TFS Weekend Streaming Picks: March 23rd
Welcome to TFS Weekend Streaming Picks, our guide for the best content currently available on services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, FilmStruck, and more for your viewing pleasure.
Our writers have put together their recommendations for what to check out while relaxing on the couch - from recent releases, classics, and even some hidden gems you may not have heard of.
Here’s what to consider watching this weekend:
The Greatest Showman
What was assumed to be yet another failed attempt at revitalizing the classic Hollywood musical, The Greatest Showman became one of the biggest surprise successes in recent film history through being consistently attended week-after-week following a lackluster opening weekend. Having just crossed $400M at the worldwide box office (and topping last year’s big throwback musical La La Land domestically), it is finally available to stream. While our prior review pegged the film as a problematic story in completely fabricating the life of lead character P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman), it nonetheless presents a rousing piece of spectacle with lively song-and-dance numbers that are sure to earworm themselves into your brain...and even your heart.
- Rob Trench
The Untamed (2016)
Normally when a movie centers around a tentacle monster from outer space, it’s a horror movie. Or a thriller at least. The Untamed, on the other hand, plays out more like family drama. The alien, which has the ability to give an addictive sexual experience, lingers around the edges of the story as Alejandra’s family is slowly unraveling. Amat Escalante is a bold new voice from Mexico who I could see following the footsteps of Guillermo Del Toro and his beautiful new film leaves you with plenty to mull over.
Available on HBO Go.
- Mark Watlington
Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)
Barbara Kopple’s groundbreaking Academy Award winning documentary covers a groundbreaking coal miner’s strike in a small Kentucky town. Over the course of many years, Kopple chronicles the strike with unflinching immediacy from many angles, as tensions run high. Today, over 40 years later it remains one of the most searing portraits of the struggle between corporate greed and those trying everything they can to get by for another day, and most certainly one of the greatest documentaries of all time.
Available on FilmStruck.
- Rob Trench
Christopher Guest Collection (A Mighty Wind, Best In Show, For Your Consideration, Waiting for Guffman)
A great collection of Christopher Guest’s best movies has made its way to FilmStruck over the last couple of weeks, and I can think of few things better to marathon than the interminably rewatchable works of Guest and crew. Across four films and ten years, a cast of many recurring players are plugged into roles where they are entirely free to goof around and do what they do best. Whether as competitive dog owners, awards-obsessed movie stars, or vain theater actors, these world-class improvisers, including the likes of Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Fred Willard, and Jennifer Coolidge, always know what to do to hit big laughs. The mockumentary format has never been better.
Available on FilmStruck.
- Marcus Irving
Do you have any streaming recommendations? Hit us up at @TalkFilmSoc to let us know what you are watching this weekend!
