Genre: Animation, Comedy
Actor: Carl Tart, Charlie Bushnell, J. Smith-Cameron, Mike Judge, Zach Woods
If you’re less about adventurous plots, and more about the emotional journey and relationship arcs, we’ve got you covered. Here are the best character-driven movies and shows to stream right now.
Genre: Animation, Comedy
Actor: Carl Tart, Charlie Bushnell, J. Smith-Cameron, Mike Judge, Zach Woods
The atmosphere communicated within the title Hurricane Season comes off incredibly clearly on screen: this is a film that just feels humid and full of foreboding for a coming storm, with people feeling all manner of guilt while secluded in their own homes. Cinematographer María Secco's gorgeous colors and brown tones fill the 4:3 aspect ratio nicely, and director Elisa Miller lets events unfold with the stately pace of a long novel. There's something fascinating here about how each new "chapter" or perspective doesn't really lead to more answers, but simply to more anguish closing in from all sides.
So it would be understandable if some may be put off by how unrelentingly dark Hurricane Season is, especially as the trans woman whose death becomes the central event never enjoys the kind of characterization everybody around her gets. Apart from how the film illustrates that discrimination against women, against repressed "taboo" sexuality, and against access to proper reproductive health only threatens to grow under poverty, it can be difficult to grasp what point the movie is trying to make. Social realism certainly has its place in cinema, but the different perspective in this particular film still don't add up to more than the sum of its parts.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Actor: Andrés Cordaz, Edgar Treviño, Flor Eduarda Gurrola, Guss Morales, Kat Rigoni, Mónica Martínez, Norma Reyna, Paloma Alvamar, Rodrigo Corea, Said Sandoval
Director: Elisa Miller
There are two sides to Gamera Rebirth that don't mix all that well yet in the first two episodes watched for this review, but still complement each other in intriguing ways. There is, of course, the part of the show concerned with monsters fighting monsters—classic kaiju spectacle that makes good use of the series' jagged CG animation, though the action never quite reaches a level of true excitement or tragedy. What's more surprising about Gamera Rebirth, then, is its story of three young friends whose childhood is violently interrupted by both the titular giant turtle creature and the violence of the American military on their soil. This part of the show doesn't benefit from the series' visual style (which only seems to inhibit the characters' emotional expression), but there's a rawness to this main plot that keeps it just as urgent as the kaiju stuff. The kids swear and get beaten up, as they try to make sense of this turbulent time in their life.
Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Actor: Aki Toyosaki, Hisako Kanemoto, Mamoru Miyano, Subaru Kimura, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka
In Marlowe, Liam Neeson joins the lofty lineup of actors who have stepped into the shoes of Raymond Chandler's titular detective, famously played by Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, and Elliott Gould. These are big boots to fill — and, if you’ve been paying attention to Neeson’s career over the last decade or so, you’ll be aware that he hasn’t exactly been stretching himself, dramatically speaking.
But Marlowe is something of a happy anomaly in Neeson’s filmography, because it has more than just adrenaline-pumping ambitions. Written by director Neil Jordan (of Michael Collins fame) and William Monahan (the screenwriter behind The Departed), the 1930s Hollywood-set plot is steeped in noir’s characteristic cynicism, giving it the seductive pull of that well-loved genre. It’s true that a not insignificant portion of the dialogue is so hard-boiled you can see the cracks — a clunkiness that’s repeated in a couple of the phoned-in supporting performances and the movie’s awkward action sequences. However, with a couple of bright spots in the starry cast, handsome production values, and a labyrinthine plot that just about passes muster as homage and not muddle, there are enough noir trappings here to keep the movie slinking along well enough, even if it ultimately isn't nearly as memorable as Marlowe’s previous screen incarnations.
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Actor: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Alan Cumming, Alan Moloney, Colm Meaney, Daniela Melchior, Danny Huston, Darrell D'Silva, Diane Kruger, François Arnaud, Gary Anthony Stennette, Ian Hart, Jessica Lange, Julius Cotter, Kim DeLonghi, Liam Neeson, Mark Schardan, Michael Garvey, Minnie Marx, Mitchell Mullen, Patrick Muldoon, Roberto Peralta, Seána Kerslake, Stella Stocker, Tony Corvillo
Director: Neil Jordan
Crypto Boy may seem, at first, to primarily warn against the allure of cryptocurrency, but at heart, it’s a family drama centered around an ambitious man and his immigrant Egyptian father. The Dutch Netflix film is actually a whole family affair, with writer-director Shady El-Hamus casting his brother Shahine and their father Sabri Saad in a real and relatable struggle between generations. That being said, the film is definitely less interested in the actual cryptocurrency scam presented. It takes such a predictable route that the protagonist comes off as foolish, rather than understandably ambitious. With his parallel to the villain, the film seems like it wants its viewers to empathize with the rich Mark Zuckerberg-wannabe, rather than cathartically put him through the consequences. This makes the film feel as disappointing as the crypto promises, as viewers are lured into the film for this, but come out with another thing entirely.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Aus Greidanus, Hannah van Lunteren, Jonas Smulders, Kendrick Etmon, Leny Breederveld, Loes Schnepper, Manoushka Zeegelaar-Breeveld, Minne Koole, Raymond Thiry, Sabri Saad El-Hamus, Shahine El-Hamus, Tobias Kersloot
Director: Shady El-Hamus
As a story, Bruiser isn't the most tightly written thing in the world, with a somewhat long-winded first half and a conclusion that feels too easy given the complicated things we learn about each character. But at its core, it remains impressively perceptive about how men perform their masculinity as a game of aggression and dominance—even if they feel that they're simply trying to protect the children closest to them. Bruise takes on quite a bit of suspense for a drama, as tempers slowly boil over and everybody involved in this supposed battle over who claims authority over a teenage boy reveals themselves to be right and wrong in equal measure.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Frank Oakley III, Gavin Munn, Jalyn Hall, Jay Santiago, Jonah Bishop-Pirrone, Kiah Alexandria Clingman, Moses Jones, Sarah Bock, Shamier Anderson, Shinelle Azoroh, Trevante Rhodes
Director: Miles Warren
Genre: Action, Crime
Actor: Canon Nawata, Junichi Okada, Katsuhisa Namase, Ken Yamamura, Koki Maeda, Mitsuo Yoshihara, Namase Katsuhisa, Noriko Eguchi, Ryosuke Yamada, Ryudo Uzaki, Sakura Andô, Yasumasa Oba, Yasushi Fuchikami
Director: Masato Harada
With its wildly different shifts between the film’s chapters, Bad Education feels like it doesn’t know what to do with itself, like plenty of newly graduated teenagers. The first chapter holds such visceral revulsion that it first feels like it would be a serious cautionary tale, commenting on how, without guidance, teenagers will led each other astray. However, its next chapter takes a more comedic route as the kids try to escape from gangsters and the police. While director Kai Ko reveals an excellent sense of direction and imagery, his style feels like it’s been wasted on ill-thought intentions and a poorly written script. Bad Education at least has stunning visuals and a short runtime to get through it all.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Actor: Berant Zhu, Cheng Chih-wei, Chu-Ping Liu, Edison Song, Hong Yu Hong, Huang Hsin-Yao, Kai Ko, Kent Tsai, Kurt Hsiao, Leon Dai, McFly Wu, Ning Chang, Tzu-Chiang Wang
Director: Kai Ko
Ambitious and sincere, Where the Tracks End is a sweet coming of age centered on a tender community and mutual aid in the face of worker exploitation. Alternating between the young son of a traveling worker adjusting to a new town and an inspector tasked with informing small schools of an initiative that will force their doors closed, the film loses the chance to be impactful with either. This love letter to teaching and the importance of education is admirable as it holds together the community element of the script. Although the impact goes off-track due to its lack of commitment to one solid narrative, the heart behind it (and the children's innocent will to live a better life) shines through every so often.
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family
Actor: Adriana Barraza, Blanca Guerra, Clementina Guadarrama, Fátima Molina, Frida Sofía Cruz Salinas, Gabriela Cartol, Guillermo Villegas, Jero Medina, Kaarlo Isaacs Barria, Leonardo Alonso, Memo Villegas, Norma Pablo, Nova Coronel, Tete Espinoza, Victoria Díaz
Director: Ernesto Contreras
Just like with its predecessor, it can be surprising how sober Street Flow 2 is. You expect stories about street gang life to be of a certain tone, but these films are more interested in the emotional and philosophical struggle to respond to violence and poverty in a just and proper way. This sequel continues this conversation from a more stable (but therefore less interesting) position: youngest sibling Noumouké is no longer torn between the influence of his older brothers, as all three try to move forward as a united front. But without a more distinct dilemma driving the action forward, the film ends up spinning its wheels—and rushes to an incomplete ending that doesn't say enough about survival, lawfulness, or the African immigrant experience in France.
Genre: Crime, Drama
Actor: Alessandra Sublet, Alix Mathurin, Bakary Diombera, Cherine Ghemri, Foued Nabba, Georgina Elizabeth Okon, Jammeh Diangana, Kadi Diarra, Kery James, Krystel Roche, Mahamadou Coulibaly, Sana Sri
Director: Alix Mathurin, Kery James, Leïla Sy
With the source material being a Pulitzer winning novel, All The Light We Cannot See had high expectations. Plenty of what made the novel great was its straightforward prose, as well as its back-and-forth timeline, where each scene is arranged not by chronological order, but by the thematic logic that informs the characters’ actions. The new Netflix adaptation keeps the novel’s structure, however, the novel’s poetry is lost as the metaphors are shortened to its most cliché versions, and the showrunners couldn’t trust that the viewers would acknowledge the novel’s subtleties. While the cast does what it can, the show just feels like a missed opportunity to tell an excellent story.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Aria Mia Loberti, Hugh Laurie, Lars Eidinger, Louis Hofmann, Mark Ruffalo
As the world tries to shift to more environmentally-friendly tech, it would be interesting to see how these shifts will play out. MF Ghost presents a near future world where street racing is the last arena standing for internal combustion cars, as the spiritual successor for the popular 90s manga Initial D. MF Ghost’s animation improves on Initial D’s art style, incorporating 3D models for more accurate racing, and cleaner character designs. Unfortunately, the introduction kills any intrigue in Kanata’s search for his father, as well as the dynamic between him and the family he’s staying with. Viewers already a fan of street racing might enjoy the stunning car racing, but when not focused on the sport, MF Ghost falters in making its characters compelling.
Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation
Actor: Ayane Sakura, Yuma Uchida
Not to be confused with Django Unchained, the Italian-French show Django recalls the classic 1966 Spaghetti Western in today’s production style. The series doesn’t share the exact same plot points, but it does acknowledge the violence towards those in the margins, specifically outcasts like Black rangers and queer people, rather than prostitutes. Fans of the genre might appreciate the casting, as it questions our assumptions of the Old West the same way the best Spaghetti Westerns have done. However, the plot does play out like a regular Western, while its grim storyline and mishmash of accents might turn off casual viewers or viewers new to the genre.
Genre: Western
Actor: Lisa Vicari, Matthias Schoenaerts, Nicholas Pinnock, Noomi Rapace, Tom Austen
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Actor: Alexej Manvelov, Alma Pöysti, Annica Liljeblad, Annika Hallin, Daniel Guldstrand, Fares Fares, Richard Forsgren, Stina Ekblad
Director: Fares Fares
Despite its ambition to be a more serious piece of drama, Nganù is unfortunately held back either by a general lack of technical polish (sometimes leading to unintentional comedy within its dead-serious subject matter), or the misjudged attempt to feel grander than it should. When the film sticks to painful, ugly, intimate human drama, it actually starts to command attention. There's a striking lack of romantic sentiment to this story of a horrible person trying to redeem himself, as the film's many handheld camera shots capture its best performers at their nastiest (or most defiant)—showing us that the road to healing isn't actually as easy as it seems in Hollywood movies. Nganù sticks to its strict sense of morality, which is the best thing it could have done.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Alenne Menget, Azah Melvine, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Kang Quintus, Muriel Blanche
Director: Kang Quintus