Armchair Vacation: Five Films To Watch At Home This Weekend [March 28-30]

Every day, more and more films are added to the various streaming services out there, ranging from Netflix to YouTube, and are hitting the airwaves via movie-centric networks like TCM. Therefore, sifting through all of these pictures can be a tedious and often times confounding or difficult ordeal. But, that’s why we’re here. Every week, Joshua brings you five films to put at the top of your queue, add to your playlist, or grab off of VOD to make your weekend a little more eventful. Here is this week’s top five, in this week’s Armchair Vacation.

5.Medora (Hulu)

I had the pleasure of seeing this small little documentary a year ago at SXSW 2013, and while it’s taken a minute for the film to finally arrive in wide release, it is now finally available to stream on Hulu. Taking a look at the power of tiny victories and how every small glimmer of hope can save lives, this film is both a beautiful meditation on the current state of small town Middle America and also the power of being part of a team, telling the tale of a basketball team in the midst of a historic losing streak. Intimate and oddly bleak for this type of documentary, the film is a gorgeously crafted and brazenly timely looking at the modern state of the middle class as much as it does this basketball team specifically. A huge fan of this film when it hit Austin in March 2013, this is one of the better and less talked about documentaries to arise in quite some time.

4.Mud (Netflix)

A film that I’ve talked about to anyone and everyone that would open their ears, Jeff Nichols’ latest film is now available to stream on Netflix. One of the first examples of the true power of star Matthew McConaughey, the film finds McConaughey as mysterious pistol-carrying man named Mud, who changes the world of two youths named Ellis and Neckbone. A Mark Twain-esque look at the American South, the film stars Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland, and is a gorgeous meditation on man’s place in nature and his relationship with it. One of Nichols’ most thoughtful and pensive works, it is also one of his best, very much rooted in the same ground as, say, the early work of fellow filmmaker David Gordon Green. Energetic and rustic, Nichols’ picture is one of the more interesting American films to come along in quite some time, one of 2013’s most underrated gems.

3.Nymphomaniac Volume 1 and 2 (VOD)

From director Lars von Trier comes one of 2014’s most anticipated motion picture events, and one of the year’s most talked about epics. A four hour opus for the ever controversial auteur, the film tells the tale of a woman and her sexuality from birth to her present moment, and stars Charlotte Gainsbourg as that very woman. A beautifully dark faux-comedy of eroticism, this film is very much one of the most original works from the director to this very date. Bleak and yet oddly vital and lively, the picture features a bevy of breathtaking performances, particularly a career defining from its central star, and some of von Trier’s most frank and honest discussions of themes he has been attempting to beat out for years now. Inherently a picture about loneliness and the nature of sex as something truly powerful, von Trier’s film is full of aesthetic flights of fancy that make the film both immensely powerful and breeze by despite its lengthy run time. While some of the moments feel a bit false and can become something more self important than actually insightful, the picture sticks an ending that is as powerful as any moment von Trier has ever given us, and in turn turns this into the first truly must-see picture of this still very young year.

2.The Punk Singer (Netflix)

There are few films that I’ve championed harder or more often here on The CriterionCast than this lovely documentary from director Sini Anderson. Telling the story of punk rock icon Kathleen Hanna, leader of the legendary outfit Bikini Kill, this film may not break the mold aesthetically, but in a world where rock documentaries seem to crop up weekly, this is an entirely singular and wholly original motion picture that gives the life of a punk rock icon and the feminist movement she became a figure head of equal sense of importance. Energetic to no end, and a perfect embodiment of the vitality and life that oozes out of every pore of its central subject, this is a wonderful bit of documentary filmmaking that is both imminently watchable and utterly unforgettable.

1.Big Night (TCM; Friday, 10pm EST)

When people think of actors-turned-directors, very few ever mention a name like Campbell Scott. One of the better character actors of his day, he has also given us one of the more underrated films of all time, in the breathtaking foodie dream Big Night. Telling the story of two brothers who put their lives on the line for one special moment to try and save their fledgling restuarant, the film stars Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub as the brother duo putting everything on the line. Tucci co-directed the film with Scott, and this beautifully blissful comedy is both bewilderingly charming and also rather powerful. As much a look at familial drama as it is a comedy, the film is an intimate and charming drama that features one of the better supporting casts you’ll ever see. Names like Allison Janney, Scott himself and even Isabella Rossellini join the festivities here, culminating in a film that is as underrated and rarely talked about as they come. And for no good reason as this is an absolutely wonderful piece of filmmaking.