March 2024’s Best Streaming Titles: Battle Royale, Taylor Swift, Ocean’s Eleven, 3 Body Problem
Japanese dystopia, Tay Tay, Danny Ocean, Chinese sci-fi, and more.
As Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, et al. add more content, it can be difficult to know what to look for amidst all of the new titles. I’ve compiled a list of particularly noteworthy and interesting movies and TV shows to add to your streaming queues in the coming month.
Amazon Prime Video
Batman (Mar 1)
Although Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy could be considered the gold standard of live action Batman adaptations, Tim Burton’s take on the Caped Crusader is not without its merits. It’s gaudy, gothic, and hyper-stylized; boasts some scenery chewing of the finest sort courtesy of Jack Nicholson’s Joker; and has a funky Prince soundtrack to boot.
Gone Baby Gone (Mar 1)
In this harrowing neo-noir, the city of Boston is galvanized when a young girl is abducted. At the center of it is small-time private investigator Patrick Kenzie, whose quest to find the girl takes him from the city’s seediest neighborhoods to its loftiest halls of power. With its taut pacing, ominous atmosphere, and solid performances from Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Ed Harris, and Amy Ryan (who received an Oscar nomination for her performance as the young girl’s unstable mom), you’d never tell that Gone Baby Gone was Ben Affleck’s directorial debut.
Super 8 (Mar 1)
I know I seemed a bit harsh on J. J. Abrams in my review of The Rise of Skywalker, but if you want an example of where his nostalgia-driven approach to filmmaking does work, then check out Super 8. An obvious love letter to classic Spielberg films — it was even produced by Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment — Super 8 is nevertheless a fun sci-fi action romp as a group of teenage filmmakers find themselves caught between an alien life form and the military trying to capture it.
The Warriors (Mar 1)
After they’re falsely accused of murdering the leader of the city’s most powerful gang, the Warriors must make the long journey back to their home base while fending off the rest of New York’s gangs. This simple premise makes for one of the great cult movies, as the Warriors make their way through a nightmarish, dystopic New York as imagined by director Walter Hill (The Driver, Streets of Fire).
Waterworld (Mar 1)
Waterworld is famous for being one of the huge Hollywood debacles. Released in 1995, it was the most expensive movie ever made — its budget ballooned to $175 million due to production costs and damage from a hurricane — and its domestic run was just a fraction of that. But Waterworld was nothing if not ambitious in its depiction of a post-apocalyptic Earth where the polar ice caps have melted and humanity has been reduced to floating communes.