8 New Movies You Absolutely Need to Watch on Netflix in 2016

8. Oscillating Fan For Your Home

They say the glass is either half empty or half full. In Oscillating Fan For Your Home, the glass is completely full of small ice cubes. This film features an oscillating fan blowing air near what sounds like an oceanfront window. It’s hard to tell since, glancing through the blinds, it just looks like a suburban backyard, but the seagull caws and periodic crashing of waves cue us as to what’s really going on. There are a few accoutrements of note in the frame: a pair of tortoise shell vintage sunglasses and a smalls tack of three primary colored books. Oscillating Fan For Your Home is a basic delight.

7. Fireplace For Your Home [Miniseries]

This rendition of the classic Fireplace For Your Home series is a little too New Wave for my tastes, so I unfortunately can’t rank it any higher than #7. The miniseries consists of three episodes, and of the three “Crackling Yule Log Fireplace” is sure to resonate the hardest with viewers. That’s not to say that “Crackling Fireplace with Music” is any lesser an accomplishment or an inadequate series finale, but it just doesn’t have the emotional impact of its predecessor.

6. Fireplace For Your Home: Birchwood Edition

Fireplace For Your Home: Birchwood Edition is mostly reductive fare, full of pastiche that is sure to please fans of the original, but unlikely to bring in any new admirers. The Birchwood is indeed a nice touch, but such a superficial tweak does little to hide the fact that this is purely a remake. With that said, Fireplace For Your Home: Birchwood Edition does prove it’s as innovative and fun as any sequel can be once it trudges into the second act. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and that’s its strong point.

5. Fireplace For Your Home: Classic Edition

Just when you think they couldn’t possibly churn out another one, Fireplace For Your Home: Classic Edition knocks on your door and says hello. Fireplace For Your Home: Classic Edition combines everything you love about the original miniseries and the Birchwood Edition feature-length sequel. You’ll want to see this one on the big screen so you can really immerse yourself in its atmospheric score.

4. Winter Wonderland For Your Home

I know my choice to rank the holiday classic Winter Wonderland For Your Home higher than Oscillating Fan For Your Home may surprise some, but bear with me. While Oscillating Fan is an undeniable classic, Winter Wonderland is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. The sheer number of locations is incredible, from icy babbling brooks to close-ups of icy babbling brooks, Winter Wonderland will take you places you’ve never even dreamed of – and you won’t want to come back.

3. Cascade Mountain Stream

If holiday films don’t appeal to you, you’ll want to dive into Cascade Mountain Stream. More of a Tarantino-style throwback to Oscillating Fan than anything else, it’ll definitely appeal to audiences unfamiliar with the former. There’s not a lot of depth to this bubblegum pop piece, but it stands out just enough to warrant your viewing. Make sure to note the gorgeous mise-en-scène: every frame plays around with the rule of thirds, pulling your eye to each and every moss-covered river rock.

2. Aquarium: Saltwater Reef

Move over, James Cameron – make room for Aquarium: Saltwater Reef. What exactly is it about this film that makes it so compelling? Is it the vexed flounder at 17:44? The rowdy clownfish at 38:08? The starfish in the bottom right corner that remains untouched from 16:00 to 30:00? The ever-changing landscape that suggests nothing in life is constant? Everything about this film suggests it’s an early frontrunner for the best-of lists that will clog our Twitter feeds at the end of the year.

1. Aquarium: Goldfish

So I’m a lover of sequels – sue me. When I first saw Aquarium: Saltwater Reef I didn’t think I’d ever see anything like it again. It was the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for my generation. But then came along Aquarium: Goldfish, upending everything I knew to be true. At the risk of over-hyping, Goldfish is a magnum opus. There simply isn’t anything better this side of the next millennium. Upon completion, you’ll find yourself wondering aloud “Was I watching Goldfish? Or was Goldfish watching me?”

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!
Related:

olgalexell

Olga is a Staff Writer at Autostraddle. Her work has also appeared in McSweeney's, Splitsider, Paste, and Reductress. You can find her yelling into the void on Twitter.

olgalexell has written 3 articles for us.

27 Comments

  1. Oh shucks, I don’t think they have these gems of arthouse filmmaking on the German netflix. Maybe I can fiddle with my IP address and FINALLY watch “Saltwater”.
    Have heard a lot of rave reviews from American friends about that one.
    “Oscillating” also seems to be a favorite for fans of the genre!

  2. Can’t wait to play one of these for my girlfriend (unbeknownst to her of course). :-D

    I loaded them on my list–under the More Like: ‘Oscillating’ they list ‘My Babysitter’s a Vampire’.
    Hmmm… Maybe one of the scenes has an oscillating fan…

  4. Lolz

    But I did watch Tangerine on Hulu last night and it was just as good as everyone said it would be!

    Also does anyone have a DVD/streaming release date for Carol? The wait kills me every time Heather Hogan tweets about it (which is most days).

    • I did find some info about this on Movie Insider. DVD & Blu-ray and On Demand: March 2016.

      Both are estimated times, but I’m not sure about those dates because that could change after the award-season.

        • Still, lucky you. I’m waiting for the theater release, in my country, on February 24th. And yes, I did check that version going around on the web but the quality was sooo low I couldn’t stand it.

          • How is that possible? But then, as you said in another post that Cinemark is your closest movie theater and they support Cruz, I think I have a little idea about what happened there.

            In my case I’m kinda glad I have to wait because every multiplex in my country is downright obsessed with Star Wars. Just to use and example Hoyts has 3 versions of that movie (2D, 3D and XD 3D) and you need to add 2 versions of each (Spanish and subtitled), so my choices are quite limited.

            I don’t know how things work in your country, but most of the times in mine, the end of the award-season could mean the re-released of a movie.

    • The German amazon has a release date for the 22nd of April for the DVD, however, rumor has it, that the US version might be coming out for Valentines Day?
      That’s a little early, considering the wide release is mid January, and the movie doesn’t get released in some countries until March.

  5. I would definitely recommend the 4K birch-wood crackling fireplace over the boring tradish crackling fireplace. This is my literal opinion based on playing both while our families were over at Christmas. The Winter Wonderland one was bullshit. The scenes changed.

  7. If you have Netflix you should search for “Example Show”. It’s not exactly meant to be scenic, or background, or exciting, or anything but it will thoroughly weird you out.

  9. If only I had these recommendations two weeks ago, when I was searching for the yule log channel…

  10. I also hear “Paint Drying” is pretty good. The same producers behind Chris Pratt movies made this one.

  11. At least I know my $7.99 monthly payment to Netflix provides me with quality programming.

  12. Fireplace: Birchwood edition is more soothing than the classic, I find.

    More importantly, does anyone know what the deal is with the movie ‘Ray’? It’s not about a queer lady, but it seems relevant to the Straddleverse nonetheless and there is no information as to when the release date is. It was pushed back indefinitely.

    • The Weinsteins have it, and who ever knows what they’re going to do. They might dump it with no advertising at all like they did the new Jean-Pierre Jeunet film last year, or they might recut it since the reviews were not great. It’s a mystery.

    • You mean the movie about a trans boy by a director who thinks trans boys are girls? Do not want. Do not care.

  14. I watch 99% of things with closed captioning just for mere comprehension and sanity, and this amused me.

  16. Does anyone have AT&T U-verse? They have a “U-verse Showcase channel” that constantly shows some real classics of television programming, such as “Rivers, Lakes, and Waterfalls”, “Winter Wonderland”, “It’s a Dog’s World” and “Texas”. It’s the perfect channel to watch whenever you’re stressed/tired/sick/hungover.

Comments are closed.