New movies to stream this week: ‘John Lewis: Good Trouble,’ ‘Welcome to Chechnya’ and more
THE milestones are literal and figurative in “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” a timely and necessary documentary that examines the life and career of the civil rights leader and Georgia congressman, who still bears the scars from the fractured skull he incurred at the hands of law enforcement. (Lewis, now 80, was struck by an Alabama state trooper wielding a nightstick during the famous 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.) Archival footage of that march, in which troopers attacked peaceful protesters, includes, at one point in the 54 mile journey, signage indicating how far demonstrators had left to walk. But in speaking more metaphorically at the start of the film — in which Lewis and others reminisce about their struggle, and how far we’ve come toward equality and justice — Lewis himself notes that, “We’re not quite there yet.” His understatement is all the more painful, given current events, which lend “Good Trouble” (a reference to a phrase that Lewis, who has been arrested multiple times in his life, uses in speeches about the necessity of stirring things up) the urgency of a call to action. It’s a film that, despite looking backward, ironically seems to be all about looking forward, with a mix of hope and resignation. PG. Available July 3 on demand via various streaming platforms, including afisilver. afi.com and themiracletheatre. com. Contains mature thematic material, including some racial epithets, violence and smoking. 96 minutes.
The activists at the heart of “Welcome to Chechnya,” a powerful documentary about the Underground-Railroadstyle mission to rescue and relocate LGBT people who have been threatened, detained, tortured and/or maimed in Chechnya - during that predominantly Muslim Russian state’s program of persecution - are heroes. Much of the film features traditional safe-house interviews with rescuers and the rescued (typically disguised, digitally, with facial-altering software). But at times, the film by David France (“How to Survive a Plague”) takes on the atmosphere of a real-life thriller, as in a sequence using hidden cameras to document to extraction of a young woman in danger of violence from her own family. That episode, which does not have the happy ending one might wish for, underscores the urgency of the film. And when one of its subjects - a young man who had been tortured - digitally unmask himself and come forward to file an official complaint, it reminds us what true courage means. Unrated. Available on HBO. Contains disturbing thematic material, violence, bloody images, strong language and brief nudity. In Russian, Chechen and English with subtitles. 107 minutes.
“Family Romance, LLC” is one of the strangest - yet perhaps most typical - films made by Werner Herzog. Here, the German director, who has hopped easily back and forth between documentary and narrative over his 50-plus years in film, has made a kind of docufiction.
The film takes its name from a real Japanese company that rents out actors to play the role of people who, for one reason or another, cannot be there for loved ones: an alcoholic or divorced parent, for instance. In this scripted drama, Yuichi Ishii - the proprietor of that company - plays a fictionalized version of himself, spending most of the film pretending to be the father of a 12-year-old girl whose real dad left her when she was a child. (He takes on other roles as well.) What starts out as a slight idea - look at this kooky thing they do in Japan! - takes on heft as Herzog stirs in additional ingredients that blur the line between reality and illusion: a street mime, robotic aquarium fish and samurai reenactors in a Tokyo park. Slowly, the story becomes more provocative and poignant. Unrated. Available on Mubi. Contains a brief curse word. In Japanese with subtitles. 89 minutes.
Also streaming:
“Ask No Questions” is a documentary about the apparent public self-immolation of several Falun Gong practitioners in 2001, and inconsistencies in the Chinese government’s official account of the incident. Film Threat calls the movie “wildly intriguing and entertaining.” Unrated. Available on demand via various streaming platforms. 79 minutes.
The 2009 documentary “Skiing Everest” featured identical twin brothers Mike and Steve Marolt, part of an elite fraternity of skiers who have challenged themselves on Everest and other high peaks. A sequel of sorts, “Beyond Skiing Everest” looks more deeply into what motivates the brothers - on the slopes and in life. Unrated. Available on demand via various streaming platforms. 81 minutes.
“Denise Ho: Becoming the Song” is a documentary portrait of the Hong Kong-based
Ho, following the openly gay “Cantopop” singer’s evolution from artist to human rights activist Denise Ho. Unrated. Available at afisilver.afi.com. In English and Cantonese with subtitles. 83 minutes.
A young woman (Nasim Pedrad) sends a ranting email to her otherwise perfect new boyfriend (Robbie Amell), after he fails to return her phone call, in the comedy “Desperados.” When she learns that he is in the hospital in Mexico, she drags her friends with her just so she can delete the message. TV-MA. Available on Netflix. 106 minutes.
The documentary “Money Machine” purports to expose the hidden truth behind the 2017 mass shooting by Stephen Paddock in Las Vegas. Unrated. Available July 3 on jomafilms.com. 85 minutes.
While shooting a web series debunking urban legends, three filmmakers inadvertently summon an ancient malevolent entity in the found-footage horror film “Ouija Blood Ritual.” Available on demand via various streaming platforms. 77 minutes.
In “Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story,” documentarian Patrick Creadon (“Wordplay”) looks at the life and career of a former surfer, filmmaker and skiing enthusiast, whose stuntheavy cinematic work helped popularize the sport he loved. This “exceptional portrait of a true filmmaking iconoclast,” according to the Hollywood Reporter, is “almost as exhilarating as an actual Warren Miller production.” Unrated. Available on demand via various streaming platforms. 93 minutes.
Singer, bass guitarist and actress Suzi Quatro (Leather Tuscadero on “Happy Days) is the subject of the documentary “Suzi Q,” which the Guardian calls “fan-servicing but not necessarily hagiographic.” Unrated. Available on demand via various streaming platforms. 104 minutes.
The first film by Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda to be shot outside his home country, “The Truth” stars Catherine Deneuve as a narcissistic film diva. Variety writes that, “From first shot to last, it’s a film of high wit and confidence and verve, an astonishingly fluid and accomplished act of boundaryleaping.” PG. Available on demand via various streaming platforms. Contains mature thematic material, suggestive elements, smoking and brief strong language. In French with subtitles. 106 minutes.
Set in a beach town on Italy’s Adriatic coast, “Under the Riccione Sky” follows a group of teenage friends navigating summer love and other entanglements. TV-MA. Available on Netflix. In Italian with subtitles. 102 minutes.—