Every month, a bunch of new films and shows are uploaded to streaming services for you to binge watch until your eyes pop. But how to sort through such an overwhelming list? Much like Fantine in Les Misérables, we here at Milwaukee Film have streamed a stream in times gone by. Here's what's coming your way this September!
American Psycho
(September 1 via Netflix • Dir. Mary Harron • 2000)
"Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?" There are a few films/tv shows that I quote from *way* too much. The Simpsons is definitely my most quoted, but American Psycho makes its way into more conversations than I'd like to admit. It is physically impossible for me to look at a business card or even hear someone discussing one without thinking of that scene. Admittedly, it took a couple of watches for this one to really grow on me, but boy has it stuck. This is still my favorite Christian Bale performance (seriously, he is killing it in more ways than one in this) and watching this always makes me wish Mary Harron had more films on her directing resume than she has.
– Joe, Digital Media Assistant
Ghost World
(September 30 via Amazon Prime • Dir. Terry Zwigoff • 2001)
Speaking of quotable movies, I direct your attention to "Some people are okay, but mostly I just feel like poisoning everybody."
- Joe (again)
Mommie Dearest
(September 1 via Hulu • Dir. Frank Perry • 1981)
You deserve a little summer camp.
- Jack, Cinema Programming Intern
Platoon
(September 30 via Amazon Prime • Dir. Oliver Stone • 1986)
When I was little, I used to think this movie was called "Pontoon" and tbh that seems like a much nicer movie.
– Kerstin, Cinema Programming Director
Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase
(September 1 via HBO Now • Dir. Katt Shea • 2019)
As Milwaukee Film's resident expert on Nancy Drew, I am happy to announce that the 2019 iteration of the titian-haired teenage sleuth is making its way to home streaming. Grab your magnifying glass and look no further for a fun night in with your friends, your pet, or yourself!
- Amelia, Operations Manager
Event Horizon
(September 30 via Amazon Prime • Dir. Paul W.S. Anderson • 1997)
This is a beautiful mess of a movie that almost comes together into something truly great but instead, endlessly fascinates with lingering potential (and rumors of a long-lost director's cut). While Paul W. S. Anderson is probably most notorious for his Mortal Kombat adaptation and being everyone's second-favorite director named Paul Anderson, I can wholeheartedly recommend this sci-fi nightmare fuel to anyone with even a passing interest in Lovecraftian fiction or cosmic horror.
– Justin, Guest & Alumni Relations Manager
High-Rise
(September 1 via Hulu • Dir. Ben Wheatley • 2015)
This is a great adaptation of a very strange story of a social/civil war that takes place within one building. The weirder it gets, the more I'm invested.
- Kristopher, Membership Manager
Pretty in Pink
(September 1 via Hulu • Dir. Howard Deutch • 1986)
As a teen, I never identified with anyone more than Mr. Ducky Dale. In eighth grade I got a perm and bought bolo ties - the works. Written by John Hughes, this still holds up as a classic of teen heartbreak, discovery and impromptu lip-syncing in public.
-
Kristopher (again)
Unbreakable
(September 1 via Hulu • Dir. M. Night Shyamalan • 2000)
Really the only Shyamalan I'll go to the mat for. He made a super hero movie before they were cool. And he made one using realism to portray fantasy. His style was so solid back then. What happened M. Night? What did they do to you?
-Kristopher (again!)
Kicking and Screaming
(September 30 via Amazon Prime • Dir.
Noah Baumbach • 1995)
Noah Baumbach’s directorial debut! I love the 90s and so much of my life (whether I realize it or not) has been based in and flourished from 90s films - especially this one. I wore a beret, smoked cloves, wrote poetry, read obnoxious books and had a clever wit and banter just like the allstar cast of this film. And like all things, it didn't last and now I'm just a boring and regular person. But long live the idealistic, indulgent and directionless days of college and trying to piece your life together once it's over.
– Rachel, Development Manager
Between Two Ferns: The Movie
(September 20 via Netflix • Dir. Scott Aukerman aka Feature Directorman • 2019)
I am very excited for this movie and have nothing clever or snarky to say about it.
- Tom, Communications & Social Media Manager
The Goonies
(September 1 via Hulu • Dir. Richard Donner • 1985)
The truffle shuffle... The booby traps... The water slide in the middle of an abandoned cave... Now that's cinema.
- Ian, Hospitality Coordinator
Requiem for a Dream
(September 1 via Hulu• Dir. Darren Aronofsky • 2000)
So I guess should asterisk this one by noting that, while it received many accolades, it's also a film that a lot of people say they wish they never watched or that they're glad they saw it but have no desire to ever see it again. No matter where you stand, Requiem for a Dream definitely provokes a visceral reaction and that's part of what keeps me revisiting it all these years later. It's not a feel-good experience by any means, but I love every part of this from the performances (especially Ellen Burstyn), Clint Mansell's score, the cinematography that changes with the seasons, and the frenetic editing style that perfectly accompanies the characters' hectic mindsets.
- Joe (again!)
Mousehunt
(September 30 via Amazon Prime • Dir.
Gore Verbinski • 1997)
Someday I will finally sit down and write my 100k words on how Gore Verbinski is our modern bizzaro analog to Howard Hawks, able to hop between genres effortlessly, telling tales of people splitting apart and compromising instead of coming together and winning
- Tom (again)
Welcome to Marwen
(September 14 via HBO NOW • Dir.
Robert Zemeckis • 2018)
Welcome to Marwen
It's been waitin' for you
Welcome to Marwen, welcome to Marwen
Welcome to Marwen
It's been waitin' for you
Welcome to Marwen, welcome to Marwen
- Tom (again!)
For the Birds
(September 1 via Netflix • Dir.
Richard Miron • 2018)
One of the bittersweet joys of our work is seeing a film you fall utterly in love with and so want to share with Milwaukee—and then learning it’ll be too widely available (say, on Netflix) before we have a chance to bring it to screen. This is one of those. For the Birds is ostensibly about animal hoarding, but it complicates that cable TV topic, giving its subject, Kathy, an empathetic humanity, unpeeling the complicated messiness of being a spiraling middle-aged woman who finds more friendship and kinship with birds than with other humans. If you are a human person, you will find a piece of yourself in this film.
- Cara, Education Director & Milwaukee Film Festival Director
Mystic River
(September 1 via Netflix • Dir.
Clint Eastwood • 2003)
The Boston noir of Dennis Lehane meets the understated eloquence of director Clint Eastwood in 2003's Mystic River. Decades-old pain and tensions resurface for three boyhood friends when one's daughter goes missing, one investigates the crime, and the other is a suspect. A sad, haunting, and beautiful film about the ravages of fate and the passing of time with a matching elegiac score from Eastwood himself, and tour de force performances from Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Laura Linney, Marcia Gay Harden, Kevin Bacon, and Laurence Fisburne.
- Jessica, Development Director
Harlan County USA
(September 11 via Criterion Channel • Dir.
Barbara Kopple • 1976)
Harlan County USA is a masterpiece of nonfiction storytelling and arguably one of the most important films of the 20th century, with themes that remain strikingly relevant over 40 years after the film's debut.
- Emily, Communications & Press Manager
Pather Panchali
(September 14 via Criterion Channel • Dir.
Satyajit Ray • 1955)
Do you need a good cry? A good, hard, soul-reaffirming cry? Pather Panchali, the first in Satyajit Ray's transcendent Apu Trilogy, will deliver.
- Dana, Education Director & Milwaukee Film Festival Director
RoboCop
(September 1 via HBO Now • Dir.
Paul Verhoeven • 1987)
Noticed no one else picked this and felt compelled to add it in at the last minute because it's RoboCop and it's awesome.
- Surpirse! It's Joe again.
Posted by: Milwaukee Film