New Kanopy Movies to Watch

One of my favorite things about Kanopy, the app you use to stream movies with your Peter White Public Library card, is that I learn about movies that may have flown under my radar completely. Strolling through the new Kanopy films is one of my favorite pastimes. I love finding highly-lauded movies that I’ve never seen before. Or silly movies that I haven’t seen before. Or exciting movies that I haven’t seen before. Well, you get the drift.

Kanopy’s logo is “Thoughtful Entertainment,” and once you spend a minute or two looking through their selection, you’ll see why. The films span all genres and most of the globe, and all of them are surprisingly well-chosen. You are not likely to find the duds you might run into with streaming apps or big box bins.

If you aren’t using Kanopy yet and would like to, download the app from GooglePlay or iTunes if you have an iPhone or iPad. You’ll just need your library card and pin number to sign up. It’s pretty easy and straightforward but, if you run into trouble, the reference desk librarians at the PWPL are happy to guide you through it. Once you have access, you can even use it with your Roku or Amazon Fire TV Stick to stream on your TV.

Here are a few movies new movies to Kanopy that I was excited to see in their selection or excited to watch for the first time.

≤ “Chinatown” (1974). This is one of the first of the neo-noirs that re-ignited our cultural love of the film noir genre. Jack Nicholson plays a detective, already too tired of the world by the time we meet him, as he tracks down an adulterer. Then, things go sideways. Blame the femme fatale. It was nominated for 11 Oscars and won six of them by reintroducing and transcending the film noir genre of the 1940s.

≤ “Eighth Grade” (2018). The writer and director of this film, Bo Burnham, takes us all on a journey we may not be ready for with this tale of one girl’s last week of middle school. Heartbreaking, powerful, and eye-opening, it encapsulates the new world our children live in that is constantly shadowed by their digital identity.

≤ “The Virgin Suicides” (1999). The great title to this movie is taken from the book it’s based on by Jeffrey Eugenides, a Michigan native and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The cinematic telling of the story is what sets it apart. Sophia Coppola’s directorial debut ensured her presence as a new voice in film.

≤ “Django” (1966). I didn’t forget the “Unchained” — this isn’t Quentin Tarantino’s revenge western, but it certainly influenced it. This spaghetti western tells the story of a mute gunslinger who carries a coffin around with him wherever he goes, which is a pretty amazing set up. It’s not easy to find, so I was really grateful to see it in Kanopy’s latest lineup.

You can watch four movies a month with Kanopy, so these four are a good start for using the app this August, though there are lots of other great films available. Check out what’s new on the app, but remember you have hundreds of options that are already part of the collection. I’d love to know what movies you’ve found, so let me know what you saw that flew under your radar.

By Alisa Hummell

Library assistant