Armchair Vacation: Five Films To Watch This Weekend [September 12-14]

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.

No No: A Dockumentary (VOD)

Sports documentaries come about once every week, it seems. However, like how there was never a baseball player quite like Pittsburgh Pirates ace Dock Ellis, there’s never really been a sports documentary quite like this one. Taking a look inside the no-hitter the pitcher threw back on June 12, 1970, the film takes us inside the lead up to the game, and the game itself, which was unlike any other no-hitter in the history of pro-baseball. The only “no-no” thrown by a pitcher while on LSD, the film is a fantastic piece of non-fiction storytelling, looking not only at the game itself, but the legendary player who starred in it. An outspoken civil rights activist, Ellis was a man all his own, and he is as great a focus for a documentary as any person could ever hope for. Currently available on VOD, this is a must-watch this weekend.

Oculus (VOD)

We are under a month away from the start of October, so what better film to give yourself a little bit of a horror fix than this underrated gem from earlier this year. From the producing team that brought you films like Insidious, as well as some involvement from the crew at WWE Studios, this horror picture tells the story of a brother and a sister who saw their family disintegrate thanks to what one half of the duo thinks to be a sinister mirror. Off kilter and beautifully crafted, this white knuckle thriller is truly a great piece of genre filmmaking, getting some solid performances out of a cast including names like Karen Gillan and Katee Sackhoff. It’s directed by Mike Flanagan (director of a rather mediocre film Absentia), and with some gorgeous photography and some genuinely thrilling sequences, this is a thriller that deserves to be seen by a wider audience than the one that gave it the time of day in theaters.

The Girlfriend Experience (Hulu)

Steven Soderbergh is the most diverse filmmaker of his generation. Able to balance his massive ensemble Hollywood films like the Ocean’s series with no budget features like Bubble and even meshing the two with an experiment like The Good German, no one has a canon like Soderbergh. And one of his best is currently available on Hulu Plus. Starring adult film actress, author and amazing Instagram follow Sasha Grey, the film follows a woman named Chelsea, a call girl who gives her clients something more than just a good romp in the sack. Set prior to the 2008 Presidential election, this is one of Soderbergh’s smaller films, and arguably one of his most beautiful. Gorgeously shot and getting a fantastic lead turn out of Grey, the film is a dense piece of work both thematically and aesthetically, and while it may not be everyone’s cup of Soderbergh tea (I am partial to the meshing of his two personalities, i.e. a film like Kafka), this is most certainly unlike any film you’re bound to watch this weekend.

There Will Be Blood (Netflix)

What could ever be said about Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterpiece that hasn’t already been said? One of the greatest films made in the last 20 or 30 years, and easily the best film of the ‘00s, this Daniel Day-Lewis-starring drama is currently available on Netflix, and is as must see a film as you could ever imagine encountering. A beast entirely its own, the film is often compared to feats of pure madness/genius ranging from Citizen Kane to Apocalypse Now, as a film so visceral and pure that it feels it was created entirely out of the will of its director, like Anderson would have died had he not gotten this out of his system. A haunting black-comedy of sorts, this unforgettable meditation on the perversion of The American Dream is a pure blooded masterpiece of the highest regards. Kubrickian in style and scope while still carrying with it all the patented touches that PTA has become known for, this is arguably the first time we saw Anderson truly spread his wings. And as we would see with his follow up, The Master, that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.

Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (TCM; Saturday, 12:45am EST)

Rounding out this week’s list is a nod to TCM and their Friday spotlight on Pre-Code cinema. Among gems like two Lubitsch comedies Design For Living and Trouble In Paradise, there’s one of the great horror pictures of this time period, the 1932 take on Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde. From underrated craftsman Rouben Mamoulian and starring Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins (who would star, the following year, in the above mentioned Design), this is the most underrated take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s legendary story, and while it’s best known for the breathtaking transformation sequence seen here, this is so very much more than just that one segment. An Oscar winning turn from March leads this horror masterpiece, and Mamoulian turns this story into something so brazenly cinematic that it feels like he was born to direct this story. While the performances will nab much of the attention, Mamoulian is the real star here, a director more people should really be familiar with. And this is as good a starting point as you could ever imagine.