Now Stream This: ‘Sneakers’, ‘Bound’, ‘A Most Violent Year’, ‘Time After Time’, ‘Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey’ and More

(Welcome to Now Stream This, a column dedicated to the best movies streaming on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and every other streaming service out there.) 

Need something to watch? What are you looking for? Perhaps a time travel love story? A paranoid conspiracy theory? A rom-com? A sexy thriller? A breezy espionage comedy? One of the weirdest sequels ever made? All that and more awaits you in the latest edition of Now Stream This. As always, I’ve combed several streaming services and brought back some great recommendations for you to enjoy.

These are the best movies streaming right now. Let’s get streaming.

The Best Movies Streaming Right Now

1. Sneakers
Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Release Date: 1992

Genre: Spy comedy

Director: Phil Alden Robinson

Cast: Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier and David Strathairn

Sneakers is a classy, funny, low-stakes espionage flick with one killer cast. This film is like a relic – it’s almost impossible to imagine a studio giving a greenlight to a film like this now. Robert Redford stars as a hacker who runs a security company populated by former CIA agents, hackers and other suspicious characters. Redford and his team get drawn into a caper that involves an old “friend” from Redford’ past, and things get deadly. Few things in life are as enjoyable as watching Sneakers, the movie equivalent of a person at a party who is just happy to be here. Everyone is dynamite here, particularly David Strathairn, playing a blind man with an extremely apt sense of hearing. And boy oh boy is James Horner’s jazzy, pounding-piano based score a hoot.

For fans of: Three Days of the Condor, The Parallax View, WarGames, utterly charming movies.

 

2. Bound
Now Streaming on Hulu

Release Date: 1996

Genre: Sexy Thriller

Director: The Wachowskis

Cast: Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano

The Wachowskis made their feature debut with this extremely sexy, extremely clever thriller. There’s style to boot – the opening title card alone has more style than most modern movies. And there’s twists galore. Gina Gershon is an ex-con working as a plumber in apartment building. There, she catches the eye of Jennifer Tilly, the moll to gangster Joe Pantoliano. Tilly and Pantoliano may technically be together, but it’s Gershon that Tilly is drawn to. Soon the women are engaged in a passionate affair, and they come up with a very dangerous idea: they’re going to steal a lot of money from Pantoliano and the mob. What could go wrong? Everything. The Wachowskis stage one tense moment after the next and more and more problems present themselves to Gershon and Tilly. Will they get away clean? You’ll have to watch to the end. You won’t be disappointed.

For fans of: In the Cut, High Art, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Joe Pantoliano’s extreme Chicago accent.

 

3. Time After Time
Now Streaming on FilmStruck

Release Date: 1979

Genre: Time Travel Romance Thriller

Director: Nicholas Meyer

Cast: Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, and Mary Steenburgen

Here’s something you don’t see every day: a movie about author H.G. Wells battling Jack the Ripper. Time After Time is a romantic, loopy film about romance, destiny, murder and time travel. What’s not to love? Malcolm McDowell plays H.G. Wells, the author of The Time Machine who has just happened to invent a real time machine of his own. David Warner is John Leslie Stevenson, a friend of Wells’ who also happens to be Jack the Ripper. When Scotland Yard closes in on Stevenson, he uses Wells’ time machine to jump forward in time to 1979. Wells goes after him. Both men find themselves in a strange new world. The stuffy, proper Wells has a very hard time adjusting to the vice-ridden world of the 1970s. The murderous Stevenson, meanwhile, fits right in. Along the way, Wells falls in love with a bank teller played by Mary Steenburgen, in an effortlessly endearing performance. I know this premise sounds absolutely insane, but it works so well. McDowell is exceptional as the gentlemanly Wells, and Warner is menacing yet appealing as the the Ripper. This film was turned into a crappy TV series in 2017. It got cancelled after five episodes. Forget about it and just watch the movie.

For fans of: The Time Machine, Groundhog Day, Back to the Future, getting the Cyndi Lauper song stuck in your head every time you see the title.

 

4. Obvious Child
Now Streaming On Netflix

Release Date: 2014

Genre: Rom-Com (about abortion)

Director: Gillian Robespierre

Cast: Jenny Slate, Jake Lacy, Gaby Hoffmann and David Cross.

Obvious Child is the anti-Knocked Up. The film was billed as an “abortion comedy”, and that’s pretty much exactly what it is. And it works. The film doesn’t treat the subject of abortion as a crass joke, but instead approaches it in a very matter-of-fact, refreshingly honest way. Jenny Slate, who is so good here she should’ve netted an Oscar nom, is a stand-up comic who falls into a one-night-stand with the dopey-but-nice Jake Lacy. The night results in Slate’s character getting pregnant, and decides to terminate the pregnancy. At the same time, she also finds herself falling for Lacy’s character, and the two stumble into an awkward but cute relationship. On paper, Obvious Child sounds like it shouldn’t work. But the script by director Gillian Robespierre is so witty, funny and smart that it all plays out perfectly. The movie is funny, yes, but it also has moments of surprising but effective drama, particularly a late scene in which Slate’s character talks with her mother (Polly Draper) about the impending abortion. “We don’t make abortion funny,” Robespierre said. “We make a character funny and put her through tragic things, and we put her through silly things, and we put her through quiet moments too. Even a funny character gets their quiet moment.”

For fans of: Landline, Citizen Ruth, The Skeleton Twins, Jenny Slate climbing into a cardboard box.

 

5. Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey
Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video…and also FilmStruck

Release Date: 1991

Genre: Weird-as-hell sequel

Director: Pete Hewitt

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, William Sadler, Joss Ackland, George Carlin

Are you ready for the most controversial opinion of all time? Here it is: Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey is better than Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I know Excellent Adventure is more beloved, and that’s fine. But Bogus Journey is an entity unto itself. It is an unapologetically weird, staggering surreal, frequently disturbing sci-fi comedy that dares you to like it. The type of sequel that says, “Remember all that fun stuff from the first film? Well, fuck that. We’re doing something crazy instead!” The first film had a goofy slacker energy. Bogus Journey is more like a bad dream, or a bad trip. And I love it. Having conquered time travel, airhead rockers Bill and Ted (Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves) must now conquer death itself. After evil robot clones of themselves (it’s a long story) kill them, Bill and Ted end up in the afterlife. They travel to a very disturbing hell, an abstract heaven, and befriend the Grim Reaper himself (a scene-stealing William Sadler). Oh, also, their’s a weird, disgusting nude alien. Trust me, all of this is amazing.

For fans of: The Seventh Seal, Gremlins 2, Repo Man, terrifying Easter Bunny puppets.

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