Streaming Roulette: Honey Boys & Gates of Hell
Saturday, February 15, 2020 at 10:00PM
NATHANIEL R in Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel, HBO, Hulu, Netflix, foreign films, streaming

by Nathaniel R

The mania of Oscar season completely detached us to what people might have actually been streaming at home. So let's get back to that with a short round of Streaming Roulette. If you're new to the site that's how we share new streaming offerings. We select a handful (or two) of titles and just randomly hit a place on the scroll bar to see what the film looks like - no cheating. 

If you'd like us to write up any of the new to streaming pictures (there's a huge list after the roulette) please share what you'd most like to talk about in the comments. Maybe we'll get to 2 or 3 of them? Ready? Let's stream...

The reviews were... like, I murdered their children or something. 

28 Hotel Rooms (2013) on Hulu
The only thing I remember about this movie is that it's a rather naked Chris Messina romp (and a low budget but high acting showcase). MmmmMessina. 

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, performing for you live without a net, Henrietta Le Fowl... world's first daredevil chicken!

Honey Boy (2019) on Prime
It was so pleasing that this very personal (if fictionalized) feature about Shia Labeouf's childhood as a child star with an alcoholic father (he plays his own dad) got a cinematography nod from the Spirit Awards and a "spotlight" nod from the ASC. It didn't win either but I think we can safely say that DP Natasha Braier (who also shot the great looking if widely hated movie Neon Demon) really ought to be swamped with work offers by major auteurs. Shia Labeouf and Noah Jupe were so good in this one as father and son. 

Closely Watched Trains (1966) on Criterion Channel
They have several Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar winners available right now including this famous one from the Czech New Wave about a dispatcher at a railway station looking for sex and oblivious to the war around him. 

[no dialogue]

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019) on Netflix
Given the Oscar nomination for the original Shaun the Sheep movie shouldn't they have tried to qualify this one for the Oscar race last year? It wasn't even on the eligibility list. What a mystery. Unless this is bad. Have any of you seen it? Aardman visuals always delight, though. 

Let me put your groceries away for y---oh, you got your shirt all wet.

Cookie's Fortune (1999) on Netflix
You guys. I have no recall whatsoever of this Robert Altman picture but I remember it almost made my top ten list that year. That said I was in an intense Altman phase. I don't remember this at all except that Liv Tyler, Julianne Moore and Glenn Close are in it. 

I'm still not sure what happened."

Henry Gamble's Birthday Party (2015) on Hulu
The films of Stephen Cone don't get much attention but they should. They're so modest but authentic and lovely and they don't feel like "Hollywood" movies at all but regionally specific and middle America queer. This one is good but Cone took it up a transcendent notch for his follow up, Princess Cyd (2017) which is also streaming on Hulu. 

[no dialogue]

Gate of Hell (1954) on Criterion Channel
This 12th century set Japanese film about a samurai eager to kill a rival in order to have his wife has some notable Oscar history. It won Best Foreign Film and Best Costume Design, the first foreign language film ever to win more than one statue. It was also the first foreign language film to ever win Costume Design though it shared "first to be nominated" honors in a tie with The Earrings of Madame de... (from France) which was nominated in the black and white category this same year (the two costume design categories would merge into one in 1967). Japan's Sanzo Wada was the first Asian ever nominated for costume design and also the first to win.

Costume Design would go on to become the category with the most non foreign wins (outside of the "international" category of course). Seven subtitled films in total have won Best Costume Design: Gate of Hell, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, Fellini's Casanova, Fanny & Alexander, Ran  and Cyrano de Bergerac. (The runner up category for most foreign films wins is Original Screenplay which has had 6 non-English language winners over the Academy's history including Parasite just last weekend.) 

 

ALSO STREAMING IN RIGHT NOW...

Newly streaming for February: Sidney Poitier films, various Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winners, movies about movies, and more. US films unless otherwise noted 

 

later this month - a selection

 

 

 

 

newly streaming for February

 

 

later this month (selection)

 

 

newly streaming for February

 

 

newly streaming for February - a selection only since they often shared titles with the other services

 

 

newly streaming for February 

 

 

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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