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With the influx of new films premiering in the festival circuit, there’s been a long holding period of movies waiting to be brought to the big screen. This period has since been delayed many times over due to the pandemic, and audiences continue to remain in idle anticipation. But while you wait, why not divulge into the immense landscape of obscure flicks that are available now on streaming services?

Streaming services offer much in terms of a broader scale of choices, and with that comes new opportunities to be introduced to a lot more movies. So, here’s a selection of five films from multiple streaming services that you might not have heard about but could end up on your favorites list.

“Beau Travail,” Kanopy and The Criterion Channel, 1999

Director Claire Denis perfectly captures the rupture of ego, sexuality and the human spirit with this masterpiece of French mysticism. Denis Lavant plays Galoup, a French Foreign Legion sergeant amongst the scorched and treacherous environment of Djibouti, with his troop of 15-to-20 men. The film plays as a collage of broken memories in which Galoup’s rigorous lifestyle is disrupted by the arrival of Gilles Sentain (Grégoire Colin), a new recruit who brings up a newfound jealousy in Galoup’s mind.

The film creates an unsettling and powerful narrative through its thematic sounds and images. “Beau Travail” offers viewers an eye- and soul-opening experience unlike any other, and I recommend this film to anyone who wishes to think on a much deeper level.

“The Master,” Netflix, 2012

A movie so good, even writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson has said it’s his movie he is most proud of in a Reddit Ask Me Anything. Joaquin Phoenix plays Freddie Quell, a veteran with PTSD in a post-World War II lifestyle. As he’s figuring out the next steps of his existence and doing so while struggling with alcoholism, Freddie stumbles upon a philosophical movement known as the Cause. Its creator, an author by the name of Captain Lancaster Dodd (played by the late and incredible Philip Seymour Hoffman), a character that director Anderson wrote inspired by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. Lancaster Dodd takes an extreme liking to Freddie, convincing him to work and be a part of the Cause, which, over time, crumbles into complete and utter craziness throughout the course of the film. With revolutionary dialogue and breathtaking performances, Anderson creates a world that is not only beautifully strange, but exceptionally inquisitive.

“Funeral Parade of Roses,” Kanopy, 1969

A dark and breathtaking odyssey, “Funeral Parade of Roses” is an excellent exhibition of nonlinear storytelling. With brutal, Warhol-like imagery, the journey is set in the dark and hostile environments of Tokyo in the 1960s, showcasing various moments in the life of Eddie, a young transgender woman experiencing distress toward the people around her and the environemnt she’s so caught up in.

Throughout the course of the film, the audience is shown glimpses of almost every character going on their own journey of gender identity, self-love and sexuality within a fascinating and ambitious framework. A movie so profound that it inspired Stanley Kubrick to make “A Clockwork Orange,” “Funeral Parade of Roses” is peak filmic material in the pop art and experimental genre. One of the characters, a documentary filmmaker by the name of Guevara, mentions in the movie that “all definitions of cinema have been erased, and all doors are opened,” and that embodies exactly what director Toshio Matsumoto was attempting to portray.

“The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,” Amazon Prime Video, 1972

Director Luis Buñuel — a frequent collaborator with Salvador Dalí and creator of the mise-en-scène design in theatrical arts — along with co-writer Jean-Claude Carrière, attempts to break any sort of boundary within the confines of surrealist film in “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.”

A fantastically satiric opus, the film chronicles a dinner for six members of the upper-middle class that never really arrives. Through the illusionary tricks of Buñuel, the “dinner” becomes a plotless experience full of ghosts, terrorist attacks, drugs and much, much more — exploits that are dreamy yet horrifyingly real to the characters.

The hilarious pretentiousness and incredible set design exemplifies Buñuel’s ability to create a comically absurdist and monumental piece of art that only goes to show the beautifully hard-working environment of the 1970s French film industry.

“Deep Cover,” HBO Max, 1992

A triumph of neo-noir filmmaking, “Deep Cover” stars Laurence Fishburne as Russell Stevens Jr., a Cleveland cop swept into the undercover section of Los Angeles. His job as an undercover officer is to bust the biggest drug dealer in the city: David Jason, played by Jeff Goldblum. Stevens, acting as a drug dealer, is brought into the criminally dark parts of a bleak and mysterious city, rising up in the ranks as he gains more notability on the streets of LA. As tensions rise, so does our anxiety as audience members. Bill Duke’s direction takes us on an incredible car ride that ponders political corruption, Black masculinity and state-wide violence.

With hints of Sidney J. Furie’s 1973 classic “Hit!,” and Abel Ferrara’s 1990 “King of New York,” Duke’s film explores the noir genre in an extremely poignant and slick manner, evoking its predecessors to bring about a whole new feeling to the screen.

Published on September 6, 2021 at 10:57 pm