New to Streaming: EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, My Father’s Shadow, Dreams, The President’s Cake & 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.

Dreams (Michel Franco)

Following Memory, Michel Franco and Jessica Chastain reunited for Dreams, one of the most accomplished films of the director’s career, following a socialite who embarks on a dangerous affair with an up-and-coming ballet dancer. Savina Petkova said in her Berlinale review, “Some images have become metonymic by nature, reflecting the political problems of today with little to no context needed. Such a shot opens Michel Franco’s newest offering, Dreams, and it is one of a huge truck abandoned next to a railway: illegal border-crossing. It rattles and shakes with the screams of people locked inside, clamoring for help; one already anticipates the dire condition the fugitives all are in once the police break open the back door. One of those ‘illegals’ manages to escape amidst the chaos: a youngish, strong-looking man (Isaác Hernández) whose determination is made clear by every step he takes on that desolate road. We don’t know who he is, but he surely knows where he’s going, and there’s a fierceness to him that overpowers the pain he’s obviously in.”

Where to Stream: VOD

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (Baz Luhrmann)

The postscript of Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert—the extravagant, divisive Australian wunderkind’s first documentary, and hopefully not his last—says something essential about the late Elvis we witness afresh with new eyes and ears: the rock n’ roll legend gave everything he had to his Vegas-era. In a way, EPiC is the most naturalistic film Luhrmann’s ever made, unconventionally employing the traditional layout of a tell-all music doc. But that’s a misnomer under the singular, kinetic eye of the Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet director, who brings a dazzling energy—as show-stopping in cinematic terms as The King’s concerts were in the musical—to the well-worn documentary style that electrifies the viewer into a state of ecstasy from start to finish. – Luke H. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Heads or Tails (Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis)

Following their transportive adventure The Tale of King Crab, directors Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis have now returned, and this time with a major star in tow. Starring John C. Reilly as Buffalo Bill, Heads or Tails also brings together Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Alessandro Borghi, Peter Lanzani, Mirko Artuso, Gabrielle Silli, and Gianni Garko. Rory O’Connor said in his review, “I could name few living filmmakers better equipped for the Western than Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis. The duo behind The Tale of King Crab––a film I revere like a sacred relic––have created their own niche in contemporary Italian magical realism, somewhere adjacent to Alice Rohrwacher and Pietro Marcello while very much its own thing. Their latest is called Heads or Tails and it’s another of the filmmakers’ ethereal campfire stories. If perhaps not the fullest realization of their Western potential, it will certainly do until that gets here.”

Where to Stream: VOD

My Father’s Shadow (Akinola Davies Jr.)

Premiering in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, Akinola Davies Jr.’s acclaimed debut My Father’s Shadow went on to pick up a Special Mention for the Caméra d’Or. Awarded Breakthrough Director and Outstanding Lead Performance (for Sope Dirisu) at the Gothams, U.K.’s Oscar entry is now on MUBI following a theatrical run. Alistair Ryder said in his review, “Children growing to understand their parents’ perspectives for the first time is a coming-of-age trope, but Davies Jr. handles this aspect subtly and elegantly. When their father fills them in on how he met their mother for the first time, a story they’d never been told, it’s a masterful moment in staging two children realizing their parents have interior lives and an entire life before them. These underplayed exchanges are the driving engine of the movie.”

Where to Stream: MUBI

The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson)

We begin with music that’s uncharacteristically tense for a Wes Anderson film––chugging cellos leading a full orchestra that’s more Mission: Impossible than Moonrise Kingdom––and opener à la Nolan blockbusters: an assassination attempt. It’s an exhilarating launch into a story that starts petering out soon after. Renowned criminal mastermind Zsa Zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) sits before a gorgeously designed train car much like the off-white, wooden, burgundy, and plaid train car that will take him and his associates around Phoenicia for the rest of the movie. An unfortunate associate is crammed into the back corner. Without warning, a bomb obliterates any semblance of said corner, and we launch into The Phoenician Scheme, never to take a breath. – Luke H. (full review)

Where to Stream: Prime Video

The President’s Cake (Hasan Hadi)

Among the best things in The President’s Cake are the colors. There’s the deep red of a rooster’s comb as it peeks out from a young girl’s carrying pouch; there’s the white decorations that adorn her uncle’s blue car; and then there is the opening vista, in which a deep evening sky is disturbed by the roar of two American fighter jets. We’re somewhere in the ’90s, the country is Iraq, and the decorations are for its president, Saddam Hussein. Soon the camera will peel away to reveal a group of villagers lining up for water. If this is the length people are going for basic requirements, you soon begin to wonder: what chance does anyone have of finding baking soda? – Rory O. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Sirāt (Oliver Laxe)

Oliver Laxe hasn’t been shy about Sirāt being the first film he’s made with a larger audience in mind, his invitation to the masses on an intense spiritual journey that more than deserves its title as The Wages of Fear’s mythic successor. What is less discussed is that his film is an anti-crowd-pleaser for the ages: a movie that demands to be seen on the big screen like few others this year, even if the emotional extremities of its second half feel designed to make one run for the exits. When watched with a packed crowd, the gasps you’ll hear are as relentless as the sound design––it still proves impossible to look away from such an uncompromising vision of hell on earth. — Alistair R.

Where to Stream: Hulu

Also New to Streaming

Apple TV

Outcome

AMC+

The Plague

HBO Max

Christy

Kino Film Collection

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Oka!

Netflix

Thrash

Peacock

Midwinter Break

VOD

The Bride
Touch Me