What To Watch: Six Streaming Picks

The new "Nimona" and five repertory choices, one for each platform.

Jul 07, 2023

The doldrum days of summer have arrived, and with little of note in theaters – “Joy Ride,” a raucous Asian-American road comedy that’s probably rude enough to be a big hit, screened while I was on vacation, indie drama “Earth Mama” sounds promising, and “The Lesson” has Richard E. Grant, Julie Delpy, and Daryl McCormack (“Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” “Bad Sisters”) – here are six titles, old, new, and newish, that are streaming on VOD platforms.

On Watch TCM: Eating Raoul (1982, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐) – I love that this midnight-movie black comedy -- still delightfully transgressive 41 years after it was made – is popping up on Turner Classic’s streaming platform. It’s the story of Paul and Mary Bland (director Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov, above), prissy food snobs who strike on a plan of killing “rich perverts” to bankroll their dream restaurant. If nothing else, it’s proof that Woronov, a Warhol Factory survivor who’s monumentally funny/sexy/charismatic here, deserved much bigger film roles than this and the principal in “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.” (Streaming on Watch TCM, Max, and the Criterion Channel; available for VOD rental elsewhere.)

On Max: Fast Color (2018, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2) My favorite superhero movies are the micro-budget indie ones about regular people born with gifts that they just. don’t. want. Directed and co-written by Julia Hart, this stars Lorraine Toussaint, a powerhouse Gugu Mbatha-Raw (above, “Beyond the Lights,” “The Morning Show”) , and Saniyya Sidney (Venus Williams in “King Richard”) as three generations of women bound by destructive telekinetic powers that serve as a nice metaphor for the rage of the marginalized. It doesn’t have Spandex costumes, but it does have David Strathairn. (Streaming on Max and Starz, available for VOD rental elsewhere.)

On Amazon Prime: The Ghost Writer (2010, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐) It’s understood if you boycott any films from Roman Polanski on principal; that said, this is a minor treat from a major filmmaker, a twisty, twisted game of wits between an ex-Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan) and the writer (Ewan MacGregor) hired to write his memoirs. It’s a very smart movie with a not-so-smart hero at its center; as the ghost writer makes his way through the PM’s duplicitous circle, Polanski stages the gamesmanship as a satirical contest between a terrier and a roomful of tigers. (Streaming on Amazon Prime, available for VOD rental elsewhere.)

On Paramount+: Madeline’s Madeline (2018, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐) Josephine Decker’s stunning drama follows a Brooklyn teenager (16-year-old Helena Howard, above) struggling with schizophrenia while yawing between two maternal figures: Her worried mother (performance artist Miranda July) and the leader of a theater troupe (Molly Parker) who may be exploiting the girl as much as nurturing her. One of the best movies of 2018, it’s jaggedly told from inside Madeline’s head looking out, with a final 20 minutes that are pure electricity. (Streaming on Paramount+, the Criterion Channel, and Kanopy; available for VOD rental elsewhere.)

On Netflix: Nimona (2023, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐) Some animated family movies have enough meat on their bones for grown-ups to chew on, and this is one. Based on ND Stevenson’s much-loved graphic novel and set in a futuristic medieval walled city, “Nimona” has a pro forma set-up: A stalwart knightly hero (voiced by Riz Ahmed) is framed for murder and fights to clear his name. But with the arrival of the title character, an anarchic shape-shifting Puck figure, the whole thing lifts off into a dizzy action-comedy that embeds its agenda in the narrative rather than pointing to it with neon signs and klaxons. The hero is casually gay; the Puck can take any form he/she wants (“And now you’re a boy?” “I am today”); the city’s populace is frighteningly quick to become a mob and label Nimona a monster. All this is there for the taking but, despite the sometimes-crude background animation, “Nimona” works as a movie rather than a position paper and its emotional undercurrents build to a climax that’s surprisingly powerful. There’s drama in the film’s making as well: A production of Blue Sky Studios, whose “Ice Age” movies were distributed by 20th Century Fox, “Nimona” was delayed when the Walt Disney Co. bought Fox in 2019 and the new bosses got nervous about the movie’s LGBTQ themes, delaying its release and eventually shutting Blue Sky down entirely. Independent studio Annapurna Pictures revived the project in 2022, Netflix stepped in as distributor, and here we are. You don’t need to know the backstory to enjoy the movie, though, either with kids or on your own – Chloe Grace Moretz’s performance as Nimona is a flexible and funny work of vocal choreography, and even when the action gets a little too frenetic, it’s hard to hate a film that has a fondness for the “Banana Splits” theme song. P.S. — Dig up the comic if you have the opportunity. (Streaming on Netflix).

On Hulu: Personal Shopper (2017, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐) The movie that finally convinced me that Kristen Stewart is one of the major acting talents of her generation. In Olivier Assayas’ ambiguous drama, she’s an unformed American twenty-something flitting about Paris and London, buying high-end couture for a pompous client, mourning a dead twin brother, and aching to connect with the world. It’s a brilliant, mercurial portrait of a modern archetype – Girl With Phone – and, when you least expect it, a ghost story. (Streaming on Hulu and Kanopy, available for rent on Amazon and Apple TV.)

Looking ahead, there’s a new “Mission Impossible” on the horizon – I saw it last night, more to come next week, but suffice to say that this property still knows what to do and does it very, very well – and, further out, the double-whammy of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” on July 21. There’s some sort of weird cultural cage match going on with these two on social media and in the film industry, to the point where the films’ respective studios have scheduled head-to-head critics’ screenings in all the major cities, including Boston. That’s right, we get to preview one or the other of the summer’s two most anticipated movies, but not both. First World problems, I know, but how perverse is that, and, more to the point, why? All I can figure is that Warner Brothers (“Barbie”) wants to punish Nolan – or at least pee in his pool -- for leaving his longtime studio to make “Oppenheimer” at Universal after the director criticized WB’s decision to send new releases straight to HBO Max during the pandemic. (Representative Nolan quote from 2020: ““Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service.”) Because “Oppenheimer” will succeed or be a bomb – you should pardon the expression – on its own merits, and so will “Barbie,” a studio making life annoying for the schmendricks who write the reviews seems an especially petty way to even the score.

Enjoy your weekend and don’t hesitate to weigh in with any thoughts, stray or otherwise.

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