This Week In Streaming (September 24th)

Kinds of Kindness (Hulu) Yorgos Lanthimos reteams with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe after the magnificent Poor Things for a triptych ensemble film that also features Jesse Plemoms, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, and Joe Alwyn. As we said this summer, Greek cinema’s MVP uses Louisiana's distinct landscape as a launchpad for a snarky yet sincere dissection of the limits of control intended to meaningfully shock us all out of our stupors.

The Penguin (Max) The Riddler and emo R-Patz got most of the attention after The Batman’s release in 2022. But that Dirty Harryish take on the Caped Crusader would have lost a lot of its dramatic heft without Colin Farrell’s jaw-dropping transformation into The Penguin. After an epidemic of big and small screen misfires, DC Films had the good sense to revisit one of its best decisions with this limited TV series about the rise of the bird-shaped small-time hood into Hall of Famer Batman foil. It’s like The Wire without the pretense and insufferable fanbase. 

Starship Troopers (Netflix) Ignore those sci-fi diehards who worship at the altar of Robert A. Heinlein. Not only does this movie kick all forms of ass, but it’s the definitive cinematic statement about real-deal fascism and just as relevant to post-COVID Uncle Joe America as it was in the late-90s. Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Basic Instinct) is the undisputed once and future king of the movies here at The Pamphleteer.