Streaming platforms are closing out March with some prestigious movies, including Tár, in which Cate Blanchett turns in an all-time-great performance as a talented-but-troubled conductor; the excellent family drama Montana Story; and Disney original documentary Madu.
Tár (2022)
Written and directed by Todd Field (In the Bedroom, Little Children) and starring Cate Blanchett in the title role, Tár details the complicated, conflicted life of fictional composer and conductor Lydia Tár, who is both a musical genius and a sexual predator. Blanchett was nominated for an Oscar for her multifaceted and fearless portrayal of a woman who is brilliant, ambitious, pretentious, tormented, and cruel, and whose life is unraveling. Tár presents the issue of sexual exploitation in the arts in more nuanced, honest terms than is the norm, and is all the more powerful for looking deeper than the usual tropes about the subject.
Where to stream: PeacockTV
Spermworld
With the recent legislation affecting IVF in Alabama, SPERMWORLD is a timely documentary about the world of underground sperm donation. Donors and would-be parents connect on message boards, meet at strip malls or coffee shops, and create life, all outside of the gaze of the medical establishment. Directed by Lance Oppenheim and produced by The New York Times and FX, SPERMWORLD details not just an underground medical movement, but a new kind of family relationship.
Where to stream: Hulu
Madu
Madu tells the story of Anthony Madu, a 12-year-old Nigerian boy who captured the world’s imagination when a video of him doing ballet went viral in 2020. Madu was granted a scholarship to a prestigious ballet school in England, and this documentary details the challenges and triumphs he faces as he leaves Lagos for the first time in his life to enter an entirely different world.
Where to stream: Disney+
Wrath of Man (2021)
Director Guy Ritchie teams up with leading man Jason Statham in this stylish, hard-hitting action movie. Wrath of Man is packed with badass characters, guns, explosions and a touch of pure evil. Statham plays Patrick Hill, an enigmatic, menacing guy who takes a job as a guard for an armored truck company. It soon becomes clear that Hill is not who he says he is, but his real motivations and identity remain hidden behind his impenetrable facade. Is he a would-be thief planning an inside job, a law enforcement officer gone undercover, or something worse?
Where to stream: Prime
Montana Story (2021)
Montana Story is the kind of quiet, intimate family drama too rarely seen these days. Haley Lu Richardson and Owen Teague play siblings on a roadtrip from Montana to New York. Their cargo: Mr. T, an elderly horse that belongs to their estranged father who is on his deathbed at the family’s ranch. Along the way, secrets are revealed, intimacies exchanged, and uneasy resolutions achieved. Montana Story has a nearly 90% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes with critics praising the strong performances, well-crafted script, and incredible shots of breathtaking scenery.
Where to stream: Hulu
Dave Attell: Hot Cross Buns
Any new material from hipster comedian Dave Attell is cause for celebration. Attell, best known for creating and starring in Comedy Central's Insomniac, is a comedian’s comedian, and Hot Cross Buns promises a full helping of the fast-paced, no-sacred-cows observations he’s known for.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Beautiful Game
This Netflix original movie produced by Colin Farrell fictionalizes the drama surround a real event: The Homeless World Cup, an international soccer tournament for homeless men. Mal is the manager of England’s team, tasked with taking a rag-tag, troubled group of men to Rome to compete for the championships. He's banking on Vinny, a talented-but-troubled striker, but will he be able to hold it together to lead his team to victory? If you like uplifting sports dramas, give The Beautiful Game a spin.
Where to stream: Netflix
Last week's picks
Road House
In the original Road House, Patrick Swayze played against type as the bouncer in rough Southern saloon. In the remake, it’s a jacked-up Jake Gyllenhaal doing the honors. He plays Elwood Dalton, a nice-seeming dude who used to be a UFC fighter. Down on his luck, Dalton takes a security gig at a rundown roadhouse in the Florida Keys, but his new gig quickly leads beyond bouncing drunks to confrontations with dangerous criminals. In his first acting job, MMA champion Conor McGregor plays the heavy, and finding out if he can act is enough reason to watch Road House by itself.
Where to stream: Prime
Stormy
Adult film star Stormy Daniels is an unlikely historical figure and a fascinating person. Peacock’s documentary gives Daniels a chance to tell the complicated, batshit story of how she was paid for sex with a future president, then dragged into a cultural and legal nightmare that continues to the present. Daniels, a mother, artist, and advocate as well as a porn star, tells her own story in Stormy, a documentary that strives to present the person behind the salacious headlines and propaganda.
Where to stream: Peacock
Shirley
This Netflix original biopic casts Oscar-winner Regina King as Shirley Chisholm, the first Black congresswoman, and details her groundbreaking run for president in 1972. Written and directed by John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, American Crime, Needle in a Timestack) and based on extensive interviews with Chisholm’s family and friends, Shirley gives viewers a you-are-there look at Chisholm's courageous run.
Where to stream: Netflix
Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told
This documentary tells the story of Freaknik, an iconic street party/festival that took over Atlanta every year in the '80s and '90s. More than just a good time, Freaknik became a celebration of Black life and culture. Told through archival footage, interviews with 21 Savage, Killer Mike, CeeLo Green, and many more who were there, Freaknik examines the growth of the festival and its eventual demise.
Where to stream: Hulu
Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
Justine Triet’s French drama won Oscars for best original screenplay and best non-English film at the Oscars this year. In a for-the-ages performance, Sandra Hüller play Sandra Voyter, a novelist accused of murdering her husband. The court case that follows dissects both the circumstances surrounding the death and the complex dynamics of a small family.
Where to stream: Hulu
The Stones and Brian Jones (2023)
This critically lauded documentary from director Nick Broomfield examines the troubled personal life and career of The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones. After forming the band, Jones was gradually pushed from the spotlight by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, until he was sacked from the band and ended up dead in his swimming pool a few weeks later. If you're into rock and roll mythology, The Stones and Brian Jones offers a huge helping of a research, remembrances, and archival footage from the days when rock and roll actually mattered.
Where to stream: Hulu
Dream Scenario (2023)
The great Nicolas Cage stars in this surreal comedy that takes a darkly satirical look at fame in the always-connected age. Paul Matthews (Cage, playing against type) is a boring, schlubby college professor who secretly longs for academic notoriety. He gets famous, but instead of people talking about his research, everyone in the world suddenly starts dreaming about Matthews.
Where to stream: Max
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Director Halina Reijn’s Gen-Z horror movie Bodies Bodies Bodies is like Euphoria with murder. A group of stylish, callow rich people travel to a remote mansion to party, but things go violently wrong. It’s a well-worn premise but it’s presented in an up-to-the-second style, with stars like Pete Davidson, Maria Bakalova, and Rachel Sennott playing the kinds of love-to-hate characters you don’t mind seeing get murdered.
Where to stream: Netflix
Freddy Got Fingered (2001) (and other “Razzie” winners)
To celebrate Oscar month, The Criterion Channel has released a 14 film collection of “Razzie” award-winning movies, movies purported to be the worst of their respective years. You could make the case that none of these films deserve their reputations (except Gigli), but the most surprising to me was Tom Green’s Freddy Got Fingered. Despite its 10% Rotten Tomatoes score, Freddy is a genius-level exercise in cinematic subversion and provocation. Not only does Green’s "comedy" style pre-date internet anti-comedy by about a decade, there’s something deeper here too. To tell the story of a guy who annoys everyone until he is given millions of dollars, only to waste the money annoying people, Tom Green actually annoyed his way into millions, then “wasted” it making Freddy Got Fingered, which annoyed everyone—genius!
Where to stream: The Criterion Channel
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