Posted on Friday, June 26th, 2020 by Chris Evangelista

(Welcome to Now Stream This, a column dedicated to the best movies streaming on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and every other streaming service out there.)

During Kylo Ren's final confrontation with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) on the salt-white plains of Crait, the young First Order leader's red footprints can be seen where he steps. Nearly every scene, including Rey's self-discovery on Ahch-To, is beautiful, but also intentionally produced to enhance the story and the character's journey.

Knives Out
Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Release Date: 2019

Genre: Mystery

Chris Evans swears in multiple different languages in a fun new Knives Out supercut video. Following on the massive box office success of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, writer-director Rian Johnson changed things up by tackling the suddenly-revived murder-mystery genre and came up with a second straight hit (that also managed to hit with critics). Knives Out shows the skill in subverting expectations that Rian Johnson brought to the table when he turned Star Wars on its head with The Last Jedi. Since she had just finished Knives Out with Craig a month before getting cast. That makes sense since Rian’s taste in socks fascinated Mark Hamill.

Director: Rian Johnson

Cast: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, Christopher Plummer

Rian Johnson‘s wildly entertaining whodunit Knives Outhas a killer cast and a killer mystery. Daniel Craig is a delight as a private detective with a Foghorn Leghorn accent trying to solve the murder of a wealthy writer. All of the dead man’s family members are suspects – but so is his live-in nurse, played by Ana de Armas in a breakthrough role. Everyone here is firing on all cylinders, and while Chris Evans gets the most attention as a smug, entitled rich kid, this is really de Aramas’ show, and she holds her own against an incredible lineup of players.

For fans of: Murder on the Orient Express, Clue, a donut hole inside a donut’s hole.

Shirley
Now Streaming on Hulu

Release Date: 2020

Genre: Fictional Biopic

Director: Josephine Decker

Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Michael Stuhlbarg, Odessa Young, Logan Lerman

Elisabeth Moss turns in another raw, brilliant performance, once again playing a woman coming unhinged. It’s what she does best, and Shirley might be the best work Moss has turned in yet. Moss plays Haunting of Hill House author Shirley Jackson as she struggles to write a new novel based on a real-life missing person case. Shirley and her husband (Michael Stuhlbarg) take in a young couple, Rose (Odessa Young) and Fred (Logan Lerman), and before long, a strange love-hate relationship blossoms between Rose and Shirley. Josephine Decker’s direction is dreamlike and surreal, full of jarring close-ups, and using a unique sound design that totally disarms you. Cisco vpn not connecting could not connect to server.

For fans of:Madeline’s Madeline, Thou Wast Mild And Lovely, Elisabeth Moss goin’ crazy.

Da 5 Bloods
Now Streaming on Netflix

Release Date: 2020

Genre: Drama

Director: Spike Lee

Cast: Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Mélanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hauser, Jasper Pääkkönen, Jean Reno, Chadwick Boseman

The latest Spike Lee Joint is a blistering blend of Vietnam War film and heist movie. But, as is usually the case with a Spike Lee picture, it has a lot of other things on its mind. It’s like a multimedia history lesson, with Lee contrasting the narrative against the struggles of Black soliders fighting for a country that doesn’t even respect them. InDa 5 Bloods, four Vietnam vets, played by Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, and Isiah Whitlock Jr., travel back to Vietnam to both find the body of their dead leader, and a cache of hidden gold. Camaraderie turns to confrontation as the men realize that even though they made it out of Vietnam alive, they never really left. The cast here is great across the board, but Delroy Lindo’s tense, haunted performance is a work of brilliance that has to be seen to be believed.

For fans of: BlacKkKlansman, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Marvin Gaye.

Casino
Now Streaming on Hulu

Release Date: 1995

Genre: Crime Drama

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, Don Rickles, Kevin Pollak, James Woods

To the uninitiated, Casino might seem like an excuse for Martin Scorsese to recycle GoodFellas. It’s another mob movie based on a book by Nicholas Pileggi, and it once again stars Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. But Casino is in a class all its own, with Scorsese pulling out all the stops to craft a chaotic, sprawling saga of greed and violence. Robert De Niro is a gambling expert who gets sent out to Vegas by the mob to run a casino and send money back home. Things are going well until De Niro’s old pal, a short-fused mobster played by Joe Pesci, comes to town, too, and starts turning everything upsidedown. In the midst of all of this, the marriage between De Niro’s character and Sharon Stone (in an Oscar-nominated performance) grows toxic. Operatic, gory, and practically bursting with energy, Casino is one of Scorsese’s best.

For fans of: GoodFellas, The Irishman, excess.

The Guest
Now Streaming on Netflix

Release Date: 2014

Genre: Thriller

Neighborhood garage sale near me. Director: Adam Wingard

Cast: Dan Stevens, Maika Monroe, Leland Orser, Sheila Kelley, Brendan Meyer, Lance Reddick

Adam Wingard‘s The Guestis a stylish mash-up of Halloween and The Terminator. Dan Stevens is fantastic as a soldier who shows up one day at the home of a dead army buddy, and manages to work his way into the lives of the dead man’s family. He seems too good to be true, and of course, he is. He’s an unstoppable killing machine, which is a bummer for the dead man’s sister (Maika Monroe), since she thinks the killer super-soldier is hot as hell (which, let’s be honest, he is). Fast, violent, and loaded with manic midnight movie energy, The Guest is the best thing Wingard has ever done.

For fans of: Halloween, The Terminator, Dan Stevens wearing a towel.

Crawl
Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Hulu

Release Date: 2019

Genre: Horror

Mark Hamill Commercial

Director: Alexandre Aja

Cast: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper

Speaking of midnight movies, here’s Crawl! This is a B-movie with A-movie production-levels, and it’s an absolute blast. Kaya Scodelario is a competitive swimmer who heads out to find her father (Barry Pepper) during a hurricane. As bad luck would have it, dear old dad is trapped in the basement – surrounded by hungry, hungry alligators. It’s by no means a sophisticated plot, but it doesn’t have to be. Alexandre Aja keeps things moving, loading the movie up with great set pieces involving gators swimming their way through an increasingly wet house.

For fans of: Alligator, The Shallows, getting wet.

In Fabric
Now Streaming on Kanopy

Release Date: 2018

Genre: Horror-Comedy

Director: Peter Strickland

Cast: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hayley Squires, Leo Bill, Julian Barratt, Steve Oram, Gwendoline Christie, Barry Adamson, Jaygann Ayeh, Richard Bremmer, Terry Bird, Fatma Mohamed

In Fabric is a delightfully silly and stylish horror-comedy about a killer dress – literally. While it wasn’t marketed as such, this is more or less a horror anthology film, telling different stories surrounding a cursed dress sold from an even more cursed department store. Channeling giallo and European thrillers in general, director Peter Strickland pulls out all the stops to create a genuinely weird movie, featuring a unique performance from Fatma Mohamed, playing a heavily accented sales clerk prone to saying things like, “Dimensions and proportions transcend the prisms of our measurements,” and “Did the transaction validate your paradigm of consumerism?”

For fans of:The Duke of Burgundy, Suspiria, great deals.

Clemency
Now Streaming on Hulu

Release Date: 2019

Genre: Drama

Director: Chinonye Chukwu

Cast: Alfre Woodard, Richard Schiff, Danielle Brooks, Michael O’Neill, Richard Gunn, Wendell Pierce, Aldis Hodge

Alfre Woodard turns in an astounding performance inClemency, playing a jail warden who finds herself increasingly haunted by the executions carried out in her prison, while Aldis Hodge gives an equally strong performance as a death row inmate who is clearly innocent, desperately awaiting a pardon as his death date approaches. Clemency is a very introverted film – it’s not flashy, it’s not showy. Instead, it trusts the audience to understand what’s happening without spelling everything out. And the results are harrowing. This film oddly flew under the radar last year – both Woodard and Hodge should’ve landed numerous awards season nominations, but were ultimately shut out – which makes it perfect for audiences to discover now.

For fans of: Just Mercy, Luce, acting at its finest.

Scream, Queen
Now Streaming on Scream Factory

Release Date: 2019

Genre: Documentary

Director: Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen

Cast: Mark Patton

In the 1980s, Mark Patton was on his way to major stardom. And then he landed the lead role in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, which promptly destroyed his career. Patton is a gay man, and he was unable to “play straight,” to the point where his performance in Nightmare 2 became something of a joke.Scream, Queen chronicles Patton’s life and career as he comes to terms with his legacy, and turns negativity into positivity through activism. Scream, Queen isn’t the most polished of documentaries, but it has a big heart, and Patton’s story is one worth telling.

For fans of:A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Never Sleep Again, lots of footage of horror conventions.

Child’s Play
Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Hulu

Knives Out Mark Hamill Actor

Release Date: 2019

Genre: Horror

Director: Lars Klevberg

Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Gabriel Bateman, Brian Tyree Henry, Tim Matheson, David Lewis, and Mark Hamill as the voice of Chucky

The 2019 Child’s Play remake was unnecessary, especially since the original franchise is still on-going. And the final film is nowhere near as good as the original. Still, it has its moments. Aubrey Plaza is fun as a young mom (she got pregnant on prom night, as she explains). And Mark Hamill does some great work as the new voice of Chucky. Rather than try to mimic the iconic work of Brad Dourif, Hamill goes for something more childish, and actually makes Chucky kind of sympathetic here. Premise-wise, it’s more of the same: a kid named Andy (Gabriel Bateman) gets a doll that comes to life and kills. Rather than have Chucky possessed by a serial killer this time, the doll is actually a very advanced toy with impressive A.I. Think of him like an iPhone with a knife.

For fans of: The other Child’s Play, Small Soldiers, Mark Hamill singing the Buddi song.

Knives Out Mark Hamill Images

I’m going to be completely honest: There are few fandoms with as much capacity for toxicity as the Star Wars fandom. Of course, that’s not the whole fandom, which we’re all happily part of, but if you don’t like a certain thing or if you are a newer fan, you can wind up subjected to an endless barrage of fans yelling at you about it. If you’re actually in the movies, it’s ten times worse. I truly feel so badly for both Kelly Marie Tran and Daisy Ridley for the amount of hate and attacks they received during the releases of the sequel trilogy.

But that fandom, and the toxicity that has taken over some fans of the franchise, has reached even stars like Mark Hamill. The Luke Skywalker actor has long had his fair share of fans asking him about Luke, and then, with The Last Jedi and into Rise of Skywalker, that was greatly ramped up because … well … Luke Skywalker became one with the Force, and then everything became a mess of fans thinking they all knew better.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, the actor brought up his own thoughts about the movies and, more specifically, Luke Skywalker, because he’s been with the character for so long. But he did point out that he didn’t know when the fandom became so contentious:

I don’t know when, over the period of time, fandom became so contentious. But people are really opinionated, and you can’t help but be opinionated yourself, because you’ve lived with the character so long. So whether it was on Episode VII, VIII or IX, I’d have disagreements, and I would say to whoever it was, “Well, I don’t know if that’s right.” But everyone shares the same goal: you want to make the best movie you can.

Look, he’s right. It wasn’t always this contentious, but that’s just because social media didn’t really exist during the first two trilogies. Here’s the thing: I’m a woman who has loved Star Wars since I was a kid. I’ve come in contact with men who think they know more about the franchise than me frequently, so I’m very familiar with the more toxic aspects of the fandom and how long they’ve been around.

The thing is: We’re all very protective of Star Wars and maybe we need to take a step back and realize that yelling at other fans continually isn’t the way to go. I know that I’ve yelled about things pertaining to Star Wars, normally when it comes to Carrie Fisher and Princess Leia, but still, I’ve yelled. But I try to pride myself on the fact that I’ve not screamed at another fan for liking something.

Knives Out Mark Hamill Full

I might disagree, but it’s not my place. You like Rise of Skywalker? Happy for you! But me liking The Last Jedi doesn’t make me any less of a fan; it just makes us different. That contention that Hamill talked about has always existed, but it has shifted from a boy’s club mentality to a “If you don’t like this part, then you are not a fan.”

Gone are the days when a man would fight me over where Han Solo is from (Love that I was always right in saying Corellia to them), but now we’re faced with “WHICH OF THE NEW TRILOGY DID YOU LIKE? IF YOU ANSWER WRONG I’LL KNOW WHICH KIND OF FAN YOU ARE.” Maybe that’s why I’ve clung so desperately to The Mandalorian now. I know that baby Yoda is universal, and we all can fall in love with this Space Western.

But let’s let Mark Hamill live? I know he’s very online and truly one of the sweetest actors out there, but continually yelling at him about Luke Skywalker is unnecessary.

(via CinemaBlend, image: Lucasfilm)

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