During this period of quarantine, film recommendations have suddenly become abnormally fashionable. That’s fantastic news for me, because influencing what others watch (and don’t watch) is, you might say, a hobby of mine. I haven’t been plowing through film after film at the pace you might suspect, but I’ve definitely seen my fair share of instant classics and utter bullshit in the past several weeks. Bear in mind that not every film on this list is a “recommendation” per se, so use your own judgment.
Given my tendency to talk endlessly about a film without giving any information about how to actually watch it, I thought it might be useful to include which streaming platform each film is playing on (or where the film can be purchased/rented.)
On to the list!
Age Out (2018)
Age Out is a film that heavily derives its style from the work of two directors: Gus Van Sant and Terrence Malick. This shouldn’t be a surprise, since Gus Van Sant served as executive producer. The film’s star, Tye Sheridan, made his big-screen debut in Malick’s Tree of Life. The director is A.J. Edwards, who served as Malick’s editor for Knight of Cups and To the Wonder. In other words, this is the man responsible for throwing Knight of Cups into a blender and spewing forth an unwatchable mess of a film. Age Out isn’t KoC bad, but it’s often a little too clear that Edwards is TRYING. SUPER. HARD.
The film concerns an orphan, Richie, who ages out of the foster care system and is left to his own devices in a small town. After successfully finding a job and an apartment, he meets Swin (Caleb Landry Jones) on a bus, who mentions that Richie’s landlady is…kind of a bitch. He becomes increasingly desperate, eventually robbing his landlady, which goes horribly awry and results in her death. Richie falls in love with Imogen Poots, much like the entire indie film industry, and then shit gets really depressing.
As you might suspect based on its influences, Age Out is a pretty film. Tye Sheridan’s performance is fairly remarkable, and Imogen Poots is exactly as competent as she’s been in her last 100 films. Overall though, the narrative is a bit unsatisfying, and while its slow burn does build up to a compelling climax, it isn’t very engaging for most of its run-time. I mostly enjoyed myself, but it wasn’t anything special. I’d only recommend it to those who happily tolerate Malick and Van Sant’s notorious pretensions. That crowd probably isn’t as small as I’m making it out to be, so I suppose that means Age Out is just barely worth a shot.
5.5/10
Where it’s streaming: Tubi. You can also rent/buy it on Amazon, Apple TV+, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, and Redbox.
Aniara (2018)
This Swedish/Danish sci-fi epic has been on my watch list for months now, and for whatever reason I’ve avoided it. To be honest, my initial attraction to it was based on the poster alone, which is a compelling design. Still, it appeared to be a slow film I’d likely have to be in just the right mood to watch.
I’m a little pissed that I waited so long to be honest. Aniara is one of the most inventive and intriguing sci-fi films I’ve seen since Annihilation, and in a world where “space thrillers that derive from Alien” is its own sub-genre, Aniara’s innovations feel almost unprecedented.
It seems wrong to praise Aniara’s originality given its origins. The source material is an epic poem (think The Odyssey as opposed to haiku or limericks) published in 1956, and this isn’t the first time it’s been adapted. In addition to a Swedish TV movie from 1960, Aniara has inspired two operas and at least two concept albums. It’s an iconic work of Swedish literature, but not one that you’re likely to hear about outside of its country of origin. Since I haven’t read all 103 cantos of the poem, I can’t really tell you how accurate an adaptation this film is, but given the events that unfold, I’m going to guess that it deviates fairly significantly.
The Aniara is a massive spacecraft intended to transport people from Earth to Mars over the course of 30 days. Through the use of some clever and rather non-specific botany, the ship is almost entirely self-sufficient. A freak accident incapacitates the ship, and the passengers of Aniara begin to unravel in various ways as the hope of rescue or redirection becomes increasingly unlikely. That’s about where the sci-fi clichés end.
The protagonist is an unnamed woman who operates a machine called Mima, a large chamber that allows it users to experience a simulation of their own memories of earth as it once was. Her pet contraption is fairly unpopular until Aniara’s residents are consumed by the panic and fear brought about by their situation, and they become overwhelmingly addicted to Mima, spending hours on end in the machine, and coveting every second spent inside.
What follows is an aesthetically-specific exploration of how societies function in the face of hopelessness. There are plenty of other themes at play, and at times they seem to be given more attention than the narrative. Even though Aniara can be a bit obvious at times, it still manages to develop its characters (the lead and a few others, at least) in a fairly satisfactory way, adding to the nihilistic gut-punch of its conclusion.
Aniara is a complex, surreal, mesmerizing, and utterly depressing film set to a tense (and fantastic) score, so I can’t recommend this as a feel-good movie for a gloomy afternoon, but if you’re up for it, it’s a wild ride that deserves more recognition than it’s currently receiving.
9/10
Where it’s streaming: Hulu. You can also buy or rent it from Amazon, Redbox, Vudu, Youtube, and a variety of other sources.
Big Enough, Small Enough: South Bend in Transition (2020)
Big Enough, Small Enough: South Bend in Transition Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (henceforth referred to as BESE), is a moderately amusing and not altogether inept documentary about the city of South Bend, Indiana. If you have any connection to the city, I recommend this simply for the experience of seeing South Bend on film. However…
After sitting through interview after interview about how, “South Bend is awful, but it’s on an up-swing…we swear!” I couldn’t help but suspect that, perhaps, the people of this city are mad.
U MAD SOUTH BEND? I THINK U MAD.
As someone from the neighboring city of Goshen, I make it to South Bend relatively often, and there’s definitely a “hometown appeal” to BESE. It’s intriguing to see the city through a cinematic lens, but that novelty wore off less than 20 minutes in. So many of these interviews involve Midwestern people complaining about being from the Midwest, and it all feels a bit whiny. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes in mild disgust every time a subject began their, “There went the neighborhood!” speech. This unfortunately contributes to the trite and numbing nature of BESE.
There’s something almost soothing about BESE – all these polite people speaking dispassionately and (mostly) rationally about their real, urgent, yet existentially-unimportant problems. It’s a far cry from the sensational theatrics of a work like Tiger King, or any other Netflix doc. In other circumstances, that might be refreshing, but ultimately BESE is an excruciatingly niche and pedestrian documentary weighed down by its own subjects. There’s nothing egregiously wrong with it necessarily, but its audience is notably specific. If you have no connection to the subject matter and really need sleep, this is a fantastic insomnia watch.
3/10
Where it’s streaming: Amazon Prime
Confessions (2010)
In 2004, an 11-year-old Japanese girl slit her 12-year-old classmate’s throat with a utility knife. This real-life incident, referred to as the “Sasebo Slashing”, is the very, very loose inspiration for Confessions.
This intense drama from Japan opens with a 20-minute monologue from a schoolteacher to her class that commences after the students have all finished their lunch. She explains that her daughter was found murdered near the school’s pool, and that the two boys responsible for the murder are in the room. Two of the milk cartons served during lunch – the ones belonging to the culprits – were injected with HIV-infected blood. This is only the beginning of the teacher’s revenge, and the rest of the film slowly shows us the consequences of this incident, and the details of how the murder occurred.
With its tendency to go balls-out when dealing with incredibly sensitive subject matter, Confessions runs the risk of feeling exploitative. It avoids this in part through its dreamlike editing and presentation, which carries the narrative at a brisk pace, and partially obscures its own sadistic excesses. It can often be a jarring experience, but it’s also incredibly beautiful, with some breathtaking cinematography. This is certainly a “less you know the better” experience, hence the short length of this entry, and I can’t recommend it enough.
9.5/10
Where it’s streaming: To my knowledge, nowhere. You can order the DVD or Blu-ray from Amazon, or you can use your preferred shady method of obtaining it.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)
Fair warning: This film is about abortion. If that’s a sensitive issue for you, skip this entirely.
The latest film from Eliza Hittman, whose 2017 film Beach Rats was a Sundance success that launched her career, is a quietly sad experience. The story is a fairly simple one: 17-year-old Autumn is pregnant and desperately wants an abortion, but in order to do so in the state of Pennsylvania, she needs parental consent. After revealing this to her cousin, the girls rob the grocery store they work at and hop on a bus to New York City, where abortion regulations are more lax. They spend several days wondering around the city while Autumn is constantly referred from one clinic to the other.
There’s nothing overblown in the film, and especially for a story that involves abortion, it’s very understated. It’s definitely one of those Neo-Realist experiences where the narrative takes a back seat to the acting and naturalistic style, but it’s far from boring. It isn’t a revolutionary film, but the lead performance and style make it worth a watch.
7.5/10
Where it’s streaming: Available for rent on VUDU, Amazon, Apple TV+, Google Play, Youtube, and others.