Streaming Roulette (March 18th-31st) Last chance for lots of classics!
Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 9:16PM
NATHANIEL R in Ammonite, Bombay Rose, Justice League, Streaming Roulette, Sudden Fear, Zach Snyder, streaming

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...

 

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

 

 

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

 

-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

 

 

also streaming

 

-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

 

 

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