Watch at Home: Never look away from ball culture while synchronized swimming
Wednesday, May 15, 2019 at 8:00AM Nathaniel R giving you the heads up on what's available to you now to screen at home.
New on DVD/Blu-Ray
• Fighting With My Family - Rising star Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth) leads the ensemble in this film about a female wrestler
• Her Smell - Elisabeth Moss won raves for playing a punkrock addict in this indie with a riot grrrl style soundtrack.
• Never Look Away - the least discussed and last-released nominee for last year's historically popular Foreign Film competition at the Oscars (all five were hits which just about never happens)
Also new: Liam Neeson in Cold Pursuit, the popular documentary Apollo 11, and the horror flick Happy Death Day 2 U. New to streaming after the jump...
No need to cover her, I'm taking her home.
Shéhérazade (2018) on Netflix
This French film about a juvenile deliquent on the mean streets of Marseilles won three Cesars recently, all for its newness (Most Promising Actress, Most Promising Actor, Best First Film)
Everywhere throughout the civilized world, people know this street. Broadway, the longest street in the world.
Bathtubs Over Broadway (on Netflix)
I kept hearing that this documentary on the strange world of "industrial films" is a delight so I watched it last night. It's cute and intermittently quite funny but it does outstay its welcome a bit with repetition and turning so soft with sentimentality -- an odd choice for a movie about corporate musicals extolling the wonders of technology and the thrills or rising profits. Still, the clips of the musicals in question are amazing, and the finale is a corny joy. This doc was recently nominated for a Chita Rivera Award.
-What if a House challenges another House to a dance to the death and you lose?
-Ooooh, it would be all over. You're sent away. Forever banished.
Pose (Season 1) on Netflix
School the children, Pray Tell (Billy Porter), school the children. Billy Porter is a treasure, we can all agree, yes? Sometimes with this series (and even with RuPaul's Drag Race to a lesser extent) it's a shock how much is just lifted wholesale, quote-wise from Paris is Burning (1990). Raise your hands if you didn't realize that it hasn't been up for any Emmys yet (*raises his own hand*). It turns out it premiered just after the cut off last year so even though it now feels really old it is brand new to Emmy when they go to vote on their nominations in June. Do you think it will nab a slew of them or will the fact that it premiered a whole year ago be a hindrance?
I wondered where I fitted in.
Swimming with Men (2018) on Hulu
This synchronizing swimming comedy (also nominated for a Chita Rivera Award) sounds like an aquatic Full Monty or that Sink or Swim movie that was up for all the Cesars in France this past awards season. But, look, so many wonderful British actors just in this one shot (hi Daniel Mays with towel. Hi Jim Carter shirtless -- Downton Abbey's Carson would not approve of his doppelganger's lack of modesty. HI RUPERT GRAVES, OUR FOREVER YOUNG CRUSH OF "A ROOM WITH A VIEW" FAME. YOU'RE STILL PERFECT AT 55 YEARS YOUNG)
also...
• Jailbirds, Dry Martini, Insidious, Queen of the South - S3, Wine Country, Malibu Rescue, Weed the People (Netflix)
• Agents of SHIELD - S6, Driver X, Funny Cow, Claws -S2 (Hulu)
• Sneaky Pete - S3, Action Point (Prime)
• My Dad Wrote a Porno, Night School (HBO)
ICYMI -- what was new to streaming in early May (the full list)
Reader Comments (1)
SWIMMING WITH MEN is a homophobic (a couple of jokes based on the old "oh you thought I was gay, well I'm not and I am now uncomfortable with your brazen effeminate-ness"), cliched, unfunny, anachronistic mess of a film.
If the idea of a comedy-drama based on men facing middle-aged depression who join a synchronised swimming team appeals to you, then seek out the French version SINK OR SWIM (mentioned above) instead. It understands the poignancy and humour of THE FULL MONTY much much better than that English atrocity of a film.