I Stream, You Stream Vol. 17

by Patrick Bromley

Here's a bunch of stuff to watch this weekend. It's not like there's anything more important going on.

Teenage Cocktail (2016, dir. John Carchietta) The solo directing debut of John Carchietta (a producer on movies like The Hills Run Red and Wicked Lake) casts the great Fabianne Therese and Nichole Bloom as teenage girls who fall in love, start messing around with a webcam and eventually attract the attention of family man Pat Healy. Things don't go well. Shot in bright colors and scored to dreamy pop, Teenage Cocktail is like a modern-day version of Smooth Talk. It takes some sudden shifts that aren't always earned, but it's beautifully put together and says some interesting things about personal responsibility and naiveté in the digital age. (Watch on Netflix)

The Wraith (1986, dir. Mike Marvin) The second half of the '80s saw a lot of teenage monster movies: teen vampires in The Lost Boys, teen witches in Teen Witch, teen wolves in Teen Wolf Too. We didn't get too many teen ghost movies, which is where The Wraith comes in. Charlie Sheen plays a motorcycle riding spirit who appears in a small town to exact revenge against an overacting Nick Cassavettes and his gang and get naked with Sherilyn Fenn, which is worth coming back from the dead for. This unofficial remake of High Plains Drifter is really fun and entertaining but doesn't get mentioned enough in conversations about '80s genre films. After you watch it, you should check out my guest appearance on The Projection Booth's episode on the movie. (Watch on Netflix)

Extreme Justice (1993, dir. Mark L. Lester) This super underrated '90s actioner stars a murderers' row of action character actors -- Scott Glenn, Lou Diamond Phillips, Chelsea Field, Yaphet Kotto, Andrew Divoff, William Lucking, Paul Ben-Victor, Stephen Root and Ed Lauter -- in a story about corrupt LA cops. It either went pretty much straight to DVD or premiered on HBO (which is where I saw it) and it's the kind of movie that had to cut down the crazy violence to avoid an NC-17. So many people get shot. I love it. I just watched Truck Stop Women for the first time and was reminded of what an amazing genre filmmaker Mark L. Lester is: besides that movie and this one, he made Commando and Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw and Firestarter and Showdown in Little Tokyo and Class of 1984 and a whole bunch of others. He's due for career retrospective. Maybe I'm the guy to do it (Watch on Amazon Prime Video)

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999, dir. Anthony Minghella) On the podcast this week, we talked about Matt Damon getting his big break in Good Will Hunting and becoming a huge movie star in the span of one movie. His partner Ben Affleck went a much more commercial route and went to work for Michael Bay while Damon continued to choose interesting projects like this psychological thriller based on Patricia Highsmith's novel. It's brilliantly acted from the likes of Damon, Jude Law (never better), Gwyneth Paltrow, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Cate Blanchett, it's insanely gorgeous to look at and is always tense and interesting. 1999 was an insanely good year for movies and this one stands out as one of the very best. (Watch on Hulu)

Angel of Death (2009, dir. Paul Etheredge) My Girlfriend Zoë Bell made this movie years ago based on a character and a screenplay by Ed Brubaker. She gets stabbed in the head and survives to come back for revenge. There is nothing else you need to know because you really should have been heading over to Crackle (where this originally debuted) and pressing play as soon you read the words My Girlfriend Zoë Bell. (Watch on Crackle)

I Stream, You Stream Vol. 16

by Patrick Bromley

A couple of streaming picks to celebrate today, plus a few more that don't feature a hockey mask!

The Monster (2016, dir. Bryan Bertino) The podcast this week with me and Heather Wixson covers our favorite horror movies of 2016, and while neither of us included this one we both named it as part of our potential honorable mentions. I liked it when I reviewed it late last year mostly for some really heavy emotional stuff and a great performance by Zoe Kazan as a young mother who gets stranded on a highway with her daughter when a monster attacks. I don't think all of it completely works, but it's the kind of film that horror fans should really see because it tries to do something just a little different with the genre. Between this and The Strangers, I really like how Bryan Bertino ties genre stuff into some really devastating emotional dramas. (Watch on Amazon Prime Video)

Under the Shadow (2016, dir. Babak Anvari) I saw this last spring at the Chicago Critics Film Festival and really liked its combination of family drama, political allegory and scary horror -- though it does the first two better than the second. There have been a lot of comparisons to The Babadook, and for good reason: it's a movie about a mother and her child and the horror elements clearly represent something larger. This was another one that didn't make my list of favorite 2016 horror movies on the podcast this week, but it's a really solid film that deserves to be seen. (Watch on Netflix Instant)

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984, dir. Joseph Zito) Celebrate Friday the 13th by watching my favorite entry in the franchise. Then you can head over to Blumhouse.com and read the piece I just wrote about movie's (and the franchise's) most upsetting kill. And then you can be a terrible person and watch Mike's favorite entry. (Watch on Hulu)

Crystal Lake Memories (2012, dir. Daniel Farrands) After you've celebrated this Friday the 13th by watching the best of the Friday movies (and maybe A New Beginning because it's incredible [RIP Joey]), dig deep into the entirety of the franchise with this six hour documentary that covers the whole thing (even the TV series) and features interviews with nearly all of the participants. The doc is a step down from the Nightmare on Elm Street retrospective Never Sleep Again -- still the brass ring of this kind of feature -- and includes a lot of recycled material from His Name Was Jason, but as a fan of the series it's still super entertaining. (Watch on Shudder)

Dreamscape (1984, dir. Joel Ruben) It's been years since I saw this whacked out sci-fi fantasy thriller in which Dennis Quaid projects himself into the dreams of others to influence real-world events (yes, it's the original Inception!). Watching it again recently on Scream Factory's new Blu-ray reminded me that it's the kind of wonderful movie that was only possible in the '80s, when imagination and practical/optical effects collided in way unlike any period before or since. There is so much cool shit going on in Dreamscape, plus a supporting cast that includes Kate Capshaw, Max Von Sydow, Eddie Albert, Christopher Plummer, George Wendt and David Patrick Kelly in one of his best and weirdest roles this side of The Warriors. Oh, and there's a giant snake man. This was only the second movie ever released with a PG-13 rating; it missed being the first by just five days when Red Dawn beat it into theaters. By today's standards, it would probably be an R. Trivia! (Watch on ShoutFactory TV)

Hard Eight (1996, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson) While his last two movies have kept me at arm's length, there was a long period in which I would have called Paul Thomas Anderson maybe the best American filmmaker on his generation, maybe even working today (though probably not with Scorsese still making movies). I love his first five films unequivocally, and while Hard Eight (or Sydney if you're a snob) has many of the markings of a "first movie," it's still an amazing piece of work and presents one of my top five favorite movie characters ever in Phillip Baker Hall's Sydney. The fact that this is available to stream on FilmStruck, which hosts all of the Criterion Collection, makes me so, so hopeful that it will get the Criterion Blu-ray treatment sometime soon. (Watch on FilmStruck)

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. 11

by Patrick Bromley

More good (and good-adjacent) movies you may have missed this year hit Netflix!

Too Late (2016, dir. Dennis Hauck) The feature debut of writer/director Dennis Hauck is an insanely ambitious, sprawling neo-noir shot on 35mm and constructed of five scenes shot as uninterrupted single takes. It's a gimmick, sure, and one that's more about proving it can be done than it is about serving the story, but I can't help that I enjoy seeing a filmmaker really flex his or her muscles and pull off something really challenging. It's a movie that gets better as it goes along and the story begins to come into focus, bolstered by a characteristically fantastic turn by John Hawkes as a private investigator looking for a missing girl. Some of the dialogue can be a little yeesh but the stuff I like outweighs the stuff I like less. Thanks to Chaybee for talking it up when it was in limited release earlier this year. (Watch on Netflix)

The Frontier (2016, dir. Oren Shai) Another neo-noir, also shot on film, also a first feature from its writer/director. Adam Riske's girlfriend Jocelin Donahue plays a woman on the lam who arrives at the out-of-the-way Frontier hotel/restaurant, where she finds herself in the middle of some shady characters looking to make a big score. In addition to Joc D, this terrific little crime thriller stars A.J. Bowen, Jim Beaver, Kelly Lynch and Liam Aiken. If you're at all a fan of Southern noir like Blood Simple and Red Rock West, this is the movie for you. It's one of the better surprises of the year. I paid to rent it on iTunes just a couple weeks ago, but now you can already watch it for "free" on Netflix! Also, Shock Waves host/friend of the site/all around hero Elric Kane is a producer on this, so we should all show our support. I wouldn't say that if it wasn't really cool movie. (Watch on Netflix)

Yoga Hosers (2016, dir. Kevin Smith) Yeah, yeah, I know. There's literally not one thing you could complain about when it comes to the latest Kevin Smith movie that I wouldn't agree with, but I also feel like everyone involved is having so much fun -- and it's the kind of infectious fun that comes across on screen -- that I can't help but be charmed by it. This is Smith paying tribute to Charles Band and Full Moon, combining it with a movie about teenage girls that seems to actually like teenage girls instead of portraying them as backstabbing or vapid. Smith's daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, and Lily-Rose Depp are both having the time of their lives in this silly ass movie and have an on screen dynamic that's totally winning. Fun is in short fucking supply in 2016, so I'll take it where I can get it (Watch on Netflix)

Inferno (1979, dir. Dario Argento) So it's not one of Argento's best, but I'd put this in his top five for sure. The middle chapter in his "Three Mothers" trilogy makes absolutely no sense (it has something to do with cats, right?), but it's so beautifully lit and shot and full of so many effective set pieces that I I have to love it. I'd argue that this is one of his most underrated efforts, but there are still a few I haven't seen. This is brand new on Shudder. (Watch on Shudder)

Massacre Mafia Style (1974, dir. Duke Mitchell) I'll admit that I canceled my subscription to Exploitation.TV right after #Junesploitation because it offers mostly vintage porn, which I'm not really into. But it does have this wonderful crime opus from Duke Mitchell, an old-school crooner who made a pair of independent movies in the '70s that define "passion project." I strongly recommend reading up on Mitchell and the history of this movie; better yet, buy the Grindhouse Releasing Blu-ray and work through all of the special features. The movie works on its own if you know how to watch stuff like this, but you can appreciate it even more when you know the story behind it. (Watch on Exploitation.TV)

The Wailing (2016, dir. Hong Jin-na) This first came to my attention when I heard it talked about on Shock Waves several months back, then our own Melissa Uhrin has been talking it up for some time now (in particular the performance by Kwak Do-won). I bought a digital copy on Vudu several weeks ago for under $5, but that requires me to remember that I have a Vudu account. Needless to say, it went unwatched. Then it showed up on Netflix this week and I finally caught up with the movie, which is crazy and completely unpredictable and, at two and a half hours, quite long. There's no predicting where it will go even after its first 90 minutes, which is something not uncommon to Korean cinema. That's one of the things that draws me to it, since that shit will never fly in American movies. I don't love everything in the movie (a trend this week?), but I do love how many different places it's willing to go. Oh, and Melissa is right: Kwak Do-won is awesome. (Watch on Netflix)

I Stream, You Stream Vol. 10

by Patrick Bromley

Most of this week's picks are good movies from 2016 you might have missed...plus a little Brown Sugar.

Joshy (2016, dir. Jeff Baena) This is a minor, heavily improvised, borderline-mumblecore comedy that I first saw as part of the Chicago Critics Film Festival earlier this year. It that achieves success based on its incredible cast, which includes Thomas Middleditch, Brett Gellman, Nick Kroll, Adam Pally, Jenny Slate, Alison Brie, Lauren Graham (sort of?), Joe and Kris Swanberg and a very, very funny Alex Ross Perry. The plot, about a group of friends who get together at a rental house for a friend's bachelor weekend, is just an excuse to put these people in a room and have them hang out together. There are problems both big and small, realizations both major and minor and few real resolutions; it manages to avoid most of the cliches you would expect from a movie like this. Your mileage may vary based on your feelings about the cast, but I had a good time with it. (Watch on Hulu)

De Palma (2016, dir. Noah Baumbach, Jake Paltrow) I get why a lot of people (including our very own JB) don't think this is a particularly good documentary, since it's just Brian De Palma sitting down and talking about his work, interspersed with clips from his movies. But as someone who names De Palma among his all-time favorite filmmakers, I'm in heaven watching this movie. First, seeing the clips reminds me that I want to watch every Brian De Palma movie immediately. Second, he's not a guy who has spoken at much length about his work, so getting him to open up and be very candid about what works and what doesn't is a real opportunity for us fans. If anything, I'm bummed that the doc isn't an hour longer. Most of his later work gets overlooked and I want to her him talk about Femme Fatale. (Watch on Amazon Prime Video)

Harvest Lake (2016, dir. Scott Schirmer) I've talked about this movie a number of times over the course of the last year. It's one of my favorite horror films of 2016, but I also know it's the kind of movie that's going to leave a lot of people frustrated. A group of friends (among them Tristan Risk and Ellie Church) spend the weekend at a cabin where a mysterious force in the lake begins exerting some sort of power over them. There's nothing very visceral or immediate about it, which is what so many horror fans want out of their genre movies. Instead, this one is dreamy and deliberately paced while also being incredibly sexually charged and beautifully photographed. Between this and Plank Face -- both released this year -- director Scott Schirmer and the folks at Bandit Motion Pictures have really become filmmakers to watch. (Watch on Amazon Prime Video)

Outlaws and Angels (2016, dir. J.T. Mollner) I probably would have completely skipped this western from first time feature writer/director JT Mollner if I hadn't read a really positive review from Meredith Borders at Birth.Movies.Death. It stars Chad Michael Murray (pass) and Luke Wilson (pass) and Ben Browder of Farscape (interested) and Teri Polo (I have no feelings about this) and Francesca Eastwood, daughter of Clint Eastwood and Frances Fisher, in what I believe is her first starring role. It's also shot on 35mm and really violent and impossible to predict where it's going from where it begins. Not enough movies are like that. More a chamber drama than a conventional western, this one is quirky and nasty but never dull. (Watch on Amazon Prime Video)

Truck Turner (1974, dir. Jonathan Kaplan) Two weeks ago, a new subscription streaming service was launched called Brown Sugar devoted entirely to Blaxploitation movies (thanks to Josh Pearlman [a prince] for the tip). Naturally, I signed up as fast as possible. While it doesn't yet appear to be available on any third-party platforms (Roku, Apple TV, etc.) and doesn't carry most of its movies in HD, there's a pretty deep library and a shitload of terrific movies. It's basically just this and watching old Shaw Brothers movies that have allowed to me to manage my serotonin levels post-election. I only saw Truck Turner for the first time a few years ago and it immediately became one of my favorite Blaxploitation movies ever made. Every single thing about it is great, from the sleepy lead performance (and kickass score!) from Isaac Hayes to Jonathan Kaplan's fast, funny direction to Yaphet Kotto playing a badass to a super foxy Nichelle Nichols playing a madame and clearly inspiring Katt Williams' entire persona. I love, love this movie and so far love, love Brown Sugar (Watch on Brown Sugar)

I Stream, You Stream Vol. 9

by Patrick Bromley

If you like good movies, you're reading the right column.

He Got Game (1998, dir. Spike Lee) One of Spike Lee's more underrated movies, He Got Game doesn't get talked about as much as a number of his other films for some reason. I've been a fan of it since seeing it back in '98, both for what it has to say about professional sports and for the incredible performance of Denzel Washington, whose Jake Shuttlesworth is one of the great characters in the actor's filmography often overshadowed by giants like Malcolm X and Alonzo Harris. NBA star Ray Allen also does good work in his acting debut. Netflix has been flooded with a lot of Disney/Touchstone titles in the last few weeks, and there are gems to be found among them if you are willing to look. This is one of them. (Watch on Netflix)

Green Room (2016, dir. Jeremy Saulnier) I can't say that Green Room will definitely be my favorite movie this year, but it's certainly going to end up somewhere in my top 10. Jeremy Saulnier continues to be one of the more exciting voices in genre movies right now, and the tragic loss of Anton Yelchin lends this one some weight that it didn't have even the first time I saw it. The filmmaking is really the star here. This movie is murder on the nerves -- so insanely intense and brutal and good. If you've been holding off on seeing it for some reason, now you have no excuse. (Watch on Amazon Prime Video)

Into the Forest (2016, dir. Patricia Rozema) I saw this earlier this year during the Chicago Critics Film Festival, and while it's flawed I think there's enough that's really interesting about it to recommend. One of the quietest, most intimate movies about the apocalypse ever made, it stars Evan Rachel Wood and Ellen Page as sisters who have to hold it together when a blackout won't end and the whole world starts to go to shit. There are some developments I could do without and a few scenes that lapse into pretentiousness, but seeing a story we've seen dozens of times on film through a female lens (both in front of and behind the camera) makes for a compelling tale. There are scenes that are quite wonderful and the two lead performances are powerful. I like the message that sometimes surviving means also having to live. (Watch on Amazon Prime Video)

Mannaja (A Man Called Blade) (1977, dir. Sergio Martino) If you're a spaghetti western fan at all, you absolutely have to see Mannaja. Maurizio Merli plays the title character, a bounty hunter hired to track down the missing daughter of a town mayor; his mission eventually pivots to one of revenge, as the man called blade seeks to settle a score with some outlaws and, eventually, the very people who hired him. The movie is violent and awesome, with a theme song that sounds like Leonard Cohen by way of Rammstein. I love it. (Watch on Hulu)

Mulholland Dr. (2001, dir. David Lynch) Celebrate #Noirvember with this, not just the best film noir of the last 16 years but arguably the single best movie of the 2000s. Like with Tarantino's work, there are about four David Lynch movies that I'm convinced are my favorite one when I'm watching them. Objectively, I'm pretty sure Mulholland Dr. is his best. Every scene is brilliant and interesting. After you watch it, listen to our podcast on the movie. There is no podcast! And yet we hear a podcast (Watch on Filmstruck)

I Declare War (2013, dir. Jason Lapeyre, Robert Wilson) This Canadian production about a group of kids playing war in the woods is about way more than a game of guns in the woods. It's a movie about friendship, a coming of age movie, a critique of cinematic violence, a meditation on religion and so much more. This was one of my favorite movies of 2013. Vudu has it available to watch for free, though apparently you'll have to sit through some ads. (Watch on Vudu)