19 Nov 2018

The best movies new to streaming this week

From Widescreen, 3:39 pm on 19 November 2018

A big selection of classics from the Australian New Wave of the 70s and 80s is Dan Slevin’s highlight of this week’s new-to-streaming feature films.

Over the last few days, Prime Video (Amazon’s streaming video service which is available on the web, Amazon Fire and other manufacturers’ devices) has added almost 500 feature films which seems like a statement of some intent – until you take a closer look at what they actually are.

Among the dozens of films that would struggle to find shelf-space at even a larger home video store or get selected by a lonely traveller at a rural motel, a few worthy options have just appeared.

James Stewart sees more than he bargained for in Hitchcock’s Rear Window on Prime Video.

James Stewart sees more than he bargained for in Hitchcock’s Rear Window on Prime Video. Photo: Paramount Pictures

Top of the tree is Hitchcock’s Rear Window, the 1954 classic in which James Stewart, confined to his apartment thanks to a broken leg, speculates wildly about the nefarious activities going on in the flats across the courtyard. If you haven’t seen, you should because so many modern films still reference it and Hitchcock’s style.

The most pleasant surprise on Prime is the arrival of many films from the Australian New Wave of the 70s and early 80s. Prime for this region is programmed out of Australia so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to see these here, except for the fact that there’s no equivalent of New Zealand’s cinema history on any of the local streaming sites except for the rental one operated by the NZFC.

Definitive Aussie films like Don’s Party (1976), an adaptation of David Williamson’s play about the night of the 1969 Federal election and a house party that gets out of hand. It was a breakout film for director Bruce Beresford who went on to direct the Oscar-winner Driving Miss Daisy. He was also behind the camera for The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972) which introduced the world to Barry Humphries’ alter ego Edna Everage and also featured a young John Clarke in the role of “Expatriate”.

Another Bruce Beresford film that provided devastating insight into the Australian character of the era was The Club, also written by David Williamson, set in the world of Aussie Rules football. If that’s a bit macho for you, Beresford’s Puberty Blues (1981) comes at Australia from an entirely different – but no less authentic – angle.

Genuine Puberty Blues lobby card from 1981. Remember these?

Genuine Puberty Blues lobby card from 1981. Remember these? Photo: IMDb

Also, in that extensive Australian collection is the rare In the Wake of the Bounty (1933), directed by Charles Chauvel and starring a young Errol Flynn as Fletcher Christian.

For those interested in more family-friendly viewing Prime Video have just added two Wallace & Gromit films, A Grand Day Out and The Wrong Trousers, and if you lean in the other direction entirely than the very rare 1966 exploitation film The Black Klansman (not to be confused with the Spike Lee film from earlier this year). Prime is growing a very interesting list if you can take the time to dig deep into it.

Tim Blake Nelson is Buster Scruggs in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a film by Joel and Ethan Coen.

Tim Blake Nelson is Buster Scruggs in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a film by Joel and Ethan Coen. Photo: Netflix

After re-launching the career of Orson Welles last week, Netflix has only one new picture of note, but what a note! The new film from Joel and Ethan Coen, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is an anthology Western featuring performances from Liam Neeson, James Franco and Zoe Kazan (oh, and Tom Waits).

Mubi, the arthouse service that drops one film and adds another each day, this week added Jim Jarmusch’s own anthology picture, Mystery Train (1989) and the very amusing meta-movie Tristram Shandy (2006). When I reviewed the latter for Capital Times on release, I said, “[Steve] Coogan and [Rob] Brydon are like cake; the wonderful Dylan Moran is icing on the cake and then the exemplary Stephen Fry turns up late in the piece to spread a lovely thin layer of Ecstasy over the icing. Yum.”

Neon are getting in the swing of Oscar-preparation with two of last year’s winners: The Shape of Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Finally, there are a couple of notable new digital rentals. Bruce Beresford is back in Australia and earlier this year made a film called Ladies in Black adapted with great affection from the best-selling novel about 1950s Sydney shop girls and it is now available for rental on Lightbox.

Meanwhile, Apple has film festival regular Hou Hsaio-Hsien’s 1985 classic A Time to Live, A Time to Die available for rental at a bargain $7.99 in HD.

Every week around this time, Dan Slevin highlights some of the best and most interesting feature films that are new to Kiwi streaming services.

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