a Plane (2006)
• Sneakerheadz (2015)
• Split Decisions (1988)
• Stargate (1994)
• Surf’s Up (2007)
• Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990)
• Teen Spirit
• The Accused (1988)
• ★ The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)
• The Conspirator (2010)
• The Haunting (1999)
• The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)
• The Hunted (2003)
• The Killer Next Door (2018)
• The Naked Gun 2 1/2 : The Smell of Fear (1991)
• The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
• The Orphanage (2007)
• The Peacemaker (1997)
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)
• ★ The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
• ★ The Wrestler (2008)
• Total Recall (1990)
• Trading Mom (1994)
• True Colors (1991)
• True Grit (1969)
• ★ Up in the Air (2009)
• Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)
• Varsity Blues (1999)
• Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000 (2000)
• ★ What Lies Beneath (2000)
• ★ Winter’s Bone (2010)
• ★ Witness (1985)
• Amazing Grace (2019)
• Pegasus: Pony with a Broken Wing (2019)

Oct 7-9

• ★ Missing Link (2019)
• Megan Leavey (2017)

Oct 11-17

• Little Monsters (2019)
• Trespassers (2019)
• The Last Face (2017)
• Little Woods (2019)
• Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (2019)

Oct 18-23

• Wounds (2019)
• The Ladybug (2018)
• Benjamin (2019)
• Castle Rock: season 2 Premiere 

Oct 26

• Killing Zoe

• A.I. Artificial Intelligence
• Astro Boy
• Glorifying the American Girl
• Hoosiers
• Patriot Games
• The Great Gabbo
• Rango
• Transparent (musical finale)
• High Life (Claire Denis)
• Goliath Season 3

Oct 18

• Kill Chain
• Modern Love Season 1

Oct 26

• Killing Zoe

Oct 28

• Nobody's Fool 
• Unforgotten Season 3

Oct 30

• In Search of Greatness 

not a complete listing. just the movies and series premieres

• Diego Maradona (2019)
• Kid (2018)
• ★ A Handful of Dust, 1988
• ★ Black Swan, 2010
• Bounce, 2000
• The Fourth Kind, 2009
• George of the Jungle, 1997
• Green Lantern (Extended Version), 2011
• Gulliver’s Travels, 2010
• Happy Death Day, 2017
• ★ Hedwig and the Angry Inch, 2001
• I.Q.,1994
• Isn't It Romantic (2019)
• The Indian in the Cupboard, 1995
• It’s Kind of a Funny Story, 2010
• Judge Dredd, 1995
• Kiss of Death, 1995
• Madagascar, 2005
• Men of Honor, 2000
• ★ Moulin Rouge!, 2001
• The Object of My Affection, 1998
• Open Range, 2003
• Season of the Witch, 2011
• Sky High, 2005
• The 33, 2015
• Three Fugitives, 1989
• War of the Worlds, 2005
• Cold Pursuit (2019)

Oct 8-12

• Upgrade (2018)
• Torn Apart: Separated at the Border
• Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

Oct 20

• Watchmen (SERIES PREMIERE)
• Glass (2019)

Oct 26-27

• Greta (2019)
• Mrs Fletcher (LIMITED SERIES PREMIERE)
• Silicon Valley (SEASON 6 PREMIERE)

Comments

[Patrick T]

I’m not sure Diana Scarwid was in Supergirl. Or did I misunderstand?

Great research otherwise, as usual!!

[markgordonuk]

Me to that's Brenda Vaccaro as her gal pal Bianca.

1988 was a very competitive year no Sarandon no Rowlands no Curtis,are you saying Close should have won over Cher in 87,she is 2nd to Cher on my ballot,Foster worse than Griffith that I can't buy,sometimes Foster pushes too hard but she sells the fragility and you totally believe she's working class and she has a fabulous bond with Kelly McGillis.

Close is no 1 for me in 88 but am mystified as to how Weaver lost both categories that night cos Davis's win hasn't aged well,on a rewatch 2 weeks ago the film tells us she's a kook and that's it,would you have been ok with a Weaver Best Actress win instead of supporting and instead of Foster.

The film for me today poses interesting questions but lingers for far too long on the actual rape and McGillis is a bit 1 note but is watchable.

[Travis C]

I stuck with "Glitch" for two series. I always had the feeling that it wasn't quite as successful as it wanted to be in terms of execution of the story, but the story itself kept me wanting to know what happened next.

However, I recently watched the first episode of Season 3, and got the strong feeling that it was just going to piss all my commitment up the wall with ridiculous plots and potential unsatisfactory conclusions. So I called it a day and didn't watch any more.

[Suzanne]

The 1988 Best Actress race is the topic that will never die.

The best things on streaming right now are in the "Val Lewton Presents" and "Pre-Code Barbara Stanwyck" themes on the Criterion Channel. Almost all of the films presented are 90 minutes or less and fantastic.

[Peggy Sue]

Diana Scarwid was in a lot of stinkers but that's Brenda Vaccaro.

[Gwen]

Saw High Noon - Amazing! It's in my top 100 favorites. Each time is like the first. You really care about poor Gary! One of my favorite actors and the king of subtlety and interiorization. And Grace Kelly in one year(Mogambo) improved her performance 300%. Here she is inexpressive. And Katy Jurado really robbed.
Lana Turner was also robbed of a leading actress nomination in The Bad and The Beautiful. In my top 100 too. That car scene is awesome! The second best movie about movies(the first everybody knows what it is).
I also saw The Greatest Show on Earth, beautiful, fun and touching. Full of interesting characters and a great cast, each one with their own problems a la Altman.
Supergirl was my first time with The Dunaway, I was a kid, it was on TV and I never saw it again. I remember the handsome Hart Bochner who becomes the object of the villain's desire. (I saw him in other things later).I need to rewatch.
The Accused, the rape scene is striking and for a teenage girl like I was, seeing for the first time, terrifying. You no longer want to leave home or talk to men - including those in your family. AMPAS gave Foster two Oscars and she soon became disinterested in the movies ... Oh, Glenn ...

[Jonathan]

I really did not like "High Life." It feels like Denis in a rut, driving her elliptical style and fixation on bodily abjection into the ground.

[/3rtful]

Genevieve Bujold feels like a borderline lead performance in Dead Ringers (1988).

[Rebecca]

I watched "The Accused" as part of a class to qualify for working on a women's crisis line around 2001, the movie is very upsetting.

[NATHANIEL R]

everyone -- i apologize. of course that's Brenda Vaccaro and of course i should know better since i have written about both of them before and have even met Brenda (who is fabulous in person)... but i was clearly having dementia today so...

[forever1267]

The Group Watches are always fun, and "Supergirl" could be a hoot! Divas in 80's fashion! What could go wrong?

[ScottC]

A Handful of Dust was enjoyable enough, but it was released, as you note, around a lot of similar and better films. Although maybe I’m a bit unfairly down on it because the story is so sad.

Isn’t It Romantic was pleasant but that was about it.