Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-upshere.
Ali G: Who Iz I? (Sacha Baron Cohen)
After a perfunctory, slimmed-down theatrical release last weekend, Sacha Baron Cohen’s feature directorial debut has now arrived on Prime Video. Anyone familiar with the comedian’s hijinks, and particularly Borat 2 and Who Is America?, will know what to expect when it comes to this Ali G sequel: a clunky and strained (albeit sporadically funny) reckoning with modern political and societal ills that feels a little too late to the game to pack a genuinely hilarious punch. As streaming slop, one could get much worse, but especially with his last few projects, it feels like Baron Cohen is seemingly content with shooting fish in a barrel.
Where to Stream: Prime Video
American Doctor (Poh Si Teng)
Poh Si Teng’sAmerican Doctoris a harrowing, heartbreaking portrait of Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian doctors who are risking their lives to tend to the overwhelming victims of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and speak the truth in any way they can. Dan Mecca said inhis Sundance review, “When will this end? When will this bloodshed stop? And when will the United States of America stop supporting it? Filmmaker Poh Si Teng offers a clear-eyed, unrelenting look at the genocide in Gaza with her documentaryAmerican Doctor. It follows three doctors––Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, Dr. Thaer Ahmad, and Dr. Mark Perlmutter––that are consistently trying to save lives in the Gaza Strip. On some trips they are approved to enter. On others they are denied for specious reasons. Dr. Perlmutter is Jewish, Dr. Sidhwa is Zoroastrian, and Dr. Ahmad is Palestinian. Their mission is the mission of all medical professionals: to heal everyone they can.”
Where to Stream: Watermelon+ (for free through November 6 only)
Black Zombie (Maya Annik Bedward)
More than reclaiming the zombie motif from the knee-jerk response that Night of the Living Dead inhibited, Maya Annik Bedward’s Black Zombie is a reclamation of Vodou from the colonial fear-mongering that used it to demonize Black people the world over. Because it’s 2026 and Haitians are still cautious to admit their connection to the religion. There’s still an outsider belief that Haiti’s recent hardships are a result of its ancestors making a pact with the Devil. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Kino Film Collection
The Dog Stars (Ridley Scott)
The Dog Stars—an adaptation of Peter Heller’s hit novel of the same name—follows Hig, aka “Big Hig” (Jacob Elordi), a thirty-something everyman mechanic who lost his pregnant wife to the flu virus that wiped out most of the world. He lives alongside his dog, Jasper, in an airport hangar outside of Denver. His only companion is Bangley (Josh Brolin), another survivor who, unlike Hig, is content with the quaint, gray, quiet life they lead (which doesn’t look terribly different from some rural American living situations today). To Bangley, protecting property is paramount and the very concept of new faces invites trouble. Hig, however, is willing to brave that dark; the risk of unknown danger weighs less to him than the potential benefit of discovering a community. And he has a lead. – Luke H. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Filipiñana (Rafael Manuel)
When Janine (Nour Hooshmand) asks Isabel (Jorrybell Agoto) what the Ilocos region of the Philippines is like—she’s only ever heard it was beautiful without having visited herself—she explains that many spots look and feel just like the posh golf course where they work. What should just be a point of comparison to better understand an unknown, however, is soon revealed as a very purposeful juxtaposition. – Jared M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
If I Go Will They Miss Me (Walter Thompson-Hernández)
Finding poetic beauty in the quotidian, Walter Thompson-Hernández’sIf I Go Will They Miss Mecenters on coming of age in housing projects of southern Los Angeles. It’s a way of life often depicted with a grittiness that favors do-or-die intensity, yet this emerging director of great promise takes an opposite approach. One where dreams of flight are always on the mind as the planes coming in and out of nearby LAX are constantly passing above. Greek gods, as studied in school, give purpose to a higher calling. An affection and adoration for and from its ensemble (many non-professionals, in this case) form a portrait of a living, loving community that rises above hardship. Just as his characters draw grand personal inspiration, Thompson-Hernández is greatly indebted to a variety of renowned directors, including Barry Jenkins, RaMell Ross, Charles Burnett, and Spike Lee, with the end result a film greater than the sum of its recognizable influences. Continue reading my full review.
Where to Stream: VOD
Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant (THUNDERLIPS)
A highlight as part of the Sundance midnight section earlier this year, the New Zealand oddity Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant takes its premise—a slacker getting, as promised, extraterrestrially pregnant—to its ultimate conclusion. It’s a B-movie delight that also voices quite a bit about what often goes unsaid around social and personal fears surrounding physical and emotional changes during pregnancy.
Where to Stream: VOD
Never After Dark (Dave Boyle)
Clearly inspired by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (including casting his frequent collaborator Mutsuo Yoshioka and going so far to plan a remake of Pulse), Dave Boyle’s creepy chiller Never After Dark is a stylish yet thoughtful pre-October treat. Following a traveling psychic who uncovers dark secrets at a remote house, Boyle’s Japanese production may take its time to deliver the goods, but when the blood spills, it is done in quite memorable fashion.
Where to Stream: VOD
Seeds (Brittany Shyne)
Evoking Gordon Park’s black-and-white photographs of the New Deal Era, cinematographer Brittany Shyne’s powerful debut feature Seeds offers a portrait of a disappearing way of life for Black farmers in the American South. Its casual approach mostly reflects rhythms of life in a vérité style that’s occasionally broken when the camera is acknowledged. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: PBS
Also New to Streaming
Kino Film Collection
The Shiver of the Vampires
Paramount+
Hanging by a Wire
VOD
Forgotten Island
The Stunt Driver
Verity
