The Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Almost Famous,’ ‘Summer Of Soul,’ ‘No Sudden Move’ & More

Every week, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on demand, vintage, and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.

This week’s new release guide includes a couple of must-see new releases from the subscription streamers, an early-oughts fave in 4K, a quartet of new Criterion releases (if you’re a B&N 50%-er), and much more. Let’s take a gander:

ON HULU:

Summer of Soul”: It seems like every music documentary of the last decade has benefited from the insights of Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, so it’s no big shock that his own entry into the form is such a knockout – not only in terms of it entertainment value (which is considerable), but its filmmaking craft. His topic is the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a summer-long series of free concerts featuring a wide array of incredible music, filmed at the time and never seen again. He could have just made a film of that electrifying footage and been done with it; instead, he tells the story of what was happening at that moment in music, culture, and politics, and dives into the background of several key acts. It sounds like too much, and it could’ve been. But Thompson keeps every thread active without letting anything dominate, maintaining multiple storylines like – well, like a drummer playing a hefty kit.  

ON HBO MAX:

No Sudden Move”: Reuniting with such previous stars as Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Amy Seimetz, and screenwriter Ed Solomon, and throwing in some welcome newcomers as Julia Fox and Kieran Culkin, director Steven Soderbergh returns to his comfortable crime picture milieu with this story of industrial espionage and domestic kidnapping that goes terribly wrong. And while it’s similarly fleet-footed and entertaining, “No Sudden Move” ultimately has less in common with “Ocean’s 11” than “High Flying Bird” or “The Girlfriend Experience,” films where genuine social and economic concerns fuel the drama and conflict. 

ON BLU-RAY / DVD / VOD:

Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street”: “Mad Hot Ballroom” director Marilyn Agrelo (adapting Michael Davis’ deeply researched book) dives into the origins of the PBS standby: how this show was built from the ground up, with no limitations because there were no set expectations, by mixing up a behind-the-scenes stew of educators and entertainers, activists and academics. It focuses particularly on the latter, and how much of its power and influence seems an outgrowth of the unique chemistry created by those specific people, at that specific moment. We take “Sesame Street” for granted now, because it’s become such a part of the fabric of culture and influenced so much of what came after. Agrelo brilliantly shows us exactly what the world was before this show, and dares us to imagine a world without it now. (Includes featurettes and Muppet outtakes.)

ON 4K:

Almost Famous”: Cameron Crowe’s 2000 coming-of-age comedy/drama may well be his best film; it’s certainly his most personal, based as it is on his own experiences as a teenage rock writer for “Rolling Stone” in the early 1970s. He synthesizes those experiences into the story of young William Miller (Patrick Fugit), writing his first cover story on the rising band Stillwater (led by Billy Crudup and Jason Lee, both top-tier), while falling for Penny Lane (a pitch perfect Kate Hudson), one of the “Band-Aids” that keeps the group company on the road. Paramount’s new 4K Blu-ray edition preserves both the original theatrical version and the longer, shaggier “Untitled (Bootleg Cut),” and that’s the right call; both accomplish the job in different ways, but each beautifully captures the intensity of being young and infatuated with music, and with the opposite sex, and with the possibilities of the world in front of you. And Philip Seymour Hoffman is, as ever, transcendent. (Includes audio commentary, featurettes, extended scenes, new and archival introductions, music video, concert footage, and archival interviews.)

ON BLU-RAY:

Deep Cover”: Bill Duke’s tale of undercover cop (Laurence Fishburne) in the narcotics underworld was mostly dismissed by mainstream critics when it hit theaters in 1992 (save for Roger Ebert, God bless him). But it’s been rightfully reappraised in recent years as a nuanced and complex thriller, culminating in its welcome addition to The Criterion Collection. And it holds up; Duke’s direction is strong and stylish, the neo-noir influences (particularly in Fishburne’s rueful, hard-boiled narration) are pronounced and affecting, and Jeff Goldblum’s supporting performance, transforming from a grinning Mob attorney to a slick-haired, bloodthirsty sleaze, is astonishing. (Includes new interview and conversations, trailer, and essay by Michael B. Gillespie.)

Working Girls”: New York “No Wave” filmmaker Lizzie Borden followed up her stunning debut feature “Born in Flames” with this anthropological drama from 1986, set in an upscale Manhattan brothel and positing a notion all but absent from the cinema of the moment: that sex work is work. Adopting a fly-on-the-wall, day-in-the-life approach, Borden focuses on the logistics of the operation: office politics, irritating co-workers, calls for teamwork that border on exploitation. In other words, it’s about the pressures and irritations of a profession, and in approaching her subject in such a matter-of-fact, non-judgmental fashion, Borden normalizes rather than sensationalizes, a feat that’s still elusive to this day. (Includes audio commentary, new conversations, and essay by So Mayer.)

Bringing Up Baby”: Criterion adds to its robust selection of screwball classics with this 1938 all-timer from the great Howard Hawks, with Cary Grant as an uptight paleontologist on the eve of what promises to be a dull-as-toast marriage, and Katharine Hepburn as the dizzy high-society dame who turns his life upside down. Audiences didn’t take to it at first, but its reputation and influence grew; “What’s Up, Doc?” and “Who’s That Girl” are basically remakes, while the button-down-guy/wild girl dynamic reappeared in movies like “Something Wild” and “After Hours.” But in spite of all those echoes, “Bringing Up Baby” remains its own, deliciously daffy thing – breathlessly paced, crisply acted, and riotously funny. (Includes audio commentary, new and archival interviews, video essay, Hawks documentary, trailer, and essay by Sheila O’Malley.)

Mirror”: Andrei Tarkovsky’s best known films – such as his previous Criterion releases “Solaris” and “Stalker” – aren’t exactly straightforward narratives, but this 1975 drama is esoteric even by his standards. It’s one of his most structurally and tonally experimental, more of an essay / memory film, a mosaic of recalled and imagined scenes and conversations, archival footage, contemporary reflection, and evocative, highly literary voice-over narration. Yet it never feels confused (or less than deliberate, even), thanks to his expert use of shifting looks and styles to match the moods and time frames. It’s a difficult film, but a highly rewarding one. (Includes documentaries, new and archival interviews, and essay by Carmen Gray.)

Mr. Jealousy”: Noah Baumbach’s sophomore feature (following up the borderline perfection of “Kicking and Screaming”) was indifferently received by critics and audiences in 1997, and he didn’t direct again for eight long years. On this retrospective viewing (courtesy of the MVD Marquee Collection), it remains one of his lesser works – it wears its French New Wave influences too proudly on its sleeve, and never quite makes up its mind about its protagonists. But there’s also a lot to love here; Baumbach’s dialogue is as wise and witty as ever, he makes savvy use of his New York locations, and the performances (from Eric Stoltz, Annabella Sciorra, Chris Eigelman, and especially Carlos Jacott) are aces. (Includes featurette and trailer.) 

Treasure of the Ninja and the Films of William Lee”: William Lee didn’t just write, direct, and star in the 1987 film “Treasure of the Ninja,” the centerpiece of this new collection from AGFA; he’s also credited as executive producer and martial arts coordinator, as well as supplying (Orson Welles-style) the voices of several other actors (and actresses!). Yes, folks, we’re in DIY action movie territory here, and Lee gives you exactly what you’d expect – synth-heavy songs, chunky graphics, homemade sound effects, clunky camerawork, amateur performances – plugged into a plot that combines as many ‘80s tropes as possible (ninjas, archaeology, zombies, and even a little breakdancing). It’s goofy as hell and entirely too long, but it’s nevertheless a blast to watch, pulsing with energy and enthusiasm, and the fight scenes are better than in most of Lee’s big-budget counterparts of the era. (Includes audio commentary, two additional features, and short films.) 

Road to Salina”: “She thought I was her son,” he explains. “I thought she was crazy.” The “she” is Mara (played by Rita Hayworth in her penultimate film performance), owner of a desert service station; he is Jonas (Robert Walker), a young drifter who decides that if this old lady wants to feed and house him for pretending to be her son, well, he can go along with that for a while. And then he meets his “sister” (Mimsy Farmer), and, well, things get complicated. George Lautner’s 1970 film plays like an embryo for the erotic thrillers of later decades, all buried secrets and bare flesh and mind games, but it’s also distinctively of its time, with the hazy feeling, dream logic, and uncertain vibe of that particular moment in the late ‘60s when the stylistic signatures of European art films were crash-landing into American cinema. It doesn’t all work, but it’s certainly never boring. (Includes audio commentary and trailers.)