The film centers on experienced thief Neil McCauley (De Niro) whose various heists are detected by LAPD cop Vincent Hanna (Pacino). In Legends of the Fall, Brad Pitt stars as Tristan, who is in a rather tough predicament. When World War I begins, Tristian and his brothers, Samuel and Alfred, are enlisted to fight. When the brothers return home, they both fall in love with Samuel’s fiancé, Susannah. Instead of, you know, not trying to marry their almost-sister-in-law, the brothers begin a bitter rivalry that tears the whole family apart.
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Huston is in her prime in The Witches, vamping about and chewing scenery whenever she’s on screen. It also features some seriously impressive effects work by the Jim Henson Company. Now is a perfect time to catch up on this 1990 cult classic, before the Anne Hathaway-starring remake from director Robert Zemeckis arrives.
It’s a bit more raw and outdated than Miller’s later entries but it’s still good. You can’t think of the classics without mentioning the late John Singelton. Boyz in the Hood was his first feature film and still holds up as a masterclass in storytelling. The film follows Tre, a high school student sent to live with his father in South Central, Los Angeles. His dad is strict, but when Tre befriends Doughboy and Ricky, two neighborhood kids, he finds it hard to stay out of trouble. As gang culture intensifies in their neighborhood, the boys are sucked in and face devastating consequences.
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Only Iris Henderson (Margaret Lockwood) seems to remember that Miss Froy even got on the train, leading to a brisk, clever, often quite funny, mystery. You can stream The Lady Vanishes on Max, The Criterion Channel, and Pluto TV or rent it from Prime Video. A bomb upon its initial release, time has been very, very kind to this story of the somnolent princess and her wicked adversary, Maleficent. Its art style, inspired by Medieval tapestry work, is among Disney’s most beautiful, bar none.
Firefly is more known for its instant cancellation than it is for great storytelling in the 14 episodes it existed. Listen to any sci-fi geek talk about this series and they’ll claim they saw art of the highest caliber. Nathan Fillion stars and Joss Whedon cooks up incredible plot lines in this drama about an unconventional space crew navigating new human colonies hundreds of years in the future.
A smart and impressively honest movie that must have taken a lot of courage to make. You can stream The Best Years of Our Lives on Prime Video, Kanopy, Pluto TV, and Peacock. Cochise (Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs), a basketball star, and Preach (Glynn Turman), an aspiring playwright, plot to play hooky during their final weeks of senior year. Their plan leads to a series of adventures and misadventures that look very much like the stuff of a more typical teen comedy, before the comedy slowly gives way to more serious introspection. This movie had a profound influence on filmmakers from John Singleton to Spike Lee.
With fans waiting patiently to find out if Black Mirror season 8 will be greenlit at Netflix, there are several alternatives that you can check out after finishing season 7. Not all of these series are as daring about social issues or crafted in the same way as Black Mirror, but all of them have the same sci-fi principles that make the storytelling unique. Before Eric Kripke crafted the grossest, most-engrossing show on TV today with The Boys, he was the creator of the offbeat sci-fi series Supernatural. Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles are the stars of this one as brothers who solve mysteries and destroy alien monsters that stand in their way.
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The X-Files is a bit of an unconventional cult classic with its 11-season run, but the creepy sci-fi series won its place on this list fair and square. When the show was first set to air, Entertainment Weekly dubbed it a goner. Much to the magazine’s and network’s surprise, the show regularly pulled in good numbers and defied the odds and continued to be renewed thanks to the show’s dedicated fans. Cult classics frequently touch on taboo subjects, like drugs and alcohol, violence, sexuality, and profanity, deeming them “controversial” in the eyes of critics and viewers alike. However, what makes a cult classic so impactful is its ability to help marginalized groups or “outcasts” feel seen and represented in a way they typically aren’t in mainstream Hollywood.
Shudder, for instance, is a popular option for horror fans with a vast library of cult horror films like Re-Animator and Phantasm. Using official streaming services and purchasing films through legitimate platforms supports the creators and helps maintain access to great content. Kanopy is an on-demand streaming service that schools and public libraries all around the US offer students and members for free. All you have to do is enter the details of your participating institution and you can start watching as you please.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars in this brilliantly dark take-down of the modern news media. He plays Louis Bloom, a troublingly ambitious video journalist who starts selling crime footage to a local LA TV network. Riz Ahmed plays the hapless sidekick who is slowly dragged into Bloom’s increasingly amoral world.
Now central in her filmography, this was a comeback for Joan at the time, and proved that she could still pack cinemas as a middle-aged woman. Another excellent tip for how to stream cult-favorite movies online is joining online communities that discuss and recommend hidden gems. Reddit, for example, has many subreddits dedicated to cult movies, where users share recommendations and links to where they can be streamed. Joining online communities and forums dedicated to cult classics can provide valuable recommendations and insights. Websites like Reddit and IMDb offer discussions and reviews that might lead you to hidden treasures.
What starts out as a very movie quiz hummable sing-a-long takes a dark turn as the shadow of Nazi Germany comes to loom. That genuine threat elevates Julie Andrews’ breakout into something as meaningful as it is fun. You can stream The Sound of Music on Disney+ and Hulu or rent it from Prime Video. So rousing is Sergei Eisenstein’s film, set during the early Russian Revolution of 1905, that you’ll be cheering on the rebellion that lead to the birth of the Soviet Union (where this film was no less controversial than elsewhere). Among the movie’s many brilliantly directed moments is the iconic Odessa Steps sequence, which has been referenced by everyone from Laurel and Hardy to Denis Villeneuve. You can stream Battleship Potemkin on Max, The Roku Channel, Kanopy, Kino, and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video.