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With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

An American Pickle (Brandon Trost)

Seth Rogen plays dual roles in his latest comedy, American Pickle follows Seth Rogen both as Herschel Greenbaum, an immigrant who falls in a vat of pickled is brined for 100 years, and his great-grandson Ben Greenbaum, who is a computer coder and lives a very different life, to say the least. While there are certainly humorous sequences (a Brooklyn hipster couple’s first impressions of Greenbaum’s pickle stand comes foremost to mind), Rogen is far more interested in the definitions of family and loyalty, themes that are not explored with a great deal of emotional impact, but do add some heart to what...

If you’re looking to dive into the best of independent and foreign filmmaking, The Criterion Channel has announced their August 2020 lineup. The impressive slate includes retrospectives dedicated to Mia Hansen-Løve, Bill Gunn, Stephen Cone, Terry Gilliam, Wim Wenders, Alain Delon, Bill Plympton, Les Blank, and more.

In terms of new releases, they also have Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau, the fascinating documentary John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, the Kenyan LGBTQ drama Rafiki, and more. There’s also a series on Australian New Wave with films by Gillian Armstrong, Bruce Beresford, David Gulpilil, and Peter Weir, as well as one on bad vacations with Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated, Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, and more.

See the lineup below and explore more on their platform. One can also see our weekly streaming picks here.

25 Ways to Quit Smoking, Bill Plympton, 1989

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Roy Rowland,...

(L-r) Rhys-Muldoon, Hugh Parker, William McInnes and Colin Smith in the Qtc play (Photo credit: Jeff Busby).

In their third collaboration following Don’s Party and The Club, David Williamson and Bruce Beresford are developing Nearer the Gods, a biopic about Sir Isaac Newton, the eccentric 17th Century English scientist and mathematician.

Adapted from Williamson’s play which was staged by the Queensland Theatre Co. in 2018, the drama laced with humour will trace Newton’s struggles to persuade the sceptical Royal Society to publish his revolutionary discoveries including formulating the laws of motion and universal gravitation.

The comedy revolves the latter part of his life, much of which he dedicated to theology and predicting the end of the world and the second coming of Christ in the year 2060.

“It’s an amazing story; I’m surprised it hasn’t been filmed before,” says Beresford, who is working with producers Al Clark,...

Everybody's talking about Montreal-born film actress Jessica Paré and her recent turn as 'Megan', the new wife of advertising executive 'Don Draper', on the Season 5 premiere of AMC's "Mad Men", March 25, 2012.

The episode saw a record high of 3.5 million viewers, with Paré delivering the 1960's hit "Zou Bisou Bisou" at a square-looking birthday party for Don.

The blandness of the people attending Don's party, reminded some fans of Blake Edwards' 'swinging sixties' comedy "The Party", when Claudine Longet launched into the song "Nothing To Lose" for an equally bland audience.

Sneak Peek Paré in "Mad Men" and Longet in "The Party"...

When we left off in October 1965, all our characters were on the brink of life changing events: Don impulsively proposed to his secretary, Pete just had a baby, Joan is pregnant with Roger's baby and pretending it's Greg's, and Betty was moving into her "not perfect" new house with Henry and the kids. Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce was dealing with the fallout of Don's anti-tobacco ad and Cooper quit! With the 17 excruciating years months between the seasons, the shock of the finale sunk in and these changes became matter of fact as we waited with bated breath (and reruns) to see how far into the future we'd be launched and how it all turned out. Well, it's about nine months later on June 1, 1966 and lives carried on. The time gap is also somewhat synced up with us, season four ended in October of 2010 and it's starting up again in spring.

He appeared in several major Australian movies, including Bruce Beresford's Don's Party (1976) and The Club (1980) and Peter Weir's Gallipoli (1981), but I've only just now caught up with the news that Harold Hopkins died on Sunday, December 11. I have Simon de Bruyn to thank, who posted the video above at Twitch, noting that, in 1998, Hopkins "took a role in a 25 minute low budget short film called Bloodlock, made by a young upcoming group of filmmakers called Blue Tongue Films. These days Blue Tongue are known as the outfit responsible for films such as Animal Kingdom, The Square and Hesher, and the upcoming Sundance opener Wish You Were Here. But back then they were just starting out in Sydney as filmmakers. The Blue Tongue team has decided to express their gratitude and resulting friendship with Hopkins by creating a wonderful video tribute." De Bruyn's also embedded Blooklock in that Twitch entry.

This week celebrated Australian actor Harold Hopkins passed away at the age of 67 after a battle with cancer. Hopkins had major roles in classic Australian movies including Don's Party, The Club and Gallipoli, and also supported upcoming Australian filmmakers. In 1998 he took a role in a 25 minute low budget short film called Bloodlock, made by a young upcoming group of filmmakers called Blue Tongue Films. These days Blue Tongue are known as the outfit responsible for films such as Animal Kingdom, The Square and Hesher, and the upcoming Sundance opener Wish You Were Here. But back then they were just starting out in Sydney as filmmakers. The Blue Tongue team has decided to express their gratitude and resulting friendship with Hopkins by creating a wonderful video tribute, below, to their friend...

Australian actor Harold Hopkins has died, aged 67.

The Gallipoli star passed away at a hospice in Sydney on Sunday after a battle with mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer.

Hopkins, who started his career as a carpenter, starred in a number of films throughout his time in the spotlight and is best remembered for roles in 1976's Don's Party and 1981 war film Gallipoli opposite Mel Gibson.

He most recently auditioned for a role in Baz Luhrmann's upcoming adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby earlier this year.

Australian actor Harold Hopkins has died at the age of 67. He passed away in a Sydney hospice during the early hours of Sunday morning (December 11) as a result of mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer. Born in the Queensland city of Toowoomba on March 6, 1944, Hopkins enrolled at acting school in Sydney alongside his twin brother John in the 1960s. He is best known to Australian audiences for his roles as womaniser Cooley in 1976 movie Don's Party and Les McCann in Peter Weir's First World War movie Gallipoli, released in 1981. Hopkins had auditioned for a role in Baz Luhrmann's forthcoming adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald movie The Great Gatsby earlier this year, Aap (more)...

Harold Hopkins, who appeared in several important Australian movies including Gallipoli (right), The Year My Voice Broke, Don's Party, and The Club, died yesterday, Dec. 10, at Neringah Private Hospital in Wahroonga, north Sydney. According to reports, his death was caused by the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma.

Hopkins, who was 67, is supposed to have been exposed to the cancer right after finishing high school, while working as an apprentice carpenter sheeting asbestos in Queensland in the early 1960s.

Following on the footsteps of his twin brother John, Harold Hopkins (born on March 6, 1944, in Toowoomba, Queensland) graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1967. He then performed onstage and began his feature-film career in 1969, landing a supporting part in Michael Powell's Age of Consent, starring James Mason and Helen Mirren.

Film roles were sporadic throughout the 1970s — among those was an appearance in Bruce Beresford's comedy-drama Don's Party — though Hopkins...