Boss Us Around: Which Streaming Titles Must We Discuss?

PSA: Call Me By Your Name is just 99¢ on iTunes this week. So if you haven't yet seen the 4th best movie of 2017, get on that! We've written quite a lot about the film here so we don't feel the need to revisit yet but there are a lot of other practically free rentals to consider.

In an effort to better serve you let's hand you the reigns for a bit. Please sound off on the following polls after the jump and we promise to say something -- though how much who knows -- about the top 2 movies you pick in each poll...

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Three Ways "Set It Up" Succeeds

By Spencer Coile 

Considering Netflix’s constant stream of original content, it's a smaill miracle that their latest original film, Set It Up, is receiving some attention. Set It Up tells the cookie-cutter story of two overworked PA’s (Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell) who decide to set up their overbearing bosses (Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs) only to find love themselves. It follows the familiar beats of your favorite romcoms. It's glossy, quirky, and wrapped up with a cute little bow when the credits roll. 

Set It Up is everything we have come to expect from the genre but which the genre hasn't been delivering of late. Director Claire Scanlon (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, GLOW, Brooklyn Nine-Nine)and writer Katie Silberman bring sensitivity to a story that feels slight, but is rewarding enough. In many ways, the film is a refreshing run-of-the-mill romcom.

Here are three reasons why Set It Up really works...

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Netflix in June: Blue Jasmine Ragnarok, and Baby Sebastian Stan!

Time to play Streaming Roulette. Each month, to survey new streaming titles on Netflix and other services, we freeze frame the films at random places with the scroll bar and whatever comes up first, that's what we share -- no cheating!  Which of these films will you be streaming this month for the first time or as a rewatch? Which would you like to see covered at TFE? Please do tell us in the comments. 

Ready? Let's go...

-OPEN THE DOOR, BITCH!

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)
Oh I hearted this movie at the time. I fell so hard for Ari Graynor and I'm always pissed her career didn't truly explode. She shoulda been a leading lady in major comedies immediately. She's still around of course but where is the big career this hilarious turn foretold? (Pssst. She's not Nick or Norah but she's what I remember about the movie. Is she Infinite?)   

His mother was kind enough to send this back to us.

The Covenant (2006)
Howcuuuuuuute it's baby Sebastian Stan! I had completely forgotten this movie existed...

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Prime & Hulu: Wonder Wheel, I Tonya, Bull Durham, Etc.

Time to play Streaming Roulette. Each month, to survey new streaming titles on the various services, we freeze frame the films at random places and whatever comes up, that's what we share, no cheating!  Today, we're looking at Prime and Hulu (which often have the same titles for some reason). Which of these will you be streaming this month for the first time or as a rewatch? Which would you most to see covered at TFE? Please do tell us in the comments. 

Ready? Let's go...

I am NOT obsessed with it!

Burnt Offerings (1976) on Prime and Hulu
Karen Black alert! We were just talking about her. I think this movie is famous but I'm not sure why exactly. It's of the supernatural horror genre but horror is one of my weakest genres in terms of knowledge.

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Last Chance Filmstruck: Unzipped, High Noon, Metropolis, Etc...

by Nathaniel R

Are you going to wait for the train downstairs? Why don't you wait here?"
     -Katy Jurado to Grace Kelly in High Noon (leaves Filmstruck May 31st)

Y'all. I have a really really hard time with how quickly titles come and go on so many different streaming services. Ugh! I do not like other people curating my movies for me. I'm too much of my own cinephile for that. I want to see what I want to see when I want to see it and usually for highly specific reasons that don't go well with the timetables of corporations! Nevertheless the world is not made to cater to my personal whims (imagine that!?) so I've had to adapt. I have ponied up for FilmStruck and its Criterion Channel entirely because they have more classics than other streaming services. This still hasn't remotely solved all the "where to find things" woes. Though Hulu, Prime, and Netflix are okay for the majority of movies that aren't more than 5-10 years old, everything else remains super-patchy at best and you're stuck with whatever any of these services feel like streaming for you in a given month. This is ESPECIALLY true of movie musicals which literally no service does a good job with. The lack of musicals has always been my primary beef with the Criterion Collection

Enough complaining! Filmstruck/Criterion does have plenty of goodies. As with all the other streaming services they play peek-a-boo with the titles, though. So let's play Streaming Roulette for everything that's LEAVING the service shortly...

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99¢ Deals: Lady Bird, Body Heat, Farewell My Queen, etc...

It's a Public Service Announcement.

← It's also False Advertising. Lady Bird as "Movie of the Week"? Try "Movie of the Year"! Lady Bird is currently 99¢ on iTunes. And we thought you should know in case by some mad and totally embarrassing chance you have not yet seen 2017's best movie.

We should probably check in on iTunes deals more often. They're better quality images than Amazon or Netflix after all. The "movie of the week" changes...uh... weekly (you might have deduced that) but we're not sure how short the deal period is on their other 99¢ deals and there's quite a lot of goodies right now if you want to program your own mini-fest. Here are a few things that caught my eye from their rental bargain bin...

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