Muppets, Dolls and Go-Go’s, Now Available to Stream

After the most recent round of bullshit that’s been happening, I had to change focus. The one-two punch of the Fashion House debacle and the state legislature’s special session to eliminate corporate liability for COVID-19 and criminalize protests at the Capitol put me on a rage-fueled depressive log-flume spiral that could only be remedied by The Muppet Movie. I do not bandy about The Muppet Movie lightly, because it is everything that I love about art and imagination. So this week’s selections are all very accessible, with lots of big, relatable emotions. I’ve got more than a hundred mini-reviews spanning back over the past four months in the previous installments of the Primal Stream, so have a look back at those; I sincerely hope they can help you find the emotional experience you need: March 26, April 2, April 9, April 16, April 23, April 30, May 7, May 14, May 21, May 28, June 4, June 11, June 18, June 25, July 2, July 9, July 16, July 23, July 30, Aug. 6.

The Muppet Movie on Disney+

There are few things as pure and inspirational (in all senses of the word) as The Muppet Movie. If the opening performance of “Rainbow Connection” (or even more devastatingly, Gonzo’s “I’m Going to Go Back There Someday”) doesn’t speak to you on some level, then I have to question your humanity — because whether you need boundless heartfelt sincerity or the odd comfort of winking irony, there is a Muppet to embody where you’re at, and they’ve probably got a song for the occasion. And this endearing story of how the Muppets came together during a cross-country meta trek never stops being funny and never plays careless games with your heart. There are six or seven decades’ worth of showbiz greats strewn throughout, but no one gets in the way of the Muppets, which is as it should be. I haven’t watched their new series, but it’ll happen, because there’s yet to be a situation that couldn’t be improved with Muppets. Again, this joyous film is a Voight-Kampff test for the human soul; get to know the absolute truth of yourself.

Host on Shudder

Running just less than an hour, this spry shocker from the director of the utterly brilliant short “Dawn of the Deaf” is an essential work of COVID-19 art. A Zoom call between a group of friends veers from drunken socializing to a shits-and-giggles séance to a journey into extradimensional terror. Basically, as easy as it is to embarrass yourself with an unfortunate unmuting, or reveal some unspeakable corner of your living space to everyone, that’s how easy it is to open your meeting up to a malefic entity. There are lots of found-footage tropes here, but Host isn’t like anything else out there currently (though respect is due The Collingswood Story and the Unfriended films, because you can feel their digital DNA running through this). It addresses our plague anxieties and the inescapable dread of being alive at this moment in time as well as exorcising some (but not all) of the unease that comes from having to live so many aspects of our lives remotely. The effects are interesting, surreal and unearthly deformations of reality that stick in your brain. There will be a lot of people saying they could have done it better, and if so, I’ll happily watch their movie too if it’s this effective.

The Go-Go’s on Showtime

The Go-Go’s is a punchy, vibrant look at the quintet who stormed punk stages (even if it was just for a minute, Belinda Carlisle was one of The Germs and Gina Schock played drums for Edith Massey) and set pop records. This documentary sticks to seven years — 1978-1984 — that shook the speakers of the world, with the band dishing a lot of dirt (the “Clown Family” is explained, but not that video), doing a lot of drugs (enough to have an aghast Ozzy Osbourne kick a band member out of his dressing room), pissing off National Front agitators while opening for Madness and The Specials in the U.K., annihilating arenas on tour with The Police, and giving us the rise-fall-rebirth narrative we as a culture seem to need from our musical memories. Plus it’s done in a manner that is suitably jagged and sparkly, just like the band’s best tunes. Director Alison Ellwood digs deeper than many, bringing in former members and the band’s initial manager, addressing bad blood and betrayal with a forthrightness that feels refreshing. Nobody is tiptoeing around anything, and that feels right. At its best (which is the majority of its runtime), this documentary makes you feel the ache of the limbo we’re in right now. Also, if society survives, Alison Brie is going to win an Oscar playing Martha Quinn in an early-’80s period piece.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls on Hulu

By this time, 50 years later (!), the foundation of this kind of film is held near and dear to moviegoers the world over. A trio of friends is taken to the heights of fame and the troughs of sorrow, taking emotional and personal chaos and channeling it into rawk, lit by footlights and muzzle flash. There are aspects of countless other films that pop up here and there in Roger Ebert’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls script, but this film is edited like a Gatling gun, and it propels itself without the slightest hint of restraint or taste — and it excels because of it. The Carrie Nations are three women with a dream and some great songs (“Sweet Talkin’ Candy Man” and “In the Long Run” are killer jams), and we follow them through decadent parties, sloppy affairs, financial crisis, pregnancy scares, sexual fluidity and the emotional shift from Woodstock to Altamont. This being a Russ Meyer film, bosoms hold sway, violence is severe, Nazis are always plotting against that which is good, and all sensibilities will be shocked in some capacity. Much like its sister in NC-17dom, Showgirls (and their PG-13 little cousin Josie and The Pussycats), Dolls is an impeccably made film that works on multiple levels — even as it trangresses in ways that make it impossible to enjoy without questioning some of its narrative choices. As Casey, the tragic center of the story (for me) so eloquently puts it, “There’s juice freaks and pill freaks, and then everyone’s a freak.” Damn right.