Netflix may get most of the attention, but it’s hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms caters to its own niche of film obsessives.
From the boundless wonders of the Criterion Channel to the new frontiers of streaming offered by the likes of the Kino Film Collection and Paramount Plus, IndieWire’s monthly guide highlights the best of what’s coming to every major streamer, with an eye toward exclusive titles that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.
Here’s your guide for October 2024.
“The Last of the Sea Women” (dir. Sue Kim, 2024)
Sandwiched between “Wolfs” in September and “Blitz” in November, Apple TV’s only new movie this month is an interesting documentary executive produced by Malala Yousafzai. Here’s what IndieWire’s Proma Khosla wrote about “The Last of the Sea Women” when it premiered at TIFF last month:
“On Jeju Island in South Korea, there are real-life mermaids.
A group of women known as haenyeo — most of them in their 60s, 70s, even 80s — rise early every morning and then spend hours diving to collect seafood and bring it to the surface. Some can swim to depths up to 10 meters using nothing but a wetsuit, diving helmet, and their breath. But with technology and environmental hazards changing the world around them, the haenyeo way of life is in danger.
Through the eyes of director Sue Kim, who first encountered the haenyeo while visiting Korea with her family as a child, ‘The Last of the Sea Women’ tells this remarkable story in solid but simple fashion. The women form a tight-knit community that transcends mere vocation; in fact, they refer to what they do as a calling, working as guardians of the sea as much as harvesters. Outsiders would mistake them for small and weak, but they carry immense inner and outer strength, smarts, and a profound sense of community.”
Available to stream October 11
“Kuroneko” (dir. Kaneto Shindo, 1968)
The Criterion Channel can always be counted on to go all out for Halloween, and while this year’s October slate may not offer anything quite as revelatory as the ’80s Horror package the streamer put together a few years ago, it’s still managed to thread the needle between fear and fine art with a wide variety of scares from across the last 102 years of cinema.
The fun starts with the “Horror F/X” program, which shines a light on the incredible, disgusting, and sometimes incredibly disgusting kind of dark movie magic that has always been so inextricable from the genre. The retro ranges from 1931’s “Frankenstein” to 1986’s “The Fly,” with necessary stops at everything from “Night of the Living Dead” to “The Entity” in between. Then it’s off to a sidebar on Witches, the most classic Halloween staple of them all, as the Channel reaches into its cauldron for the most far-reaching series of the month — not only because it spans from “Häxan” in 1922 to “The Love Witch” in 2016, but also because it’s the first package I’ve ever seen that also spans from Mario Bava (“Black Sunday”) to Melissa Joan Hart (“Sabrina the Teenage Witch”).
And when you’re done there, it’s time to head over to my favorite area of the Channel’s new slate: The J-Horror section, where the modern psychic anxiety of “Cure” and “Ring” collide with the more traditional pleasures of “Onibaba” and “Kuroneko,” the latter of which earns special mention as one of the most pervasively atmospheric folk horror movies ever made. But that’s not all (it never is with the Channel), as there’s also a Stephen King retro, a tribute to Hot Topic fall queen Winona Ryder, and — perhaps most frightening of all — the exclusive streaming premiere of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” which, true to its title or not, finds that we’re all doomed in the end.
All movies available to stream October 1
“Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band” (dir. Thom Zimny, 2024)
There have been alotof Bruce Springsteen documentaries over the last few years, and, well… we’re not complaining. Here’s what IndieWire’s Kate Erbland had to say about the latest one, a tour doc which finds the E Street Band hitting the road again after being on hiatus for seven years:
“The real meat of ‘Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’ is simply watching Bruce and the band perform in packed stadiums and tiny black box theaters. That alone will do it. That alone will sell the history. That alone will forecast the future. But this is not just another concert documentary, and as Springsteen — who is also the film’s sole credited screenwriter and often guides us through by way of a familiar, gravelly voiceover — repeatedly tells us, this was not just another tour. That’s not just because of the timing of it or the very real concerns about how hard it is (physically, mentally, emotionally) to keep doing this night after nightat age 73, even though that’s all there too, but because of the story Springsteen wanted to tellwiththe tour, down to every detail.
As the film lovingly explains, prior E Street Band shows — even the massive stadium ones — tended to be free-wheeling affairs, with an ever-changing set list, plenty of called audibles, even fan requests eventually deigned to “stump the band” with their deep cuts. But for the 2023 – 2024 tour (yes, it’s still going on today; Springsteen and other members of the band jetted to Toronto for the film’s premiere on Sunday night after playing Washington D.C. the night before), Springsteen basically arrived at rehearsals with a prescribed set list. He didn’t want to mix it up, he wanted to tell a story. And this documentary brings that story to rocking life.”
Available to stream October 25
“Green Night” (dir. Han Shuai, 2023)
We won’t be publishing our review of Han Shuai’s “Green Night” until early next week, but here’s a sneak peek at what writer David Opie has written about Han Shuai’s queer revenge thriller, which stars Fan Bingbing as a woman on the run from her sadistic boss:
“Bingbing plays a Chinese immigrant named Jin Xia, who works at South Korea’s Incheon Airport where she screens visitors at a security checkpoint. One day, she encounters a slightly, off-kilter yet strangely mesmerizing young woman (Lee Joo-young from Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Broker”) who’s clearly up to no good at customs. But with a flick of her green hair and a whisper of the word ‘Bang’ in Jin’s ear, Lee’s character rather literally blows up her life, sending them sprawling on a reckless night where the words “Be Gay Do Crime” become a survival mantra in the neon-drenched streets of Seoul.
This isn’t the Seoul you know from cozy K-dramas or flashy K-pop music videos. As ‘Green Night’ rapidly, even frantically veers into increasingly violent directions, the one constant is how startlingly beautiful these seedy locales are. Together, joint cinematographers Matthias Delvaux and Kim Hyun-seok lurch into neon-noir territory with moody shots that propel us through alleys and claustrophobic apartments to Noryangjin fish market stalls and one unforgettable scene in a ten-pin bowling alley. There’s an element of early Wong Kar-wai in the tone that’s set, think “Fallen Angels”, for example — and it’ll definitely make you want to take up smoking if you don’t already — although Shuai brings some ingenious unique touches of her own too, such as the stickers that depict birds in flight but are physically stuck on a window, speaking to Jin’s predicament with an elegant simplicity.”
Available to stream October 18
Other highlights:
– “The Wait” (10/4)
– “Cracked” (10/25)
– “Seire” (10/25)“The Empty Man” (dir. David Prior, 2020)
It’s tempting to imagine that everyone reading this has already caught up with the legend of David Prior’s “The Empty Man,” a bone-chilling horror film that was released into empty theaters at the height of the COVID pandemic after 20th Century Studios — then known as 20th Century Fox — had lost faith in it several years earlier. But for the uninitiated, if there are still any of you out there, let me be the friend who whispers an ancient curse in your ear after seeing something otherworldly that was meant to be buried away from human sight. The story of a downtrodden Missouri detective (James Badge Dale) who gets in way, way,wayover his head after some local teens summon an evil spirit known as The Empty Man, Prior’s feature debut is the kind of visionary and unsettling genre fare that studios rarely put their strength behind these days (clearly). Patient, nightmarish, and spectacularly unafraid of letting its imagery linger unresolved in the minds of those subjected to it, “The Empty Man” became an instant word-of-mouth phenomenon for a reason, and it’s high time you join the cult if you haven’t already.
Available to stream October 1
Other highlights:
– “Hold Your Breath” (10/3)
– “Fright Night” (10/11)
– “The LEGO Batman Movie” (10/19)“The Forbidden Room” (dirs. Guy Maddin & Evan Johnson, 2015)
The Kino Film Collection is still something of a new kid on the streaming block, but the platform is using the occasion of the New York Film Festival — known for its rigorous curation over the years — to emphasize the depth of its library. Tran Anh Hung’s “The Scent of Green Papaya,” Tony Zierra’s Leon Vitali doc “Filmworker,” and Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson’s utterly delirious “The Forbidden Room” (necessary viewing before their “Rumours” hits theaters next week) are the only new additions this month, but the folks at Kino would like you to know that dozens upon dozens of NYFF-approved classics are waiting to be watched on their service, which offers some of the best bang for your streaming buck. From recent must-sees like Nadav Lapid’s incendiary “Ahed’s Knee” and Pham Thien An’s “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell” to canonical mainstays like “Rocco and His Brothers” and “Alphaville,” the Kino Film Collection is the closest you can get to Lincoln Center without leaving your house.
All titles available to stream October 1
“Trap” (dir. M. Night Shyamalan, 2024)
You know the Butcher? That freakin’ nutjob that goes around just chopping people up? Well, the feds or whatever heard that he’s gonna be streaming on Max at the end of October. This whole “pay us a regular subscription fee and we’ll give you sporadic access to new movies thing at the expense of letting older cinema fade into oblivion while gradually ramping up the price every month to appease our shareholders” thing?” It’s a trap.
M. Night Shyamalan’s latest may not be a horror film by most definitions, but watching Josh Hartnett try to reconcile being a solid girl dad with his serial kiler tendencies still feels like prime Halloween viewing — if maybe as an appetizer for something a bit spookier. Good news for anyone who’s sworn allegiance to Max and Max alone: The streamer is also bringing you some more down-the-middle Halloween fare this month, including the entire “Nightmare on Elm Street” series, Ti West’s “MaXXXine,” and the new remake of “Salem’s Lot.” There’s also the Shyamalan-produced “Caddo Lake,” a bayou-set thriller that’s as hard to talk about without spoiling as it is to enjoy once you’ve figured it out, but Dylan O’Brien and Eliza Scanlen both emerge from it unscathed and then some.
Available to stream October 25
Other highlights:
–“Misery” (10/1)
– “Salem’s Lot” (10/3)
– “MaXXXine” (10/18)“Peppermint Candy” (dir. Lee Chang-dong, 1999)
Metrograph at Home continues to be a major boon for America’s cinephiles (especially the ones who don’t live close enough to visit the Metrograph itself), as the platform’s October slate brings the cinema’s excellent programming right to your couch. October’s highlights include three recently restored modern classics from the great Lee Chang-dong (“Green Fish,” “Oasis,” and his era-defining “Peppermint Candy”), two by second-wave exploitation director Stephanie Rothman (“The Student Nurses” and “The Velvet Vampire”), and a satisfying mix of stuff from Roger Corman and Hong Sang-soo, a pair of very different filmmakers bonded together by their shared feeling that making a movie shouldn’t take a lot more time than it does to watch one.
Available to stream October 1
Other highlights:
– “The Student Nurses” (10/1)
– “Hahaha” (10/1)
– “Plastic” (10/4)“The Loneliest Planet” (dir. Julia Loktev, 2011)
After 13 long years, the wait for Julia Loktev to make a new movie isfinallyover (and how!), as the director is back at the New York Film Festival with her riveting and essential five-and-a-half-hour documentary “My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow.” That non-fiction epic couldn’t be further removed from her brilliant “The Loneliest Planet,” but it more than makes good on the time that some of us have spent holding our breath for Loktev’s return. Here’s what IndieWire’s dearly departed Eric Kohn had to say about “The Loneliest Planet” when we named it one of the 100 best films of the 2010s:
“Julia Loktev’s narrative debut ‘Day Night Day Night’ was a sharp revisionist approach to the slow-burn thriller that followed a suicide bomber wandering the streets of New York City. ‘The Loneliest Planet’ transplanted the filmmaker’s unique storytelling instincts to a quieter setting, as a wayward couple (Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg) on vacation in the wilderness of Georgia encounter a sudden attack at gunpoint that changes the nature of their relationship. The encounter lasts mere seconds, but its unspoken impact lingers as the campers roam from one location to the next, uncertain about their future together and how to address it.
A few years later, Ruben Östlund would enter similar terrain with the masterful dark comedy ‘Force Majeure,’ but Loktev probes her conundrum in pure cinematic terms: Her movie deals with the assumptions about trust and companionship that so often go unquestioned until they’re forced into the open, but it never states its themes outright. The tension bursts into the story and then sits there, like an open wound, while its extraordinary performances address the rich thematic depths of each disquieting scene.”
Other highlights:
– “Silvia Prieto” (10/1)
– “Nocturama” (10/1)
– “Swallow” (10/1)“Martha” (dir. R.J. Cutler, 2024)
Netflix is ramping up into awards season with one of its worthiest film slates of the year so far, a diverse group of exclusives that ranges from a Laura Dern rom-com to an Olivia Rodrigo tour doc and a historical epic scripted by Park Chan-wook. Most exciting of all are a pair of documentaries that played extremely well on the festival circuit: “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” which IndieWire will review later this month, and the warts-and-all Martha Stewart portrait “Martha,” which continues to prove that “Life’s a Little Blurry” director R.J. Cutler is one of the best in the business. Here’s a taste of Kate Erbland’s positive review from Telluride:
“There are plenty of voices in R.J. Cutler’s ‘Martha,’ the documentarian’s latest fascinating look at a cultural icon, but there is only one talking head who we actually see seated for an interview. Stewart, of course, who seems eager to tell her story — until she’s not — with Cutler smartly refusing to cut away when the wildly successful entrepreneur and convicted felon (Stewart is nothing if not complex) begins to balk, to noticeably grimace, at a line of questioning. Mostly, it seems like things are simply black and white to Stewart, except — of course — some of the finer details of her own life.
As Cutler holds on Stewart, she has to break the silence, giving just a smidge more away with each passing word. Consider a moment in the film‘s first act, as Stewart begins to unpack what led to the dissolution of her marriage to college sweetheart Andy Stewart: a defiant and clearly still very angry Martha initially offers some advice for the women out there, telling them if their husbands step out on them, leave them, full stop, and always regard them as the ‘piece of shit’ they are. But, Cutler implores, didn’t Martha cheat on Andy before he cheated on her? No!, Martha says. But Andy told the director that. Well, Martha shakes it off, that was different. Was it really? To Stewart, it was.”
Available to stream October 30
Other highlights:
– “Uprising” (10/11)
– “Woman of the Hour” (10/18)
– “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” (10/25)“The Wolf House” (dirs. Cristobal León & Joaquín Cociña, 2018)
It might be hyperbolic or unhelpful to label Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña’s “The Wolf House” as the darkest animated movie ever made, but merely describing this stop-motion nightmare should be enough to explain the impulse.
A grimmer-than-Grimm fairy tale inspired (and ostensibly produced) by Colonia Dignidad — the cult-like Chilean enclave founded by German fugitive Paul Schäfer, an insatiable pedophile who raped the members of his community, provided shelter to Nazi war criminals like Josef Mengele, and tortured Pinochet’s enemies in exchange for his support — “The Wolf House” takes the age-old story of the Three Little Pigs and filters it through the warped mind of a profoundly traumatized little girl until it no longer resembles a fable so much as it does the final minutes of “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.”
“The Wolf House” seizes on the notion that people aren’t products of their environments so much as environments are products of their people; it viscerally illustrates the all-consuming stain of sexual abuse until even the hairs on our neck can feel how trauma can warp everything it touches. The story here, such as it is, is less of a linear fairy tale with a tidy moral at the end than an oozing transference of concern from one generation to the next. Few movies have more palpably conveyed the innocence of children or the nausea of tainting it, and fewer still have done it this fast. At 30 minutes, “The Wolf House” would have left people shaken — at 72, it might just make you feel sick.
Available to stream October 18
Other highlights:
– “Inbetween Girl” (10/4)
– “The Tune” (10/10)
– “El Gran Movimiento” (10/17)“Eyes Wide Shut” (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
“Babygirl” is the closest thing we’ll ever get to an “Eyes Wide Shut” sequel, and with only a couple of months to go before the discourse around that absolutely delightful film ruins all of our lives, there’s no better time to revisit one of the greatest and most beguiling films ever made. Here’s a taste of what we said about it upon crowning “Eyes Wide Shut” as the number one film of the 1990s:
“Nobody knows exactly when Stanley Kubrick first read Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 ‘Traumnovelle; (did Kubrick find it in his father’s library sometime in the 1940s, or did Kirk Douglas’ psychiatrist give it to him on the set of ‘Spartacus,’ as the actor once claimed?), but what is known for certain is that Kubrick had been actively trying to adapt it for at least 26 years by the time “Eyes Wide Shut” began principal production in November 1996, and that he suffered a fatal heart attack just two days after screening his near-final cut for the film’s stars and executives in March 1999. In that light, it’s hard to say if the process of making the movie — a process that famously included what was, at the time, the longest continuous shoot ever recorded for a narrative feature — is what killed Kubrick, or if it’s what had been keeping him alive. Either way, his death only adds to the mystique of the masterpiece that had mattered to him above all others, a crepuscular vision of identity, obsession, and the ultimate reconciliation between dreams and reality.”
Available to stream October 1
Other highlights:
– “Days of Heaven” (10/1)
– “Only Lovers Left Alive” (10/1)
– “The Truman Show” (10/1)“Pain and Glory” (dir. Pedro Almodóvar, 2019)
In anticipation of Almodóvar’s polarizing “The Room Next Door,” Prime Video is streaming what is widely regarded to be the auteur’s best film of the last 10 years or so. Here’s what IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio had to say about “Pain and Glory” on his ranked list of Almodóvar’s work:
“One of the Spanish auteur’s finest films is also his most personal, a colorful vivisection of the director’s life and work, his regrets and achievements. No doubt playing a version of the Academy Award–winning director himself, Antonio Banderas stars as Salvador Mallo, a filmmaker in creative crisis who begins experimenting with drugs in the lead-up to a local career retrospective of his work.
‘Pain and Glory’ features several breakouts in the cast, including Asier Etxeandia as Alberto, Salvador’s former onscreen muse who’s now a high-functioning heroin addict. Newcomer César Vicente plays the beguiling laborer Eduardo, who inspired Salvador’s sexual awakening as a child, as revealed in poignant, sexy flashbacks carefully stitched by Almodóvar’s editor Teresa Font. Penélope Cruz co-stars as the young Salvador’s mother. ‘Pain and Glory’ features another achingly lovely score from Alberto Iglesias, who won Best Composer at Cannes, and pop-colored cinematography from Almodóvar’s trusted collaborator José Luis Alcaine.”
Available to stream October 1
Other highlights:
– “Housekeeping for Beginners” (10/8)
– “Monkey Man” (10/15)
– “Brothers” (10/17)“Azrael” (dir. E.L. Katz, 2024)
October is always Shudder’s month to shine, and while its new release slate is a bit lighter than you might expect for spooky season, that’s only because the service is already streaming more ideal Halloween viewing than every other platform combined. That being said, Shudder can reliably be counted upon for a new “V/H/S” every October, and this year is no exception. Beyond that, the big prize this month might have to be E.L. Katz’z “Azrael,” which IndieWire’s Christian Zilko likened to a lo-fi “Fury Road” starring Samara Weaving as a young woman trying to flee from a post-apocalyptic cult of non-speaking zealots. Say no more.
Available to stream October 25
Other highlights:
– “V/H/S Beyond” (10/4)
– “Mads” (10/18)
– “The Exorcism” (10/30)
