FIELD OF STREAMS recommends works from fest participants
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This year’s Austin Film Festival featured the work of some amazing filmmakers. Using some of these as a guide, we present to you five films for your viewing pleasure.
IT COMES AT NIGHT (Kanopy, Prime)
Filmmaker Trey Edward Shults hit the scene a few years ago with the emotionally-charged family drama Krisha, a hit at SXSW. His newest, Waves, might make some in awards season, taking his brand of intense familial struggle to new heights. In the meantime, check out the overlooked It Comes at Night, a post-apocalyptic tale featuring Joel Edgerton and Riley Keough, with an appearance from Waves star Kelvin Harrison Jr.
SONG TO SONG (Prime)
Terrence Malick is a master of his craft, and his newest feature A Hidden Life is a return to form for a man who knows how to make beautiful, gripping works, like Thin Red Line and The Tree of Life. In between, he’s ventured out with some arthouse fare that still compels, though in a more challenging way. One of the best of these is Song to Song, an Austin production in which Malick squeezed in as many Central Texas locations as he possibly could, and put his cast of beautiful people in them, including Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Rooney Mara, Natalie Portman, and Cate Blanchett. There’s even a little Val Kilmer doing some rock and roll! Let this one wash over you and enjoy gorgeous filmmaking at its best.
SHORT TERM 12 (Netflix, Prime)
One of the most anticipated movies of this year’s AFF was Just Mercy, the Bryan Stevenson biopic starring Michael B. Jordan and Brie Larson. Director Destin Daniel Cretton blew people away with his second feature, Short Term 12. Staring Larson with early performances of LaKeith Stanfield and Rami Malek, this movie explores the trauma and drama of a residential treatment facility.
YOU HURT MY FEELINGS (Kanopy)
Former Austinite Steve Collins was back to present his newest work, I’ve Got Issues. It features several of the actors from his last major release, You Hurt My Feelings. Local oft-bearded wunderkind John Merriman joins Macon Blair (also of the ATX) and Courtney Davis in this micro-indie about love, sadness, and things not always working out. Kanopy, a service provided by public libraries everywhere, provides the goods.
THE WIRE (Prime)
George Pelecanos is not stranger to the Austin Film Festival. Last year he presented The Deuce, the HBO show he co-created, and this year he brought DC NOIR, a series of vignettes based on stories he wrote. The pinnacle of his career (and that of everyone involved) has to be The Wire. There’s really nothing to be said: If your life choices have been such that you haven’t watched every single episode of this series AT LEAST once, rectify that immediately.
There are countless services to explore and great things to watch on all of them. Which ones did we miss that you would suggest to us? And, as always, if you’ve got thoughts on titles we’re missing out on or new services to check out, leave a comment below or email us.
Till next week, stream on, stream away.