New to Streaming: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, The Last One for the Road, Coyote vs. Acme, Union County & 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.

Coyote vs. Acme (Dave Green)

The first sign that we’re in good hands comes right at the start. One of the script’s earliest character introductions is—of all people—Peter Lorre. In this world, he’s a scientist at the Acme Corporation (not to be confused with the grocery chain) evading security guards with a variety of nefarious devices like Expanding Boulders and Large Magnets. The second sign of quality is the law firm handling the titular court case: Avery, Jones, and Maltese. It’s the kind of naming convention that could only come from a creative team with a deep reverence not just for the Looney Tunes, but the medium of animation itself. – Devan S. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Just in time for Halloween, Criterion Channel is offering a stellar retrospective of the films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, including some of his underrated chillers. The lineup features Door III, Cure, both versions of Serpent’s Path, Eyes of the Spider, Charisma, Pulse, Bright Future, Penance, Creepy, To the Ends of the Earth, and Cloud. For more, read Nick Newman’s pair of recent interviews with the director.

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

Holding Liat (Brandon Kramer)

The first words we hear in Brandon Kramer’s Holding Liat are spoken, over the phone, by a person named in the subtitles as “Israeli Army liaison.” In this short call the male voice tells a perturbed 70-ish man that his daughter, Liat, has been “abducted by terrorists and kept in the Gaza Strip,” alive. From the get-go, Holding Liat seems the kind of film that would tug at your heartstrings, appealing to every ounce of empathy that’s not yet politicized with its story of one family whose daughter and son-in-law were taken hostage on the morning of October 7, 2023. Learning that Brandon Kramer and his brother Lance (both of whom directed the 2021 Van Jones documentary The First Step) decided to make a film about how their relatives in Israel––Yehuda and Chaya Atzili, Liat’s respective mother and father––cope with this unthinkable situation makes one wonder whether this would be emotionally coated pro-Israel propaganda. – Savina P. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

The Last One for the Road (Francesco Sossai)

It doesn’t take long to work out where you are in The Last One for the Road––for the backroads of Veneto, Italy, Francesco Sossai’s delightful new movie has the unmistakable specificity of a life spent there. What you instead start to wonder is the when of it all. The protagonists are a pair of rogues in their 50s––one of whom, Doriano (Pierpaolo Capovilla), wears a shirt the color of a tobacco stain, the other, Carlobianchi (Sergio Romano), a style of bushy mustache I’ve rarely seen onscreen since Bruno Ganz sported a similar one in The American Friend. Only after stumbling into a group of Gen Z students––the most visible dressed in the headgear of an Egyptian goddess––late at night along a Venice canal do we realize that our heroes exist in the here and now. If it wasn’t for their innate knack for catching last orders, regardless of the watering hole, you’d almost call them men out of time. – Rory O. (full review)

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

Union County (Adam Meeks)

While he had quite a deal of fun in I Love Boosters earlier this summer, Will Poulter’s next performance is one of his most impressively dramatic. Adam Meeks’ feature debut Union County, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year, follows Poulter alongside Noah Centineo as brothers navigating a community hit by the opioid epidemic. Jake Kring-Schreifels said in his review, “Last summer, in the middle of The Bear’s fourth season, Will Poulter strolled into the show’s eponymous Chicago restaurant and placed the kitchen staff’s jaws on the floor with his handsomeness. This wasn’t exactly a new reaction for the tall British actor—over the last few years, his cool, blue eyes, angular frame, and disarming accent have made him used to being looked at. No matter the supporting role, when he walks into a room, the energy changes. But in Union County, writer-director Adam Meeks’ assured feature debut, Poulter tries a disappearing act. As recovering drug addict Cody Parsons, he trudges into a courthouse with a scraggy beard, unkempt hair, and slumped shoulders, sanding down his vibrant sheen into a pale matte. Nobody around him turns their head, let alone loosens their jaw.”

Where to Stream: VOD

Also New to Streaming

The Criterion Channel

Alone
Altered States
And Soon the Darkness
The Appointment
Barry Lyndon
Batch ’81
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
By Hook or by Crook
The Cat o’ Nine Tails
Cohen and Tate
Dark Night of the Scarecrow
Dead Ringers
Demon Seed
Don’t Look Now
Duel
Dust Devil
The Entity
Eyes Wide Shut
The Faculty
Gerontophilia
The Gift
Hideous
Highway to Hell
The Hitcher
Homebodies
Hustler
White Inferno
Itim
Jennifer’s Body
Joy Ride
The Keep
Kisapmata
The Last Jiangshi
The Last One for the Road
Lifeforce Lolita
Magazine
Maximum Overdrive
The Omen
The Others
Otto; or, Up with Dead People
Party Girl
Play Misty for Me
Race with the Devil
Ring 2
Road Games
Rosemary’s Baby
Salem’s Lot
The Social Network Someone’s Watching Me!
Tenebrae
Terror in Resonance
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Three
Two Evil Eyes
The Wailing
When a Stranger Calls Back
Will Your Heart Beat Faster?
The Wraith
You’re Next

Kino Film Collection

Kim Novak’s Vertigo

VOD

The Uprising