Streaming Weekly November 2015 2.0
It’s starting to get very chilly out there, which means you need to make sure to fill up your weekend evenings with some of our contributors recommendations while you stay warm inside. We’re excited to bring you more every week to add to your streaming queue, we hope you enjoy them, and happy movie watching weekend everyone!
via Josh Crabb
2001: A Space Odyssey (Netflix) – A slightly confounding movie, but incredibly beautiful and profound, Kubrick’s 1968 Sci-Fi move defies the normal conventions of Sci-Fi movies since it essetnailly inspired them all. It is impossible to watch the movie and not see Star Wars, Interstellar, Star Trek, Deep Space Nine, heck, even “real” space movies like Apollo 13 and Gravity borrow heavily from the sound design, musical score, prop design, and even the thematic and narrative elements.
Kubrick’s movie is a rather straight-forward plot, with one or two dynamic twists, but primarily it is high concept space poetry; hence space “odyssey”. Every detail is meticulous, every shot original and beautiful, and every scene is filled with imagination, uneasiness, terror, and awe. You’re not entirely sure what the movie is saying, but Kubrick is too good a director to allow the plot to determine how you feel. Truly, like good poetry, it speaks differently to every single person. If you haven’t seen this movie, you must! Immediately! Now, go!
Seriously, why aren’t you watching yet?
via Griffin Kale
Citizen Four (HBO NOW) – I’ve never become more engrossed in the stories surrounding a documentary than after I watched this one. When Edward Snowden contacted documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald regarding his concerns with what he had seen and learned during his time working for an NSA sub-contractor, Laura immediately began filming. When they finally met up in Hong Kong, after months where Snowden vetted their security, she was still filming. We now know that from the moment the tape starts in that hotel room, the US government knew exactly where they were and were already surveilling the room. The rest of this documentary is an oddly interesting combination of watching Snowden explain to them what they’re looking at and hearing other experts explain the depth to which the American government surveils the people of the world, much less its own citizens. Enjoy. And put tape over your webcam.
via The Film Avenger
Silver Linings Playbook (Netflix) – This was one of my favorite films of 2012. Writer/director David O. Russell has a way of making even the most extreme and eccentric characters believable and relatable. These characters are broken people, but they are trying to make sense of things, which makes the story much more real. What makes this film particularly enjoyable is its outlook on relationships. They are complicated and messy at times but seem to turn out the way they should in the end – as if there is someone behind it all. It’s also a lesson in what hope and true optimism are all about, and how we sometimes stubbornly try so hard to make things work the way we want. Both Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence give powerhouse performances as the central couple – two broken people who are commiserating with each other at first, but eventually help one another deal with their issues.
