Streaming Roulette, Dec: Summit of the Gods, Hitchcock for the Holidays, Power of the Dog
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 at 11:07PM
NATHANIEL R in Edward Scissorhands, Jaws, King Richard, Love Field, Streaming Roulette, Summit of the Gods, World War Z, streaming

What's streaming in December? You know the drill by now. We pick two handfuls of titles and freeze them on the scroll bar at a random place (no cheating) and share what came up. Then we list the other titles streaming. Let's go.

Everybody has a Jaws story. Mostly you hear them from boys who took ownership of that summer as their fanboy nation origin story. But girls -- we were there, too. 

VOIR (Netflix)
We're looking forward to watching this. Each short episode (17-23 minutes) takes a look at one critic or cinephile's relationship to a particular classic or, if not that, an essay on a cinematic topic. This is from Sasha Stone's episode on the summer of 1975 and Jaws. 

- He said he can't do two for free.
-What?

KING RICHARD (HBOMax)
Expect this drama about the parents of Serena and Venus Williams, and the girls early coaching, to be big at the Oscars since it's a quality crowdpleaser. If you haven't seen it yet and can't get to the movie theater, hurry up. This leaves the service on December 19th.

Is David here?

ROPE (Criterion Channel)
Criterion Channel has a "Hitchcock for the Holidays" collection of 21 films. There's a lot of the early lesser seen titles from Brtiain but a few major masterpieces like Vertigo and Rear Window.  1949's Rope is one of my personal favourite films. Deliciously perverse and one of the earliest attempts at a continuous shot movie.

- Can you hear me?
-Yes!

SUMMIT OF THE GODS (Netflix)
This French/Japanese co-production is a majestic meditative look at one man's quest to find a mountain climber who went missing. This image is from one of the film's most riveting sequences. Netflix hopes this is one of Oscar's choices for Best Animated Feature but Oscar always has multiple possibilities for the "international slot" in that lineup.

[no dialogue]

POWER OF THE DOG (Netflix)
It seems only right that I landed on this sensual image of Phil Burbank rubbing his hands all over a prized saddle. It speaks to the tactile sensual quality of Jane Campion's cinema and it also speaks to the current "Bronco Henry" memes on the internet. This movie is awesome. 

But we both know I like the wrong guys.

SINGLE ALL THE WAY (Netflix)
Chris just reviewed this one and he's right that it would be vastly improved with lots of booze and a big group of friends watching with you. Why are Christmas movies always so bland looking and predictable? And why is a rare gay one so heternormative? You could honestly change the genders of either of the leads and it would be the exact same movie, no tweaking required! Well, I guess you'd have to lose the hunky male photoshoots. 

- Me and my little girl will be on our way now.
- She says she's not your little girl.

LOVE FIELD (Hulu)
Michelle Pfeiffer and Dennis Haysbert in a definitely not meet-cute situation though they'll fall in love later in this 1992 drama that brought Michelle Pfeiffer her final (ugh) Oscar nomination. Alas, they nominated her for the wrong movie this year. Catwoman was RIGHT THERE. 

Aren't you excited. Oh this is just so thrilling. Wait'll I show it to you. It's just perfect. It's just what I've been looking for.

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (Disney+)
Tim Burton has long since fallen out of favor but his early work is still bliss. And can we talk about how  frustrating it is that something as classic as Edward Scissorhands got ONLY 1 Oscar nomination. The production design is incredible. No nomination. The costuming was instantly iconic. Zip. The score was Danny Elfman's best. But not there either. And the movie is better than at least 4/5ths of the Best Picture nominees that year. Johnny Depp and Kathy Baker, both pictured above, as well as Vincent Price and Dianne Wiest are all sublimely in tune with what Burton's making. ❤️

-The ones I saw bitten turned in 12 seconds, same here?
-5 to 10 minutes

WORLD WAR Z (Hulu)
How has it been almost 9 years since this came out and became a huge hit and somehow there's still no sequel even though they threatened to make one several times? Brad Pitt was so damn attractive in this movie with that very early 2010s man scarf.  

 

also streaming on Netflix

Later this Month (a sampling)

 

 

COLLECTIONS streaming on Criterion Channel

Individual films also streaming on Criterion Channel

 

also streaming 

later this month -a ★ sampling

 

also streaming on Prime...

 

later this month - a  ★ sampling

 

also streaming on Disney+


later this month

later this month - a sampling

 

also streaming

 

later this month - a sampling

 

also streaming

later this month - a sampling

WHICH WILL YOU BE WATCHING THIS MONTH? WHICH WOULD YOU LOVE TO SEE A POST ON?

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