Streaming Roulette, June: Martha Marcy May Titanic 
Thursday, June 2, 2022 at 11:45AM
NATHANIEL R in Alien, Andrew Garfield, Best Actress, Judy Garland, Klute, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Oscars (11), Poltergeist, Streaming Roulette, Titanic, Victor/Victoria, streaming

We never know which films to cover since there are so many channels so please note that we welcome comments and requests for more in-depth coverage of new-to-streaming titles.  June is looking very strong (nice change of pace) for streaming fun so we'll have so much to discuss.

Okay, time for this month's streaming roulette. You know the rules. We highlight new-to-streaming movies and an occasional TV series by freezing them on the scroll bar at entirely random places and just sharing what pops up. No cheating*!

The hulls not designed to deal with that pressure so what happens [SOUND] she splits, right down to the keel. And the stern falls back level. Then as the bow sinks, it pulls the stern vertical and then finally detaches... 

TITANIC (1997) on Netflix
Do you also forget about the long prologue to Titanic? I do. One of my fondest memories of moviegoing with my family is watching my dad fall in love with this movie...

He complained on the way to the theater but absolutely loved all the historical and science bits like this. It truly was an "all-quadrant" crowd-pleaser. The whole family loved it but everyone had different favourite parts. We'll be discussing this modern classic for Hit Me With Your Best Shot (Thursday June 16th) and for the 1997 Supporting Actress Smackdown (currently undated but toward the end of June or early July).

-How do you like it?
-Well... I don't know much about all this. But with the lights and all it's kind of exciting.

SUMMER STOCK (1950) on Criterion Channel
Gene Kelly credited Judy Garland with teaching him how to act for the camera (his film debut was in one of her pictures, For Me and My Gal after he'd broken out on Broadway) and they made three films together. This was their final picture together and for a while it threatened to be Judy's last picture. We'll discuss it soon on the Judy @ 100 Centennial special.


I said Monday at 8 PM, baby. Now don't be naughty!

KLUTE (1971) on HBOMax
Okay so here's the apologetic scoop. We were going to do a giant thing for Klute's 50th anniversary last year (it was released in June '71) and I biffed it. As penance, we're having a "Klute week" from June 20th-23rd culminated in the season finale of Hit Me With Your Best Shot. If you've never seen it or haven't seen it in years and year now is REALLY the time. 

c'mon I dont have any pictures of you. You're gorgeous. It's really rather irritating.

MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE (2011) on Hulu
Memories of this one are so tied to Elizabeth Olsen's emergence -- god, she was wonderful and haunting in this -- that I'd completely forgotten that Sarah Paulson and Hugh Dancy are in it until streaming roulette landed here. My most specific memory of this movie's release is meeting Olsen during a luncheon for her Oscar campaign and we chatted about... Michelle Pfeiffer (since we're both enormous fans). 2011's Best Actress lineup will never not be frustrating due to how many amazing performances were in the mix and what we ended up with instead

Consider all the lead actresses in the mix in 2011 and what they were up for (*indicates win. I've included our own Film Bitch Awards to be cheeky)... how to even choose? And would you choose differently today then you did back then? 

 

 

 

Unless somebody has a better idea, we'll proceed with Dallas' plan

ALIEN (1979) on Hulu
Hulu has ALL of the Alien movies this month. Even the Alien vs Predator installments. So if you want to spend June with Lieutenant Ellen Ripley (and assorted other Alien franchise characters), you can!

🎡 but my goodness me it's a great big world 🎡

THE HARVEY GIRLS (1946) on HBOMax / Criterion Channel
The problem with doing a Judy Garland Centennial is we really want to discuss every single movie and not just 12 of them. Not sure we're getting to this one but it's fun. Angela Lansbury steals some scenes as a saloon owner but in a Judy Garland movie it's always The Judy Show. Spotlit from within so naturally the spotlight also wanted in.

[GASP]

POLTERGEIST (1982) on Shudder
When Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opened there was a mini-kerfuffle about its PG-13 rating due to some of its violence. Some (including me) felt it should have been rated R. This is not because i am sensistive but because I think very violent movies should always be rated R (nobody cares about children seeing violence anymore, though, so they're almost always PG-13). One of the rebuttals was always "have you seen some of the 80s movies that were PG?"  and this was one of them that was often cited. Poltergeist isn't really gory apart from that one face-tearing bit but it is a great "scare" movie. Love this non-cheap jump scare above which uses no cuts or music tricks for its jolt. JoBeth Williams walks into her 100% normal non-spooky daylit dining room, bends down to open a cupboard in the kitchen and when she pops back up to reenter the dining room the chairs are all jenga'ed up on the table. It's a great "how did they do that" movie moment because it's so fluid and fast and because the setting and supernatural happening are both so mundance.


I've got to stop him, though. I have to. I created him. 

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2012) on Netflix
When Spider-Man No Way Home opened in December there was A LOT of retconning of Garfield's two movie run, trying to claim that they were actually good movies; They weren't. Good Spidey casting alone does not make a good Spider-Man movie. Nevertheless nostagia cares not for quality so a lot of people will probably be rewatching this now that Garfield is having a major career moment.

Telegrams from Milan, Rome, Paris, Amsterdam.

VICTOR AND VICTORIA (1933) on Criterion Channel
Victor/Victoria (1982) is one of those movies that was so well loved and successful on its own that a lot of people didn't even realize it was a remake. It was based on this Weimar Era German film that Criterion is showing as part of their overall emphasis on queer films in June for Pride Month. 

 

 

So what (else) is streaming in June? 
MORE STREAMING TITLES FOLLOW

β˜… indicates movies or series of note though sometimes hidden gems have no buzz until you see them.
πŸ”Έ Indicates that the movie was Oscar-nominated in some category or another

 

also new to streaming on Netflix

Later this Month (a sampling)

 

 

 

β˜… COLLECTIONS now streaming on Criterion Channel

INDIVIDUAL FILMS

Later this Month - a Sampling

 

 

 

also streaming now

later this month - a sampling

 

also streaming on Prime...

later this month - a sampling 

 

 

later this month - a sampling

 

later this month - a sampling

 

 

later this month -a sampling 

 

also streaming 

later this month - a sampling

also streaming in June

* People never believe this but it's (mostly) true. The only exceptions are when the image is too fast to look good in still frame (we usually use a gif in those cases) or if it's too transitional (dissolves, fadeouts, etcetera) or an establishing shot of a building or something... the other secret to why the images are often good is that we just dont use that particular film if we land on something that's too dull. 

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