Today, Ben Affleck’s latest directorial effort, “Air,” hits Prime Video after a month in theaters. The affable business dramedy sees Affleck and collaborator Matt Damon donning 1980s wigs and kicks to play Phil Knight and Sonny Vaccaro, the Nike execs who landed a whale in rookie basketball superstar Michael Jordan, and changed the entire athletic sneaker business with the launch of the Air Jordan.
“Air” is a charming film that puts character actors like Jason Bateman, Chris Messina and Matthew Maher to good use in elevating a story to which we already know the ending. Viola Davis is the MVP, however, in her portrayal of Michael’s shrewd and protective mother, Deloris. Stream it on Prime Video.
Fittingly, today is also the theatrical release date of the Affleck-starring kidnapping thriller “Hypnotic,” directed by Robert Rodriguez, as well as the Netflix streaming premiere of “The Mother,” a kidnapping thriller starring Affleck’s new wife Jennifer Lopez. Niki Caro directs this high-octane action film, in which Lopez plays an assassin who emerges from hiding in order retrieve the daughter she had to leave earlier in life. Gael Garcia Bernal and Joseph Fiennes co-star. Stream it on Netflix for a bit of Mother’s Day-appropriate programming.
Available on VOD this week is the new(ish) horror movie “Evil Dead Rise,” which terrorized theaters just a few weeks ago. As of Tuesday, it’s available for purchase on digital platforms.
Also premiering today, on Apple TV+, is the documentary “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”). This intimate portrait of the beloved movie and TV star charts his meteoric rise to Hollywood success, including “Teen Wolf” and “Back to the Future,” and his struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Stream it on Apple TV+.
There are also a trio of international feature films arriving on streaming services this weekend, including France’s Oscar entry this year, “Saint Omer,” which will stream on Hulu starting today. Directed and co-written by Alice Diop, “Saint Omer,” based on a true story, follows the trial of a young woman (Guslagie Malanda) accused of abandoning her baby on a beach, and the writer (Kayjie Kagame) who absorbs the powerful testimony of the accused woman on the stand.
On Mubi, check out the French film “The Five Devils,” directed by Léa Mysius and starring Adèle Exarchopoulous as a young mother in a remote alpine ski village. Her preternaturally gifted daughter (Sally Dramé) uses her powerful sense of smell to explore her mother’s complicated past upon the arrival of her mysterious aunt. Vaguely witchy, deeply atmospheric and anchored by Exarchopoulous’ fiercely embodied performance, “The Five Devils” is an utterly riveting and original take on memory, family and repressed trauma. Stream it today on Mubi.
Also available on digital platforms this weekend, Kristoffer Borgli’s pitch-black dark comedy “Sick of Myself,” about narcissism and the lengths people will go to seek attention. Kristine Kujath Thorp co-stars as a young woman and half of a highly competitive couple who goes to extremes to secure the attention she desires. Rent it on all digital platforms starting today.
