This Week in Streaming (August 27th)
Our recommendations to counteract the endless scrolling.
A Quiet Place: Day One (Paramount) One of horror’s most acclaimed franchises proves it has plenty of mileage left with this prequel starring Lupita Nyong'o and helmed by indie director Michael Sarnoski (Pig). As we said last month, what could have been a gimmicky chiller ends up an ode to a life well spent and showcases the best cat actor in the history of cinema.
The X-Files (Hulu) Now that Trump and RFK have joined forces, it’s as good a time as any to travel back to the days when conspiracy theories were cool and unwavering government trust was a telltale sign of a dullard. Mulder and Scully are as iconic as ever, and the series is more relevant in our post-COVID, post-coup moment than it has ever been.
Sullivan’s Travels (Max) With the Venice and Telluride film festivals upon us this upcoming holiday weekend, moviegoers are about to experience a deluge of overwrought Oscar bait that will fall by the wayside a month after awards season ends. Yet, in the 82 years since its release, Preston Sturges's Hollywood satire about a self-important director (Joel McCrea) who wants to make a grand epic about how the other half lives and gets his comeuppance remains one of the most enduring films of Hollywood’s golden age. Come for the iconic Veronica Lake performance and the ruling class schadenfreude. Stay for the most emotional scene Hollywood has ever produced.