This week brings an all-new slate of movies and shows to the streams, from the Shane MacGowan documentary Crock of Gold via Hollywood Theatre to a new season of Big Mouth Remind Like List on Netflix to Darius Marder's debut Sound of Metal Remind Like List on Amazon Prime. Read on for our full roundup of picks below. Plus, if you haven't heard, the Mercury's amateur porn film festival HUMP! is accepting submissions through January 8, as is the stoner short film fest SPLIFF, through March 5!

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LOCALLY STREAMING: NEW & NOTEWORTHY

The Changin' Times of Ike White Past Event Like List
Released in 1974, Changin' Times was the first commercial album recorded inside an American prison by an inmate, Ike White, who at 19 was sentenced to life for murder and eventually released under the endorsement of Stevie Wonder. This documentary delves into the R&B artist's life and unconventional career.
Hollywood Theatre
Starting Friday

Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan
You know Shane MacGowan as the wild-toothed lead singer of the Irish punk-rock band the Pogues, but Julien Temple's documentary delves into the musician's story before achieving fame, highlighting his extensive knowledge of music. Variety classifies it "in the upper echelon of recent rock docs."
Hollywood Theatre
Starting Friday

Sing Me a Song
Returning to one of the subjects of his 2013 drama Happiness, Thomas Balmès's new film follows a teenage boy studying in a monastery in the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, where smartphones and other modern technology are beginning to compete with ancient practices. Zoomer that he is, the music-loving student strikes up a friendship with a singer on WeChat from the capital city of Thimphu, and he ends up selling medicinal mushrooms to raise enough money to meet her IRL. 
Cinema 21

FILM FESTIVALS

HUMP! Greatest Hits, Volume 2 Past Event Like List
The HUMP! team is bringing back some fan-favorite amateur porn shorts from years past in the second volume of streamable compilations.
EverOut
Saturday only

Wild & Scenic Film Festival 2020 Past Event Like List
Usually held in Bend, the Oregon Natural Desert Association will host this year's online Wild & Scenic Film Festival, which showcases environmental and adventure films with subjects ranging from urban honey bee farms to the Arctic Circle to the coral reefs of the Caribbean.
Friday-Sunday

NATIONAL

Big Mouth: Season 4 Remind Like List
Along with well-known stars like Nick Kroll, it seems that all the funniest indie podcast hosts and comedians write, have written, or voice a character on Big Mouth (like Iconography's Ayo Edebri and Keep It's Aida Osman). Knowing that, we have high hopes for the new season of this adult animated show about preteens hitting puberty.
Netflix
Starting Friday

Chef Remind Like List
Jon Favreau plays Carl, a once-promising chef who’s settled into comfortable mediocrity at a high-end LA restaurant. When a critic (Oliver Platt) pans his food as “needy” and uninspired, Carl promptly has a public breakdown that goes viral and renders him unhireable in the fancy food world. Eventually, though, Carl finds his bliss: cooking Cuban street food from an old taco truck. 
Netflix

Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes Remind Like List
If you missed the broadcast of the Radio City Rockettes' Christmas Special on NBC, which was recorded at the Radio City Music Hall in Rockefeller Center and features special appearances from Jenna Dewan, Whoopi Goldberg, Josh Groban, Carla Hall, Padma Lakshmi, and John Legend, you can stream it on Peacock at your convenience.
Peacock

Euphoria Christmas Special Past Event Like List
While the second season of HBO's incredible Gen-Z drama series is on hold until the pandemic lets up, we will get a special one-off holiday episode revolving around where the events of the season 1 finale leave our main character, Rue (Zendaya). 
HBO Max
Starting Sunday

The Fifth Element Remind Like List
Prince was the inspiration for Ruby Rhod, the most striking character in the 1997 film The Fifth Element. Indeed, the director wanted Prince to play the role. He could revisit the delicious extravagances of Christopher Tracy (the character Prince played in Under the Cherry Moon), and even wear a totally nutty and diaphanous costume designed by the film’s wardrobe supervisor, Jean Paul Gaultier. But Prince didn’t like Gaultier’s design for Ruby Rhod (he described it as too effeminate!), and he turned down the role that would immortalize Chris Tucker for millions. Tucker simply stole the movie, which, to be honest, was not hard to do because The Fifth Element is not great. Rhod’s funky walk, his ridiculous fast talk, his popping sexual energy, his blurring between straight and gay, his uppity entourage—all of this is just a remix of Prince-groomed band, Morris Day and the Time. In The Fifth Element, the standard Chris Tucker shtick vanishes in his portrayal of a galactic Prince on a spaceship to the stars. CHARLES MUDEDE
Hulu

The Great British Baking Show: Holidays (Season 3) Remind Like List
Fresh out of serotonin? A new season of the most genteel cooking competition show on TV returns with a bevy of Yuletide-treat challenges, from gingerbread houses to penguin cake pops. 
Netflix
Starting Friday

The Hardy Boys Remind Like List
Brothers Frank and Joe, the protagonists of the nostalgic mystery chapter-book series The Hardy Boys, come to life courtesy of Rohan Campbell and Alexander Elliot in this new sleuthy Hulu series. The adaptation bumps Joe's age up to 13 and Frank to 16 to make this feel less like a kids' show, and it also elaborates on the sudden death of their mother as their reason for being moved to the country to live with their Aunt Trudy.
Hulu
Starting Friday

Mank Remind Like List
The newest film from David Fincher, Mank, is here and it's most certainly not what we expected from the director. It's a black and white, semi-autobiographical biopic of writer Herman J. Mankiewicz as he works on the screenplay for the acclaimed film Citizen Kane. It's been six years since Fincher made his last film, Gone Girl. This new feature could not be more different. I can't overstate how much it stands out as an odd entry in Fincher’s filmography. To be clear, odd does not mean bad. Just different. The praiseworthy aspects remain Fincher's devout commitment to creating precise visuals with near-perfect shot construction. One particular scene is when Gary Oldman's Mankiewicz, who prefers to go by the titular Mank, strolls onto a film set while nursing a hangover. Everything is meticulously crafted, and Fincher creates a unique feeling of being in a fantasy world that also happens to be sharply witty. CHASE HUTCHINSON
Netflix
Starting Friday

Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special Remind Like List
Christmas queen of the 21st century, Mariah Carey, brings on the additional star-power of Tiffany Haddish, Ariana Grande, and Jennifer Hudson in her latest musical holiday special that should serve as a fine visual supplement to her beloved holiday album.
Apple TV+
Starting Friday

Nate — A One Man Show Remind Like List
Comedian Natalie Palamides flip-flops the traditional Netflix stand-up special model by adopting the persona of an alpha male who's leaning into his sensitive side.
Netflix

Runaway Bride Remind Like List
Julia Roberts and Richard Gier star in this post-Pretty Woman rom-com, not as an obscenely rich dude and a prostitute who fall in love, but as a journalist (Gier) chasing a small-town story about a woman (Roberts) who can't stop running away from the altar. (It was clearly a slow news week in this fictional world.) It's a perfect movie to put on in the background while you're baking cookies, polishing your spoons, or mending your socks. 
Netflix

The Secret Garden Remind Like List
When a spoiled Mary Lennox loses her parents to cholera and is sent to live with her uncle (Colin Firth) on his remote country estate in the Yorkshire moors, she discovers a hidden magical garden. This Hulu adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 novel looks expectedly whimsical. 
Hulu
Starting Sunday

Selena: The Series Remind Like List
Tejano pop superstar Selena gets the Netflix biopic treatment in this nine-episode series chronicling her journey from childhood to mega-stardom, featuring a full Latnix cast led by Christian Serratos.
Netflix
Starting Friday

Sorry We Missed You Remind Like List
From British filmmaker Ken Loach (Loach on Loach, Jimmy's Hall) comes a working-class family drama that exposes the maybe-not-so secret dark side of the gig economy. The New York Times' Wesley Morris calls Loach "one of Earth’s most venerable and venerated directors."
Criterion Channel

Sound of Metal Remind Like List
Sound of Metal is a transcendent film that happens to be deeply grounded. It feels revolutionary, weaving a profound rhythm into its quietest moments. It stars Riz Ahmed as Ruben, a drummer for a metal band who discovers he's rapidly losing his hearing and with it almost his entire way of living. Ruben fears he'll no longer be able to perform and that he'll lose his girlfriend, Olivia Cooke's Lou, a source of stability in his life who tours with him. The path Ruben must undertake requires him to reevaluate his entire sense of self and identity. Sound of Metal explores Deaf—with a capital D—community and culture in a way few other pieces of cinema have, breaking down prevailing notions outsiders might have. The richer reality, which the film taps into, is that the Deaf community is vast in background and beliefs. The film complicates the often leveled-down narrative of the community, exploding what life can be like for those who experience some form of deafness. CHASE HUTCHINSON
Amazon Prime
Starting Friday

 

LOCALLY STREAMING: ONGOING

Beasts Clawing at Straws
This sharp new feature from Korean director Kim Yong-hoon follows a group of down-on-their-luck misfits who hunt for the bigger fortune behind a Louis Vuitton bag stuffed with cash. 
Hollywood Theater

City Hall
From acclaimed director Frederick Wiseman, who's been making documentary epics for decades, comes another standout. Not to be confused with the 1996 thriller starring Al Pacino, City Hall takes a strictly observational look at the Boston City government and its Mayor Marty Walsh. When I say observational, I can't overstate how much that defines the film. City Hall doesn’t feature the typical talking heads and cutaways that make up most documentaries. Instead, we're a fly on the wall, watching meetings on meetings about the future of the city of Boston. It's often riveting and enlightening though it may not be the type of doc you pop on to unwind after a long day of doomscrolling. This is mostly due to the documentary being over four and a half hours long. WAIT! Don’t let that put you off. If that's too daunting, watch it in segments with breaks. CHASE HUTCHINSON
Cinema 21

Coded Bias Past Event Like List
When MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers that most facial-recognition software does not accurately identify certain mugs (those with dark skin and feminine features, specifically), she delves intoan investigation of widespread bias in algorithms.
Northwest Film Center

Collective Past Event Like List
An unflinching look at the investigative journalists of the Romanian newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor, Collective is a necessary examination of the corruption that can spread unchecked without a robust press to hold it accountable. It takes place following the horrifying fatal 2015 fire at the Collectiv nightclub in Bucharest, Romania. The fire killed 27 people. Widespread government health care fraud, corruption, and greed on all levels would kill 37 more. The film shows footage of the initial fire itself, caused by a pyrotechnic effect that set alight soundproofing foam, and the chaos that ensued. It is a starkly terrible event, which only makes it more horrific that the aftermath saw more preventable death. When the fire was put out, the horror continued for the victims and their families. The focus of the documentary is journalists Cătălin Tolontan, Mirela Neag, and Răzvan Luţac, who head up the team that blows the lid off the entire scandal. It is their reporting that shakes the country to its core. CHASE HUTCHINSON
Hollywood Theatre

The Dark Divide Past Event Like List
This new documentary starring David Cross and Deborah Messing is based on the true story of renowned butterfly expert Dr. Robert Pyle’s 1995 journey across one of America’s largest undeveloped wildlands.
Hollywood Theater and Northwest Film Center

DOCNYC Remind Like List
Touting itself as "America's largest documentary film festival," the online edition of this NYC-based, celebrity-packed annual event (whose special guests from previous years have ranged from Hillary Clinton to Itzhak Perlman to Martin Scorsese to Big Bird) will move online for all to enjoy.
Cinema 21

Free Time Remind Like List
For his latest work, the 88-year-old director Manny Kirchheimer (Stations of the Elevated, Dream of a City) restored 16mm footage that he and his friend Walter Hess (heard of him?) shot in New York between 1958 and 1960, which shows a different version of the city we're used to seeing—one filled with quiet "in-between moments" and architecture around the boroughs.
Cinema 21

Ganja & Hess Past Event Like List
In Bill Gunn’s classic 1973 Blaxploitation horror, the protagonists combat racist cultural stereotypes through vampirism after Dr. Hess Green, an anthropologist (played by Night of the Living Dead’s Duane Jones), gets accidentally stabbed with an ancient cursed dagger by his assistant. "If horror reflects our terrors and traumas, it can also embody our best hopes—albeit sometimes in a negative cast," wrote former Stranger staffer Joule Zelman. 
Hollywood Theater

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Just when you thought there was no gas left in the tank of revisionist vampire cinema, along comes A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, a tale billed as “the first Iranian vampire western.” Though it’s unlikely to become a crowded field, this black-and-white Farsi-language gem is rich in allusive metaphor (blood-oil-sex-religion) and deep, dark texture. First-time writer/director Ana Lily Amirpour comes by her genre bona fides honestly, via a palette of cinematic and literary influences—Jim Jarmusch most strikingly, but also Leos Carax, Jim Thompson, and Raymond Chandler—not usually seen in horror films of any nationality. And while Amanpour doesn’t deliver the visceral scare factor of Let the Right One In, she does manage to out-Jarmusch Jarmusch’s recent vampire inversion, The Only Lovers Left Alive. In the opening scene, a lean, rockabilly-styled kid rescues a stray cat and walks languidly through the sun-blanched streets of the deserted desert town Bad City. As he crosses a small bridge, oil derricks pumping savagely in the distance, you only casually notice the ravine full of corpses below his feet, and understand that you’re in for a smart, super-creepy film that demands and rewards close attention. SEAN NELSON
Hollywood Theater

Insert Coin
Praised as the "Sex Pistols of the video game industry," this documentary provides an oral history of a group of highly dedicated Chicagoan geeks who created some of the most iconic video games of our time, from Mortal Combat to NBA Jam. 
Hollywood Theatre

Kiddomatic Children's Film Festival Past Event Like List
Family-focused films from all over the world fill out this online festival, presented in partnership with the Roxy Theater.
Hollywood Theatre

La Haine
A riot erupts in the suburbs outside of Paris after a young Muslim man is arrested and beaten by police. From there, three of the victim's friends walk around in the aftermath, trying to cope with their anger over the injustice. Mathieu Kassovitz's 1995 film won César and Cannes awards. 
Hollywood Theater

Love in Dangerous Times
Filmed and set in Portland during COVID, writer-director Jon Garcia's romantic comedy follows a playwright who, in the midst of struggling to finish a play (could this be its own genre? seems like it) gets in meaningful cahoots with a woman he matches with on a dating app. Dating during the pandemic is something many of us can relate to, and everyone goes about it differently, so this should be an interesting anthropological study.
Various platforms

Monsoon Remind Like List
Hong Khaou's latest film stars Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) as a Vietnamese-born Englishman who returns to Ho Chi Minh City for the first time since childhood to reconnect with his roots after the death of his mother. There, an online date with an American clothing designer (Southside With You's Parker Sawyers) turns into something more.
Cinema 21

Myth of A Colorblind France
The list of Black artists and creatives who have traveled to France (specifically Paris) to free themselves of America's racist bedrock is a long one, and ranges from James Baldwin to Josephine Baker to Augusta Savage. But to what extent was the City of Lights more accepting of people of color than the US? That's at the center of this documentary featuring interviews with French scholars Michel Fabre and Francis Hofstein, as well as contemporary artist Barbara Chase-Riboud, poet James Emanuel, hip-hop producer Ben the Glorious Bastard, and others.
Cinema 21

Nationtime
Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte narrate William Greaves's long-lost, newly-restored film about the National Black Political Convention of 1972, where 10,000 black politicians, activists, and artists went to Gary, Indiana, to forge a national unity platform.
Hollywood Theater

Native Son Remind Like List
When it came to adapting Richard Wright's 1940 novel Native Son into a film, ex-patriate Frenchman Pierre Chenal and Argentinian producer Jamie Prades swooped in when American filmmakers and actors at the time abandoned the project out of discomfort surrounding the deep current of racism in America that the story reveals. With Wright himself in the leading role, it's a noir thriller about a Black man trying to survive in a white world. This is a brand-new restoration.
Cinema 21

Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin Past Event Like List
There are documentaries, and then there's Werner Herzog turning the camera on himself to muse about all manner of existential concern. And that's what's going on here, with Nomad featuring the director/philosopher discussing his long friendship with travel writer Bruce Chatwin, who shared with Herzog an unquenchable thirst for truth.
Hollywood Theatre

Our Time Machine
Looking at the works of contemporary Chinese artist Maleonn, it's easy to see how much his father's former role as the artistic director of the Shanghai Chinese Opera Theater inspired him—Maleonn's conceptual pieces often center subjects in thespian-like costumes, surrounded by props, lit by warm spotlights. In this documentary, Maleonn undertakes a new project to connect with his aging dad through a couple of steampunk-ish mechanical puppets. "I want to use it to show my father how much I appreciate everything he's done for me," says the artist. You will absolutely sniffle and ponder your own mortality.
Hollywood Theatre

RBG Past Event Like List
"Over the long course of her career, RBG repeatedly defended the rights of everyone to live free from bias, but, as Supreme Court correspondent Nina Totenberg says, Ginsburg 'quite literally changed life for women.' With intimate interviews with family and friends, as well as RBG herself, the film captures the life of a woman with a heart none of us wants to stop ticking," wrote Katie Herzog about Julie Cohen and Betsy West's 2018 documentary. RIP, RBG.
Hollywood Theatre

Silent Voices
Donna Hayes's new film Silent Voices centers nine people of color who have been killed by Portland Police over the years, with each character coming to life to tell their stories. As they speak, a chorus of words taken from comments posted online and news articles about their killings echo in the background.   
Open Signal

Smooth Talk Past Event Like List
Laura Dern just wants to go to the mall with her friends and flirt with boys her age to pass the summer months before her sophomore year of high school, but a predatory, deceptively charming older man won't leave her the hell alone. This '80s thriller is based on a short story by Joyce Carol Oates.
Hollywood Theatre

Softie
A human-rights activist and provocative photojournalist decides to run for office in a regional election in his native Kenya, determined to prevail with a "clean campaign" despite his opponents' corrupt practices.
Hollywood Theatre

At the Video Store Past Event Like List
John Waters, Bill Hader, Nicole Holofcener, and other movie nerds weigh in on the lasting importance of a dying breed: video stores.
Hollywood Theatre

Totally Under Control Past Event Like List
You don't need us to tell you that the current administration is largely to blame for the miserable failure in controlling the novel coronavirus and potentially avoiding the hundreds of thousands of deaths from the virus. Together with Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney explores why the system-wide collapse was possible in the first place.
Northwest Film Center

Vinyl Nation
Has the resurgence of vinyl in the digital age made music fandom more inclusive or more divided? This documentary traces the audio format's history and revival. 
Hollywood Theatre

Zappa Past Event Like List
If 2016's Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words didn't quell your obsession with the zany, occasionally cringy, ultimately very talented late rocker Frank Zappa, bust open a jar of peanut butter (Zappa's favorite tour snack) and catch this new documentary from Alex Winter, aka the guy who stars alongside Keanu Reeves in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
Hollywood Theatre and various platforms