Instant Picks of the Week 6/10/16
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, 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.
ABOUT ELLY (Netflix)
With Farhadi’s latest film THE SALESMAN sweeping this year’s Cannes Film Festival, winning both Best Actor and Best Screenplay, there is no more appropriate time to check out another one of his great social dramas. It is fitting that Farhadi won best screenplay; there are few writers today who can write a story with such complexity and drama as Farhadi. Like most films of the Iranian New Wave, Farhadi’s films are, at their core, explorations of truth and humanity’s inability to ever fully grasp it. His genius is in his ability to use this concept as a template for the drama that unfolds in his films, wherein the truth is obfuscated by the many masks his character’s hide behind. ABOUT ELLY, in which a group of friends go on vacation to a beach house, only for one to go missing, continues in Farhadi’s great dramatic tradition, as well as maintaining the many tenets that make the Iranian New Wave the most impressive movement of the last 50 years. Mixing drama, social commentary, and a metaphysical discussion, ABOUT ELLY is a significant work by one of the contemporary greats. [Jonathan Mackris]
NIGHTCRAWLER (Netflix)
A languid Jake Gyllenhaal sits across from a constantly dolled up Rene Russo in a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant. She has something Gyllenhaal wants, he has something she unfortunately needs. What proceeds is one of the most twisted negotiations put to film, to sickening results. Gyllenhaal may not always choose the best projects, but he excels here as the bug-eyed crime scene journalist willing to do anything for the perfect shot. Nightcrawler is one of the best neo-noirs of the decade, perfect for anyone willing to subject themselves to a heaping helping of hard-boiled moral turpitude. [Carter Moon]
