Stream Guide: Fantastic Mr. Fox & The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (April 6th, 2018)

April 6, 2018 / Leave a Comment

FANTASTIC MR. FOX on MAX GO

With Wes Anderson’s latest stop animation film, “Isle Of Dogs,” now in theaters, it is only fitting that his 2009 of the same medium, “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” lands at the top of the films that are available on a streaming platform this week. With the ensemble voice case of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and Owen Wilson, the story, based on Roald Dahl’s children’s novel of the same name, follows the Fox family as they deal with three curmudgeonly old farmers who are fed up with the Fox’s stealing from their farms. Anderson’s film ended up being nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score at the 82nd Academy Awards but ultimately ended up losing both categories to Pixar’s animated film that year, “Up.” Many of his live action films feature stop animation elements, but this was his first film that lost the live action element.

Another animated classic featured this week is the 1999 film “The Iron Giant” about a young boy who befriends a giant robot from outer space. Most recently, the Iron Giant was featured heavily in Steven Spielberg’s film “Ready Player One.” The 1982 science classic “Tron,” which has many parallels to “Ready Player One,” lands as another classic on the list. Starring Jeff Bridges, the film sees his character kidnapped into a computer and forced to participate in gladiatorial games. It received nominations for Best Costume Design and Best Sound at the 55th Academy Awards, and fourteen years later, would receive the Academy Award for Technical Achievement fourteen years later. In 2010, a sequel was made titled “Tron: Legacy” which also featured Bridges in the computer world. Also in “Ready Player One” is a huge reference to Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” but before he was adapting Stephen King’s novel, he was directing the dark comedy about the Cold War titled “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb.” It’s interesting to look at the political climate surrounding the film, which was released on January 29, 1964, as it was still during the actual Cold War and was released two months after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, putting Lyndon B. Johnson in office. The film garnered four nominations at the 37th Academy Awards including Best Picture, but was ultimately beat out by “My Fair Lady.”

As unpopular as it may currently be, starring Kevin Spacey, “L.A. Confidential” is a neo-noir crime film from 1997, starring Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Danny DeVito, and the gorgeous Kim Basinger. Set in the 1950’s, the film follows three detectives dealing with corruption and an unsolved murder in Los Angeles. It was nominated for nine Oscars at the 70th Academy Awards, winning two of those in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Kim Basinger) and Best Original Screenplay. It lost the rest, including Best Cinematography, Best Directing, and Best Picture, to “Titanic.” At this past years Oscars, the 90th Academy Awards, “The Florida Project” was nominated for one award, Best Supporting Actor and the actor nominated, Willem Dafoe, was actually a front-runner for most of the race, ultimately being beat out by Sam Rockwell’s performance in the more popular “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”

Writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos is no stranger to the Academy Awards either, with his film “Dogtooth” being nominated at the 83rd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Feature, and remaining one of my favorite foreign films of all-time, and his also with his most recent nomination for Best Original Screenplay at the 89th Academy Awards for his work on “The Lobster.” Last year, his film “The Killing Of Sacred Deer” did not make the cut, but it does look like another unique film from the Greek director and did get nominated for some Independent Spirit Awards. Starring Colin Farrel, Nicole Kidman, and Barry Keoghan, the story follows a surgeon who befriends a young boy from his past and introduces him to his family, who begin to experience a strange illness.

Kevin Smith, a director I know more from his podcast work on “Fatman On Batman” and “Hollywood Babble-On” has two film available this week, both very different from one another. “Mallrats,” his second film ever, comes a year after his directorial debut “Clerks.” It is also the second film in the View Askewniverse, which relates to films that include the characters Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes play called Jay and Silent Bob. The film also has early performances from Ben Affleck and Jason Lee, a post-“90210” performance from Shannon Doherty, and performances from Jeremy London and Michael Rooker. Smith would later go on to make the independent horror film “Red State” in 2011, starring John Goodman, Melissa Leo and Michael Parks in which three boys are lured by the promise of sex into being captured by a lunatic preacher who plans to kill them.

After “Avengers: Infinity War” comes out in 3 weeks, the world will then be looking forward to the next Marvel Cinematic Universe film “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” starring Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly and directed by Peyton Reed. Before he was directing big budget Marvel films, Peyton Reed in the comedy scene with films like “The Break Up” and “Bring It On.” But, my favorite of his comedies is his 2008 comedy, the last before his Marvel films, “Yes Man.” Starring Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel, the film follows Carrey as he decides to start saying yes to everything after attending a seminar in which they convince him to. What follows is an adventure of Carrey never saying no and only saying yes that sees him in some very entertaining situations, eventually leading to a relationship with Deschanel. The film wouldn’t go on to be noticed for much, but it does remain one of my favorite comedies of the last few decades.