What’s Streaming This Week (8/16 – 8/23)

ROMERÍA – $17.99 Sale / TBD Rental

Cast: Llúcia Garcia, Mitch, Tristán Ulloa, Miryam Gallego, Sara Casasnovas, Alberto Gracia, Marina Troncoso, José Ángel Egido, Janet Novás, Celine Tyll

Synopsis: With her mother’s diary in hand, Marina’s search for official documents for university leads her to her biological family on the Atlantic coast. What starts as an administrative quest reveals long-buried family secrets.

What we like:

• This Spanish drama was written and directed by Carla Simón, and is a fictional account of Simón’s childhood and the story of her parents, who both died when she was very young. The filmmaker has described the project as growing out of frustration surrounding her family history and the silences surrounding it.
• Romería was selected for the main competition of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, putting Simón in contention for the prestigious Palme d’Or. It was her first film to compete in Cannes’ main competition, and notable since Cannes has a terrible track record of including female filmmakers in the main competition.
• The film’s critical reception was overwhelmingly positive. It currently sits at 92% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

What we don’t like:

• Despite all the terrific reviews, Janus Films failed to attract much business at the arthouse box-office. To-date, it has earned only $147K domestically. It’s well worth checking out on digital, or later this year when it arrives on the Criterion Channel.

THE FENCE – AMC+

Cast: Isaach De Bankolé, Matt Dillon, Mia McKenna-Bruce and Tom Blyth

Synopsis: A vast public works project in West Africa. Horn, the construction site manager, and Cal, a young engineer, share lodging behind the double gates of their compound. Leone, Horn’s recent bride, comes to join them the same night that a man appears at the fence. His name is Alboury. Like a specter in the darkness, he demands the body of his brother who died earlier that day on the site. He will hound the two men all night long until they return it, as Leone watches the disaster play out before her.

What we like:

• The latest from master filmmaker Claire Denis, best known for films like Beau Travail, White Material, 35 Shots of Rum and High Life. The Fence marks her first film shot in Africa since 2009’s White Material (which is fantastic and well worth checking out).
• The Fence adapts Bernard-Marie Koltès’s 1979 play Black Battles with Dogs (Combat de nègre et de chiens), transforming the stage drama into a cinematic story set at a construction site in West Africa.
• Rather than trying to disguise its stage origins, Denis embraces a deliberately stage-like mise-en-scène, using the enclosed construction compound and its fence to create a claustrophobic environment.
• Denis has a long-standing creative relationship with the British band Tindersticks, who provide the music for The Fence.

What we don’t like:

• AMC Global Distribution initially announced a straight-to-streaming premiere for the film on their AMC+ platform, but then gave the film a brief theatrical run at the IFC Center in New York City. It’s pretty depressing that a marquee arthouse filmmaker like Claire Denis can’t even get a limited national theatrical roll-out anymore.

MOTHER MARY – HBO Max

Cast: Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, Hunter Schafer, Jessica Brown Findlay, Sian Clifford, FKA Twigs

Synopsis: An epic melodrama about a pop musician and her relationship with an iconic fashion designer.

What we like:

• This ambitious musical psychological thriller is the latest from David Lowery, the filmmaker behind Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, The Old Man & the Gun, and The Green Knight.
• The film isn’t based directly on one real singer. However, Lowery has said the character was conceived partly by imagining what a Taylor Swift-like superstar might be 10–15 years in the future.
• The original music involves major contemporary artists and producers including Charli XCX, Jack Antonoff and FKA twigs. Composer Daniel Hart, a frequent David Lowery collaborator, also created the score.

What we don’t like:

• The indie electropop duo MOTHERMARY (identical twin sisters Elyse and Larena Winn), publicly stated that the film co-opted their aesthetic, name, and identity without credit or consultation. The duo opted against a lawsuit, citing prohibitive legal fees and the risk of draining their resources against a major studio like A24. Lowery maintained that the film’s concept originated years prior during the production of The Green Knight, and A24 did not issue a formal response to the claims.

PETER ASHER: EVERYWHERE MAN – $14.99 Sale / TBD Rental

Cast: Peter Asher, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Paul McCartney, Steve Martin, Eric Idle, Robin Williams, Lyle Lovett, Natalie Merchant, Twiggy, Pattie Boyd, Marianne Faithfull, Paul Shaffer, Gordon Waller, Rufus Wainwright, “Weird Al” Yankovic

Synopsis: Peter Asher’s extraordinary life has intersected with some of the greatest artists and musical moments of the last six decades. A child actor who became a pop star and then a manager and producer to the likes of James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, he is a Zelig-like figure who remains a vital creative force to this day. Featuring interviews with Paul McCartney, Carole King, and many more.

What we like:

• Filmmakers Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine portray Asher almost as a Zelig-like figure who repeatedly seems to turn up at pivotal moments in music and culture, from the British Invasion and the Beatles’ orbit to Apple Records, the singer-songwriter boom and beyond.
• The film features an incredible collection of interview subjects, including Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Steve Martin, Eric Idle, Twiggy, Natalie Merchant, Marianne Faithfull and “Weird Al” Yankovic.
• Peter Asher managed to have three completely different careers that could each have made a fascinating documentary: 1960s pop star, influential record executive/producer, and manager of major singer-songwriters. The film’s real surprise is discovering just how often this seemingly low-key Englishman was standing right next to the biggest names in modern music history.

What we don’t like:

• As evidenced in the poster, Asher has quite the resemblance to Austin Powers. Turns out, Mike Myers based his look on Asher’s mid-60’s style. So what don’t we like? The chodes at TMZ ambushed Asher outside of Nobu in LA, and he comes across as incredibly sweet and accommodating. The TMZ guys just sound like jerks (we’re not surprised..but still).

ROSEBUSH PRUNING – MUBI, $14.99 Sale

Cast: Callum Turner, Elle Fanning, Pamela Anderson, Jamie Bell, Riley Keough, Lukas Gage, Tracy Letts and Elena Anaya

Synopsis: In a Spanish villa, American siblings Jack, Ed, Anna and Robert wallow in isolation and their inherited fortune. When Jack wants to move in with his girlfriend and Ed uncovers the truth about their mother’s death, the fabric of the family begins to unravel.

What we like:

• Karim Aïnouz’s darkly comic family satire is loosely based on a classic Italian film. The screenplay by Efthimis Filippou is based on Marco Bellocchio’s 1965 film Fists in the Pocket, a notorious examination of bourgeois family dysfunction. Aïnouz relocates the story and reimagines it for a contemporary setting.
• The ensemble is stacked with talent, including Callum Turner (Mr. Dua Lipa again!), Riley Keough, Jamie Bell, Elle Fanning, Lukas Gage, Elena Anaya, Tracy Letts and Pamela Anderson.
• Hélène Louvart, known for her work on films including The Lost Daughter, Never Rarely Sometimes Always and La Chimera, photographed the film.

What we don’t like:

• After the film’s world premiere at the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival, critics pretty much tore this one to shreds. It currently sits at a mere 18% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Those bad reviews likely kept the arthouse audiences away, as the film has only grossed $13K domestically. Brutal.

THE CHRISTOPHERS – Hulu

Cast: Ian McKellen, Michaela Coel, Jessica Gunning, and James Corden

Synopsis: The estranged children of a once-famous artist hire a forger to complete his unfinished works so they can be “discovered” and sold after his death.

What we like:

• Steven Soderbergh’s darkly funny art-world drama had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and received a very strong critical reception. Rotten Tomatoes currently lists it at 95% Fresh, with the consensus highlighting Soderbergh’s stylish direction and the performances of Sir Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel.
• Soderbergh directed the movie, but he also served as its cinematographer and editor. As usual, he used his filmmaking pseudonyms: Peter Andrews for cinematography and Mary Ann Bernard for editing.
• Although the setup sounds like a comic caper about greedy heirs and an art forgery, the film gradually becomes more interested in aging, loneliness, artistic legacy and the complicated relationship between an artist and the people around him.

What we don’t like:

• While promoting the film, Steven Soderbergh revealed in interviews with Filmmaker Magazine that he utilized generative AI to create surreal dreamscapes for his documentary John Lennon: The Last Interview, and planned extensive AI usage for an upcoming Spanish-American War film. We love Soderbergh, and The Christophers is terrific (and AI-free), but his curiosity around AI just bums us out.

I SWEAR – Netflix

Cast: Robert Aramayo, Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson, and Peter Mullan

Synopsis: Diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome at 15, John Davidson navigates his way against the odds through troubled teenage years and into adulthood, finding inspiration in the kindness of others to discover his true purpose in life.

What we like:

• The film is based on the real life of Scottish Tourette syndrome activist John Davidson, who first became known through the famous 1989 BBC documentary John’s Not Mad.
• Robert Aramayo stars as adult John Davidson, and some viewers might recognize him as young Ned Stark in Game of Thrones and Elrond in The Rings of Power.
• Despite being a modestly budgeted British drama, the film became an unexpected commercial success in the UK and earned multiple BAFTA nominations, with Aramayo winning Best Actor over four Oscar-nominees (Chalamet, Jordan, DiCaprio, Hawke).

What we don’t like:

• Throughout the BAFTA ceremony, Tourette syndrome activist John Davidson (the suject of the film) had several tic-related outbursts, including shouting the word “n****r” while Black actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting the first category of the night. The BBC apologized for not editing the slur out from the broadcast.

Happy Streaming Everyone!