The Best Films New to Every Major Streaming Platform in February 2021

AMAZON PRIME

“The Prestige” (Christopher Nolan, 2006)

A knotted period drama about the blood feud that forms between two dueling magicians (Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, both of whom deliver career-best performances by threading the needle between raw pathos and remarkable showmanship), this beautifully mounted film is like a coded look into Christopher Nolan’s mind. Characteristically unraveling its story by starting at its deepest layer and then winding its way back to the surface from there, “The Prestige” is a confessional epic about the perils of ambition and the pleasures of fooling ourselves into forgetting what we know to be true.

What elevates “The Prestige” above so many of Nolan’s other movies is that it investigates the illusion more thoroughly than any of his other films, and does so in a way that transmutes its sleight-of-hand shenanigans into the stuff of a genuinely compelling story. Angier and Borden are rich characters hatched from a simple conflict, and their obsessive rivalry — and the milieu in which its set — allows Nolan to broach his favorite subjects more directly than ever. He doesn’t have to spin a zillion plates in the air, he doesn’t have to invert the entire noir genre or spend 150 minutes explaining how dreams work; the world of magic gives him the perfect shortcut to explore the power of illusion. It also gives him the opportunity to cast David Bowie as Nikola Tesla, and somehow that’s only like the 10th best thing about this film.

It’s so satisfying because of how it comes together to serve its characters, because of how deeply it internalizes Michael Caine’s greatest pearl of showbiz wisdom: “The secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything.” A lot of Nolan’s movies feel like the work of a magician; “The Prestige” is the only one that feels like the work of a wizard.

Available to stream February 1

Other highlights:
– “The Map of Tiny Perfect Things”
– “The Handmaiden”
– “The Big Sick”

APPLE TV+

“Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry” (R.J. Cutler, 2021)

Apple had yet to screen its Billie Eilish doc for critics at the time this article was published, but there’s little else in the way of exclusive films coming to the service this month, and so this is an even more natural highlight than it might have been otherwise. The film should prove to be a fascinating object regardless. The recent spate of pop star docs has run the gamut from excellent (“Miss Americana”) to whatever (“excuse me, i love you”), but all of these films have been telling about their subjects in one way or another: Are they willing to be the nucleus of a real film with an actual point of view, or are they just dabbling in the nonfiction game for the sake of glorified promotion? We’re willing to bet that a figure as outspoken and indivisibly herself as Eilish falls on the former side of the fence, and director R.J. Cutler’s background in both politics (“A Perfect Candidate”) and teen dramas (“If I Stay”) suggests he might have some unique insight into whatever the young iconoclast has on her mind.

Available to stream February 26

THE CRITERION CHANNEL

“Cotton Comes to Harlem” (Ossie Davis, 1970)

Celebrating Black History Month as only the Criterion Channel can, the streamer’s February lineup offers an eye-opening and immaculately curated glimpse at the breadth and dynamism of African-American cinema. Unmissable one-offs include “Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai” and Bill Duke’s “The Killing Floor,” a sharp and resonant 1984 PBS drama about a Black sharecropper’s fight to establish an interracial union in the Chicago Stockyards. Shot during the five-year gap between Duke’s iconic performances in “American Gigolo” and “Commando,” “The Killing Floor” is the best possible entry point into a fascinating body of work that later crossed into the mainstream with “A Rage in Harlem” and “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.” Also on the industrial beat is Kevin Jerome Everson’s eight-hour “Park Lanes,” which chronicles a shift at a factory that produces bowling alley equipment in real-time, and — free from the distractions that come with having a job to do — powerfully conveys the temporal weight of modern labor. 

Four Gordon Parks films have been assembled in tribute to the first African-American to direct a major Hollywood feature, as 1969’s “The Learning Tree” is available to stream alongside the Huddie Ledbetter biopic “Leadbelly,” the autobiographical essay film “Moments Without Proper Names,” and “Solomon Northup’s Odyssey,” which makes for a fascinating counterpoint to Steve McQueen’s Oscar-winning take on the same tale of slavery and survival. A seven-film clutch of Ruby Dee classics have also been added to the platform, ranging from Anthony Mann’s “The Tall Target” to Sidney Poitier’s “Buck and the Preacher” some 21 years later. 

Meanwhile, the Criterion Channel continues to highlight the work of young and emerging female artists with a baker’s dozen of short films by Ghanian-American filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu, whose playful cinema explores a litany of intersections between personal and postcolonial identities. Start with the seven-minute “Bus Nut,” which shrewdly looks back at the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott through the lens of an educational video on school bus safety, and go from there. There’s still more — so much more. We haven’t even mentioned William Greaves’ unmissable “Nationtime,” five shorts from experimental duo Kevin Jerome Everson and Claudrena N. Harold, or one of this critic’s personal favorites: Ossie Davis’ “Cotton Comes to Harlem,” which mulches the Back-to-Africa movement, the Black Panthers, and the slappiest duo of stone-cold detectives north of 125th street (Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques as Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, respectively) into one of the best action-comedies ever made.

Available to stream February 1

Other highlights include:
– “The Killing Floor”
– “Park Lanes”
– “Bus Nut”

FILM MOVEMENT PLUS

“Aria” (various directors, 1987)

What do Jean-Luc Godard and “Driving Miss Daisy” director Bruce Beresford have in common? If you answered “as little as can possibly be shared by two human men” you’d be close — so close! — but still overlooking one crucial detail: In 1987, they made a movie together. Well, it would be more accurate to say that producer Don Boyd made a movie with both of them. And also Robert Altman, Derek Jarman, Nicolas Roeg, Ken Russell, and a handful of other major (and not-so-major) filmmakers. An opera-themed omnibus that premiered at Cannes and then quickly sank into the quicksand of time for reasons that will alternately prove maddening and obvious to anyone who treats themselves to this lost treasure on Film Movement Plus, “Aria” is… well, it’s a lot of things. 

“Predictable” isn’t one of them. Each of the anthology’s 10 segments is paired with a particular opera, and the libretto does most of the talking. That’s about all they have in common. Roeg’s introductory chapter stars Theresa Russell (natch) as King Zog of Albania, and chronicles their failed assassination attempt in a short that feels like it might have inspired the climactic sequence of “The Godfather Part III.”

Godard follows with the most literal of flexes, as his 11-minute contribution watches a group of bodybuilders try (and immaculately succeed) to continue with their weight sets and ignore the two naked young women vying for their attention. Beresford’s segment is even hornier in some respects, as a naked Elizabeth Hurley sits on a bed and sings a duet with her lover in the middle of a quiet Bruges afternoon. Eye-rolling as it is to realize that “Aria” is full of women in front of the camera and bereft of any behind it, the film also has its fair share of moments in which collaborators like Jarman and Tilda Swinton make some beautiful music together, or at least to put their own idiosyncratic spin on some beautiful music that long preceded them both.

Available to stream February 5

Other highlights include:
– “Mr. Topaze”
– “Penny Points to Paradise”
– “Last of the Mississippi Jukes”

HBO MAX

“Judas and the Black Messiah” (Shaka King, 2021)

We’re still in the early days of Warner Bros.’ experiment of releasing all of its major 2021 movies day-and-date on HBO Max, but it’s hard to imagine that any of the high-profile features on the studio’s upcoming slate will be as powerful and incendiary as Shaka King’s “Judas and the Black Messiah,” or will feel as well-suited to watching at home. The film would have played like gangbusters on the big screen, but it could hold your attention on an Apple Watch, and doesn’t rely on the same kind of spectacle that will surely propel the likes of “Godzilla v. Kong” and “The Matrix Resurrection.” Here’s what Kate Erbland wrote about King’s Oscar heavyweight in her rave review:

“Fred Hampton is looking for revolutionaries. William O’Neal is trying to stay out of prison. In Shaka King’s vivid ‘Judas and the Black Messiah,’ these seemingly very different men will be set on a terrible collision course for each other. One part Hampton biopic, one part unnerving portion of American (and all-too-recent) history, King’s drama is a nuanced portrait of a people, a place, and a betrayal that has never before received such a full telling. Bolstered by major performances by Daniel Kaluuya (as Hampton, the visionary chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in the late ’60s) and Lakeith Stanfield (as O’Neal, an FBI informant who infiltrated the BPP and Hampton’s inner circle), ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ makes the Hampton saga feel as urgent — and tragic — as ever.”

Available to stream February 12

Other highlights include:
– “The Graduate”
– “The Matrix”
– “Unforgiven”

HULU

“Nomadland” (Chloe Zhao, 2020)

After months and months of runaway hype that started with the one-two punch of winning the Golden Lion in Venice and the audience award at TIFF soon thereafter, Chloe Zhao’s magnificent “Nomadland” is finally available to stream at your leisure. Here’s what IndieWire’s Eric Kohn wrote about the film when he ranked it high on his list of 2020’s best films: 

‘”Nomadland’ is the kind of movie that could go very wrong. With Frances McDormand as its star alongside a cast real-life nomads, in lesser hands it might look like cheap wish fulfillment or showboating at its most gratuitous. Instead, director Chloé Zhao works magic with McDormand’s face and the real world around it, delivering a profound rumination on the impulse to leave society in the dust. Zhao previously directed ‘The Rider’ and ‘Songs My Brother Taught Me,’ dramas that dove into marginalized experiences with indigenous non-actors in South Dakota. “Nomadland” imports that fixation with sweeping natural scenery to a much larger tapestry and a different side of American life.

Inspired by Jessica Bruder’s non-fiction book ‘Nomadland: Surviving America in the 21st Century,’ the movie follows McDormand as Fern, a soft-spoken widow in her early 60s who hits the road in her van, and just keeps moving. The movie hovers with her, at times so enmeshed in her travels that it practically becomes a documentary. Instead, the movie develops an entrancing narrative about American alienation and the appeal of escaping society’s oppressive clutches. Zhao embraces the paradox at the center of a story that both celebrates its character’s liberation and bemoans that sad state of affairs that put her on that track. As America contends with its divided identity, ‘Nomadland’ both captures the zeitgeist and embraces the fantasy of leaving it all behind for life on the road.”

Available to stream February 12

Other highlights:
– “Sideways”
– “True History of the Kelly Gang”
– “Logan Lucky”

IFC FILMS UNLIMITED

“The Black Power Mixtape 1967 – 1975” (Göran Olsson, 2011)

Swedish filmmaker Göran Olsson might not seem the likely candidate to cut together one of the most powerful and illuminating portraits of the Black Power Movement, but when he came across a goldmine of archival 16mm footage that had been shot by Swedish television journalists between 1967 and 1975, he felt an obligation to make the most of it. The result of his effort is a vital and rigorous documentary that touches on everything from COINTELPRO to the War on Drugs, and everyone from Angela Davis to Stokely Carmichael (the context it provides Fred Hampton makes this a valuable supplement to “Judas and the Black Messiah”). IndieWire’s Tambay Obenson wrote that the “The Black Power Mixtape 1967 – 1975” is “empowering,” and “works overtime to contextualize the Black Power Movement, highlight its successes and failures, and reignite penetrating discussion on the movement by introducing it to a new global generation.”

Available to stream February 1

Other highlights:
– “Medicine for Melancholy”
– “Hunger”

MAGNOLIA SELECTS

“We Are the Best!” (Lukas Moodysson, 2014)

A much-needed bolt of pure, unadulterated cinematic bliss, Lukas Moodysson’s “We Are the Best!” is the kind of movie that can reliably warm you up as we sink deeper into the cold winter months of the pandemic. Here’s what IndieWire’s Eric Kohn wrote about it back in 2014, when the movie charmed critics the world over and began awaiting its canonization as a heartwearming mainstay:

“If Yasujiro Ozu — the Japanese filmmaker who excelled at telling stories about the lives of young children — lived long enough to turn his camera on punk rock, the result might look something like Swedish director Lukas Moodysson’s warm portrait of middle school angst ‘We are the Best!’ Despite the unruly music at its center, the filmmaker has crafted a uniformly gentle ode to growing up.

Adapting the graphic novel by his wife Coco, Moodysson presents an energetic look at three young women in early eighties Stockholm finding catharsis from their mundane lives through the riotous energy of the music, even as many around them roll their eyes. Unlike many dramatizations of the punk scene and its reverberations, ‘We are the Best!’ roots its subject in its adorable young protagonists, who start the movie with the ultra-trim hairdos to suit the subculture but no knowledge of how to play their instruments. So Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Grosin) eventually recruit pampered Christian classmate Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne) to bring her classically trained musical ability to their burgeoning rock group. Their ensuing adventures are never high risk, but Moodyson explores their world so well that it’s easy to feel swept up in their experiences.”

Available to stream February 2

Other highlights:
– “The Sacrament”
– “District B13”

MUBI

“Dead Pigs” (Cathy Yan, 2018)

More than three years after it premiered in the World Dramatic Competition at Sundance and earned its first-time director a seat at the superhero table, Cathy Yan’s “Dead Pigs” is finally seeing the light of day. That’s right: MUBI is the first and only place this movie has ever been made available to the general viewing public. Perverse as it is that “Birds of Prey” came out before the movie that landed Yan the job, “Dead Pigs” was more than worth the wait. Here’s a taste of what Kate Erbland had to say about the film as part of her newly published interview with Yan:

“Before she made her blockbuster debut with ‘Birds of Prey,’ filmmaker Cathy Yan earned major indie acclaim with her first feature, ‘Dead Pigs,’ a fictionalized take on a 2013 incident that saw 16,000 dead pigs appear in Shanghai’s Huangpu River. The film, which assembles a stacked ensemble against the backdrop of the very real, very weird dead pig incident from which it takes its title, debuted at Sundance in 2018, picking up a special jury prize and setting the stage for Yan’s burgeoning career. Fans of the DC superhero outing will finds lots to love in Yan’s unique vision, which neatly threads together all sorts of seemingly disparate stories, with both great attention to character and plenty of humor. It’s flashy and funny and bright.”

Available to stream February 12

Other highlights:
– “Zebraman”
– “Audition”

OVID.tv

“Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc” (Bruno Dumont, 2017)

Bruno Dumont’s “Jeannette” may not be the best movie coming to OVID this month — that honor is undoubtedly reserved for Tsai Ming-liang’s masterful “Rebels of the Neon God” — but when life gives you a heavy metal biopic about Joan of Arc’s childhood, you owe it to people to spread the good word. Someone out there has been waiting their entire life for this movie, and it’s our moral obligation to let them know that it’s never been easier to stream from home. Here’s a snippet of Eric Kohn’s bemused review from the 2017 Cannes Fillm Festival: 

“Joan of Arc has been so thoroughly explored across decades of cinema that it’s hard to imagine room for a fresh take. But Bruno Dumont, one of France’s most audacious provocateurs behind the camera, wouldn’t even bother without finding his own way in. ‘Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc’ explores the formative years of the 15th century French martyr through the most unlikely medium imaginable: heavy metal music.

However, characterizing this minimalist gimmick as a ‘musical’ doesn’t even begin to convey its bizarre nature. Dumont’s story unfolds against two time periods — one, as an adolescent Jeannette grapples with a crisis of faith and ponders how she can help her struggling people, and another years later as the teen decides to leave her rural village of Domremy to save France from an English invasion. But it’s not really a story so much as a series of hard-rocking melodies by French death metal rocker IGORR; the songs are delivered by amateur performers with ironic distance, and set against a gorgeous desert landscape where you’d never expect to see pious figures in medieval wear head-banging to distorted chords. But that’s ‘Jeannette’ in a nutshell.”

Available to stream February 5

Other highlights:

– “Rebels of the Neon God”
– “Viktoria”

NETFLIX

“Shutter Island” (Martin Scorsese, 2010)

Even the heaviest Martin Scorsese movies are infinitely rewatchable — there’s just a centrifugal pull to the focus and kineticism of his filmmaking, as anyone who’s spent the last 25 years being sucked into random parts of “Casino” on HBO could tell you — but “Shutter Island” is one of the few that feels like it shapeshifts before your eyes during repeat viewings. A briny Dennis Lehane adaptation that masquerades as a crime thriller in order to disguise the psychological horror that’s churning below the surface, Scorsese’s pulpfest has been largely overshadowed by a twist ending that relies on the “Spellbound”-level brain science of the story’s post-war setting (spoiler alert: Leonardo DiCaprio’s “duly appointed federal marshal” might have a secret or two).

It’s a rug pull for the ages, one that so crudely peels back the movie’s central mystery that you might feel a bit cheated by its contrivances. Dare to revisit the Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane, however, and it becomes a different thing altogether. So too does the film itself — what once seemed like a puzzle with an easy solution blurs into a tragedy with no escape. Few Scorsese characters are more painfully haunted than DiCaprio’s “Teddy,” a man who’s been trapped in a prison of his own trauma for so long, he can no longer bear to live with himself.

Available to stream February 1.

Other highlights:
– “Long Shot”
– “Middle of Nowhere”
– “Space Sweepers”