Tag: Nightbitch

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Between the Temples (Nathan Silver)

In a state of arrested development after his wife unexpectedly died from a freak accident, Ben Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman) is suicidal, pleading to a truck to just run him over and begging that he be fired from his job as cantor at the local Jewish temple in upstate New York. While this set-up may not scream comedy, Between the Temples is in fact hilarious, packed with endless jokes and adoration for physical gags while we witness Ben find new meaning in life through an unexpected acquaintance. Above all, Nathan Silver’s feature, from a script he co-wrote with C. Mason Wells,is a thrillingly alive, nimble piece of filmmaking: shot on 16mm by Sean Price Williams with faces of its ensemble guiding every movement, and edited by John Magary with a frenetic yet defined rhythm, Between the Temples is a witty, biting portrait of finding one’s footing in both faith and friendship. – Jordan R. (full review)

Where to Stream: Netflix

Bird (Andrea Arnold)

We bet many of you also wish that a soft-spoken Franz Rogowski would tell them everything’s going to be all right. With her trademark empathetic realism, Andrea Arnold builds her first fiction feature since American Honey around 12-year-old Bailey and her unlikely companion, Bird (Rogowski). Vulnerability and defiance go hand-in-hand for Arnold, but Bird, even when meticulously lensed by the great Robbie Ryan, feels exceptionally raw. – Savina P.

Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)

Gladiator II (Ridley Scott)

Most men think about the Roman Empire several times a week, if a recent meme is to be believed. With Gladiator II, Ridley Scott brings the era back to life in the way only a teenage boy could imagine it. Historical accuracy continues to be an irrelevance for the director, and who could blame him? Why stick to the facts when it’s so much more fun to have your little freak of an action hero battle hordes of CGI monkeys or partake in a naval battle in the flooded Colosseum? If this decades-in-the-making sequel feels better than the original, it’s because there are no prestige aspirations here––Scott follows the formula of the first to a tee, turning up the dial so each set piece is bigger and stupider than before. There’s no commentary on the senseless nature of the violence being spectated, as there was with the first; if Scott were to pause the film after Lucius (Paul Mescal) bites off a monkey’s arm in battle to once again ask “are you not entertained,” it would likely register as sincere rather than scathing. – Alistair R. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Lee (Ellen Kuras)

There are few actors who command the screen like Kate Winslet, and with Ellen Kuras’ Lee, the thespian has one of her sturdiest roles in years. As tenacious, groundbreaking American war photographer Lee Miller, Winslet appears in nearly every scene, dominates nearly every conversation, and says more with an arched eyebrow than many actors can say across pages upon pages of dialogue. Winslet’s work here is every bit as strong as the performances she gave in films like Sense and Sensibility, Revolutionary Road, Little Children, and The Reader. There’s argument to be made that Lee features her finest turn. – Christopher S. (full review)

Where to Stream: Hulu

Nighbitch (Marielle Heller)

Is there a point to a metaphor if a filmmaker does all the unpacking for you? That was my main takeaway from Nightbitch, Marielle Heller’s adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s novel, where Heller and star Amy Adams take on the ugly side of motherhood through a slight twist on the werewolf story. In this case it’s a weredog story, where anxieties around the struggle between a woman’s identity and her societal expectations manifest as a literal transformation into a canine. It’s a rich subject that Heller dives into without hesitation, including some of the thornier aspects, until a disappointing final act where she settles on basic end points for her ideas. – C.J. P. (full review)

Where to Stream: Hulu

The Order (Justin Kurzel)

At quite a steady clip, Justin Kurzel followed True History of the Kelly Gang and Nitram with The Order, a gritty crime drama that’s certainly his best film since the debut Snowtown. Starring Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, Alison Oliver, and Marc Maron, the film tells the true story of FBI agents tracking down robberies carried out by white supremacists. Luke Hicks said in his review, “Australian native Kurzel has finally––as was inevitable at his climbing rate––begun telling stories stateside, but the move to the American West simply amounts to a setting shift. The film doesn’t feel foreign to his other work––a compliment or a dig, depending on how you read it. For one, The Order bears its fair share of clichés. You can guess how it’ll end. The boilerplate crime-thriller framework follows that of his past films, which don’t stray from the formula either.”

Where to Stream: VOD

The Return (Uberto Pasolini)

The true pits of ’90s nostalgia are maybe here, as we’re in the year 2024 arriving at an attempt to hype an English Patient reunion. Yes, that’ll be music to the ears of people who loved a Miramax heyday including that notoriously lugubrious Best Picture winner. Certainly there’s nothing wrong with seeing Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche acting together again, the capable thespians they both are, but when the content of their reunion draws specific memories of a certain kind of dull prestige-filmmaking period, you’re deeply in trouble. The film in question, The Return, serves as an adaptation of the last third of Homer’s Odyssey, where Odysseus (Fiennes) is long past the high-seas adventure part of his journey and rather stuck in a kind of limbo in his homeland of Ithaca; returned but not reclaimed. – Ethan V. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Y2K (Kyle Mooney)

A disaster horror comedy that’s equal parts Can’t Hardly Wait and Idle Hands, Kyle Mooney’s directorial debut Y2K is often hilariously sincere in its depiction of social and technological anxieties from the tail end of 1999. Mooney remembers all too well a world where promises of connectivity had not quite caught up with the technology. For those that were not ’90s kids, your mileage may vary and the premise of Y2K might seem confounding: why would a computer system rolling back the clock to 1900 be an issue? – John F. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

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