Streaming: Netflix is still a mini-haven for foreign films

The Wailling was the 3rd most popular South Korean movie in the US last year after Train to Busan and The Handmaidenby Brian Zitzelman

The accepted mindset is that Netflix Instant is no longer a paradise for cinephiles. There are countless things to binge, sure, but large swaths of those are the service's original series and TV series from other networks. For moviegoers interested in material beyond the recent blockbusters or Hollywood fare, the pickings are much much slimmer than they once were. For example, those spurred to view the work of Meryl Streep after her powerful speech at Sunday's Golden Globes have only five streaming options, two of them being documentaries. A Hepburn fanatic, be it for Katharine or Audrey, has but two pictures to choose from.  

Yet there remains one avenue where Netflix secretly and continually excels; foreign cinema...

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Are you watching "One Day at a Time"?

By Nathaniel R

Have you taken a break from all the awards season madness, to watch Netflix's remake of One Day at a Time? I didn't think I'd like it due to a laugh track (which, I am not excusing) but it's a good enough show that I survived the canned giggles and often enough covered them audibly with my own. It's a straightforward remake of the 70s sitcom but for the following changes...

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Documentary Oscar Race Narrows to 14 Films (Plus 1 Mini-Series)

Oscar has winnowed down that massive Best Documentary Semi-Finals list to a more manageable fifteen. We've reviewed just over two thirds of them. Nine are currently available to stream online (handy links provided) and four are in select theaters. The finalists for the five nominations are...

• Cameraperson (IN THEATERS / on Criterion Collection Blu-Ray February 2017)
• Command and Control  (coming to PBS in January)
• The Eagle Huntress (IN THEATERS)
• Fire at Sea (IN THEATERS)
• Gleason (available to rent on Amazon)
• Hooligan Sparrow (streaming on Netflix)
• I Am Not Your Negro  (IN THEATERS FEB 2017)
• The Ivory Game (streaming on Netflix)
• Life, Animated (available to rent on iTunes)
• O.J.: Made in America (series available to purchase on iTunes)
• 13th (streaming on Netflix)
• Tower (IN THEATERS)
• Weiner (available to buy on iTunes)
• The Witness (streaming on Netflix)
• Zero Days (available to buy on iTunes)

What's missing? Well, what isn't. There are always scads of depressing omissions. Let us focus our tears on the delicious Sondheim retrospective reflection about "Merrily We Roll Along" The Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened which really deserves a big audience. But all told this list is not surprising finals list. In fact I am quite shocked to tell you that in my Top 20 Most Likely To Oscar chart page (being revised at the moment) I missed only two of these fifteen (Command and Control and The Witness) in favor of films like Newtown and Miss Sharon Jones. 

Last Chance Streaming: Married to the Mob, Alice, Carmen Jones

There are 120+ titles leaving either Netflix or Amazon Prime this week as December arrives so if you've been meaning to see any of these, now's your chance. As is our practice we'll freeze frame a few selected titles at random and display what we found. Which will you be watching?

The list and screenshots after the jump...

LEAVING NETFLIX

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Now Streaming (Netflix): A Slim Selection But Jude (!) and Gillian (!!)

Netflix, which initially looked like the 21st Century Blockbuster is well on its way to being the new HBO, so they're cutting back severely on movies now. But there's still a few titles of interest each month. Here are streaming options as of November. We'll randomly freeze frame a handful of titles and share the results. Okay? Okay!

Shop till you drop, girls

Alfie (2004)
The Year Jude Law Was in Every Movie. Also, arguably, the peak of his gorgeousity.

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