We celebrate terror here at Khatrimaza all year round, but Halloween is a special season and we look forward to celebrating it with you. But first, something businesslike: Some great movies are coming out of the streaming services at the end of September, and you should watch them before you go out.
Do you want a cheerful classic? Netflix caught you. How about a side-splitting comedy? Go to Prime. And Netflix, Max and Hulu each have a Moderna classic for you… whether you’re looking for fast-paced medieval action or the unique voice of Wes Anderson.
Here are the best movies to watch before you leave the streaming services at the end of September.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Year: 2014
Director by: Wes Anderson
Run time: 1 hour 39 minutes
Director by: Wes Anderson
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori
Hulu: September 29th
As one of the best works by Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel is equally a moving coming-of-age story, a rough comedy and a showdown between a Director and his distinctive style.
The film takes place in a luxury hotel in a fictional nation and follows the trials and tribulations of the attentive concierge (Ralph Fiennes), his lobby boy (Tony Revolori) and the many guests and employees of the hotel. Meanwhile, a fascist regime is growing and spreading around him.
With a large cast highlighted by Anderson regulars who perform some of his best (including Willem Dafoe as the sinister assassin and Harvey Keitel as the leader of a prison gang), it’s easy to credit the Grand Budapest Hotel as one of the best examples of the Director’s particular approach to filmmaking. But here there is a deeper reflection for those who want to look for it: Anderson’s style often evokes a romanticization of the past, but the past was not romantic for everyone. The Greater Budapest area draws directly on this and brings the horror of fascism directly into this nostalgic environment.
Rocky
Year: 1976
Genre: Sports Drama
Run time: 2h
Director: John G. Avildsen
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Carl Weathers
Netflix: October 1st
In fact, I hadn’t seen Rocky until recently. With the release of Creed III, I felt inspired to finally go back and experience the origins of the series.
After finally sitting down and watching, I realized how much my hesitation was a casual mistake. Rocky is one of the best sports movies I’ve ever seen, not because of what he has to say about boxing itself, but because of what he says about why the sport means something to someone. It is a love letter to an oppressed and dissatisfied working class, which is often ignored and neglected by its own society.
Rocky is much more than a”boxing movie”. It’s a story about how the American dream itself is inextricably the sum of all the disappointed hopes, missed opportunities, precarious mistakes and inevitable heartbreak that precede it. It’s an unapologetic, heartfelt story about the stubborn but unassailable persistence of hope in the face of adversity, the decision to believe in yourself when no one but those closest to you in your darkest moments will do it. It’s not just about boxing; it’s about the transformative power of simply choosing to take your chance in this life. The question is: which photo will you give? – Toussaint Egan
Miami Vice
Year: 2006
Genre: Crime Fiction
Run time: 2 hours 12 minutes
Director by: Michael Mann
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Colin Farrell, Gong Li
Netflix: October 1st
Michael Mann has achieved a number of certified film successes over the course of his long and illustrious career, such as his symphonic crime drama Heat from 1995 – one of my favorite films of all time. But no other film of his work is more thoroughly “Mann-Kern” than Miami Vice, the full-length adaptation of the 1984 crime series produced by Mann and starring Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas.
The plot could not be further from the point. Here’s the real gist of Miami Vice’s enduring appeal: It just doesn’t look like any other crime drama of its time. Mann’s experience with digital photography creates an uncanny level of realism through his landscape of crushed brown and black textures and views of white, discolored beaches. It is a crime drama that exudes a sense of coolness entirely on its own terms, a great experiment that has earned a cult following and has been re-evaluated as one of the Director’s best. In short, Miami Vice is a mood.
Apartment
Year: 1960
Genre: romantic comedy-Drama
Run time: 2 hours 5 minutes
Director by: Billy Wilder
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray
Leaving Prime: September 30
The apartment is often considered one of the best films ever shot. This reputation is well deserved.
Bud Baxter (Jack Lemmon) allows his company bosses to use his apartment for extramarital affairs. He believes that it will help him to get ahead in the huge insurance company where he works. Although he makes some material gains at work, the real result is that his superiors take advantage of him more and more and Bud is unable to sleep in his own bed or enter his own home. Things change quickly when Bud falls in love with the building’s elevator operator (Shirley MacLaine) and wants to regain control of his life.
It’s a heartfelt and hilarious romantic comedy, and Director Billy Wilder skillfully balances the combination of corporate fatigue and newfound love with the excellent comedic skills of the cast. The apartment is one of those films that everyone should watch at least once.
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King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword
Year: 2017
Genre: Fantasy, Action and Adventure
Run time: 2 hours 6 minutes
Director by: Guy Ritchie
Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Djimon Hounsou
Leaving Max: September 30
Legend of the Sword is a visually distinctive Arthurian adaptation and is different from all the others, for better or for worse. After an initial siege, which could also be described as “the Lord of the Rings: King Arthur”, with huge war elephants and everything, Baby Arthur is orphaned. Growing up on the street, Arthur becomes the typical tough guy protagonist Guy Ritchie (medieval variant), but is haunted by nightmares about the death of his parents. When he pulls Excalibur out of the stone… well, you know, it’s King Arthur.
With shocking and frenetic editing, electrifying use of acceleration in the climatic action scenes and a thundering soundtrack, the film has a tangible identity, but this also means that this adaptation is certainly not for everyone. The script is a mess pieced together from several previous unproduced attempts at an Arthur movie, but the movie is truly remarkable in the way it pushes the boundaries of digital cinema, including some of the best montage sequences in recent Hollywood memory. If you’re in the mood for an overwhelming visual feast, try Legend of the Sword.
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