Instant Picks of the Week 11/10/17
Gone are the days of scrolling mindlessly through your queue! No longer will you have to sift through the vastness of what’s coming to the instant viewing wastelands this month! Whether you’re looking for a stellar film or an exciting new show to binge, Instant Picks of the Week brings you the hottest releases in film and television on instant viewing platforms that we know you’ll love, or at the very least not despise.
GOLDEN TIME (Netflix)
Nobody likes feeling replaced. It’s a terrible feeling being thrust aside to make room for something new or better, and sadly, for an old, animated television set from the 1960s, that’s exactly what it experiences. Sometime in 1980s Japan, a newly-discarded anthropomorphic TV struggles to accept its new life in the junkyard. This animated film chronicles the attempts of this television set to break out of the gates that trap it in; however, it meets four other broken-but-alive inanimate objects—a bucket with a hole, a seat-less chair, a jagged fan, and a curious little wind-up toy. Through the television’s journey to escape, it soon rediscovers the value of human connection and its own self-worth. Even with no dialogue, the film is able to convey the emotions of this inanimate object that are, ironically, as human as they come. It uses a consonance of animation, sound effects, and music to effectively deliver this heartfelt and endearing story. [Jordan Valdés]
THE HANDMAIDEN (Amazon Prime)
Who could have guessed one of the best films of 2016 would be a Korean revenge thriller, rife with sex, betrayal, and deceit? The answer, of course, is anyone who already knows writer-director Park Chan-wook’s impressive filmography (OLDBOY, THIRST, and STOKER among others). Even so, THE HANDMAIDEN is a marvel of both complex storytelling and technical prowess, with gorgeous cinematography and impeccable production design. The movie follows a Korean handmaid named Sook-hee, who is hired to convince a rich Japanese lady to marry a conman who plans to steal all of her money. THE HANDMAIDEN operates on lies and secrets for most of its runtime, and even Park Chan-wook takes certain steps to fool the audience, making the journey all the more compelling. Even though the film is almost two-and-a-half hours, odds are you’ll barely notice it—not only is THE HANDMAIDEN one of the greatest films of last year, it is also the most entertaining. [Ethan Cartwright]
