Weekend Watchlist, 6/6: New to streaming in June
Plus, one of Netflix's best hidden gems
Happy Friday, PV Guide readers! I hope you have a great weekend ahead of you.
Every Friday, I’m recommending a few great things to watch that the algorithm might not be pushing at you right now, with a focus on variety, so every reader can find something they’re interested in. The Weekend Watchlist will always be 100% free.
This week, we’ll be highlighting some new-on-streaming highlights, as well as a standout past hit from a director with a new movie out. Personally, I’m most excited for the digital arrival of Sinners – I wasn’t able to catch the movie in theaters, and I’m really looking forward to it.
What I’m watching this weekend: Sinners, hopefully some Johnnie To movies, the NBA Finals, the French Open
This week’s recs
Presence
If you like: Ghost stories, formal experimentation, Steven Soderbergh
Watch at: Hulu
Watch trailer here
Steven Soderbergh has always been one to embrace a gimmick-based movie, especially in his latest period, but few have worked as well as Presence. A ghost movie shown from the ghost’s perspective, Presence’s camera drifts and floats through the rooms of a house recently purchased by a family of four.
Presence is another successful collaboration between Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp – the two worked together on the paranoid thriller Kimi and the spy movie Black Bag, which I recommended two weeks ago. Koepp’s controlled screenwriting gels well with Soderbergh’s approach, giving glimpses of the family’s life and struggles in a way that truly feels observational, going hand-in-hand with the ghost POV gimmick.
That gimmick isn’t always successful, but when it works, it works very well – especially in the movie’s finale, which lands with a bang. And Presence is boosted by great performances, especially from Chris Sullivan and Lucy Liu as the parents of the family. The two have very different ideas on how to deal with the squabbles between their depressed daughter and outgoing son. That conflict is the true heart of the movie – it’s a compelling family drama wearing ghost story clothing.
Jigarthanda Double X
If you like: Ambitious storytelling, unlikely friendships, movies about movies
Watch at: Netflix
Watch trailer here
The Tamil filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj is one of the most exciting emerging voices in genre cinema. His new movie, the stylish action romance Retro, is now streaming on Netflix, but my favorite of his remains the totally bonkers Jigarthanda Double X, which first introduced me to his unique approach to the action genre.
In the 1970s, a world-class coward gets framed for a quadruple murder. He gets released from prison by a corrupt movie star/politician on the condition he kills a specific gangster. Our coward poses as a movie director and pitches the rival on making a biopic together about the gangster’s life, because the Clint Eastwood-fanatic gangster has made it his new mission in life to be the first dark-skinned movie star in India. While making their movie together, they fall in love with the magic of cinema and its transformative power on a personal and societal level.
Movies about the Power of Cinema™ can be self-important, saccharine, and worst of all, boring. Jigarthanda DoubleX is none of those things. It’s a sprawling tale of gangsters, movie stars, politicians, and the people caught between them, and an entertaining and truly special film. It fires on all cylinders throughout its nearly three-hour run time, with superb direction, complex characters fully embodied by terrific actors, thrilling action sequences, and a surprising amount of emotional depth for a movie with such an outlandish premise.
Johnnie To Essentials on Criterion
If you like: Gangster dramas, the power of friendship, grounded narratives withstylized aesthetics
Watch at: Criterion Channel
No trailer, but watch Johnnie To’s Criterion Closet visit here
Every month a new group of exciting movies premiere on the Criterion Channel. This month is a true highlight, with the Johnnie To Essentials collection bringing 12 classics to the channel from one of the greatest directors living today.
To is probably best known for his gangster dramas, but he’s an extraordinarily skilled director in a variety of genres. He made one of my favorite romantic comedies ever (Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, sadly not a part of this collection) and one of the most outlandish and fun superhero movies you’ll ever see (The Heroic Trio, which is a part of this collection). The Essentials collection has a varied group of his films – my favorites included are the crime dramas Exiled, Throw Down, and Election. But I’m particularly looking forward to checking out Blind Detective, which has been on my to-watch list for years.