November is the month of thankfulness, so why not be thankful for some great independent cinema?
As the end of the year approaches, new films arrive in theaters at a rapid pace with big blockbusters, seasonal holiday films, and major Oscar contenders all vying for those juicy November and December slots. This month alone, some highly anticipated films include “American Fiction,” “Dream Scenario,” “Leave the World Behind,” “May December,” “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” “Napoleon,” and the Disney Film “Wish.” On streaming, new movies skew towards the seasonal holiday variet with mountains of Christmas rom-coms coming to Netflix for you to enjoy and/or dread. But there’s still plenty of classic films arriving on platforms this November — including great independent movies that have released as recently as 2014 and as far back as 1969.
It’s a particularly great month for the Criterion Channel: the streamer for many cinephile’s favorite home video company, The Criterion Collection. Some gems include the 1998 hip hop classic “Belly,” starring rap legends Nas and DMX. You can also find 2000 Argentinian heist film “Nine Queens,” along with the Harmony Korine oddball experiment “Trash Humpers,” and obscure late ’90s treat “Drylongso.” On more mainstream pastures, you can find some solid recent selections like “Whiplash” and “Winter’s Bone,” on Netflix and Max respectively. For older and iconic independent hits — like watershed ’60s counterculture classic “Easy Rider” or David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” — look at Peacock or Paramount+. Add in all-time greats like Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” or bittersweet romantic drama “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” and you have a strong roster of films to enjoy this fall.
Read on for the 10 best classic independent films new to streaming this November. Entries are listed in no particular order, and are compiled from new releases on streamers like Netflix, Hulu, Paramount+, Prime Video, Showtime, and Peacock, as well as specialty services like Metrograph, Criterion Channel, and Shudder.
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“Whiplash” (Streaming on Netflix)
Image Credit: ©Sony Pictures/Everett Collection / Everett Collection Damien Chazelle made his feature debut in 2009 with “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench,” but the director truly broke through in 2014 when he made “Whiplash,” which turns the typical teacher-student mentorship film into a tense, nerve-racking thriller. Miles Teller stars as aspiring jazz drummer Andrew, whose dream of attending a prestigious New York City conservatory turns into a nightmare thanks to his overbearing, abusive instructor Fletcher (JK Simmons). Simmons is charismatically loathsome in the role, but what makes “Whiplash” really pop is that Andrew is as single-minded and stubborn as Fletcher is demeaning and cruel — and the friction between the two is so spectacular that its dramatically unclear which will snap first. Add in a gorgeous score and laser-focused direction from Chazelle and you have a film that makes beautiful music.
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“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (Streaming on Peacock)
Image Credit: ©Focus Films/Courtesy Everett Collection One of the most beloved romantic films of the 21st century, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” has only grown in stature since its 2004 release. Directed by Michel Gondry with a script by Charlie Kaufman, the film stars Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as a couple whose loving relationship turns sour; they soon decide to medically erase their memories of one another in order to avoid living with the heartbreak. The journey into their memories provides a searing window into the pains of a long-term relationship, but also the joys. It’s a visually inventive and gorgeous film. At its heart is the two fantastic performances from Carrey and Winslet, and the simple but powerful message of hanging on to both the good and the bad parts of love.
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“Blue Velvet” (Streaming on Paramount+ With Showtime)
Image Credit: ©De Laurentiis Group/Courtesy Everett Collection Although it’s one of the king of weirdo cinema David Lynch’s most famous films, “Blue Velvet” is a relatively straightforward, albeit still a nasty and sometimes surreal window into human darkness. Teaming up with his now-frequent collaborator Kyle MacLachlan, Lynch uses “Blue Velvet” and its story of a college student investigating the life of a troubled lounge singer to dig into some of his frequent recurring themes, including abuse, sex, and the dark underbelly of picture-perfect American life. It’s one of the director’s very best films, thanks in part to its killer ensemble — including a heartbreaking Isabella Rossellini and a memorably depraved Dennis Hopper.
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“Reservoir Dogs” (Streaming on Paramount+ With Showtime)
Image Credit: ©Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection One of the most iconic movies of the ’90s, “Reservoir Dogs” caused an immediate stir when it debuted at 1992’s Sundance Film Festival with many critics panning its violence and profanity. But the film also attracted many admirers and it remains one of Tarantino’s most universally beloved works. Starring an ensemble cast that includes Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, and Michael Madsen, the clever heist film skips the heist — a jewelry store robbery carried out by a group of professional thieves that fails miserably — entirely, instead cutting between the weeks leading up to the job as the crew gets recruited and the immediate fallout as they stand off with the police while trying to determine which member ratted them out. Featuring the beginnings of Tarantino’s trademark style, uniformly fantastic performances from the cast, and a script that’s simultaneously funny and tragic, “Reservoir Dogs” packs in some of the best thrills you can find in any movie.
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“Winter’s Bone” (Streaming on Max)
Image Credit: ©Roadside Attractions/Courtesy Everett Collection Before she was Katniss Everdeen or an Oscar winner, Jennifer Lawrence first got attention for her performance in Debra Granik’s quiet, scrappy indie “Winter’s Bone.” And over a decade later, her role in the film as a teen girl caring for her family in the rural Ozarks is arguably still her all-time best — grounded and lived-in and decidedly unshowy. Her character Ree’s desperate search for her missing father is wildly compelling, a window into financial destitution and people left behind that still contains a glimmer of hope.
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“Easy Rider” (Streaming on Peacock)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection A counterculture classic, Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider” stars the director and Peter Fonda as two drug-smuggling motorcyclists on a journey from Los Angeles to New Orleans, where they’re hoping to celebrate Mardi Gras. Along the road, they encounter a colorful cast of hippies, free-love commune residents, addicts, prostitutes, and other outsiders. Their free-wheeling adventures are contrasted by the judgment they face from small-town types and law enforcement looking to lock them up. The movie’s unexpected financial success almost single-handedly kickstarted the New Hollywood filmmaking era, and it still remains a lovable, shaggy time capsule to this day.
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“Belly” (Streaming on Criterion Channel)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection The feature directorial debut of Hype Williams, the man behind iconic music videos like “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” by Missy Elliot, “Belly” was panned when it first premiered but is now seen as an under-appreciated cult classic. Starring a truly ridiculous number of top-tier hip-hop and RNB talent like Nas, DMX, Method Man, T-Boz, and Sean Paul, “Belly” focuses on the diverging paths of two childhood friends who become partners in crime but slowly break apart thanks to political and philosophical differences. It’s not a perfect movie, but it’s certainly a cool one thanks to the surprisingly solid performances from Nas and DMZ and the gorgeous stylized visuals from Williams. In addition to the first film, “Belly 2: Millionaire Boyz Club” is also streaming on Criterion.
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“Drylongso” (1998)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Very recently rereleased by Janus Films in March of this year, “Drylongso” is a late ’90s gem that deserves to be seen by more people. From experimental director “Cauleen Smith,” the Oakland-shot film focuses an aspiring teenage artist (Toby Smith) who begins a project photographing Black men around her neighborhood as news reports of a serial killer in the area spread and cause her to fear for her safety. As she continues her project, she develops a moving friendship with Tobi (April Barnett), a young woman in an abusive relationship. Along with its streaming debut, the film has also been added to the physical Criterion Collection.
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“Trash Humpers” (Streaming on Criterion Channel)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Pretty much every film Harmony Korine has ever made is intended to shock and disgust, and it doesn’t get more obvious than when he released a film literally called “Trash Humpers.” Shot via the scrappy, visually arresting medium of used VHS tapes, the movie is an almost entirely narrativeless series of vignettes following a quartet of elderly people (actually Korine and some friends in makeup) as they engage in some depraved, gross, and generally awful acts. For many, this sounds unbearable, but for others, there’s a sicko charge to the whole proceeding that makes for something incredibly fun. If you’ve ever wanted to see a band of elderly weirdos masturbate to, yes, trash, this is the film for you.
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“Nine Queens”
Image Credit: ©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection A thrilling heist movie, “Nine Queens” is considered an all-time classic of Argentinian cinema in its home country. Starring Gastón Pauls and Ricardo Darín, the film focuses on two small-time con artists who meet while they’re both scamming a convenience store and team up for a bigger job attempting to sell counterfeit stamps to a wealthy Spanish collector. It’s a simple premise for any thriller, but it’s a sense of paranoia, great performances, and director Fabián Bielinsky are what make it a total blast.
