Streaming: Recent “Small” Movies you May Have Overlooked – Part 1

by Len Weiler

It’s always the case that some fine films get overlooked in the marketplace - and so in the public consciousness as well. Sometimes it’s because a film gets released during the awards season flurry of autumn or early winter and gets lost amidst the hype for higher profile projects.  In some cases, the producers and distributors simply decide not to put money into promoting their film - maybe because they can’t get a handle on who the audience might be or on how to pitch an unusual story; or perhaps because there are no bigtime stars involved or the director is an unknown.   Whatever.

Some of these neglected movies are quite decent or even excellent, and those deserve to be seen. So, in this and my next post I want to highlight a few recent under-the-radar pictures in that category. All are currently available for streaming, and I think you will enjoy them. 

Today’s crop includes the following titles (in alphabetical order):

His Three Daughters (2024)
Lake George (2024)
The Last Stop in Yuma County (2023)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024)

His Three Daughters had a limited theatrical release in early September 2024, and within two weeks it was streaming on Netflix. Let’s face it, most people watch Netflix for its limited series and documentaries, not so much for movies – although Netflix releases plenty of those - well over 150 films last year alone. Which is part of the problem. So, while this excellent film has gained a small following on Netflix, it isn’t exactly a tidal wave like Bridgerton or The Squid Games.

His Three Daughters was written and directed by Azazel Jacobs, a relative  unknown, but it stars three terrific actresses: Carrie Coon (The White Lotus [season 2]); Elizabeth Olsen [Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), Wind River (2017)]; and Natasha Lyonne [Orange Is the New Black (2013-19), Russian Doll (2019-22)].   It’s essentially a chamber piece, a dramatic story of three estranged sisters who come together to care for their dying father in his New York apartment. It ought to be a time of reconciliation, of coming together for Dad’s benefit during his final days, but what with their remarkably different temperaments, life styles and priorities, not to mention their the long history of sibling quarrels and resentments, this is not easy. 

The picture is beautifully constructed: it compels our interest over the course of its one hundred minutes, as it paints a complex portrait of each of these sharply disparate characters. Along the way, I found my sympathies shifting between the three women, aligning first with one, then another as I learned more about each of them and their histories. By the end each had earned my empathy. As it should be.  

His Three Daughters is a revealing, touching, occasionally funny, rewarding movie – rich, engrossing and highly recommended. 

Critical scores - IMDB: 7.2,  Metacritic: 84,  Rotten Tomatoes - Critics: 98%

Available on Netflix  [free with subscription].

Lake George is an entertaining, somewhat lighthearted crime-doesn’t-pay movie. This one has flown even more under the radar than His Three Daughters. I first saw it in June 2024 at the Tribeca Festival, its only festival appearance, as far as I can tell. That December, it had a very limited theatrical release (at just eleven theaters) and at the same time became available for streaming. There was little, if any, promotion. 

The film is written and directed by Jeffrey Reiner, who has been a producer and director, largely in TV, for about thirty years - probably best known for producing and directing the series Friday Night Lights (2006-2009) and The Affair (2014-2017). Lake George again stars Carrie Coon, this time opposite Shea Whigham. Both of these actors are known for their excellent work in secondary roles. Before White Lotus, Coon was best known, for example, for her supporting performance in Gone Girl (2014); while Whigham may best be remembered for his role as Eli Thompson in the series Boardwalk Empire (2010-2014)

IMDB tags Lake George as a “crime thriller”, but it’s not so much a thriller, as it is a noirish, darkly funny dramedy. Whigham plays Don, a sad sack ex-con, formerly an insurance adjuster, just released from the pen after doing time for fraud – perpetrated in cahoots with an L.A. crime boss called Armen (Glenn Fleshler). Armen lawyered up and beat the rap, but did nothing for Don. When Don goes to Armen’s mansion to collect the $60k he is still owed, Armen conditions payment on Don doing one more little job for him: get rid of my disloyal wife, Phyllis. We’ve seen plenty of “just one more job” pictures, but this one’s got more than a few unexpected twists. Starting with two facts: one, Don is not a killer and two, Phyllis is a remarkably good actress as played by Coon, a great one.

Lake George may not be a masterpiece, but it is an entertaining ride. A bit of menace, a bit of violence, a bunch of surprises and lots of bittersweet, noirish fun.   

Critical scores - IMDB: 6.4,  Metacritic: 71,  Rotten Tomatoes - Critics: 96%

Available to rent on AppleTV, Amazon, Fandango and other platforms

The Last Stop In Yuma County, like Lake George, is an indie movie that the distributors didn’t quite know what to do with (or perhaps did not have the wherewithal to do much with). It had a very modest release in May 2024 (45 theaters), then went immediately to internet streaming. Like me, most of the relatively few critics that have reviewed Last Stop in Yuma County really like it. A couple of examples:

    Thrilling Noir Film You Absolutely Shouldn’t Miss  … a film that ranks as the year’s most welcome moviegoing surprise - Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

    An Accomplished Pressure-Cooker Thriller That’s Like A Tarantino-Fueled Noir, 30 Years Later - Owen Glieberman, Variety

The film is written and directed by newcomer Francis Gallupi and populated with a number of actors not yet famous, all of whom do a nice job. I was going ton say “credible”, but that may give an incorrect impression: pretty much all of the characters in the film are types, slightly exaggerated for weird and/or humorous effects.

Last Stop in Yuma County begins early one morning in a remote western service station and diner far from anything, on a lonely road – not unlike Highway 50, “the loneliest road in America”, except this one is situated in the Arizona desert. It’s the early 1970s.  The first person to arrive is a quiet, timorous man – a knife salesman to be specific (Jim Cummings), who looks eerily like Anthony Perkins in Psycho. The gas station is run by Vernon, who apologetically tells this guy that there’s no gas at the moment, but he’s expecting a fuel truck shortly. The next service station is 100 miles down the road, he says, suggesting that the salesman might want to wait next door at the diner. 

The diner hasn’t yet opened, and while the salesman waits, we hear on his car radio news of a violent bank robbery in the region. The perpetrators are on the run, armed and dangerous. Soon the diner’s pretty proprietor/waitress Charlotte (Jocelyn Donahue) arrives - [note, she’s dropped off by the local sheriff] - opens up the place, brews some coffee, and tries to chat up our salesman. 

Not long after, another car pulls up to the gas pumps with two guys inside, Travis and Beau, and just from the look of ‘em – especially the very much misnamed Beau - we just know they are the bank robbers.  Receiving similar advice from Vernon, they too enter the diner, make their way to a corner table, and glower sinisterly. More stranded travelers start to show up - various archetypes, including a pair of Bonnie and Clyde wannabes. A distinctly odd atmosphere of tension and foreboding is building.  How is this going to end?

Gallupi shows a remarkably sure hand in creating an offbeat mood and balancing this with a genuinely thrilling story with surprising, original twists. You’ll notice – in a good way – some of his influences, like early Joel and Ethan Coen, early Sam Raimi, and early Quentin Tarantino. Good company to be in. 

Critical scores -  IMDB: 6.9,  Metacritic: 72,  Rotten Tomatoes - Critics: 97%.

Available on Paramount+ (free with subscription); or to rent on AppleTV, Amazon, Fandango and other platforms.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is not exactly an under-the-radar film as far as cinephiles are concerned. But despite a strong critical consensus, its box office take in the US and Canada combined is under $900,000, a relative pittance. Why? One reason is that it’s a foreign language picture  and subtitled – which is a hard sell here in North America. Also, it has a long run time – at two hours 47 minutes. But as the many accolades it has received attest, this is a pretty great movie, and ought not be missed. 

The backstory is also interesting. This Iranian film had to be filmed secretly, without the required pre-approval from the state.  The subject matter of The Seed of the Sacred Fig - Iran’s cruel suppression of free speech and due process - is unflattering to the theocratic rulers of Iran, who do not tolerate criticism or dissent in any form. To prove the point, before the film was released, the regime sentenced Mohammad Rasoulof, who wrote, co-produced and directed it, to eight years imprisonment.  It’s available to us only because he managed to escape to Germany before the sentence could be carried out.    

The story centers on a man named Iman and his family, consisting of his wife Najmeh and their two daughters, Rezvan, who is just starting college, and Sana, a few years younger. It takes place in 2022, during the nation-wide political protests against the harsh repression. Iman, a devout man and dutiful lawyer, has worked for the country’s Revolutionary Court in Tehran for years and has just been promoted to become an Investigating Judge.  His new position that carries with it a higher salary, and just as significantly, a much larger apartment in an upscale neighborhood. This is especially welcome to Najmeh, not just for practical reasons but also for the boost to her social status; but it comes at a significant moral price for Iman. He soon learns that the job requires him to blindly sign off on the harsh sentences for protestors dictated by the Prosecutor, which often include the death penalty, without conducting any investigation himself. If he refuses, he will be stripped of his new position - and perhaps banished or prosecuted himself.

Meanwhile, his daughters are outraged at the government’s harsh, bloody crackdowns on protestors including some of their friends. Famously, a young women arrested for not following the orthodox dress codes was killed. Najmeh, who loves her daughters heart and soul and is loyally devoted to her husband, is caught in the middle. Thus begins a thrilling, heartrending, first-rate, action-packed drama, with terrific performances by all the principals.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is fascinating on many levels, not least because it gives us insight into the lives of ordinary Iranians.  It is one of my absolute favorite films of 2024. Among many other honors, it was a finalist for the Best International Film Oscar, was awarded multiple prizes at Cannes, and received the SF Bay Area Film Critics award for Best Int’l Film, and the LA Film Critics award for Best Director. 

Critical scores -  IMDB: 7.6,  Metacritic: 84,  Rotten Tomatoes - Critics: 97%, Audience:94%.

Available to rent on AppleTV, Amazon, Fandango and other platforms