Instant Picks of the Week 10/21/16
Gone are the days of scrolling mindlessly through your queue! No longer will you have to sift through the vastness of what’s coming to the instant viewing wastelands this month! Whether you’re looking for a stellar film or an exciting new show to binge, Instant Picks of the Week brings you the hottest releases in film and television on instant viewing platforms that we know you’ll love, or at the very least not despise.
HIT & MISS (Amazon Prime)
On paper, HIT & MISS seems like it would never work, and that’s exactly what makes it so great. The six part British drama revolves around Mia, a transgender assassin who becomes the matriarch of her recently deceased girlfriend’s family, including her own young son, Ryan. It’s an unabashedly odd alchemy of concepts that constructs an original and thoughtful narrative. Chloë Sevigny, a well-established indie actress, is dynamic in the lead. She makes Mia’s contrasting roles as both a mother and gun for hire feel believable and serve as a jarring reminder that people are never just one thing. The four children are also all excellent actors whose youth never deters the complexity of their characters’ stories.
The rural setting is well utilized, as the vastness of Yorkshire England feels both physically limitless and emotionally oppressive, becoming impossible for its characters to escape it. HIT & MISS is a unique combination of interconnected stories that are told very well. It’s absolutely worth the six hour investment, because it’s the kind of show that’s remembered years after it is finished. [April French]
INSTRUCTIONS NOT INCLUDED (Netflix)
My mom speaks in broken English. It’s not her fault; her first language is Spanish and she immigrated to the United States when she was in her 30s. So when I stumbled upon a trailer for a Mexican film featuring a man who also has to make a transition to the States, I thought it would be a fun watch for the both of us, and it surprised me how much emotion it evoked from me.
INSTRUCTIONS NOT INCLUDED follows the story of a playboy named Valentin Bravo, whose last thought in the world is fatherhood, until an old American fling of his practically leaves a baby on his doorstep and claims that it’s his, then disappearing for several years. Eventually falling under the baby’s charm, he moves to the United States in order to give her a proper life, taking a job as a stuntman in Hollywood. All is well, and the two are very happy until the mother returns and attempts to fight for her custody.
Wonderfully framed with Bravo’s childhood fears, Bravo has to face his adult fears as well, including losing his daughter both in a DNA test and to illness. Culturally executed in the most wonderful manner, INSTRUCTIONS NOT INCLUDED is packed with heart and meaning that will extend further than the credits scene. [Michelle Vera]
