Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Weekend Watch is here for you. Every Friday we’re going to recommend the best of what’s new to rent on VOD or stream for free. It’s your weekend; allow us to make it better.
Best New Movies to Rent This Weekend (Part One)
There have been few 2016 movies with a more intriguing premise than Swiss Army Man. Paul Dano plays a man marooned on a deserted island, with only a washed-up corpse of another man as company. And that corpse is played by Daniel Radcliffe. The “relationship” between man and corpse ends up being the most unique character relationship of the whole year. In a summer filled with a lot of same-y, disappointing blockbusters, Swiss Army Man was an oasis of creativity, and now you can enjoy it at home.
You can rent Swiss Army Man on Amazon Video and iTunes.
And if you’re looking for another story about men’s fraternal relationships with each other that are rotting and decayed to their very core: Goat takes an uncompromising look at the world of frat hazing, and for a movie that prominently features Nick Jonas and James Franco, it’s actually not the salacious creation you might be expecting. Watch if only for Ben Schnetzer as a frat pledge; he’s currently in theaters in Snowden and he dazzled a few years ago in the Brit indie Pride. He’s definitely an actor to keep an eye on.
You can rent Goat on Amazon Video and iTunes.
Best Movies Streaming For Free This Weekend
Over on Netflix, Amanda Knox is an eye-opening account of the Italian murder case involving an American student abroad that so scandalized and titillated Americans. From our review:
Amanda Knox is still a fairly powerful statement about the ways in which we the public desperately need to craft narratives around public figures like Amanda Knox. So many of our recent true-crime obsessions have focused around this idea that we at home can figure out who did it by reading body language and looking into a person’s eyes. After all, didn’t Serial kick-start this whole true-crime revival because Sarah Koenig visited Adnan Syed in prison and was struck by how much he didn’t act or speak like someone capable of murder? Didn’t The Jinx hinge on the very opposite, that Robert Durst sure as hell looked like a murderer? Didn’t we parse every John and Patsy Ramsey media appearance for the look on that mother’s face that revealed she was guilty?
You can stream Amanda Knox on Netflix.
And finally, if you’ve somehow managed not to burn yourself out on the presidential election, you owe it to yourself to check out PBS’ Frontline, whose episode “The Choice 2016” takes an in-depth look into the events that shaped the lives of both major-party candidates for president: Donald J. Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton. There’s no partisan slant here, just a deep dive into what are ultimately two incredibly fascinating American lives, with commentary from a selection of talking heads that range from the credible (Robert Reich, Joe Klein) to the sublime (Liz Smith) to the ridiculous (Omarosa!).
