Instant Picks of the Week 5/20/16
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, here are the hottest releases in film and television on instant viewing platforms that we know you’ll love, or at the very least not despise.
ALMOST FAMOUS (Netflix)
Although by no means a perfect cinematic outing, Cameron Crowe’s ALMOST FAMOUS has one thing that oh so many movies are missing these days: pure, unabashed hope. ALMOST FAMOUS tells the story of William Miller, a teenaged writer for Rolling Stone who is tasked with following around the burgeoning band Stillwater during their rise to fame. A quintessential coming-of-age story, the requisite character beats are hit as William learns to love and lose, but the whole thing is just so darn endearing that you’ll be sure to smile regardless. Besides, ALMOST FAMOUS makes you believe that dreams can actually come true, and that the sheer force of hard work and perseverance alone will be enough to allow you to obtain what you’ve always wanted. On a more practical level, the production design and comprehensive attention to detail in regards to the era it seeks to emulate are impressive enough to encourage a viewing on their own. Give it a shot — you’ll be sure to have your heart warmed. [Thomas Seraydarian]
CABIN FEVER (HBO Go)
Ah, 2002: a simpler time when Eli Roth was a no-name director who could make unabashedly campy comedy horror, studio notes be damned. CABIN FEVER doesn’t presume to be good, or even necessarily aspire to make much sense, but it does manage to be deliriously fun. Featuring a cast of unfathomably narcissistic pretty people, Roth does an excellent job crafting characters that the audience really doesn’t mind watching get eaten alive by a flesh-eating virus, which, at the end of the day, is just great horror filmmaking. With a balls-to-the-walls ending that comes almost entirely out of left field, this is a cult classic worth experiencing. [Carter Moon]
