Mary and the Witch’s Flower (2017) | May 22

Mary Smith, a young girl who lives with her great-aunt in the countryside, follows a mysterious cat into the nearby forest where she finds a strange flower and an old broom, none of which is as ordinary as it seems. – JustWatch.com

Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi

Cast: Hana Sugisaki, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Yuki Amami, Fumiyo Kohinata, Hikari Mitsushima, Jiro Sato

Country: Japan

Distributor: GKIDS

Rating: PG

Runtime: 1 hour, 39 minutes

Platform: Netflix

Special Programming: Family Films

Where to Watch

Kajillionaire (2020) | May 21

A woman’s life is turned upside down when her criminal parents invite an outsider to join them on a major heist they’re planning. – JustWatch.com

Director: Miranda July

Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, Debra Winger, Gina Rodriguez, Richard Jenkins, Patricia Belcher, Kim Estes, Da’Vine Joy Randolph

Country: United States

Distributor: Annapurna Pictures

Rating: R

Runtime: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Platform: Video-on-Demand

Special Events: Opening Night, Filmmaker Conversations

Where to Watch

Filmmaker Conversations

Criterion Channel Surfing, Episode 43: April 2021 New Releases and Expiring Titles

Summertime (2020) | Directed by Carlos López Estrada

5/5
Carlos López Estrada’s Summertime is a glorious film – a vibrant, joyous, and energetic ode to art, creativity, and that earnest sincerity and passion for justice and equity that seems to define young people in their late teens and early twenties. Even though the film is comprised of a series of vignettes anchored by spoken word poetry, it’s astonishing to see how effortlessly the sequences weave in and out of one another, how narrative through lines emerge, and how perfectly certain beats and moments echo one another throughout the film. López Estrada shoots and edits the film with as much energy and life as the poetry (and the city) that he’s capturing, and all of the first-time film actors are stunning – not just in performing their own work onscreen, but also in building and performing the characters they present within the film. This is one of the most delightful and moving films of the year – a film that begins with isolation and loneliness, and ends with a true sense of community and connectedness.

Where to Watch

In the Same Breath (2021) | Directed by Nanfu Wang

5/5
Nanfu Wang’s In the Same Breath continues the filmmaker’s probing inquiries into Chinese society, this time exploring the ways the government refused to cooperate with the rest of the world at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wang’s primary focus is on China’s propaganda efforts at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and she traces how, while lockdown efforts may have done a better job of containing the virus than here in the US, the state propaganda machine exacerbated the crisis and led to things being much worse for the entire world. She also draws an uncomfortable line between propaganda in China and that misinformation that runs rampant here in the US, showing that Americans don’t have the moral high ground either. There are so many candid and powerful interviews from inside Wuhan, so many striking images and heartbreaking moments that we just haven’t seen much of yet from the COVID-19 crisis. The film’s ending sneaks up you, presenting a vision of how many lives could have been saved in the past year if there had been better transparency and cooperation between China and the US (especially if we hadn’t had a US president at the time so devoted to disinformation and propaganda designed to make himself look better). It’s an incredible work from one of our great documentary filmmakers, wrestling with important questions.

Where to Watch

Mogul Mowgli (2020) | Directed by Bassam Tariq

5/5
Bassam Tariq’s Mogul Mowgli is a gorgeous, deeply moving film about familial expectations, the pursuit of your dreams and your art, and the way chronic illness can bring the forward momentum of your life to a standstill. Tariq slowly introduces surreal imagery and elements throughout the film, creeping into Zed’s everyday experiences – a brilliant and haunting way to visually represent the sense of being unable to trust or control your body anymore. And by layering the push and pull of the father’s faith and his flight into Pakistan during the Partition of India, Tariq adds in rich complexity and nuance to the narrative as the film explores parental support and expectations, ruminating on all that we inherit from our parents – the qualities and traits we find admirable and those we resist. Tariq’s tight framing – the close-ups, pushing Zed out of the frame at times, makes the entire film feel so intimate and raw. Of course, it also helps when the film is anchored by an incredible cast – especially Riz Ahmed, whose performance is so incredibly open and vulnerable. This is a deeply moving film, one that leaves you with more to discover and ponder about disability and family and dreams long after the film has ended.

Where to Watch

Censor (2021) | Directed by Prano Bailey-Bond

4.5/5
Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor is a creepy and effective horror film exploring the effects of grief and how unacknowledged pain and trauma can end up leading us into isolation, wreaking havoc in our lives. The film is anchored by a tour de force performance from Niamh Algar as Enid, a censor working for the British Board of Film Classification, whose grounding and matter-of-fact approach to the material helps us fully believe in the ghoulish twists and turns the narrative takes, her emotional vulnerability in the role allowing us to completely invest in our protagonist’s journey – no matter how dark that journey gets. Bailey-Bond’s visuals are mesmerizing throughout, creating hypnotic and eerily subjective landscapes through the use of highly stylized color palettes and a production design that leaves one feeling as though reality itself is unstable. Sound becomes an essential component in the terror, layering in ominous and unsettling tones, amplifying everyday sounds to the point of menace, and transforming sounds that should be familiar and warping them into something horrific. As Enid continues her work evaluating films filled with violent misogyny – as well as being confronted by her many sexist male colleagues on a daily basis – we see the toll this takes on her in ways both subtle and not-so-subtle throughout the film. This is a haunting and terrifying film – one that crawls under your skin and stays there long after the movie has ended.

Where to Watch

Criterion Channel Surfing, Episode 42: March 2021 New Releases and Expiring Titles

Criterion Channel Surfing, Episode 41: The Lovers on Other Streaming Services

Josh is joined once again by Becky D’Anna, frequent guest of Criterion Now, Film Baby Film, Flixwise, and Wrong Reel, to finish their conversation on “The Lovers” with a few recommendations for films that are available on other streaming services.

Where to Find Us Online

Criterion Channel Surfing, Episode 40: Love Stories

Josh is joined by Becky D’Anna, frequent guest of Criterion Now, Film Baby Film, Flixwise, and Wrong Reel, to discuss “Love Stories” on the Criterion Channel. Plus, Michael Hutchins stops by to talk about the Criterion Channel’s release schedule.

Where to Find Us Online