Streaming Roulette (March 18th-31st) Last chance for lots of classics!
Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 9:16PM 
Farewell Amor, which we discussed a few times last year, is now on Hulu
Time for another round of streaming roulette where we point out titles that are new(ish) to streaming or about to leave and just for fun, freeze frame them at totally random places in the scroll bar and whatever comes up we share...
Have you seen the movie Tell Me You Love Me?
MONSOON WEDDING (2001/2002) leaving on March 31st
Mira Nair's colorful layered empathetic classic is a must-see. Check it out on Criterion and then read Cláudio's recent piece; It was the first time he had ever seen it...
Isn't that better?
SUDDEN FEAR (1952) leaving on March 31st
One of Joan Crawford's best. Both she and Jack Palance were Oscar-nominated for this thriller which builds to a outrageously fun (in a cinephile-obsessable kind of way) melodramatic climax. Also nominated for Cinematography and Costume Design.
also leaving the channel on March 31st SO NOW IS THE TIME...
- Badlands (1973) Malick's debut
- Barbarella (1968) iconic early Jane Fonda
- Black Christmas (1974)
- The Cameraman (1928) Buster Keaton!
- Cat Ballou (1965)
- The Chase (1966)
- The China Syndrome (1979) 4 Oscar nods
- Christine (2016)
- Hallelujah (1929)
- Imitation of Life (1934) not as good as the Sirk remake but undervalued for what it is
- Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
- Joint Security Area (2000) classic South Korean action drama
- Lolita (1962)
- Magnificent Obsession (1935)
- The Manchurian Candidate (1962) awesome
- Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
- Ministry of Fear (1944)
- Morning After (1986) Jane Fonda's last Oscar nod
- O Fantasma (2000) very explicit queer Portugueuse movie
- The Ornithologist (2016)
- Rabid (1977) early Cronenberg
- Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
- Sympathy for Mr Vengeance (2002)
- We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
- When Tomorrow Comes (1939)
He's a Muslim. Don't forget.
BOMBAY ROSE (2019-2021)
This Indian animated film took a couple of years to be released. It was eligible for the Oscars this season, but didn't make the cut. If you're interested in animation, you should check out its flat painted style to see if you like it but the story is unfortunately not all that involving.
Then I pick up these two fags. They're going downtown. They're wearing rhinestone t-shirts. They start arguing-- start yelling 'you bitch!...
TAXI DRIVER (1976) leaving Netflix March 31st
One of the (many) reasons I'm hooked on this dumb streaming roulette game is that it lands on things I often had totally forgotten. Taxi Driver has so much texture and time capsule 1976 stuff, like this conversation Travis Bickle ovehears between fellow taxi drivers that morphs into a conversation about California having better laws for gay people 'They're always ahead out there'. It's quite sad whenever a classic leaves Netflix because they stream them so very rarely. I know I've said this before but I'll never get over how weird it is that Taxi Driver was a Best Picture nominee and Martin Scorsese wasn't nominated for Best Director; this is exactly the kind of challenging artful movie that the very opposite thing used to happen to (the lone wolf director nomination) in the days before the expanded lineup.
-Maria will say she has fireflies in her belly
-And that she fucked Lucifer!
COVEN OF SISTERS (2020)
This 17th century Spanish drama (original title Akelarre) -- was one of the top contenders at the Goyas this season with 9 nominations (though it missed the Best Picture category). It won Costume Design, Score, Production Design, Makeup and Hair and Special Effects. Just a note that Netflix has been doing this annoying thing where they set some foreign films to automatically play dubbed vocals so make sure if it does that that you switch to the original language with subtitles. Ugh Netflix has so little respect!
also streaming
- Audrey (2020)
- BFG (2016)
- Black or White (2014)
- Block Island South (2020)
- City of Ghosts (2021)
- Dogwashers (2021)
- The Houseboat (2021)
- Inception (2010) leaving March 31st
- Killing Them Softly (2012) leaving March 30th
- Last Blockbuster (2020)
- London Spy (2015) leaving March 29th. Very good Ben Whishaw miniseries
- Lost pirate Kingdom (2021)
- Moxie (2021)
- The One (2021)
- Murder Among the Mormons (2021) - documentary
- Pacific Rim: The Black (2021) - animated
- Paper Lives (2021)-turkish drama
- Parker (2013)
- Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) leaving March 31st
- Safe Haven (2013)
- Sentinelle (2021) - olga kurylenkio action drama
- Sex and the City (2008-2010) - both movies leaving March 31st
- Yes Day (2021) jennifer garner & edgar ramirez
- Zero Chill s1 (2021) hockey drama
- B The Beginning Succession s2 (2021) - animated
- Cabras da Peste (2021)
- Deadly Illusions (2021) kristin davis and dermot mulroney thriller
- The Fluffy Movie (2014)
- Jiu Jitsu (2020) - nicolas cage and tony jaa -sci-fi acion
- Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal (2021) -documentary
- Savages (2012)
- Skylines (2020) -sci-fi
- Sky Rojo s1 (2021) - spanish drama series
- Under Suspicion: Uncovering the Wesphael Case (2021)
- Waffles + Mochi s1 -animated (2021)
Don't let me catch none of youse around here when I get back!
WEST SIDE STORY (1961) leaving Hulu on March 30th
"Officer Krupke 🎵 " is about to begin in this scene. I keep trying to imagine Brian D'Arcy James in this role in Steven Spielberg's remake. And it's a pity because James has a spectacular singing voice (3 Tony nominations, all from musicals!) and we aren't going to hear it in the movie because all this character does is shout at hoodlums. Anyway, as you might now this is my all time favourite film and we did a deep dive on it a few years back.
Mary!?
AMMONITE (2020)
How fun to land on what might be my favourite scene in the film. Mary Anning (perpetually dour Kate Winslet) visits an older woman (Fiona Shaw) to retreive a healing salve. We aren't given any context really as to their relationship but Shaw is such a brilliant actor she can give you past-history in the simplest of lines and facial beats. She's one of our nominees for Best Actress in a Limited or Cameo role this year.
He must have that bullshit memorized.
BOSS LEVEL (2021)
JUST REVIEWED
also streaming
- Austin Powers (1997-2002) - all three movies leaving March 30th
- Beirut (2018)
- Blade Runner (1982) - leaving March 31st
- Boogie Nights (1997) - leaving March 31st
- Buddy Games (2019)
- Charlotte's Web (1973) - leaving March 31st
- Constructing Albert (2017)
- Dead Poet's Society (1989) - leaving March 31st
- Farewell Amour (2020)
- Genius: Aretha (2021) - starring Cynthia Erivo. Premieres March 21st
- Here Awhile (2019)
- Intersect (2020)
- Iron Mask (2019)
- Mars Attacks! (1996) leaving March 31st
- Missing 411 The Hunted (2019)
- Naughty Books (2020)
- Pink Wall (2019)
- Pretenders (2018)
- Proxima (2019)
- Relationstrip (2017)
- Sister Aimee (2019)
- The Stand: How One Gesture Shook the World (2020)
- Storks (2016)
- Tracks (2019)
- Triggered (2020)
- The Truman Show (1998) -leaving March 31st
- 1 Night in San Diego (2020)
- 12 Hour Shift (2020)
- 100% Wolf (2020) - animated werewolf movie
- Collective (2020) - arrives on March 25th. Nominated for Best International Feature and Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars.
- Identity (2003)
- Hunter Hunter (2020)
-Look at us, just one big happy Zamundan-American blended aristocractic blended family
-Just like the Kardashians!
COMING 2 AMERICA (2021)
This sequel was certainly a long time coming. The original arrived in 1988 at the peak of Eddie Murphy's box office powers and grossed nearly $300 million globally (very big numbers for the 1980s) as well as two Oscar nominations: Costume Design and Best Makeup. The reviews haven't been kind for this new one.
also streaming
- Honest Thief (2020) Liam Neeson action thriller
- Jack and Jill (2011) Adam Sandler
- Out of Africa (1985) the Oscar winner starring Meryl Streep
also streaming
- Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) -March 19th and each Friday thereafter
- Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties (2006)
- Miss Peregrine's School for Gifted Children (2016) Eva Green in a Tim Burton picture
- Own the Room (2021) documentary on student entrepeneurs
- Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) - for an extra $$$$ charge
-It's a long sad story and more than a little melodramatic.
-Try me.
ALIEN Quadrilogy (1979-1997) leaving HBO on March 31st
You know... Can we get Sigourney Weaver an Honorary Oscar please? One of the best decisions Oscar ever made in the 1980s was stepping out of their anti-sci-fi comfort zone to nominate her for Aliens (1986), one of the greatest action films ever made.. What she accomplishes in this franchise is god-tier work. She never repeats herself, but shifts with each new director's vision and the evolution of Ripley's very traumatic perpetually near-death journey as a character. Ripley is totally coherent even in the ways that she is different and in the oft-maligned sort of silly but wonderfully risky Alien: Resurrection (1997) she's frankly kind of awesome as a basterdized version of herself, several cloning attempts in. The image above is from Alien3 (1992) -- she's talking to Charles Dance who is a doctor with a shady past -- which is David Fincher's also maligned but very impressive directorial debut. It was clear he had the gift from the beginning. He's up for the Oscar again this year for Mank in which he cast Dance again.
A great armada appeared in the sky, laying waste to all who opposed it. The leader of the invaders was a being called Darkseid, a name cursed and feared in every universe.
ZACH SNYDER'S JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017/2021)
In a weird bid to fan culture, the much hated 120 minute 2017 film is now expanded to 242 minutes (!!!) to restore it to Snyder's original vision (if you'll recall he left the troubled film after a personal family tragedy and Joss Whedon was called in to both finish it and reduce it to two hours in length . I do not personally think I could handle four hours of this ugly muddy vfx beast. This image above is from one hour into the new cut and they're still doing exposition.
also streaming
- Genera+ion, S1 (2021)
- Beverly Hills Cop (1984-1994) all three movies arriving March 20th
- Die Hard (1988-1994) first three movies leaving March 30th
- Mrs Doubtfire (1993) leaving March 31st
- Purple Rain (1984) leaving March 31st
- Rocky (1975-2006) all six Sly Stallone Rocky movies
- Speed (1994) the Keanu Reeves / Sandra Bullock classic
- Tina (2021) documentary on Tina Turner arrives March 27th
- Tom & Jerry (2021) laving on March 27th -- still in theaters
Reader Comments (13)
"Falcon and the Snowman." LOL. Was this a typo or snarky commentary?
You cannot PAY me to see Snyder's dark, bloated vision. And I see everything! But yeah NO thanks.
Sirk remade two of the John Stahl films leaving Criterion at the end of the month—Imitation of Life and Magnificent Obsession. But he didn't touch Stahl's Leave Her to Heaven, which is already pretty Sirkian.
Alien3 is the worst one. Sorry Fincher fanboys.
@John-No problem. I love David Fincher but yeah, it's his worst film and he will admit that the film sucked.
Before we prioritize 71 year old Sigourney Weaver for that honorary Oscar, may I suggest we consider a few other screen icons sorely deserving of recognition - 82 year old Liv Ullmann, 75 year old Bette Midler, and 78 year old Harrison Ford?
Badlands is pretty great. I will have to catch up on it before it goes away.
In the minority but I loved the theatrical Justice League. That Taxi Driver nominated for BP not director is so weird to this day.
Alien 3 is maligned but Fincher is not to blame,the producers and the the script are.
Let’s honor 78 year old Glenn Close first!
Also expiring are all the special features from the Monsoon Wedding Criterion DVD, such as Mira Nair's early short films, which are worth watching if you're a fan.
1976 was one of the rare 3/5 matchups between Picture and Director, and it’s probably because that year was so dominated by the three frontrunners—Rocky, Network, All the President’s Men—that it’s easy to imagine the votes were very spread out among everything else. Seven Beauties had to have been really close to a Best Picture nomination since it was nominated for Director, Actor, and Original Screenplay, so I’m assuming Lina Wertmuller was in the 4th spot for Best Director. Which means Bergman was in the 5th spot and was likely the one who prevented Scorsese from being nominated. It’s weird to think how much of a real Oscar darling Ingmar Bergman was considering how esoteric and artsy his films were.
@Edwin
In 1976, AMPAS rules prohibited Foreign Film nominees from competing for Best Picture. That is why Seven Beauties was not on the ballot.
The Pfeiffer Phanatasism here is all well and good, but that it's not matched or deservedly exceeded for Sigourney Weaver is a travesty.