Welcome to When To Stream’s Weekly Preview! Every week, we take a closer look at the major film streaming releases scheduled to launch in the next 7 days. As always, release dates are subject to change.

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Here are next week’s highlights:

Tuesday, January 7th, 2025

BLACK BOX DIARIES - Paramount+ w/Showtime

Synopsis: Journalist Shiori Itō embarks on a courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender. Her quest becomes a landmark case in Japan, exposing the country’s outdated judicial and societal systems.

What we like:

• This doc world premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, and was picked up for distribution in the US by MTV Documentary Films.

• The film has garnered a number of awards on the film festival circuit this year. The National Board of Review named it one of its top 5 documentaries of 2024, and it has been short-listed for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar.

What we don’t like:

• Like most docs these days, the film did not have much of a theatrical release. People just aren’t showing up in theaters to see documentaries. MTV is smart to launch this on Paramount+ w/Showtime this week, as voting for Oscar nominations begins on Wednesday. It will hopefully raise the film’s profile a bit.

FLOW - $19.99 Sale / TBD Rental

Synopsis: A solitary cat, displaced by a great flood, finds refuge on a boat with various species and must navigate the challenges of adapting to a transformed world together.

What we like:

• This animated fantasy adventure from Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis contains no dialogue, relying entirely on visual storytelling and authentic animal behaviors to tell its story. 

• The film premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, and has been lauded for its ecological parable, emphasizing themes of cooperation and survival among different species in the face of environmental catastrophe.

What we don’t like:

• Despite winning the lion’s share of Best Animated Feature awards in 2024, including prizes from the National Board of Review, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the Los Angeles Film Critics, most Oscar pundits are predicting either The Wild Robot or Inside Out 2 will eventually take home the gold. There are plenty of worthy contenders, but it would be exciting if a non-Hollywood produced animated film could win once in a while. (Yes, we know, The Boy and the Heron won last year. Miyazaki is an exception!).

SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT - $12.99 Sale / TBD Rental

Synopsis: In 1960, United Nations: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe denouncing America’s color bar, while the U.S. dispatches jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to the Congo to deflect attention from its first African post-colonial coup.

What we like:

• Belgian filmmaker Johan Grimonprez digs into the intricate connections between jazz music, decolonization, and geopolitical tensions during the Cold War, focusing on the 1961 assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.

• The film uses a mix of archival footage, musical performances, and historical texts to illustrate how African politics and American jazz intersected during this tumultuous period.

• It world premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation.

What we don’t like:

• We’ve heard some people complain it’s too long? With a 2 hour and 30 minute runtime, it’s definitely a film you’ll have to carve out some time to watch. But once you settle in, it moves like a thriller. We highly recommend!

Friday, January 10th, 2025

THE END - $14.99 Sale / TBD Rental

Synopsis: After the sudden arrival of a stranger threatens the family’s luxurious compound deep underground, Son begins to question their seemingly perfect existence.

What we like:

• Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence) makes his narrative feature debut, and it’s a bold swing, blending elements of dystopian science fiction with musical theater.

• The film features a stellar cast: Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, George MacKay, Moses Ingram, and Lennie James.

What we don’t like:

• Unfortunately, reviews indicate the ambitious mixing of genre doesn’t quite hit the mark, though most critics praise the film for trying something different. We’re actually quite excited to see it for ourselves.

GET AWAY - Shudder, AMC+, $14.99 Sale / TBD Rental

Synopsis: A family's vacation to a remote getaway takes an unexpected turn when they discover the island they're on is inhabited by a serial killer.

What we like:

• Nick Frost stars and also wrote this horror comedy, which has a terrific premise and looks like it should be fun.

• Sebastian Croft, who plays the son here, got his start playing young Ned Stark in the orginal Game of Thrones series.

What we don’t like:

• Though the film got decent reviews, it didn’t do much business in theaters, earning less than $200K. No Late Night With the Devil or In a Violent Nature-sized hit for IFC Films here.

LOOK INTO MY EYES - Max

Synopsis: A group of New York City psychics conduct deeply intimate readings for their clients, revealing a kaleidoscope of loneliness, connection, and healing.

What we like:

• Lana Wilson’s thought-provoking documentary follows a group of New York City psychics as they perform intimate readings for clients, unveiling layers of human connection, healing, and loneliness.

• The film diverges from proving or disproving psychic phenomena, focusing instead on the emotional dynamics between psychics and clients. Each psychic's session becomes a journey into the clients' personal grief, anxieties, and the universal need for closure or connection with lost loved ones​.

What we don’t like:

• The film was released without much fanfare in a few theaters in September. As we mentioned, it’s a tough market for any docs to get traction in theaters, so we hope this fascinating and thoughtful film will find an audience on streaming.

SURVIVE - $19.99 Sale / TBD Rental

Synopsis: A couple celebrates their son’s birthday in the middle of the ocean on their boat. A violent storm hits and it brings up hungry creatures from the depths and they fight for their survival.

What we like:

• This relatively low-budget sci-fi thriller follows a family who try to, yes, survive as the earth’s polarity reverses and causes the oceans to drain. We hate it when that happens.

• Belgian actress Émilie Dequenne plays the mother, and if her name sounds familiar, it’s because she memorably played the title role in the Dardenne brothers 1999 film Rosetta, for which she shared the Best Actress Prize at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

What we don’t like:

• Another generic title! So much effort goes in to these low budget thrillers, and then they just slap on the most unmemorable title and send it out in to the world. It’s baffling.

Happy Streaming Everyone!

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