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-ups here.
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (Josh Greenbaum)
Injecting a sense of delightfully unbridled frivolity to quite a dire era of studio comedy, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar marks Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig’s first project since a decade ago with Bridesmaids. Following best friends as they take their dream vacation in a town that’s being targeted for mass destruction, this is a comedy that understands being dumb doesn’t mean dumbing things down. With a radiant color palette and joke-a-minute delivery, couple with Jamie Dornan’s best performance, this will certainly be the most rewatchable film on this list in the years to come. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Hulu
Blue (Derek Jarman)
Four...
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (Josh Greenbaum)
Injecting a sense of delightfully unbridled frivolity to quite a dire era of studio comedy, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar marks Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig’s first project since a decade ago with Bridesmaids. Following best friends as they take their dream vacation in a town that’s being targeted for mass destruction, this is a comedy that understands being dumb doesn’t mean dumbing things down. With a radiant color palette and joke-a-minute delivery, couple with Jamie Dornan’s best performance, this will certainly be the most rewatchable film on this list in the years to come. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Hulu
Blue (Derek Jarman)
Four...
- 7/9/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
A brain surgeon worries that her recent romance may be one big delusion in writer-director Lili Horvát’s seductive psychological drama
The Hungarian entry for best international feature film may not have made it into the 93rd Oscars selection, but I’d strongly suggest that you place it on your own viewing shortlist. From its teasingly enigmatic title (translated fairly literally from the Hungarian original) to its neatly cyclical narrative, this crystalline tale of memory, love and brain surgery from writer-director Lili Horvát (who made 2015’s The Wednesday Child) is a treat – sinewy, seductive and beautifully strange.
Natasa Stork is quietly charismatic as Márta Vizy, a Hungarian neurosurgeon who has carved out a respectable career in the US. Yet following a brief encounter with fellow brain specialist and author János Drexler (Viktor Bodó) at a medical conference in New Jersey, her life has been upturned by the realisation that he...
The Hungarian entry for best international feature film may not have made it into the 93rd Oscars selection, but I’d strongly suggest that you place it on your own viewing shortlist. From its teasingly enigmatic title (translated fairly literally from the Hungarian original) to its neatly cyclical narrative, this crystalline tale of memory, love and brain surgery from writer-director Lili Horvát (who made 2015’s The Wednesday Child) is a treat – sinewy, seductive and beautifully strange.
Natasa Stork is quietly charismatic as Márta Vizy, a Hungarian neurosurgeon who has carved out a respectable career in the US. Yet following a brief encounter with fellow brain specialist and author János Drexler (Viktor Bodó) at a medical conference in New Jersey, her life has been upturned by the realisation that he...
- 3/21/2021
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
A liaison between two surgeons leads to a psychological riddle – even if director Lili Horvát can’t quite provide a satisfying answer
Here is a puzzle or a riddle of a psychological movie, with distant echoes of Roeg’s Bad Timing or Antonioni’s Blow-Up. A brilliant and beautiful Hungarian neurosurgeon, Márta (Natasa Stork), abandons her career in the United States just shy of her 40th birthday and returns to Budapest. And why? Because she has met a handsome compatriot at an academic conference: János (Viktor Bodó) is a fellow surgeon who romantically arranged to meet Márta at a certain time and date at the city’s Liberty Bridge.
But János doesn’t show up, and when Márta tracks him down and confronts him, he merely says with an air of baffled politeness that they have never met. Márta takes a job in Budapest and rents a certain scuzzy apartment...
Here is a puzzle or a riddle of a psychological movie, with distant echoes of Roeg’s Bad Timing or Antonioni’s Blow-Up. A brilliant and beautiful Hungarian neurosurgeon, Márta (Natasa Stork), abandons her career in the United States just shy of her 40th birthday and returns to Budapest. And why? Because she has met a handsome compatriot at an academic conference: János (Viktor Bodó) is a fellow surgeon who romantically arranged to meet Márta at a certain time and date at the city’s Liberty Bridge.
But János doesn’t show up, and when Márta tracks him down and confronts him, he merely says with an air of baffled politeness that they have never met. Márta takes a job in Budapest and rents a certain scuzzy apartment...
- 3/17/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period Of Time (Felkészülés meghatározatlan ideig tartó együttlétre) Greenwich Entertainment Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Lili Horvát Writer: Lili Horvát Cast: Natasa Stork, Viktor Bodó, Benett Vilmányi, Zsolt Nagy, Péter Tóth Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 1/7/21 Opens: January 22, […]
The post Preparations To Be Together for An Unknown Period of Time Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Preparations To Be Together for An Unknown Period of Time Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 3/14/2021
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
The hook for Hungarian writer/director Lili Horvát’s second feature doesn’t lack intrigue. Following a doctor who returns back home to Budapest after a chance, love-inducing meeting with another at a surgical conference, Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time––a mouthful of a title for the mystery-first drama––lives in the grey areas of the workplace, relationships, and loneliness. Once Vizy Márta (Natasa Stork) arrives to meet her hopeful-lover, Drexler János (Viktor Bodó), he’s nowhere to be seen, and after she finds him at the local university (and attached hospital), he seems to not recognize her. According to him, he’s never seen her before in his life.
A film that’s as much about our own perception of relationships as those relationships themselves, Horvát’s story keeps viewers in the dark, intercutting Vizy’s attempt to infiltrate Drexler’s life with behavioral...
A film that’s as much about our own perception of relationships as those relationships themselves, Horvát’s story keeps viewers in the dark, intercutting Vizy’s attempt to infiltrate Drexler’s life with behavioral...
- 1/21/2021
- by Michael Frank
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Lili Horvát, the writer-director of this year’s Hungarian Oscar entry Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, has signed with UTA.
The move comes after Preparations, her second feature film, debuted at this past year’s Venice and Toronto film festivals. It follows a neurosurgeon (Natasa Stork) who, after 20 years in the U.S., returns to Budapest for a romantic rendezvous with a fellow doctor (Viktor Bodó) she met at a conference in New Jersey. When she finally tracks him down, the man claims the two have never met.
Greenwich Entertainment acquired U.S. rights to the psychological thriller and will release it January 22. The pic was part of Deadline’s Contenders International awards-season showcase last weekend.
“The main terrain of this [movie’s] story is mystery,” she said during Contenders, “this place in the unsettling murky no man’s land that separates love from madness.”
Horvát...
The move comes after Preparations, her second feature film, debuted at this past year’s Venice and Toronto film festivals. It follows a neurosurgeon (Natasa Stork) who, after 20 years in the U.S., returns to Budapest for a romantic rendezvous with a fellow doctor (Viktor Bodó) she met at a conference in New Jersey. When she finally tracks him down, the man claims the two have never met.
Greenwich Entertainment acquired U.S. rights to the psychological thriller and will release it January 22. The pic was part of Deadline’s Contenders International awards-season showcase last weekend.
“The main terrain of this [movie’s] story is mystery,” she said during Contenders, “this place in the unsettling murky no man’s land that separates love from madness.”
Horvát...
- 1/15/2021
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
"You're a doctor. You know exactly where feelings get you." Greenwich has released an official US trailer for a Hungarian romantic drama called Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time (originally Felkészülés meghatározatlan ideig tartó együttlétre in Hungarian). This premiered at the Venice Film Festival in the Venice Days sidebar last year. The film stars Natasa Stork as Márta, a 40-year-old neurosurgeon, who has fallen in love. She leaves her shining American career behind after 20 years and returns to Budapest to start a new life with the man she met at a conference. But the love of her life claims they have never met before. How is this possible? This also stars Viktor Bodó, Benett Vilmányi, Zsolt Nagy, Péter Tóth, Andor Lukáts, and Attila Mokos. This does indeed look very mysterious, though it's pretty obvious the guy is sketchy and has some secrets. But I'm intrigued to...
- 1/10/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, Hungary’s contender this year for the International Feature Film Oscar, hinges on a moment around seven minutes into the movie.
Brain surgeon Márta Visy, played beguilingly by Natasa Stork, travels home to Budapest from New York for a romantic liaison with a fellow neurologist she met at a New Jersey medical conference. But when the two encounter each other for a second time, the neurologist, János Drexler (Viktor Bodó), claims not to recognize Visy. She then collapses in the street.
The scene was the “sprout” from which the whole film grew, says writer-director Lili Horvát during her appearance at Deadline’s Contenders International awards season-event. The result is a noirish romantic story, told from the perspective a woman who is late to love, which examines the enormous role our imaginations play when we fall for someone.
Did Visy imagine...
Brain surgeon Márta Visy, played beguilingly by Natasa Stork, travels home to Budapest from New York for a romantic liaison with a fellow neurologist she met at a New Jersey medical conference. But when the two encounter each other for a second time, the neurologist, János Drexler (Viktor Bodó), claims not to recognize Visy. She then collapses in the street.
The scene was the “sprout” from which the whole film grew, says writer-director Lili Horvát during her appearance at Deadline’s Contenders International awards season-event. The result is a noirish romantic story, told from the perspective a woman who is late to love, which examines the enormous role our imaginations play when we fall for someone.
Did Visy imagine...
- 1/9/2021
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
Had Jesse and Celine actually met six months after the events of “Before Sunrise” as planned, had their relationship gone horribly wrong to the point where one of them couldn’t even remember the other, and had they both been neurosurgeons, it might look something like “Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time.” This cool-headed debut from filmmaker Lili Horvát is Hungary’s submission for the 2021 Academy Award for Best International Feature. Watch the official trailer, exclusive to IndieWire, below.
With the gloomy echoes of Krzysztof Kieślowski, Horvát follows a doctor named Márta around Budapest — not unlike how Hitchcock chased Kim Novak in “Vertigo” — who’s convinced a perfect stranger is a man she met abroad and had plans to meet up with back in her home city. The mouthful of a title belies the filmmaker’s stark approach to complex material in this haunting cinematic puzzle.
With the gloomy echoes of Krzysztof Kieślowski, Horvát follows a doctor named Márta around Budapest — not unlike how Hitchcock chased Kim Novak in “Vertigo” — who’s convinced a perfect stranger is a man she met abroad and had plans to meet up with back in her home city. The mouthful of a title belies the filmmaker’s stark approach to complex material in this haunting cinematic puzzle.
- 1/8/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Skating into my halfway point for the 56th Chicago International Film Festival, I’m starting to realize the little things I miss about doing this in person. Sure, seeing movies on the big screen is always the preferred way, but what about the other stuff? What about starting each morning by kneeling at the altar of the Dunkin Donuts Express inside the Grand Red Line stop? My Keurig is getting me by, but binging several movies without eating anything just isn’t the same without those little touches.
And rest assured, those little touches cushion the blow each festival has. Meet the first empty movie of this year’s Ciff. It’s the United States premiere of Stefanie Klemm’s Of Fish and Men (Grade: C-), something so stagnant and stretched out that it almost feels like it’s trying to get nothing out of its audiences. Each festival has one of these movies,...
And rest assured, those little touches cushion the blow each festival has. Meet the first empty movie of this year’s Ciff. It’s the United States premiere of Stefanie Klemm’s Of Fish and Men (Grade: C-), something so stagnant and stretched out that it almost feels like it’s trying to get nothing out of its audiences. Each festival has one of these movies,...
- 10/18/2020
- by Matt Cipolla
- The Film Stage
In Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period of Time, a cerebral, desaturated Hungarian melodrama directed by Lili Horvát, two neurosurgeons engage in an erotically charged cat-and-mouse game that feels grounded and simultaneously imponderable. After briefly meeting in the United States for a medical conference, where they nibble at each other’s attention, Márta (Natasa Stork) and János (Viktor Bodó) go on separate paths, not before making a Linklaterian promise to meet again, two months later, in Budapest, to complete the romance. She’s easily convinced that János is the man of her dreams, an idea she’s insatiably obsessing over so much, that she cuts her ties with her job and friends and moves to Hungary just to be in his proximity.
It turns out, János doesn’t exactly recall ever meeting Márta. A first red flag in a series of many, she seems to make up romantic projections for fear.
It turns out, János doesn’t exactly recall ever meeting Márta. A first red flag in a series of many, she seems to make up romantic projections for fear.
- 10/15/2020
- by Georgiana Musat
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Had Jesse and Celine actually met six months after the events of “Before Sunrise” as planned, had they gone horribly wrong to the point where one of the parties couldn’t even remember the other, and had they both been neurosurgeons, the scenario might look something like “Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time.” , a kind of amnesiac love story crossed with the gloomiest of Krzysztof Kieślowski movies, and bordering on existential science fiction. Even if the conceit winds up a little undercooked, and a loopy ending doesn’t quite stick the landing, the filmmaking is exacting and assured, pulling us in like a current into the heart of a most strange romantic mystery.
Márta Vizy is a neurosurgeon, single and childless and approaching 40, who’s just returned to Budapest after an extended residency across the ocean in New Jersey. She’s returned to Hungary spurred by...
Márta Vizy is a neurosurgeon, single and childless and approaching 40, who’s just returned to Budapest after an extended residency across the ocean in New Jersey. She’s returned to Hungary spurred by...
- 9/12/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The winner of Karlovy Vary’s East of the West prize for her debut, “The Wednesday Child” (2015), Hungarian multihyphenate Lili Horvát screens “Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time” at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival after its world premiere in Venice Days. Her unusual love story explores the role of projections in love and the fine line between romance and madness.
Your first film boasted a gritty, neo-realistic look and this one feels mysterious and dreamy. How did you decide on the visual style and why did you decide to shoot on 35mm?
The key element of “Preparations” is insecurity, the fragility and precariousness of reality. While researching that, Róbert Maly, the Dp, and I came upon the work of Saul Leiter, an American photographer, at an exhibition in Vienna. The mysteriousness hidden in his photos, in their texture, color, lighting and framing, became our first point of reference.
Your first film boasted a gritty, neo-realistic look and this one feels mysterious and dreamy. How did you decide on the visual style and why did you decide to shoot on 35mm?
The key element of “Preparations” is insecurity, the fragility and precariousness of reality. While researching that, Róbert Maly, the Dp, and I came upon the work of Saul Leiter, an American photographer, at an exhibition in Vienna. The mysteriousness hidden in his photos, in their texture, color, lighting and framing, became our first point of reference.
- 9/10/2020
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
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