When the DVD delivery service Netflix altered its business model with an expansive website that provided a new way to watch movies and television via digital streaming, the company spurred a revolution in content presentation. Now there are numerous Netflix competitors that provide entertainment streams, including Apple TV, Disney+, and Max. And like Netflix, these platforms have gone beyond licensing preexisting films and TV programming, choosing to also finance original projects, some of which are more than a match for what the studios and networks produce.
In fact, streaming-service-spawned movies such as Netflix’s 2018 production Roma, which was written and directed by the acclaimed Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón and went directly to streaming after a limited run in cinemas, are scoring recognition during awards season alongside theatrical releases. Two recent Netflix movies continue the trend: The sometimes astringent, sometimes poignant family drama, His Three Daughters, and the slow-boil, socially astute thriller, Rebel Ridge, are not only imminently watchable. They are among the best films of the year to date.
‘His Three Daughters’
Coming from screenwriter and director Azazel Jacobs, His Three Daughters is an insightful look at the strained family dynamic between three sisters — two connected by blood, the other adopted — facing the imminent death of their bedridden semiconscious father in his New York City apartment. His Three Daughters is a wrenching and honest depiction of sibling rivalry and how children can grow up and apart as a result of nurture, nature, or circumstance, while also serving as an examination of how parenting and familial love can transcend biology. Thanks to inspired casting, Jacobs (whose previous movies include the provocative, witty Michelle Pfeiffer vehicle French Exit and the anatomy of a debilitating erotic relationship The Lovers) can lean on three powerhouse actresses — Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne — as the daughters of the title.
Coon is currently wowing on HBO as the nouveau riche matriarch in the period saga The Gilded Age. In His Three Daughters, she’s Katie, the eldest of the three sisters and a control freak whose ordered life in Brooklyn has been challenged by her rebellious teenage daughter. Olsen’s filmography has ranged from her startling work as a cult survivor in the indie triumph Martha Marcy May Marlene to her portrayal of troubled sorceress Wanda Maximoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Her assignment here is quite a distance from those roles: Katie’s younger sister, Christina, a spiritual people pleaser in from the West Coast with separation anxiety about being away from her own children. Finally, Lyonne, fresh from starring in the well-received TV shows Russian Doll and Poker Face, is Rachel, the slacker sister currently living with the father who adopted her when he married her mother after his first wife — the mother of Katie and Christina — died.
The sometimes astringent, sometimes poignant family drama, His Three Daughters, and the slow-boil, socially astute thriller, Rebel Ridge, are not only imminently watchable, they are among the best films of the year.
Rachel has shared an ongoing rapport with him unlike her stepsisters, and that becomes a point of contention. Each woman delivers a richly rendered performance that’s so raw and true that it can get uncomfortable watching their interactions. Their one-on-ones are memorable skirmishes. The scenes with all three of them going at it are emotionally devastating. And the dénouement of the movie as the stressed women cope with the fate of their father, Vincent, played by the wonderful veteran character actor Jay O. Sanders, is heartbreaking in the most satisfying way. Rather than be constrained by the relatively small space where His Three Daughters is primarily set, Jacobs and his actors use the claustrophobic feeling of the apartment and the relentless ticking-clock aspect of Vincent’s impending death to dial up the tension and further fuel the conflict that has been simmering among the three women for much of their lives.
‘Rebel Ridge’
There’s a particular joy in encountering an unheralded movie that turns out to be well-crafted, spellbinding, and so satisfying that you want to tell your friends about. They are actually kind of rare when it comes to direct-to-streaming movies, but Rebel Ridge is a truly excellent mix of gritty action and conscious drama from Netflix that starts with one uncomfortable incident, then springboards to another, building from situation to complication as the revelations and pulse elevators mount. It boasts a smart, intricate script with thoughtful dialogue and an assured, charismatic performance from Aaron Pierre, whose earlier gigs included a few TV shows and movies — a standout being his supporting work in the dystopian-themed Foe with Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal. Taking on the lead in Rebel Ridge, Pierre portrays Terry — a quietly assured Black man whose visit to a small Southern town to bail his cousin out of jail is derailed in a major way.
Over the course of Terry’s quest, we learn that he is not the ordinary fellow that he initially seems. In fact, he may very well have “a certain set of skills.” Echoes of Sylvester Stallone’s similarly themed loner-against-the-odds classic Rambo are present, but Rebel Ridge adds a pointed racial component as Terry faces off against a crew of good ole boys who are less than kindly toward a stranger of color. Although he tries to do everything to spring his cousin in a legal manner, he runs afoul of the local constabulary and small-town bureaucracy; he’s confronted by a self-serving chief of police, played with nasty relish by Don Johnson; and he starts to unravel a conspiracy. As for allies, Terry is looked upon with some degree of sympathy by a local court clerk (AnnaSophia Robb), while the town’s venerable judge, played by the revered character actor James Cromwell (L.A. Confidential, Babe, HBO’s Six Feet Under), is less than even-handed.
Rebel Ridge was written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, the talented filmmaker behind Blue Ruin, a small-town noir, and Green Room, recounting an incendiary face-off between a couple of young punk rockers and a group of white supremacists at a remote Oregon roadhouse. As laudable as Blue Ruin and Green Room are (and they are highly recommended), Rebel Ridge is even better. Saulnier doesn’t need a big budget to deliver a banger. Like his earlier efforts, Rebel Ridge is a taut, no-frills production — clever, fine-tuned, and engaging. It may not be Oscar-bait like His Three Daughters. Instead, it’s a deft two hours of entertainment that would rock a theater if it had been released that way — and accessing it at home doesn’t diminish it in the least.