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

Costa Brava, Lebanon (Mounia Akl)

What can you do when your homelands falling apart? The easy answer is stay or leave, but both options carry too much complexity to simply choose and be done. For starters, not everyone has that choicewhether due to finances, family, or myriad other reasons. And those who are able must dig deep within themselves to rationalize why. Do you leave because of greater opportunity? Do you stay because you want to be part of the solution? Or do you find yourself in a sort of purgatoryone foot planted on each side, only to discover your fear of losing out on the benefits of one for the potential of the other has you locked in stasis? Thats where Walid (Saleh Bakri) currently exists. Jared M. (full review)

Where to Stream: Kino Now

The Ken Jacobs Collection

Filmatique is exclusively streaming work by Ken Jacobs, one of the most wildly creative and influential artists in cinema history. The 20-title curation spans Jacobss nearly 70-year career: early films using New York City as a poetic landscape (Orchard Street) and as a setting for Smiths carnivalesque performances (Little Stabs at Happiness and Blonde Cobra); experiments with found footage (Tom, Tom, the Pipers Son); and an embracing digital tools to create stroboscopic effects that turn silent shorts and Victorian stereoscopic photographs into mind-expanding 3D investigations (Capitalism: Child Labor).

Where to Stream: Filmatique

The Legend of Molly Johnson (Leah Purcell)

A favorite of Leah Purcells as a child, Henry Lawsons short story The Drovers Wife was always at the front of her mind when growing into adulthood as an artist. It only makes sense, then, that she would take that 1892 tale and reimagine it as an Australian western that would bring her own ancestral history as a fair-skinned Aboriginal woman to light. First she had to give the titular wife a name: Molly Johnson. Next it was fleshing out a dramatic narrative beyond that of a devoted mother staying up all night to protect her children from a hidden snake while reminiscing about all the other times for which she did the same (fire and flood) with her husband consistently away. A legend was born. Jared M. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Media Man (Danny Lyon)

Over the next two weeks Le Cinma Club will stream, for free, Media Man. Filmed by Danny Lyon over the course of five years with his wife Nancy Weiss,it barrels across cities and countrysides, quilting together a warm study of Americas many faces. This patchwork portrait of overlooked people and their passions encapsulates Lyons ability to immortalize fleeting histories through momentous encounters.

Where to Stream: Le Cinma Club

On the Count of Three (Jerrod Carmichael)

Considering the raw, uncomfortable truths found in Jerrod Carmichaels comedy, the logline of his directorial debut shouldnt come as a surprise: two friends make a pact to end their lives and experience one final day together before plans to carry through with the dual deeds. Though not scripted by Carmichael himself,The Carmichael Showwriter-producer Ari Katcher and hisRamyco-writer Ryan Welch have crafted a character-focused story with layers of necessary darkness and pathos while still injecting humor that mostly feels like a natural fit considering the subject matter. As to be expected,Taste of Cherrythis is not, but with its layers of despair and dark comedy mixed with genuine friendship, Carmichael owes a bit toMikey and Nickyin this ride-or-die, last-day-in-a-life outing. Even if the last act doesnt succeed as intended,On the Count of Threethreads the difficult task of finding the humor in hopelessness while not exploiting the genuine pain of severe depression. Jordan R. (full review)

Where to Stream: Hulu

Orphan: First Kill (William Brent Bell)

Screenwriters Alex Mace and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick gave their character Leena Klammer, aka Esther Albright, a complete back story at the end of Jaume Collet-SerrasOrphan. A victim of a rare hormone disorder known as hypopituitarism, causing proportional dwarfism, had made it so this 33-year-old woman looked as though she were only nine. The condition obviously prevented her from being seen as a mature adult; thus she used it to her manipulative advantage. What began as thieving, however, eventually escalated to murder once her desire to sleep with her adopted fathers reinforced that finding love, while unquestionably difficult, proved impossible when her targets initially believed themselves to be herdad. At least seven people were left dead in her wake alongside their homes charred remains. Jared M. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

The Princess (Ed Perkins)

By design, Ed PerkinsThe Princesskeeps a healthy, mediated distance from its subject, the late Princess of Wales. After all, the news is the first draft of history, and the film restricts its view to what we knew at the time. In doing so Perkins orchestrates a film that demystifies the lore and media obsession with Princess Diana, in essence pointing its gaze inwardtowards the media covering the adoring fans in the moment. They sometimes turn against the media, defending the Peoples Princess in shouting matches on talk shows and sometimes in the streets, yet the economic incentives for rabid paparazzi persist. John F. (full review)

Where to Stream: HBO Max

Shadow (Zhang Yimou)

With its gorgeously choreographed sword duels, sabers slicing through paddles of blood and rain, watercolor bi-chromatic palettes and sumptuous costumes, Zhang YimousShadow(Ying) is a film of visual charms. To enter into the Fifth Generation maestros latest period piece is to be invited to marvel at a 116-minute long dance a stunning return to form from a director whod previously ventured into semi-autobiographical terrain with the 2014 movingComing Home, and later veered into the bombastic Chinese-cum-Matt Damon blockbuster epic letdownThe Great Wall(2016).Shadowbrings heart and spectacle together, and the result is a bombastic martial artswuxiareplete with duels of breath-taking beauty that will please longtime Zhang acolytes and newbies alike. Leonardo G. (full review)

Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)

Spin Me Round (Jeff Baena)

There are a number of reasons to recommendSpin Me Round, a winning comedy about the manager of an Olive Garden-style restaurant who gets chosen to attend a training program in Italy. The film features a shockingly stacked supporting cast of comedy titans: Aubrey Plaza, Tim Heidecker, Molly Shannon, Fred Armisen, Lil Rel Howery,The Offices Zach Woods,Lookings Lauren Weedman, andHigh Maintenances Ben Sinclair. The latest from director Jeff Baena, whose strange and wildly diverse filmography includesLife After BethandThe Little Hours,Spin Me Roundstood out as one of the better comedies in a strong SXSW lineup earlier this yeareven its Harlequin romance novel-apingposteris a gem. Chris S. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Vengeance (B.J. Novak)

Despite its generic title, B.J. Novaks feature-directing debutVengeanceis a smart, subversive fish-out-of-water comedy about a stereotypical coastal elite that gets intellectually catfished into traveling to a remote Texas town complete with a rodeo and Whataburger, seemingly the defacto town meeting place. Novak plays Ben Manalowitz, a Brooklyn-based writer for theNew Yorkerand Bumble power user who dreams of branching out into podcasting, though he just hasnt had his big break. After trading witty quips with famed ladies man John Mayer at a rooftop party about the first-world problem of having too many beautiful women in your phone to keep track of, he meets Eloise (Issa Rae), a producer at a podcast network modeled on NPR. John F. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Also New to Streaming

Hulu

Red Cliff

MUBI (free for 30 days)

I Am LoveBetween Two DawnsCycling the FrameEaster EggsCaballerangoBabysitter

Prime Video

Lucky

VOD

Get Away If You CanThe Immaculate RoomLost Illusions

Excerpt from:
New to Streaming: Ken Jacobs, The Legend of Molly Johnson, Spin Me Round, The Princess & More - The Film Stage

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