USA TODAY International Edition
Catch up on films you missed
Porgs, peaches and wonder women stole our hearts in 2017, a year that reintroduced us to Tonya Harding and Pennywise the Clown and launched phrases like “the Sunken Place” and “That sink’s not braced yet” into the pop culture lexicon. ❚ But with so many great movies taking up real estate in theaters, there’s bound to be a few you missed these past 12 months. We rounded up some of our favorite overlooked gems that you can stream at home.
‘Brad’s Status’
On the surface, this may seem like a fairly standard art-house dramedy, which follows a neurotic dad (Ben Stiller) who struggles to let go of his son (Austin Abrams) as he heads off to college. But it winds up being a razorsharp, cringe-worthy portrait of a narcissistic man consumed by his own shortcomings, featuring a career-best performance by Stiller that is disarmingly moving. ❚ Where to watch: Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube
‘Maudie’
Sally Hawkins is a bestactress front-runner for her expressive turn in sci-fi romance The Shape of
Water, playing a mute custodian who’s enamored with a fish-man. And she delivers an equally awards-worthy performance in this unsentimental biopic of fragile Canadian painter Maud Lewis, who suffered from debilitating arthritis. ❚ Where to watch: Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube
‘Raw’
Despite reports of moviegoers vomiting and passing out in festival screenings, this French cannibal thriller isn’t all that gruesome. Instead, it’s a darkly funny, sneakily affecting look at teenage
insecurities and sisterhood, only with more severed fingers and brain-eating undergrads. ❚ Where to watch: Netflix,Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube
‘Brawl in Cell Block 99’
If John Wick were a deranged jailbird locked in a maximum security prison, his movie might look a little something like this brutal crime drama. Onetime funnyman Vince Vaughn transforms into a car-smashing, head-bashing former boxer turned drug runner, packing punches in some of the year’s most squirminducing fight scenes. ❚ Where to watch: Amazon Prime (starting Sunday), iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube
‘Columbus’
No 2017 film made us swoon more than this Indiana-set love letter to modernist architecture and human connection. Playing two broken intellectuals who find solace in each other, Haley Lu Richardson and John Cho have electric chemistry, and first-time writer/director Kogonada finds breathtaking beauty in smalltown life. ❚ Where to watch: Hulu, Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play, YouTube, Hulu
‘The Book of Henry’
A bizarre, critically mauled revenge story that fully earns its so-bad-it’sgood reputation. Naomi Watts stars as a mother whose dead son instructs her how to kill a child abuser from beyond the grave. With abysmal box office to boot, it’s no wonder director Colin Trevorrow was fired from Star Wars: Episode IX shortly after Book’s bow.
❚ Where to watch: Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube
‘Lady Macbeth’
Named for Shakespeare’s classic antiheroine, this adaptation of Nikolai Leskov’s 1865 novella is a twisted delight. Florence Pugh is a force of nature as a conniving young woman who rebels against her arranged marriage. Learn her name before Pugh lights up the screen with Liam Neeson, Chris Pine and Dwayne Johnson next year.
❚ Where to watch: Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube
‘Graduation’
A father goes to felonious extremes to get his daughter into a prestigious British university and out of their impoverished Romanian village after she is assaulted on the eve of crucial final exams. It’s another modern-day masterpiece from filmmaker Cristian Mungiu (4
Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), who casts an unflinching eye on the devastating effects of corruption and social class.
❚ Where to watch: Netflix
‘Dawson City: Frozen Time’
In 1978, about 500 film reels thought to be lost were discovered under a small-town hockey rink in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Stitched together 40 years later by director Bill Morrison, the resulting documentary is an enchanting slice of silent-movie history from the turn of the 20th century, soundtracked by Alex Somers’ melancholic score.
❚ Where to watch: Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube