New to Streaming: The Brutalist, The Wedding Banquet, Deaf President Now!, I’m Still Here & 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.

The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)

Brady Corbet’s long-gestating architecture epic looks and feels as painstakingly crafted as its lead character’s intricate architectonics. For as barren and minimalist as László Tóth’s (a terrific Adrien Brody) designs are, they pack a beautiful, mysterious, occasionally revelatory punch, much like Corbet’s winding three-and-a-half-hour (complete with built-in intermission!) story about a Hungarian architect who immigrated to New York after WWII only to be mentally and emotionally sucked in by the tide of a momentous decades-long project initiated by a ruthless Pennsylvania business tycoon. Its scope is enormous––almost impossible not to get wrapped up in. A sense of impending gravity gives this film the weight of the real, as if we’re witnessing history. Cinematographer Lol Crawley captures sprawling green hillsides, gleaming Italian marble mines, immovable caves, and towering opuses in a dark, richly textured VistaVision that’s like a magnet for your eyes, and composer Daniel Blumberg, in his second score ever, locks you in with galvanizing refrains that keep The Brutalist chugging along at a mean rate, radiant floating pianos disarming you to characters’ sympathies. – Luke H.

Where to Stream: Max

The Code (Eugene Kotlyarenko)

Ahead of its world premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival, The Code announced itself with several red flags. Set during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2021 with a synopsis throwing around terms like “cancel culture,” it stars Dasha Nekrasova and Peter Vack, filmmakers and divisive personalities who some might describe as reactionary trolls. This combination of hot-button issues with two leads known for pushing buttons could signal no more than empty provocation. Would The Code amount to a middle finger jabbed repeatedly in viewers’ eyes? Surprisingly, and thankfully, no. This is, first and foremost, a film by Eugene Kotlyarenko, and the choice to cast two controversial actors ties into his goals of engaging headfirst with the internet’s dominance and reshaping of culture over the past several years. While its attempts aren’t always successful, The Code makes an admirable effort to embrace what some might call the worst aspects of how we live now, to see what might come out on the other side. – C.J. P. (full review)

Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)

Deaf President Now! (Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim)

One of the more moving documentaries to premiere at Sundance this year was Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim’s Deaf President Now!, which charts student protests against the 1988 hiring of a hearing person as the president of Gallaudet University, a school renowned for their education of the deaf and hard of hearing. While the film hits all the expected structural beats of a rousing, inspiring documentary about a historic moment of progress, the directors’ decision to augment the audio of certain archival sections to put one in the body of our courageous subjects is handled with care and purpose. It’s also gratifying to see the main leaders of the movement turn up on camera many decades later and recognize just how far on the right side of history they were. – Jordan R.

Where to Stream: Apple TV+

The Featherweight (Robert Kolodny)

With the never-ending glut of biopics, particularly those centered in the world of sports, it can often feel like there’s not much new territory to cover. While Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw recently showed how a singular vision can elevate the genre, another film taking place partially inside the ring breathes new life into the biopic. Robert Kolodny, who worked on the cinematography team of All the Beauty and the Bloodshed and Procession, makes his feature debut with The Featherweight, capturing the comeback of worn-out boxer Willie Pep (James Madio) facing mounting family and business pressures in his life. Taking on a compellingly slippery conceit, the film is shot as if a documentary crew was following Pep’s every turn, including direct-to-camera confessionals from the boxer. The gamble offers a fascinating narrative bridge and one that, thanks to Adam Kolodny’s 60s-esque grainy cinematography, keeps us immersed in every step of his journey. – Jordan R.

Where to Stream: VOD

Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)

The legendary Mike Leigh’s latest stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste as a woman whose intense anger––at her family, the people she sees during her errands, the world itself––is both hysterically funny and devastatingly sad. Hard Truths might be the first truly great film to deal with the lingering impact of COVID on our collective consciousness. While the pandemic is only mentioned in passing, the air of malaise, discontent, and simmering rage many felt (and still feel) is evident in every frame of Hard Truths. Leigh’s filmography is so strong and so full of masterpieces (Life Is Sweet, Naked, Secrets & Lies, Topsy-Turvy) that ranking Truths is tricky. But that can be pondered down the road. For now, Hard Truths can be acknowledged as one of 2024’s greatest, most-impactful films. – Chris S.

Where to Stream: Paramount+ with Showtime

I’m Still Here (Walter Salles) 

A sprawling epic set primarily in 1970s Rio de Janeiro in a period of political installability, congressman Rubens Paiva and his wife Eunice (played magnificently by Fernanda Montenegro and Fernanda Torres, respectively) are imprisoned. Eunice is eventually released after 12 days of torture and is forced to raise her children on her own. The power in Salles’ picture comes from its view of the arc of history. As the nation evolves back into a democracy and eventually acknowledges the sins of its past, the film’s duration continues, and these events continue to haunt Eunice. I’m Still Here is a bold and vital film about the power of truth and reconciliation, chronicling political violence’s impact on an innocent family. – John F.

Where to Stream: Netflix (on Saturday)

Jazzy (Morrisa Maltz)

Expanding the cinematic universe of her first feature The Unknown Country, Morrisa Maltz’s Jazzy is a beautifully crafted portrait of childhood in South Dakota, conjuring an aesthetic that at times recalls the ethereal works of Sofia Coppola. Made in close collaboration with her subjects, Jazzy expands one of the documentary interstitials featured in her previous film, creating a portrait of a country that is known through the eyes of two tween girls growing up in a material community. For much of the film, adults are heard but remain offscreen, the fathers are unseen, and the film’s third act contains a catharsis that recalls how The Unknown Country resolved itself. Maltz often collaborates with a population she is not part of, her films often revolving around the idea of community––those you find or get back together with. – John F. (full review)

Where to Stream: Hulu

Paddington in Peru (Dougal Wilson)

Arriving seven years after the first sequel, the already-impossible task of Paddington in Peru––to merely live up to its predecessors––has only become more of an uphill climb after much-frenzied anticipation and backlash. Divorcing director Dougal Wilson’s film from the hype and surprising amount of discourse surrounding it is a harder task than expected in this light. It’s clearly a disappointment compared to the two King-directed efforts, but is not without moments of comic inspiration, enjoyable supporting performances, and well-engineered adventure blockbuster set pieces. For much of the runtime I found myself trying to parse how I would feel on a second viewing, when I’d be less concerned with the fact that it doesn’t live up to Paddington 2. That was right up until it ended on a note that made it clear this film can’t help but live in the shadow of the films which came before. – Alistair R. (full review)

Where to Stream: Netflix

The Wedding Banquet (Andrew Ahn)

Remaking a film on the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry is hardly a task that one should take lightly. Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet dials up the pressure by adding a Golden Bear victory and Oscar nomination to its mantle. That much acclaim puts a ton of expectation upon the shoulders of whoever would choose to take the leap and bring its romantic comedy 30 years forward into the present. By all accounts, however, Andrew Ahn embraced that weight, enlisting the help of original co-writer James Schamus to perfectly execute the challenge by doubling the number of gay couples within its marital shenanigans and adding a baby for good measure. – Jared M. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Also New to Streaming

AMC+

Armand

Kino Film Collection

Electra My Love
Winter Wind

Prime Video

New Rose Hotel

The post New to Streaming: The Brutalist, The Wedding Banquet, Deaf President Now!, I’m Still Here & More first appeared on The Film Stage.