Welcome to WTI’s Weekend Streaming Recommendations where I recommend 4-5 films that under-watched, under-appreciated, or just plain old personal favorites. My goal is to take the hassle out of deciding which film to stream on the plethora of streaming sites that populate the internet. To make your streaming life easier, I include which platform each film is available on along with a link to the trailer. Now sit back, relax, and click on play!

Let the Fire Burn

This searing documentary (which nearly made my top films of 2013 list) is the account of a police house raid in 1985 Philadelphia that ended with two pounds of explosives being used. A fire naturally started and instead of putting it out, the police let the fire burn. 6 children and 5 adults, as well as 61 buildings, were lost in the blaze. The film’s brilliance comes with how it’s completely comprised of 100% archival footage that had previously been withheld from the public. Director Jason Osder controls the tension in the beginning, but lets it build to an immense pay off where literally everything around is on fire. – Watch the trailer

The Parallax View

The 1970’s had a bevy of conspiracy films released and this is one of the best. Warren Beatty stars as a reporter whose investigation into a senator’s assassination puts him in the middle of a conspiracy that possibly involves a multinational corporation who is ostensibly behind every world headline. The film exceeds at building atmosphere and is very good at putting you in the thick of things. For me, the highlight of the film is when Warren Beatty realizes there is a bomb onboard his airplane. The way the scene slowly and confidently unfurls is electric. Watching the proverbial noose tighten around Beatty’s neck as the film hurdles along will leave you breathless. – Watch the trailer

Death Wish

Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is a tortured soul. In the first film of the series, his wife and daughter are raped by a group of street thugs and in every subsequent film someone he cares deeply about is murdered. But that doesn’t stop him from dishing out his own form of vengeance. The entire series, sans the 5^th, the last and worst film, is now available on Netflix. The first in the series is a great crime film that shows how far a man is willing to go to fight back against injustices when our system seems to falter. The deeper you go in the series the more exploitative and cheesy they get. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but don’t go in expecting a continuing exploration of a haunted man’s psyche. Instead, the later films focus on gratuitous shootouts and blood and gore. Still, if you’re bored on a Saturday night and looking to get your action fix in; you could do worse. – Watch the trailer

My Bloody Valentine (’81)

The 1980’s were literally littered with slasher films. 99% of them were horrible. My Bloody Valentine is the 1%. You probably know of the very decent remake that came out about 4 or 5 years ago, but I’m here to talk about the original. There are a lot of great scenes in the film where the unidentified masked man (who else, right?) venomously hunts down the people he (or she?) feels wronged by. Using the biggest and sharpest axe since Paul Bunyan, the killer viciously butchers teens. It’s a great atmospheric 80’s slaughterhouse of a film. – Watch the trailer

I’m Not Scared

Raise your hand if you’ve heard of this overlooked gem from 2003. I’m guessing most of you haven’t. This thriller from Italy concerns a boy, Michele, who discovers a deep hole in the ground in which another boy is being held captive. The boys form a friendship before Michele realizes that his own parents are possibly in on the kidnapping. Director Gabriele Salvatores captures the beautiful Italian countryside so well, you wonder how such a horrible occurrence could happen in such a stunning place, all while the film slowly, but powerfully, builds to a gorgeously tragic finale. – Watch the trailer

In Jason Osder’s bleak, infuriating documentary Let The Fire Burn there’s a feeling of amazement at what he and editor Nels Bangerter have achieved through their self-imposed limitations. The subject matter, a long battle between the City of Philadelphia and a radical urban group that eventually came to a tragic end, relies entirely on archival footage. The amount of footage Osder and Bangerter had to work with appears to be massive, and the fact that they have compiled something so cinematic and effective is an achievement.

The central event in Let The Fire Burn took place on May 13, 1985. After years of tension between MOVE, a communal group that rejected technology along with being described as a cult, and the city’s police force things came to a devastating end when the city dropped C4 explosives on MOVE headquarters. 11 people were killed, and the resulting fire destroyed over 60 surrounding homes. Osder uses footage of the city’s investigation after the incident, relying on testimonies from all of the major figures to provide context and backstory for everything leading up to the bombing. What emerges is a riveting document of a seemingly little-known tragedy in American history.

The footage of the investigation is combined with footage from other sources. The taped deposition of 13-year-old Michael Ward, one of the only survivors from the explosion, serves as the other major piece of footage used throughout the film. The multiple testimonies act as narration for newsreels, old documentaries, home videos, and other sources of video. As much as the investigation feels like it stays in the background, at times the footage will snap into the forefront. Most of these highlights come from former MOVE member Louise James, who angrily goes after the investigation committee for their questioning.

Moments like this are why Osder’s decision to forego any present-day footage was entirely appropriate. The timing of the commission’s investigation came shortly after the attack on MOVE, meaning emotions ran high during the questionings. This gives the film a level of immediacy that makes it feel in the present. The lack of public awareness (I admit that I had no knowledge of MOVE or what happened before watching) also helps create a larger emotional impact, and Osder’s use of such raw footage makes his film feel simultaneously retrospective and in the present.

And in a similarly contradictory sense, despite feeling so immediate, Let The Fire Burn is constantly making viewers aware of its place in history. The old video of the investigation, in all its fuzziness and datedness, getting stitched together with other low quality sources makes the film feel stitched together. The use of VHS tracking at different points throughout only enforce the feeling of someone splicing all this footage together. That, coupled with the fact that this is a lesser-known part of recent American history, make Let the Fire Burn a real-life found footage film.

Osder is thankfully level-headed about what happened, highlighting the tragedy of what happened while pointing out problems with both sides. Naturally the blame is placed higher on the city, but MOVE is shown to have its issues. Most notable is a scene from a documentary about the group, where scenes of the member’s children imply neglect and starvation. In the end, Let The Fire Burn powerfully shows a situation that was seemingly doomed to end in tragedy. Osder’s technique makes this a film that’s impossible to keep your eyes off of, and makes for one of the most effective documentaries to come out this year.

Let The Fire Burn trailer