New to Streaming: No Other Land, Havoc, The Room Next Door, Conclave, Tendaberry & More

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Babygirl (Halina Reijn)

Premiering with much fervor at the Venice Film Festival, Halina Reijn’s Bodies Bodies Bodies follow-up Babygirl finds Nicole Kidman playing a high-powered CEO who puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much-younger intern (Harris Dickinson), and which earned her Best Actress at the festival. Savina Petkova said in her review, “It’s not too early in the festival to say Reijn wrote and directed one of––if not the––most compelling films of this year’s Venice selection and deserves full praise for landing a project of this caliber while making a third feature that is as close to perfection as can be. Babygirl is billed as an erotic thriller and doesn’t waste any precious time before stating it; the very opening scene sees Romy (Kidman) climaxing, her face held in a tight close-up until she collapses on her husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas).”

Where to Stream: Max

Conclave (Edward Berger)

The twisty political thriller Conclave wastes little time getting right into it: the Pope is dead, and after a three-week time jump, the world’s most powerful cardinals gather in Vatican City, their mission to elect a new leader from among their ranks. Our window into this closed world is Cardinal Lawrence, portrayed in characteristically sturdy fashion by Ralph Fiennes. Dean of the College of Cardinals, Lawrence is in charge of this conclave, and while he takes his duties very seriously, they’re complicated by a recent request to the (now-dead) Pope to resign his post and be sent elsewhere so that his faith might be reignited. Request denied––perhaps because the former pope knew he needed him to run this forthcoming conclave––Lawrence finds himself in a position of immense power. As a reluctant leader with deep convictions (but still capable of missteps), he is a relatable window into this foreign world. – Caleb H. (full review)

Where to Stream: Prime Video

Freaky Tales (Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck)

What do you get into with Freaky Tales? Unfortunately, something clever, self-satisfied, and much sleepier than its predetermined adrenaline rush. Its filmmakers made their first splash at Sundance with Half Nelson in 2006, eventually compounding their indie success through sensitive (It’s Kind of a Funny Story) and smart (Mississippi Grind) features that showcased their writing skills and casting decisions. Their mainstream outlier Captain Marvel likely inspired their return to more nimble filmmaking, but Freaky Tales suggests an under-written misfire. In this collage of four intersecting stories, Boden and Fleck throw a lot at the wall and hope it drips into something coherent. Incorporating sci-fi elements and animation with a hip-hop, punk, and classic rock-inspired soundtrack, Freaky Tales wants the verve of Pulp Fiction but seems to have been reverse-engineered from its structural conceit. – Jake K. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Gladiator II (Ridley Scott)

Most men think about the Roman Empire several times a week, if a recent meme is to be believed. With Gladiator II, Ridley Scott brings the era back to life in the way only a teenage boy could imagine it. Historical accuracy continues to be an irrelevance for the director, and who could blame him? Why stick to the facts when it’s so much more fun to have your little freak of an action hero battle hordes of CGI monkeys or partake in a naval battle in the flooded Colosseum? If this decades-in-the-making sequel feels better than the original, it’s because there are no prestige aspirations here––Scott follows the formula of the first to a tee, turning up the dial so each set piece is bigger and stupider than before. There’s no commentary on the senseless nature of the violence being spectated, as there was with the first; if Scott were to pause the film after Lucius (Paul Mescal) bites off a monkey’s arm in battle to once again ask “are you not entertained,” it would likely register as sincere rather than scathing. – Alistair R. (full review)

Where to Stream: Prime Video

Havoc (Gareth Evans)

Tom Hardy simultaneously fights corrupt cops and the Triad from the director of The Raid is, on paper, a pretty amazing pitch. Marrying Hardy’s gruff pivot back to genre fare––i.e. MobLand––after a number of years in the Venom wilderness with Evans’ ability to frame and shoot insane action scenes automatically makes Havoc stand out from the rest of Netflix’s algorithmic output. Yet after a truly wild swing towards folk horror with 2018’s Apostle––Evans’ first film with Netflix and, I’d argue, his best––Havoc cannot help suggesting a regression for the gifted filmmaker. Propulsive, comically bloody, and more than a little stupid, Havoc fits comfortably alongside Extraction, Heart of Stone, The Mother, and the fifteen other Netflix action originals that you forgot existed. Is it a little better than many of those? Sure. Evans knows how to choreograph action with the best of them. It also features two of the most exhilarating, bone-crunching set-pieces I’ve seen since, probably, The Raid 2. But outside those 20-or-so minutes, the film chugs along with a hackneyed script that feels like a fill-in-the-blank prompt. It’s obvious where Evans’ interests lie; the rest is just filler. – Christian G. (full review)

Where to Stream: Netflix

Hi! You Are Currently Being Recorded (Anna Maguire, Kyle Garrett Greenberg)

An effective paranoia surveillance thriller for our modern age, Anna Maguire and Kyle Garrett Greenberg’s Hi! You Are Currently Being Recorded follows a woman experiencing extreme yet relatable anxiety as she travels through her Los Angeles neighborhood, her every move seemingly tracked. After screening at Fantasia, SXSW, and many more festivals, the short has now arrived online in inventive fashion: an endless loop available to jump in and stream 24 hours a day. – Jordan R.

Where to Stream: Official Site

No Other Land (Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor)

Despite the horrors shown throughout No Other Land (all prior to October 7), it’s the Israeli bulldozers calmly retreating post-demolitions that I cannot shake. Beyond the secret document proving that “converting” Palestinian villages like Masafer Yatta into army training grounds was to drive inhabitants out, or an Israeli courtroom––devoid of jurisdiction as illegal settlers––ruling to reject Arab permit requests while evicting families with roots going back almost two centuries, all that’s necessary to understand the terrorism at play are those trucks blindly destroying private property before rolling away. Because it’s not about these occupiers “needing the land” or “enforcing the law.” It’s about control. About laughing at Israeli Yuval Abraham and Palestinian Basel Adra, knowing their only recourse is creating devastatingly crucial documents like this. So prove it’s enough by watching, absorbing, and refusing to remain silent––once a distributor finds the courage to let you. – Jared M.

Where to Stream: Official Site (through May 9)

The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodóvar)

Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton) haven’t seen each other in a lifetime and rekindle friendship through a unique wish: will you be there the day I choose to die? Martha, a former war photographer diagnosed with cancer, and Ingrid, an author whose oeuvre ruminates on death, become dance partners swaying to the unpredictable melody of existence in Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language feature debut––as if Persona morphed into vibrant Technicolor. – Jose S.

Where to Stream: Netflix

Tendaberry (Haley Elizabeth Anderson)

A soulful coming-of-age story with far more on its mind than the here and now, Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s Tendaberry is an ambitious directorial debut mixing various storytelling forms to achieve its poetic patchwork of ideas. Combining recollections of the past, a present way of life, and hopes for the future through the eyes of 23-year-old Dakota (Kota Johan), it follows her journey juggling romance, work, friendship, and family. The nature of its scattershot hybrid approach––incorporating narrative, documentary, and archival materials––results in certain passages feeling a bit stretched, but the cumulative effect is one of an impressive new voice. – Jordan R. (full review)

Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)

Also New to Streaming

Kino Film Collection

5 Broken Cameras
The Cop

VOD

Ash
Hell of a Summer
Die Like a Man

The post New to Streaming: No Other Land, Havoc, The Room Next Door, Conclave, Tendaberry & More first appeared on The Film Stage.