Looking for something to watch?
Unfortunately, when it comes to big releases, this (American) long weekend hasn’t delivered a lot of in-theatre excitement. Those looking for a summer blockbuster may be disappointed to see plenty of screen times for Minions & Monsters and … not much else.
From a Legally Blonde reboot to unlikely Canadian successes, here’s a list of recent streaming and theatre releases which — depending on your tastes — should be worth your time.
Blue Heron
Easily among Canada’s most critically hailed films of the last decade, Sophy Romvari’s Blue Heron has been wowing cinephiles all year for its tender, atypical narrative style — as well as its heartbreaking story.
The release from first-time feature-film director Romvari fictionalizes her own past growing up alongside a brother with Oppositional Defiant Disorder on B.C.’s west coast.
After a theatrical release earlier this year, it made its way to VOD for digital rental or purchase on June 23. Unfortunately for those waiting for its much anticipated July 21 streaming run on the Criterion Channel, a representative for the studio told CBC News it will not be accessible in Canada.
Blood Lines
This one will be divisive.
Written and directed by Saskatchewan’s Gail Maurice, Blood Lines follows a few narrative threads: there’s Beatrice (Dana Solomon), the overtired and overworked writer and store clerk burdened by the sudden return of her absent mother. There is said alcoholic mother (Maurice) trying — and failing — to make amends for her past failings. And there’s Chani (Derica Lafrance), the orphaned newcomer searching for her birthparents and a family.
Largely performed in Michif — a Métis language with fewer than 2,000 fluent speakers — Blood Lines is also an impassioned evocation of a community. Though despite Maurice’s well-received prior film Rosie, critics and audiences have criticized Blood Lines for an occasionally slow plot and unearned twist.
But for those yearning for something meditative and tender, you can check out this one in a theatre near you following its premiere last week.
Obsession
Already an incredible success at the box office, Curry Barker’s romantic horror Obsession finally made its way to at-home viewing on June 30. Following a young man who — through the magic of a novelty toy — is able to make a young woman fall in love with him, Obsession brings the “careful what you wish for” idea to new, disgusting heights.
It, along with Kane Parson’s Backrooms, seemed to herald the arrival of a new era of filmmaker: those raised on social media. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can rent or buy this year’s lightning-in-a-bottle sensation on Prime.
Undertone
Another smartly subversive horror release, A24’s Undertone has been more of an under-the-radar success. From the direction and writing of Montreal-born, Toronto-based Ian Tuason, it melds those seemingly unrelated themes of epigenetic trauma with podcast creation.
The surprise? That connection results in an end-product equal parts unsettling, emotional and terrifying. And following its June 30 streaming release on Paramount+, you can check it out for yourself without turning the lights off.
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Maybe one of the most surprising successes in recent Canadian film history has to be this Matt Johnson and Jay McCarroll-starring Back to the Future ripoff.
And no, Johnson and McCarroll aren’t likely to complain about that criticism — it’s a comparison their characters make in the movie itself, while remarking about how unlikely it would be for their film to ever make it past copyright lawyers and into theatres.
But make it, it did. And with a streaming release on July 1, this parable about two aging musicians trying to play a gig at Toronto’s Rivoli theatre — before accidentally travelling back in time to 2008 — is available on Crave.
Elle
Here’s another divisive one for you. Twenty-five years after the Reese Witherspoon-led Legally Blonde hit theatres, she’s bringing us back to the life of Elle Woods, esquire.
But this time, it’s not a movie: the eight-part series launched on Prime July 1. And instead of moving forward in Elle’s life, we’re looking back: she’s now a 16-year-old in Seattle, trying (and failing) to pair Pacific Northwest with pink.
Critics have lambasted the Witherspoon-produced effort for shamelessly capitalizing on nostalgia while adding nothing to the original — all while watering-down the progressive feminism Elle Woods espoused.
But still, the offhand humour is (mostly) sharp, the outfits (occasionally) fascinating, and star Lexi Minetree is genuinely incredible as our new Elle.
Cape Fear
Another late-franchise return, Apple TV’s Cape Fear boasts some genuinely impressive names. Created by Nick Antosca, showrunner of the criminally underrated Channel Zero, produced by both Martin Scorsese and Stephen Spielberg, and starring Amy Adams, Patrick Wilson and Javier Bardem, there’s already a lot going for it.
And if you know the 1991 flick it’s based on, you’ll find the outline at least generally familiar. A violent sex offender (Bardem) is released from prison, and immediately goes after the defence lawyer who represented him (Amy Adams) as well as her former-prosecutor husband (Wilson).
The end result is an intense, if occasionally jump-the-shark style plot — though expertly anchored by a genuinely unsettling Bardem. Ongoing since its June 5 premiere, the twisty-turny thriller just saw its sixth episode release Friday.
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed
Also an Apple TV release, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed has nearly as much blood — if not quite so much self-seriousness.
Which on the whole, ends up being an incredibly good thing. Of everything on this list, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed might be the most surefire recommendation. Fronted by Saskatchewan’s Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black, She-Hulk), it follows a frazzled media fact checker trying to win maintain custody of her third grade daughter, find some semblance of love with her cam-boy boyfriend — and then keep everything from spiralling violently out of control when she stumbles on his dead body.
Also ongoing, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed saw its eighth episode premiere on Wednesday.
Human Vapor
Seen Death Note? What about Akira? OK, and V For Vendetta?
If any of those titles found their way into your Letterboxd top four, you may have fun with Netflix’s Human Vapor, which premiered July 2. The eight-part Japanese series is a remake of a 1960 classic with an affirmed anti-authority, anti-government edge.
Without giving too much away, the series opens with a mysterious grey smoke drifting into a man’s mouth — soon causing him to violently explode in the middle of a news interview. Soon after, a monotone young man claims he orchestrated the murder, and demands journalists interview him about conspiracy and corruption going to the highest levels.
And that’s when things get really spooky.
Project Hail Mary
Let’s be honest, you’ve probably already heard of Ryan Gosling’s Project Hail Mary — the sci-fi self-acceptance flick took the box office by storm earlier this year, and somehow made more people fall in love with a rock than did Everything, Everywhere All At Once.
But for the few who may have missed the story about a man on an interstellar mission to solve a world-ending mystery, you’ve got another shot to watch it. Project Hail Mary landed on Prime’s streaming service July 3.
