Streaming Roulette, September ...now with Criterion Channel!

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 SEPTEMBER 2019 ?(★ means we definitely recommend catching them.)

OH and also we're very excited to announce that we have added THE CRITERION CHANNEL to this monthly roundup because good god but it's worth the money. Ready? Here we go...

Boy. Boy. Will you come with me?

Jungle Book (1942) on Criterion Channel
True embarrassing story: I've never seen this Korda brothers film which was the first complete movie adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's book (though there were earlier films using portions of it) and it's got to be better than the subsequent versions, nearly all of which I have seen of this oft-regurgitated story. It was nominated for four Oscars: Cinematography (losing to Black Swan though this image above makes me want to restart our Hit Me With Your Best Shot series), Art Direction (losing to My Gal Sal), Special Effects, and Score

Anyway, this is the finish. Me and showbiz. 

Darling (1965) ★ BEST ACTRESS OSCAR WINNER
Oh Julie. You say that but you never really mean it. Or at least we hope you never really mean it. You have been gone for way too long this last bout of retirement though (7 years now, noooo). COME BACK TO THE MOVIE THEATER, JULIE CHRISTIE JULIE CHRISTIE.

Why don't you come over here with me and lie down?

Sliver (1993)
You don't have to ask us twice Billy Baldwin!!! Remember this quick follow up to Basic Instinct (1992) with Sharon Stone involved with her pervy voyeuristic landlord? We miss the long-dead genre of the erotic thriller and really wish they'd have a comeback. Imagine how much sexier these movies could be now that there's more understanding of the male gaze and we might get a movie that's more gazey for everyone. Baldwin was that rare actor that could (theoretically) match Sharon Stone's florid sexual heat onscreen but the camera is mostly content to ogle just her save for a few random shots like this one, where the movie considers being horny for the both of them simultaneously before quickly retreating.

This task was appointed to you, Frodo of the Shire.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) on Netflix
Galadriel's french tips! I used to argue that this was the best of the LotR trilogy but now many moons later they all truly blur together like one season of a really expensive fantasy show. I don't remember them well at all. Fair or not the existence of the The Hobbit trilogy really dampened enthusiasm for these as classics. At least chez moi but I suspect chez others, too. 

Disaster!

Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (season 1) on Netflix
A bit puzzled by the breathless raves thus far. On the visual imagination scale it's a wonder (thankfully) but for one small detail: it's perplexing that the pilot introduces us to three separate important female gelflings of roughly the same age from three separate tribes. They're ALL blonde with the same hairdo! This seems akin to those CW or WB shows back in the day where every girl would be a brunette with the same-ish hairdo. What gives? You want your characters to read visually as their own entities! Since the gelflings faces aren't super expressive (puppetry limitations) this reads like a significant misstep. At first I chalked it up to "well, perhaps all female gelflings are blonde in the same way that all female gelflings have wings... only to then notice in the crowd scenes that gelflings come in multiple hair colors. Curious. And perhaps I'm a purist (i grew up on an obsessed over the 1982  The Dark Crystal and was briefly convinced I was going to grow up to be a puppeteer) but I don't like the change in narrative that the Skeksis are from another planet... and that their appear to be no "mystics" or UrRu, their polar opposite counterparts in the film, as those singing/droning pacificist were my favourites from the original film. Both of these details disrupt the otherwise very bold and not at all subtextual liberal politics about the opressive evil of the ruling class and the way the general populace works against their own interests having been hoodwinked by those in power. If the ruling class are aliens and not distortions brought on by our own basist instincts, it kills some of the power of the messaging. But I'm only one and a half episodes in so perhaps it improves rapidly?

I don't like checks. 

The Amityville Horror (1979) on Hulu
For some reason, as a non-horror-buff, I was under the impression that this was a major classic so I was surprised to read in Jason's well received new series "Great Moments in Horror Actressing" that this film isn't very good. It must have been the box office success (the second biggest hit of its year, behind just Kramer vs Kramer) confused for quality. But love this random streaming roulette shot we landed upon with Margot Kidder peaking through the door at an altercation between her husband and someone he owes money.

-Where did Craig go?

- Well Gorbachev is downstairs. So McDermott went to sign a peace treaty between the United States and Russia.

American Psycho (2000) on Netflix
This is the "What do you do? / Murders and Executions, mostly" scene. It's so easy to forget how loaded the American Psycho cast is (Witherspoon, Dafoe, Theroux, Leto, Sevigny, Josh Lucas who they're talking about in the dialogue above, etcetera) when Christian Bale's indelible Patrick Bateman hogs so much of the cultural real estate. If you ever doubt the ability of a movie you happen to love at the moment that other people don't care about to become an inarguable classic later on, just think of this one and have hope. It was only a modest success in theaters, received mixed reviews, and no major awards play (an NBR special citation, an OFCS nomination for Bale and of course some Film Bitch citations right here but that was about the extent of it) and much of the discourse was about how it would have been a bigger hit if Leonardo DiCaprio hadn't bailed. (The latter is probably true and also utterly beside the point as it would not have become the classic it is without the magic combo of Mary Harron in the director's chair and Christian Bale staring into the abyss of Patrick Bateman's reflection.) And now look at it. Everyone knows it. Quite a lot of people love it. And it's mostly way more people than any of the Best Picture nominees or blockbusters from that year now.

ALSO STREAMING IN SEPTEMBER...

• A Kind of Loving (1962, John Schlesinger)
• Billy Liar (1963, John Schlesinger) 
• Darling (1965, John Schlesinger) ★ OSCAR WINNER BEST ACTRESS
• Midnight Cowboy (1969, John Schlesinger) ★ OSCAR WINNER BEST PICTURE
• Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971, John Schlesinger) 4 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
• Marathon Man (1976, John Schlesinger) 1 OSCAR NOMINATION
• Honky Tonk Freeway (1981, John Schlesinger)
• The Falcon and the Snowman (1975, John Schlesinger)
• The Wicked Lady (1945, Leslie Arliss)
• Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951, Albert Lewin)
• La Haine (1995, Mathiue Kassovitz) ★ 
• Sweetie (1989, Jane Campion) 

Sept 2

• Modern Times (1936, Charles Chaplin)
• The Man in the White Suit (1951, Alexander Mackendrick) 1 OSCAR NOMINATION
• Mon Oncle (1958, Jacques Tati) ★ OSCAR FOREIGN FILM WINNER

Sept 3

• Kaili Blues (2015, Bi Gan)

Sept 4 

• A Dry White Season (1989, Euzhan Palcy) 1 OSCAR NOMINATION 

Sept 5 

• Beauty and the Beast (1946, Jean Cocteau) ★
• Orpheus (1946, Jean Cocteau) 

Sept 6

• Late Spring (1949, Yasujiro Ozu)
• 35 Shots of Rum (2008, Claire Denis)

Sept 7

• A Hard Day's Night (1964, Richard Lester) 2 OSCAR NOMINATIONS

Sept 8

• The Grand Illusion (1937, Jean Renoir) ★ 1 OSCAR NOMINATION
• Brute Force (1947, Jules Dassin)
• Raw Deal (1948, Anthony Mann)
• Stalag 17 (1953, Billy Wilder) OSCAR WINNER BEST ACTOR
• A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson, 1956)
• Le Trou (Jacques Becker, 1960)
• Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 1981)
• Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch, 1986)

Sept 9

• David Lynch: The Art Life (2016, documentary)

Sept 10 

• Touki Bouki (1973, Djibril Diop Mambety)

Sept 11

• Harlan County USA (1976, Barbara Kopple) OSCAR WINNER BEST DOCUMENTARY

Sept 13

• Oh! What a Lovely War (1969, Richard Attenborough)
• Sparrows Can't Sing (1963, Joan Littlewood)

Sept 14

• Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray)

Sept 15

• Perfect Understanding (1933, Cyril Gardner)
• Fire Over England (1937, William K Howard)
• Wuthering Heights (1939, William Wyler) ★ 8 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
• That Hamilton Woman (1941, Alexander Korda)
• 49th Parallel (1941, Michael Powell)
• Henry V (1944, Laurence Olivier)
• Hamlet (1948, Laurence Olivier) ★ OSCAR WINNER BEST PICTURE
• Richard III (1955, Laurence Olivier) 1 OSCAR NOMINATION
• The Entertainer (1960, Tony Richardson) 1 OSCAR NOMINATION
• War Requiem (1989, Derek Jarman)

Sept 16

• Tanner '88 (1988, Robert Altman)

Sept 17

• Come and See (1985, Elem Klimov)

Sept 18 

• White Material (2009, Claire Denis) ★

Sept 20

• Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949, Robert Hamer)
• The Ruling Class (1972, Peter Medak) 1 OSCAR NOMINATION

Sept 21

• No Greater Glory (1934, Frank Borzage)

Sept 24

• Viridiana (1961, Luis Buñuel)

Sept 25

• The Seduction of Mimi (1972, Lina Wertmüller)
• Love and Anarchy (1973, Lina Wertmüller)
• All Screwed up (1974 Lina Wertmüller)
• Swept Away (1974 Lina Wertmüller)
• Seven Beauties (1975 Lina Wertmüller) ★ 4 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
• Summer Night (1986 Lina Wertmüller)
• Ferdinando and Carolina (1999, Lina Wertmüller)
• Behind the White Glasses (2015 documentary)

Sept 26

• Yella (2007, Christian Petzold)
• Jerichow (2008, Christian Petzold)
• Barbara (2012, Christian Petzold)
• Phoenix (2014, Christian Petzold) ★ 

Sept 27

• Carnival of Souls (1962, Herk Harvey) ★

Sept 28 

• The Circus (1928, Charles Chaplin)

• 300 
• 68 Kill
• Agents of Shield (season 6)
• Dante’s Peak
• Elena
• For the Birds
• Igor
• The Lake House
• The Last Exorcism
• Lord of the Rings: Return of the King ★ BEST PICTURE OSCAR WINNER 
• My Sister’s Keeper 
• Mystic River BEST ACTOR OSCAR WINNER
• Olmo & the Seagull 
• Open Season
• Rebel in the Rye
• Spookley the Square Pumpkin
• Stripes
• Superbad
• The Saint 
• The Walking Dead (season 9)
• You Don't Mess with the Zohan

Sept 4

• The World We Make

Sept 6th

• Article 15

Sept 9th

• Norm of the North: King Sized Adventure

Sept 10th

• Eat Pray Love
• Evelyn

Sept 12th

• Turbo

Sept 13th

• Head Count
• Tall Girl

Sept 14th

• We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Sept 15th

• Steal a Pencil for Me

Sept 17th

• Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives

Sept 18th

• Come and Find Me

Sept 19th

• Oceans

Sept 20th

• Between Two Ferns: The Movie
• Daddy Issues
• Disenchantment (season 2)

Sept 21st

• Sarah's Key

Sept 24th

• American Horror Story: Apocalypse
• Furie
• The Grandmaster ★ 2 OSCAR NOMINATIONS

Sept 25th

• Glitch (season 3)

Sept 27th

• The Politician (season 1)

• Chuggington (Seasons 1-5)
• 27 Dresses
• 50 First Dates
• A Dog and Pony Show
• A Guy Thing
• A.R.C.H.I.E 2: Mission Impawsible
• After the Screaming Stops
• Against the Wild 2
• All Dogs Go to Heaven 2
• An Everlasting Piece
• Banking on Bitcoin
• Basic Instinct
• Bigfood Country
• Blown Away
• Breaking Away ★ 4 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
• The Chumscrubber
• The Cokeville Miracle
• The Cooler 1 OSCAR NOMINATION
• The Dark Half
• Demolition Man
• Destiny Turns on the Radio
• Disturbing Behavior
• Doctor Dolittle
• The Edge
• Emma ★
• Evil Dead
• Evil Dead II
• Exposed
• Failure to Launch
• Far from Home
• Ferngully: The Last Rainforest
• The First Monday in May
• Firstborn
• Flashback
• From Mexico With Love
• The Ghost and the Darkness 1 OSCAR NOMINATION
• The Goonies
• Heist
• Hercules
• How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
• High-Rise
• I, Frankenstein
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers
• Jersey Girl
• Juno ★ 4 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
• The Last Exorcism
• Lethal Weapon (all movies)
  
• Liar, Liar
• Lost in Space
• Man on a Ledge
• The Matrix (all movies)
• Miami Vice
• The Monster Squad
• Mommie Dearest ★
• Monsters at Large
• Mr. Mom
• The Object of Beauty
• Ocean’s Eleven (all movies except Oceans 8)
• The Perfect Weapon
• The Portrait of a Lady 2 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
• Pinocchio
• Playing it Cool
• Poltergeist II: The Other Side
• Pretty in Pink ★
• Pumpkinhead
• Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings
• Ravenous
• Red Dog: True Blue
• Requiem for a Dream ★ 1 OSCAR NOMINATION
• Revolutionary Road 3 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
• Robo-Dog: Airborne
• Sacred Ground
• Saving Christmas
• Secretary
• She’s All That
• Sliver
• Sucker Punch
• Suicide Kings
• Top of the Food Chain
• Training Day
• Turtle Tale
• Unbreakable
• Universal Soldier
• Wayne’s World 2
• Wild Card

Sept 2nd

• Anthropoid
• Matriarch
• Untouchable (Hulu Original)

Sept 3

• Bolden
• We Die Young

Sept 4

• The Purge (season 1)
• Wu-Tang An American Saga (Hulu Original)
• Kicking and Screaming ★

Sept 9

• Hotel Mumbai
• Wise Man's Grandchild (season 1)

Sept 10

• Curious George: A Royal Monkey

Sept 14

• Pocahontas

Sept 16

• The Powerpuff Girls (season 3B)
• Curious George

Sept 19

• Aniara (Swedish Oscar Submission Finalist and Saturn Award nominee)
• Crypto

Sept 28

• Rango ★

Sept 30

• Primal Fear
• Teen Spirit

We've found from months of doing this that the Amazon Prime listings provided are the least accurate in terms of what's actually available for free with a membership so take some of the titles with a grain of salt. 

• A Cadaver Christmas (2011)
• The Bog Creatures (2003)
• Boy (2010) ★
• Carnival Row (amazon original series)
• The Collectors (1999)
• Computer Chess (2013)
• Manuscripts Don’t Burn (2013)
• Failure to Launch (2006)
• Far from Home (2014)
• The Fifth Element (1997) ★ 1 OSCAR NOMINATION
• Firstborn (1984)
• Flashback (1990)
• Successive Slidings of Pleasure (1974)
• Godzilla (2014) ★
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) 1 OSCAR NOMINATION
• The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 (2006)
• I, Frankenstein (2014)
• Jack Frost (1998)
• Kicking the Dog (2009)
• Klip (2012)
• Korkoro (2009)
• La Maison de la radio (2013)
• The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
• Looking Glass (2018)
• Miss Hill: Making Dance Matter (2014)
• Music from the Big House (2010)
• Naples ’44 (2016)
• Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (2008) ★
• Parting Glances (1986) ★
• The Penguin Counters (2017)
• Pirate Radio (2009)
• Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)
• Sacred Ground (1983)
• She Must Be Seeing Things (1987)
• Sucker Punch (2011)
• Surviving Progress (2011)
• Ten Dead Men (2008)
• The Uninvited (2009)

Sept 13

• Undone (amazon original series)

Sept 27

• Rango ★ OSCAR ANIMATED FEATURE WINNER 
• Transparent (musical finale)

• 127 Hours ★ 6 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
• Alfie (2004)
• Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
• Anastasia (1997) 2 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
• Boys and Girls
• Cabin Fever (Director’s Cut)
• Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (Extended Version)
• Catfish
• Darkest Hour ★ BEST ACTOR OSCAR WINNER 
• Frantic
• Hail, Caesar! ★ 1 OSCAR NOMINATION
• How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
• The Hurt Locker ★ BEST PICTURE OSCAR WINNER 
• I Love You Phillip Morris ★
• Jem and the Holograms
• The Killing Fields 7 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
• Love Actually
• Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase
• Out of Sight ★ 2 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse
• Robocop (first three movies)
• The Rundown
• The Spongebob Squarepants Movie
• Thirteen Days
• United 93 ★ 2 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
• The Wizard 

Sept 4

• Truth or Dare (2018)

Sept 7

• Mary Queen of Scots (2018) 2 OSCAR NOMINATIONS

Sept 9

• The Deuce (season 3 premiere)

Sept 13 

• Room 104 (season 3 premiere)

Sept 14

• Welcome to Marwen

Sept 17

• They Shall Not Grow Old ★

Sept 21

• The Lego Movie Part 2

Sept 28

• Isnt It Romantic 

Comments

[FrenchToast]

American Psycho is a literary masterpiece and the movie is such a brilliant adaptation. I'm so happy that Mary Harron got to direct it and in retrospect I can't quite believe that she did.
Bale's performance might be the best of his career and one of the most memorable of that decade (definitely the best of that year).

On a very personal note I can still close my eyes and see Billy Baldwin's butt in Sliver. I kinda miss my old VCR now...

I only watched the first hour of the first LOTR and I'm not afraid to say it!

[markgordonuk]

Thanks for the afternoon perk me up of Peak Billy.

[Daniella Isaacs]

You don't have a star next to "Love and Anarchy"? I know "Seven Beauties" was the Oscar-nominated art-house blockbuster, but "Love and Anarchy" is, for my money, Wertmuller's masterpiece. Pauline Kael basically said it was the only really artistically successful film she made, and I tend to agree.

[NATHANIEL R]

Daniella -- i haven't seen it. But looking forward to it!

[Marsha Mason]

I can't wait to watch "Sunday Bloody Sunday" again, and finally watch "Darling" (ack!).

[thevoid99]

Love & Anarchy was awesome. My introduction to the wonders of Lina Wertmuller.

[StephenM]

The Two Towers was always my least favorite LOTR. I go back and forth on which of the other two is my favorite. Oddly, the second Hobbit is by far my favorite of that trilogy.

The Hobbit did nothing to diminish my love of LOTR.

[Dave S.]

I don't think it's new, but I just noticed that Prime has "The Pumpkin Eater" streaming - wasn't that hard to find for a while? One for Oscar completists.

[zig]

Dave S., thank you for noticing that! I don't recall ever running across Pumpkin streaming, so this is exciting. I've never seen it.

[Suzanne]

Prime has a lot of older movies streaming, but their interface makes them hard to browse. They added Cross Creek recently, which I've wanted to see forever.

[NATHANIEL R]

Suzanne & Zig & Dave -- hear hear on Prime's awful interface. One trick I've found (though it's hard to replicate because I keep forgetting the elaborate way to find it) is to search by decade (there's boxes you can check and that narrows it down a lot if you're eager to fill in Oscar gaps.

[huh]

The Fellowship of the Ring is by far the best of the trilogy from a writing and direction standpoint. The drop in quality + change in tone is rather astonishing.

The other two clearly were rushed and although have the cinematic highs and payoffs of the trilogy also have cringeworthy dialogue and scenes; some dreadful stuff offsetting the brilliant parts. Very inconsistent.

[Jaragon]

"Sliver" should have been better. Why can't someone offer la Stone another great big screen role