I Stream, You Stream Vol. 15

by Patrick Bromley

Your first streaming recommendations of 2017!

Tales of Halloween (2015, dir. Axelle Carolyn, Mike Mendez, et. al.) Visitors to F This Movie! already know that I'm a big fan of this horror anthology, released last year and gathering an embarrassment of riches in contemporary indie horror for a movie that's too much goddamn fun. This movie rewards you for being a horror fan, and while you might not be in Halloween mindset in early January, I think it's the kind of film that's fun all year long. When you're done, you can watch it again with the solo commentary I recorded last year. You're welcome. (Watch on Netflix)

The Long Riders (1980, dir. Walter Hill) One of the very first proper westerns the great Walter Hill ever directed, The Long Riders is nowadays most famous for casting of a bunch of real-life brothers: David, Robert and Keith Carradine, Stacy and James Keach (who also co-wrote and produced), Dennis and Randy Quaid and Christopher and Nicholas Guest. It's a gimmick, sure, but one that I love because of how reality informs the familial connections presented in the movie. The movie is a little overstuffed with characters and subplots, but still offers plenty of Walter Hill greatness and the director's first collaboration with composer Ry Cooder, with whom he would work many more times (Watch on Hulu)

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016, dir. Taika Waititi) One of this year's very best comedies has landed on my Top 10 list this week, as well as JB's, Melissa Uhrin's and Erich's. It's really great, and if you haven't seen it yet you now have no excuse. (Watch on Hulu)

Fired Up! (2009, dir. Will Gluck) As stupid teen movies go, this one is pretty smart. That should come as no surprise, as it's written and directed by Will Gluck, who would repeat the same feat to more critical and commercial acclaim with Easy A one year later. Eric Christian Olsen and Nicholas D'Agosto (my wife's college friend!) are both very funny as fast-talking football players who realize that becoming male cheerleaders is a great way to meet girls. The plot is completely predictable and movie relies heavily on familiar teen movie tropes; what makes it worth watching is the interplay between the two leads, who both have clearly studied as the school of early '80s Chevy Chase. I know there are some people who find this movie insufferable, but I like it a lot. (Watch on Crackle)

May (2003, dir. Lucky McKee) The more years go by, the more I'm convinced that May is one of the two or three best horror movies of the 2000s. Lucky McKee, one of my very favorite current directors, wrote and directed this story of a broken girl (Angela Bettis, giving one of my favorite performances in a movie ever) looking for love. There is darkness and weirdness and lots of discomfort and horror, but also beauty and empathy. I can't say enough good things about it, but in case you're not tired of me gushing over the movie you can listen to myself and Adam Riske do more of it on our podcast. (Watch on Shudder)

Apache Woman (1976, dir. Giorgio Mariuzzo) Offbeat Italian western that's more of a love story than anything else between an American soldier (Al Cliver of Zombie fame) and a Native American woman (Clara Hopf). Super low budget and decidedly non-PC, the film actually takes its time and gets us to invest in the romance at the center. It also doesn't really go where you might think. Rudy Maglioni's terrific score helps a lot, which is good because it plays over almost the entire film. Like a lot of titles on Amazon, the quality on this one is a little sketchy (the audio even lapses into the original Italian at points), but if you're at all a fan of spaghetti westerns I think this one is worth a look. (Watch on Amazon Prime Video)

I Stream, You Stream Vol. 13

by Patrick Bromley

Tired of the same old holiday movies? Here are some alternatives to the usual alternative Christmas movie picks for you to stream this weekend!

Uncle Nick (2015, dir. Chris Kasick) Sometimes a great cast can redeem material that's just ok. Case in point: Uncle Nick, a dark comedy from director Chris Kasick that finds black sheep Brian Posehn spending Christmas with his family and burning everything to the ground with his awfulness. Or maybe he's just being honest? There's not much in Uncle Nick that hasn't been covered by a dozen other similar comedies, but Posehn and his fellow cast mates (including Scott Adsit, Missi Pyle, Melia Renee and the incomparable Paget Brewster) elevate every scene. Plus, there's just enough truthful observation about human behavior that it's possible to overlook some of the more unlikely beats. (Watch on Netflix)

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2009, dir. Jalmari Helander) This Finnish import (#youseewhatIdidthere) is one of the very best Christmas horror movies ever made, even though the actual "horror" elements are downplayed and don't really present themselves until about an hour into the 80-minute runtime. It's all about the atmosphere and the sense of cold and the mythological angle director Helander takes; it's fun to see a fairy tale about Santa Clause told from the perspective of another country and culture. Shudder offers a couple of other Christmas horror movies, too, including Black Christmas and the Spanish-produced The Christmas Tale, which I hope to watch in the next few days.  (Watch on Shudder)

White Reindeer (2013, dir. Zack Clark) Here's a comedy-drama much more in the vein of Uncle Nick than, say, Christmas With the Cranks. Anna Margaret Hollyman totally goes for it as a real estate agent who enters a world of debaucherous sex and drug use after her husband suddenly drops dead. Joe Swanberg has a supporting role, which should give you a sense of what kind of comedy this is. Not for everyone, but I like it. Hollyman's performance alone warrants at least one viewing. Anyone looking for an alternative to the regular "alternatives" like Bad Santa should check it out. (Watch on Hulu)

Wind Chill (2007, dir. Gregory Jacobs) Emily Blunt and Ashton Holmes play college students who team up for a ride share to get home on Christmas Eve but then get trapped in their car during a horrible snowstorm. The setup is terrific and there's a lot of good, atmospheric "what the fuck is going on?" stuff that takes place once they're stuck, but all of it is better than the payoff. This isn't quite a home run, but there is so much good in it that it's the kind of movie you wish was just a little better. Still, some good Christmas content and a really strong (and fairly early) performance from Emily Blunt. (Watch on Crackle)

Happy Naked Christmas (2003, dir. Geon-dong Lee) Truth be told, I've never seen this one. But with a title like that you can bet I will be watching it very soon. (Watch on Amazon Prime Video)

Christmas Evil (1980, dir. Lewis Jackson) Another classic Christmas horror isn't at all what you're expecting, provided you're expecting a variation on Silent Night, Deadly Night. While not nearly as grisly or intense, it's got more of a Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer vibe in that it's about a guy (Brandon Maggart, father of Fiona Apple) who is lonely and insane and everything is covered in dirt. It's a sadder movie than you would expect, but then gets weird and crazy every once in a while and becomes fun until it gets dark again. It also has one of the greatest endings in all of cinema. One of the very best of the "exploitation" class of Christmas horror. (Watch on Exploitation.TV)

Happy holidays!!

I Stream, You Stream Vol. 12

by Patrick Bromley

You've gotta have something to watch when you get home from seeing Collateral Beauty Rogue One.

I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016, dir. Billy O'Brien) One of my favorite horror movies of the year hit Netflix this week! Max Records plays a sociopathic teenager who takes it upon himself to investigate a string of murders taking place in his town. I don't want to say anything else. I love the '70s-inspired, shot-on-16mm beauty of this film, and both Max Records and Christopher Lloyd give amazing performances. This movie is so good. (Watch on Netflix)

O.J.: Made in America (2016, dir. Ezra Edelman) Speaking of so good, this five-part 30 for 30 documentary (which has been reedited into three parts for Hulu, but nothing appears to be cut out) is one of the truly great cinematic achievements of the year. Not only does it go into O.J. Simpson's murder trial in painstaking detail -- going all the way back to Simpson's rise to celebrity and his position as maybe the first post-racial figure in popular culture -- but also brings in years' worth of police brutality and civil unrest to paint a picture of just how so many factors conspired to create the media circus and subsequent acquittal. Seriously, this documentary is so comprehensive and so eye opening that I can't imagine there being a better one this year.  (Watch on Hulu)

Vigilante (1983, dir. William Lustig) This is available to stream on Brown Sugar, but I don't know if I would categorize it as "blaxploitation." Yes, Fred Williamson is in it playing the badass leader of a team of vigilantes who reach out to Robert Forster when his family is killed, but the Hammer is just a supporting character in Forster's story. William Lustig knows his way around this kind of gritty, New York-based violent sleaze and the film is incredibly entertaining when you're in the mood for it. I almost always am. (Watch on Brown Sugar)

Stories We Tell (2013, dir. Sarah Polley) This sort-of documentary about the family and lineage of actor/director Sarah Polley was on my list of favorite movies when it came out a few years ago. What reads like a vanity project on paper is actually a fascinating, funny and incredibly human treatise on the nature of storytelling -- the fictions that we pass down and the ways in which we do it. I can't think of another movie quite like it. (Watch on Amazon Prime)

Black Christmas (1973, dir. Bob Clark) 'Tis the season for the best Christmas horror movie ever made (sorry, To All a Goodnight) and a movie that's quickly becoming one of my favorite horror movies period. Debates about its role in helping create the slasher genre will continue for years, but none of that matters; what matters is that this movie is atmospheric and scary and brilliant and everyone needs to watch it this weekend for reasons to be revealed soon. Just saying. (Watch on Shudder)

I Stream, You Stream Vol. 8

by Patrick Bromley

When things are tough, watch movies. Here are some good ones.

Sky High (2005, dir. Mike Mitchell) I was originally going to recommend Ava DuVernay's new documentary The 13th this week because I finally caught up with it (Netflix released it in October not understanding that I had ALL OF THE CHUCKY MOVIES to watch) and it's really incredible. But I don't think any of us feels much like further living through the pain of racism in America, even if it might be more important now than ever. What I'm saying is that you should still watch the movie, but I also want to offer a goofy distraction so that you might not feel bad about the world for a few hours. That goofy distraction is Sky High, a Disney movie released in the mid-2000s with bad marketing and not much word of mouth, which is too bad because it's such an incredibly fun, special movie. Predating the Marvel movement by a couple of years, Sky High was made for an audience not yet completely trained to accept superhero movies -- and because this one seems marketed at kids, it was easy for them to skip. Mike Mitchell's direction is light and energetic, the color palette splashy and bright and the cast a mix of really charming young actors and familiar faces for the well-educated nerd, whether it's Kevin MacDonald from The Kids in the Hall or Bruce Campbell or Lynda Carter. Oh, also Kurt Russell is in this and he's hilarious. If you need a movie to pick you up and brighten your mood this weekend, you're not going to do much better than Sky High. (Watch on Netflix)

The Neon Demon (2016, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn) This showed up on Amazon in time for me to recommend it last week, but I had already talked it up when it played it theaters earlier this year and really want to urge people to check out The Fits (which I assume everyone did?). If you haven't yet caught up with Nicolas Winding Refn's latest, though, I highly suggest you watch it this weekend. I cannot promise you'll love it. I can't even promise you'll even like it. But it's a movie that deserves to be seen, regardless of how polarizing it might be. If nothing else, it is beautifully photographed and scored, so you won't feel like you've wasted your two hours. (Watch on Amazon Prime Video)

Dick (1999, dir. Andrew Fleming) This was a political week, one that left a lot of people unhappy and nervous about what's next. Leave it to Andrew Fleming's excellent comedy Dick (just one of many great movies released in the summer of 1999) to take the piss out of American politics by rewriting history through the eyes of two giddy teenage girls (Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams). The cast is a murderer's row of talent and Fleming's approach to the story is one of those rare comedy feats: he makes really smart, really sharp material seem goofy and dumb. It's anything but. (Watch on Crackle)

Gun Crazy (1950, dir. Joseph H. Lewis) After posting last week's picks, Robert Nelson wrote to us on Twitter to ask if I would be making any Noirvember recommendations. After remembering that it is, in fact, Noirvember, I agreed that it was a great idea. I love Gun Crazy, Joseph H. Lewis, one of the great crime romances about a couple of carnival workers who fall in love, get married on embark on a crime spree. Despite being more than 60 years old, Gun Crazy has lost none of its power. It has an energy and immediacy that make it feel current while still embracing (and in many ways helping to codify) so many of those noir archetypes that we love as fans of the genre. It's so good. (Watch on Warner Archive)

The Honeymoon Killers (1970, dir. Leonard Kastle) This one's a lot like Gun Crazy, only stripped of any noir romanticism and glamour. Forgoing the gorgeous shadows of traditional noir for an incredibly stark, almost documentary aesthetic, the based-on-a-true-story The Honeymoon Killers presents a couple of outcasts who find one another and then find crime because they are part awful, part desperate and part turned away by society for being, in one way or another, "different" or "lacking." There's a good chance that many of you have already seen this one. It's pretty famous (the story was even remade/adapted in 2006 as Lonely Hearts with John Travolta and James Gandolfini) and was put out by The Criterion Collection, so it's not exactly a secret. But if you've never seen it, this is the kind of movie that will knock you on your ass and make you wonder how you slept on it for so long. None other than François Truffaut has called it his favorite American film. (Watch on Hulu)

I Stream, You Stream Vol. 7

by Patrick Bromley

We now return you to your regularly scheduled weekend streaming recommendations.

Bob Roberts (1992, dir. Tim Robbins) Good political satire is hard to do, and as our American political stage becomes more and more ludicrous, most political satire starts to feel less like criticism and more like forecasting what's to come. Case in point: Tim Robbins' 1992 directorial debut (based on a character he created on Saturday Night Live) Bob Roberts, about a conservative with no political experience running for office by pandering to right-wing ideals in a way that proves to be insidious. There's not an exact 1-to-1 comparison to next week's election, but this weekend still seems like a good time to revisit the acid blackness of Tim Robbins' mockumentary. It's messy and doesn't hit all its targets, but it's one of the last really good political satires. (Watch on Netflix)

Sun Choke (2015, dir. Ben Cresciman) I saw and quite liked this indie horror drama at last year's Bruce Campbell Horror Film Festival, but it didn't yet have distribution and took about 12 months until it was finally released without a ton of fanfare (though Adam Riske did review it for the site). I'm still not 100% positive I get the whole thing, but I think I do? Regardless, it's beautifully made and features two fantastic performance from Sarah Hagan and Barbara Crampton (friend of the podcast! I love her!...in those movies), playing totally against type and doing what I think is maybe the best work she's ever done. Yes, Scary Movie Month is over, but this one still deserves your attention. (Watch on Netflix)

The Fits (2016, dir. Anna Rose Holmer) This played at the Chicago Critics Film Festival earlier this year. It's so good. Like Sun Choke, I'm not positive that I get it, but I think I do? Royalty Hightower plays a young boxer in training who wants to join her school's prestigious dance team, right around the same time that several of the members are experiencing mysterious seizures. Director Anna Rose Holmer's narrative feature debut is a low-budget affair made with total confidence and a willingness to be abstract. I can't wait to see what she does next. (Watch on Amazon Prime Video)

Phantasm: Remastered (1978, dir. Don Coscarelli) The only place to see the new 4K remaster of Phantasm (without paying a separate rental fee) is on Shudder. I saw this screened theatrically a few months back (anyone noticing a trend this week? I swear it's not intentional. #MovieBrag) and it's pretty incredible. I love that J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot took such an interest in the movie after all these years and have restored it so beautifully, leading to not just a limited theatrical run but also an upcoming Blu-ray release after too long a wait. If the rumors are true, I'll wait for the boxed set of all the movies that's supposedly coming soon. (Watch on Shudder)

The Living Daylights (1987, dir. John Glen) Sure, Hulu may be losing its library of Criterion titles to the newly-launched FilmStruck, but they're easing the sting with the addition of all the Bond movies. Start here with one of my absolute favorites -- some days I'd put it at #2 or 3, though lately it seems more like #1 -- in which Gentleman T. Dalts makes his debut as Bond and crushes it no matter what Mike says. This is the Bond movie to which I feel like returning most often and inspired one of my favorite episodes of our podcast. I love it a lot. (Watch on Hulu)