As our socially-distanced routines continue and it becomes increasingly hazy to predict when we might return to movie theaters across the country once again, we're doing something a bit different with this week's movie-streaming recommendations.
For the past two weeks we've offered out-of-the-box suggestions for each genre. Now we've concocted a list of 10 films—one from each decade stretching back a century. The idea wasn't to make a list representative of the medium's greatest offerings; it shouldn't be mistaken to suggest any superlative at all.
But if you're enticed by the idea of journeying from cinema's younger days straight through the turn of the century, here is a course of varied offerings providing a simple swath in the evolution of the movies. They're films that lean a bit more towards the little-seen than "The Avengers." And each is available to stream today.
“The Gold Rush” (1925, dir. Charlie Chaplin)
We all could do with the show-stopping antics of the Tramp—now so more than ever. His sophomore feature is one of his most complete and triumphant reveries, an all-encompassing picture deftly dancing between Alaskan outback adventure, slapstick, heartbreak and glee. Nearly 100 years later, Chaplin is as entertaining as he ever was.
Stream it on: The Criterion Channel, Kanopy
“M” (1931, dir. Fritz Lang)
What is widely considered to be the first serial-killer story put to film, Fritz Lang’s eerie and evocative “M” – about the city-wide hunt for a child murderer by police and criminals alike – is also one of the earliest standard-bearers in the psychological thriller cadre. The German expressionist director’s imagery is stark, his insinuations haunting, his influence instantly recognizable. There would be no David Fincher without Fritz, and cinema would be a little less bold without “M.”
Stream it on: The Criterion Channel, Kanopy
“His Girl Friday” (1940, dir. Howard Hawks)
To say this rom-com-drama – pairing the good looks and charismatic geniuses of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell – is a breeze to watch is like saying “The Avengers” is akin to “Little Rascals.” The plot pivots come quick and the one-liners quicker in Howard Hawks’s electrifyingly-fast story about the sly similarities between marriage and journalism. Unfolding in just a handful of locations and with rocket-propelled comedic timing, it’s one of the great stage plays masquerading as movie. And it’ll be a major test for the members of your household who reaches for the phone for a distraction.
Stream it on: Amazon Prime Video, The Criterion Channel, Kanopy
“The African Queen” (1951, dir. John Huston)
This selection harkens back to a time when old-school Hollywood adventures still garnered Academy Award consideration. “The African Queen” was nominated for four Oscars, and won one for Humphrey Bogart’s performance as the grimy, drunk Charlie Allnutt, who ferries Katharine Hepburn’s Rose Sayer through the wild waters of East Africa. Bogart and Hepburn’s chemistry is an enduring delight, even if the romance that sparks up between them feels a bit underwritten. The movie’s swashbuckling scope endures as well—it’s difficult to believe Disney’s upcoming “Jungle Cruise” isn’t a spiritual, high-budget, high-VFX-count reimagining of John Huston’s movie.
Stream it on: Amazon Prime Video
“Hour of the Wolf” (1968, dir. Ingmar Bergman)
One of the most suffocating, claustrophobic entries in the deep catalogues of both its director, Ingmar Berman, and leading man, Max von Sydow. Following a couple forced to content with secret pasts, suspicious characters and insomnia while vacationing on an island, “Hour of the Wolf” is a thriller (and, occasionally, a horror) that’s awash in ambiguity, thrusting the viewer into the mental faculties of its characters with barely enough room for logic to fit in alongside. Imagine David Lynch taking on material more cryptic than his suburban paranoias. “Hour of the Wolf” is just one way to remember the colorful cinematic career of Max von Sydow after he passed away in March.
Stream it on: The Criterion Channel, Kanopy
“The Conversation” (1974, dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
Sandwiched between the first two “Godfather” films in Francis Ford Coppola’s filmography is this excellent ‘70s paranoia thriller that’s only gained relevance as modern conversations about technology and surveillance concerns have further overlapped. A sweaty, fidgety moral exercise made with cinematic finesse, “The Conversation” tallied Oscar nominations for Best Writing and Best Picture, but it should probably have also been nominated for Gene Hackman—his leading turn as an elite freelance eavesdropper who thinks he holds the safety of a young couple in his hands is a relic of the obtuse, engrossing, subtly devastating performances that epitomized film in the Me Decade.
Stream it on: Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy
“The Fog” (1980, dir. John Carpenter)
One of the more under-appreciated gems in its legendary director’s macabre oeuvre, “The Fog” functions as both a no-nonsense horror ride in Small Town, USA, and also as intelligent commentary on historic grievance. An undead crew’s mission for reclamation makes terrified victims out of a West Coast town’s residents – including Jamie Lee Curtis and Adrienne Barbeau – as they celebrate the community’s 100th birthday amid a strange haze making its way across the water. Carpenter’s dedication to B-movie aspirations will make you think twice about venturing into the fog wherever you live.
Stream it on: Shudder
“Big Night” (1996, dirs. Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci)
Stanley Tucci is predominantly known for his work in front of the camera, but he co-directed, co-wrote and co-starred in this blue-collar story about bickering Italian brothers whose passion for food hasn’t translated to business success. The movie is a deceptively light-footed parable about the illusion of the American Dream, bolstered by sumptuous performances and some of the most intoxicating portrayals of communal feasting ever put to film. There’s a rawness to the truths “Big Night” serves up, but it doesn’t make its wit and warmth any less delectable.
Stream it on: Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy
“The Host” (2006, dir. Bong Joon-ho)
You’ve seen “Parasite,” Korean master Bong Joon-ho’s latest work and newly-minted Best Picture winner. Right? Wonderful. “The Host” came much earlier in the director's career, and also mixes seething satire and genre attraction into a cocktail of cinema that is thematically reverberant and deeply satisfying. "The Host" (not to be confused with the 2013 Stephenie Meyer YA adaptation) is a darkly-humorous, impeccably-crafted jaunt also centered on an urban family occupying the lower rungs of the economic ladder. The main drawing card? A massive aquatic monster terrorizing the them. The movie’s excellent.
Stream it on: Hulu
“20th Century Women” (2016, dir. Mike Mills)
Looking over the movies listed above, I realize I’ve included four warm pictures and a quintet of slightly chillier ones if you’re looking to be stung by films in the coming days. To balance it all out, let’s finish with Mike Mills's gentle-hearted drama "20th Century Women," which tells the story of young Jamie's upbringing and social education by a group of surrogate mothers diverse in their years, experiences and lessons. It's a meditative movie that feels essential in its observations about life, and its rebellious nature fits a late-'70s aesthetic magnificently. Watch it. Watch it twice. Perhaps three times. It doesn’t run out of its elixir.
Stream it on: Netflix, Kanopy
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