What’s Streaming This Week (12/17 - 12/24)
December 19th, 2023
FOUR DAUGHTERS - $12.99 Sale / $4.99 Rental
Four Daughters comes to streaming with a lot of wind in its sails. It world premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May, where it was one of only two documentaries to compete for the Palme d’Or (it lost the award to another of this week’s releases). Since then, it won Best Documentary at the Gotham Awards, and was then nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award in the same category. Director Kaouther Ben Hania’s use of professional actresses as a narrative device might make it a tough sell for the Academy’s conservative documentary branch, but its critical acclaim and awards success might make it undeniable. Whatever happens with Oscar, it’s a doc well worth catching up on.
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES* - $24.99 Sale / $19.99 Rental
When Lionsgate announced it would be reviving the Hunger Games franchise, there seemed to be nothing but skepticism and eye-rolls. Other than the John Wick series, the studio has been starved for mega-hits over the last decade. Was anyone asking for it? It felt like the film was being made for Wall Street, not any particular audience. So when first reviews started to trickle out, and the consensus was that the film delivered, it was a genuine surprise. And now…here we are…The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes has turned in to a leggy hit at the box-office, and Lionsgate finds itself well-positioned to be the top PVOD title over the holiday season.
SILENT NIGHT - $24.99 Sale / $19.99 Rental
Legendary action director John Woo’s first Hollywood film since 2003’s Paycheck, Silent Night arrived with high expectations, but landed with a thud. Critical reaction has been mixed at-best, and audiences didn’t like it very much either, giving it a “C” CinemaScore. Last year’s similarly titled Violent Night successfully melded the holidays with ultra-violence, and grossed more than $75M at the box-office worldwide. Silent Night hasn’t even hit $8M yet. A quick PVOD release is the right move here, and we hope both Woo and star Joel Kinnaman move on to better things.
THANKSGIVING* - $24.99 Sale / $19.99 Rental
Eli Roth’s feature length adaptation of his fictitious trailer from 2007’s Grindhouse, Thanksgiving performed well enough in theaters to merit a sequel announcement from the director (see below). It still baffles us that Sony chose to release the film one week before the titular holiday. Why not give it a few weeks to take advantage of the season? Christmas movies used to be launched in November, and they were HUGE. Hopefully they won’t make the same mistake with Thanksgiving 2. In the meantime, this release is set to be the go-to PVOD horror choice over the holidays.
TROLLS BAND TOGETHER - $29.99 Sale / $19.99 Rental
Well…we’re going to make a bold statement: Trolls-mania has officially peaked. Sure…the latest film has grossed $177M worldwide. But it’s been a quiet run, and the $85M domestic total is a little more than half of what the original earned in theaters in 2016 (the first sequel went straight to Peacock during the pandemic). Sure, there will probably be more sequels. And television series. Maybe a broadway musical. But for now…our beloved Trolls should take a break. Rest, dear Trolls. Rest.
December 20th, 2023
THE CREATOR - Hulu
Arriving on SVOD about a month after its PVOD launch, The Creator is poised to find an audience that passionately defends it as a masterpiece. Is it a masterpiece? We admit we haven’t caught up with it yet. But let’s talk about John David Washington as a leading man. Are we sure he’s not better off as a character actor? Washington proved his acting chops in BlacKkKlansman, but subsequent roles in Tenet, Malcolm & Marie, and Amsterdam left us wanting more charisma. Maybe it’s not fair to compare him to his father, but Denzel has always radiated star power. His son…not so much. We’ll watch The Creator with an open mind, but man, there are plenty of charismatic actors out there who should be given the opportunity to lead big-budget Hollywood films.
GOLDA - Paramount+ w/Showtime
Tis the season for prosthetic makeup! When first images of Helen Mirren in Golda were released, the transformation was impressive. Mirren had won an Oscar for portraying a real-life icon, but her performance in The Queen relied much more on wigs, posture, and overall body language than heavy makeup. Her performance in Golda has been lauded, but there’s a noticeable lack of Oscar buzz around Mirren and the film. It’s a shame, as the subject matter is topical. The film looks at former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, and particularly focuses on her leadership during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Hopefully more people will check it out on Paramount+.
MAESTRO - Netflix
Speaking of prosthetics…Maestro arrives with the Best Makeup Oscar pretty much in the bag. Netflix is putting its mighty promotional muscle behind Bradley Cooper’s biopic, and its likely to find success when nominations are announced next month. But will it end up like Netflix’s previous awards hopefuls? The Irishman received 10 nominations and won zero Oscars. The Power of the Dog got 10 nominations, and only won Best Director. Maestro feels cut from the same cloth: Big nominations haul, minimal (if any) wins. Cooper has a lot of goodwill in the industry, and is turning in to the Susan Lucci of the Oscars (9 noms, no wins). But it just isn’t feeling like his year, is it? Anyway…maybe there will be groundswell of support when the film hits Netflix this week. And the makeup team should polish up their speeches, especially so they don’t replicate the all-time worst Oscar acceptance speech, given by the makeup team from Vice (seriously…this is so painfully bad, it’s actually hilarious):
December 21st, 2023
BEAU IS AFRAID - Paramount+ w/Showtime
Ari Aster’s bold surrealist tragicomedy horror film finally arrives on SVOD, which will make it a perfect film for the family to enjoy during the holidays. What better way to freak out your parents than sitting them down to watch Patty LuPone be terrifying? And the kids will love the animated sequences, right? Fun for the whole family. Anyway…the partnership between A24 and Paramount+ w/Showtime is winding down, with only You Hurt My Feelings, Past Lives, and Talk to Me still to hit the service in 2024. It’ll be interesting to see if A24 reduces the SVOD window when their titles start premiering on Max.
OPERATION NAPOLEON - Hulu
Operation Napoleon is an Icelandic thriller directed by Óskar Þór Axelsson and stars Vivian Ólafsdóttir, Jack Fox and Game of Thrones star Iain Glen. It’s based on Arnaldur Indriðason's best selling book of the same name, and was a big hit in Iceland. Unfortunately, that Icelandic buzz didn’t translate to a successful US box-office run, but no matter. The film tells the story of Kristín, an ambitious lawyer who is drawn into an unexpected sequence of events when her brother stumbles upon a World War II plane wreck on top of Vatnajökull. Finally! A movie that takes place on Vatnajökull!
REBEL MOON - PART ONE: A CHILD OF FIRE - Netflix
Zach Snyder’s latest is bound to elicit zero social media chatter, right? Just kidding, it’s going to be a nightmare! Rebel Moon has received brutal reviews since the embargo lifted yesterday, but it’s bound to have its passionate defenders when it launches on Netflix at 10p ET/7p PT on Thursday. Like The Creator, it’s an attempt to make an original sci-fi adventure, with the sequel set to hit later next year. We’ll be watching with open minds and open hearts, and maybe those scathing reviews will have our expectations low enough that the film will surprise. We might just have to mute some keywords on Twitter/X.
December 22nd, 2023
ANATOMY OF A FALL - $19.99 Sale / $5.99 Rental
Justine Triet’s courtroom drama/thriller has been a sensation ever since it premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it won the coveted Palme d’Or. Lead Sandra Hüller is getting Oscar buzz for her performance, and the film is favored to get a Best Picture nomination as well. One award it won’t be eligible for is Best International Feature. France passed over submitting the Palme winner in favor of the feel-good Juliette Binoche food drama The Taste of Things. We’ll see how things shake out, as both films are supposedly excellent.
DREAM SCENARIO - $24.99 Sale / $19.99 Rental
Another week, another Nicolas Cage movie! This one looks to be a cut above his recent B-movie tinged crime thrillers and westerns. It comes from writer/director Kristoffer Borgli, who made a splash earlier this year with the twisted Norwegian comedy Sick of Myself. In Dream Scenario, Cage plays Paul Matthews, a mild-mannered biology professor who starts inexplicably appearing in the dreams of people around the world. Reviews have been mixed/positive, with some critics loving it, while others loathing it. Definitely looking forward to catching up with this one.
MAGGIE MOORE(S) - Hulu
So much talent involved, and yet not much buzz around John Slattery’s second feature as a director. He enlisted his Mad Men co-star Jon Hamm to star, and man does writing that make us miss Mad Men. What an all-time show. And whenever we have to write Jon Hamm’s name, we have to think about this SNL sketch:
Anyway, Maggie Moore(s) is a black comedy starring Jon Hamm, Tina Fey, and Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammad, so how bad could it be?
SALTBURN - Prime Video
For us, this is THE release of the week. We’ve been dying to check out Saltburn, as reaction to it seems to be all over the map. Emerald Fennell’s follow-up to her Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman nabbed some Golden Globe nominations last week for stars Barry Keoghan and Rosamund Pike. Oscar nominations feel like a long shot, but you never know. It’s theatrical performance has been curious. It opened well in limited release, then kinda flopped when it went wide. But it’s weekly percentage drops have been decent, and the film is approaching $10M at the domestic box-office. Still, we can’t blame Amazon for wanting this on their SVOD platform during the holidays. It’ll certainly make some noise.
Happy Streaming Everyone!
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