5 Best New Movies on Netflix Instant Streaming
Here are some of our picks for the best and most interesting offerings from Netflix streaming this month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szaLnKNWC-U
The Babadook (2014)
Last year’s critical darling (and one much-appreciated by Ticket) is many things: an unconventional spook story, an examination of suppressed parental grief and rage, and an art-house treatment of the standard boogey-man myth. But mostly, Jennifer Kent’s film is straight-up scary as hell. Served best at night, long after the kid(s) have been put safely to bed.
Goodbye to Language (2014)
Another critical fave from last year, legendary French auteur Jean-Luc Godard returns to form with a suitably perplexing treatise on the nature of God, humanity, and communication. Named the best film of the year by no less than the National Society of Film Critics, to say nothing of the Jury Prize at Cannes, Godard has proven—even at the venerable age of 84—his vision and passion can still create seismic reverberations in the cinematic landscape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC8ZVtAN_cc
Kink (2013)
“If pornography were high school, we would be the goth table,” so says one of the masterminds behind the wildly popular BDSM website kink.com. Christina Voros’ intriguing doc examines both the creative talent inside the company itself and the nature of the BDSM fixation in general, producing an entertainingly illuminating piece that goes beyond sketchy titillation into substantial insight. Even if it ain’t your steez, it’s still a pretty fascinating predilection.
Hot Fuzz (2007)
The middle film in Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s comedic Blood & Ice Cream trilogy (beginning with Shawn of the Dead, and concluding with The World’s End) finds our lads playing cops in a send-up of just about every action movie ever made. Pegg is a high-strung, remarkably efficient and edgy cop re-assigned from the big city to a simple small hamlet, where he’s forced to partner up with Frost, a genial but oafish local cop, as they follow the trail of a crazed serial killer in their midst. (Available April 16th.)
A Girl Walks Home at Night (2014)
Billed as the first-ever Iranian vampire western, Ana Lily Amirpour’s classy black-and-white film features a mishmash of genres and moods, including everything from ghost-town drug dealers to a skateboard-riding vampire girl who only strikes those she deems deserving of her particular brand of fanged justice. Atmospheric and temperamental, the film’s gorgeous visuals enhance the peculiarity of the entire enterprise. It might have been filmed in California, but Amirpour’s film suggests there is a great deal of creative energy in the land of her ancestors. (Available April 21st.)
Piers Marchant is a film critic and writer based in Philly. Find more confounding amusements and diversions at his blog, Sweet Smell of Success, or read his further 142-character rants and ravings at @kafkaesque83.
