New to Streaming: Friendship, Final Destination Bloodlines, An Unfinished Film, and More

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

The Annihilation of Fish (Charles Burnett)

Essentially a lost film, legendary director Charles Burnett’s 1999 feature The Annihilation of Fish mostly lived on the festival circuit (and in bootlegs) for a quarter-century until a recent miraculous restoration by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation. Despite featuring recognizable leads in James Earl Jones and Lynn Redgrave, one bad review from an influential critic (who seemed strangely wary of the film’s tonal risk-taking) was enough to sink its commercial prospects for potential distributors. A mental-illness romantic comedy of sorts, the film has a strangeness that may be potentially alienating to some, but it seems inexplicable, years later, that a work which so movingly wears its heart on its sleeve would be denied the audience it deserved. – Ethan V. (full interview)

Where to Stream: VOD

An Unfinished Film (Lou Ye) 

It’s perhaps fitting that Lou’s purportedly unfinished film didn’t find the best ending, but what a premise, what a build-up, what gloriously meta storytelling. This pandemic-era mocumentary is an act of defiance against the Chinese state censorship and among the most creatively inspired works of the year. Set around a film crew trying to complete an abandoned project when lockdown hit, the harrowing drama ponders the essence of cinema via performances within performances, by reconstructing memories and through the very passage of time. It’s invigorating on an intellectual level and deeply affecting for what it says about human resilience and an artist’s duty to remember. – Zhuo-Ning Su     

Where to Stream: VOD

Fight or Flight (James Madigan)

When James Madigan’s action picture Fight or Flight works it’s because of Josh Hartnett. The premise is fairly simple: a nefarious, black-ops government agency led by a fierce Katee Sackhoff is forced to employ the dormant skills of an exiled mercenary (Hartnett) in order to protect an asset named Isha (Charithra Chandran) on an airplane. The reasons are, of course, not altruistic. And the other twist: the majority of passengers are determined to kill the asset for a hefty bounty. Isha must trust this killer she barely knows in order to survive the ride. – Dan M. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Final Destination: Bloodlines (Zach Lipovsky, Adam Stein)

Another reason I’ll describe Final Destination: Bloodlines as a disaster movie pastiche instead of an outright horror comedy is because of its biggest weakness: no matter the brilliance of the comic timing, the splatter is undercut by a relance on CGI gore over anything practical. In an age when even the worst studio slop is beginning to pivot back to the art of prosthetics, the computer-generated carnage here would feel underwhelming if it weren’t for the nailing of comedic beats. The prior movies didn’t exactly utilize good, old-fashioned buckets of blood either, and there are scenes here which could only have been created with the aid of VFX artists, but when even some simpler deaths have largely been cobbled together in post, it does make it harder to recommend for horror fans in particular. I assume the filmmakers are hedging their bets on you being too busy laughing to care; at least for me, their gamble paid off in the moment. – Alistair R. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Friendship (Andrew DeYoung)

The level of enjoyment audience members will have with Andrew DeYoung’s Friendship is tied directly to their tolerance for the humor of Tim Robinson. The star of the meme-inspiring Netflix series I Think You Should Leave has cultivated a devoted following by creating situations of embarrassment and characters who veer wildly from absurdist rage to complete self-delusion. (See the infamous “we’re all trying to find the guy who did this” meme.) In my mind, I Think You Should Leave is the funniest series of the last decade or so. While Robinson’s full-length feature as star does not reach his show’s highs, it’s still a hysterically funny, pitch-black comedy. – Christopher S. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Sally (Cristina Costantini)

Winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Cristina Costantini’s moving if conventionally structured documentary Sally captures the life of Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel to space, and the struggles she endured both in public and private.

Where to Stream: Disney+, Hulu

Also New to Streaming

Kino Film Collection

Coming Out Under Fire
Truman and Tennessee

VOD

Ash
Inside
Jeannette

The post New to Streaming: Friendship, Final Destination Bloodlines, An Unfinished Film, and More first appeared on The Film Stage.