-- “Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro”:
For streaming Studio Ghibli films, we’ll have to
wait until they collectively hit HBO Max when it
launches in May. (They are available outside the
U.S. on Netflix.) They are so good — among the
most wondrous in cinema — you might just go
ahead and buy copies of “My Neighbor Totoro,”
“Spirited Away” and “Princess Mononoke.” But for
now, you can stream the feature-film directing
debut of Hayao Miyazaki, the animation
master and co-founder of Ghibli. “The Castle
of Cagliostro,” on Netflix, isn’t as well-known
as Miyazaki’s best. But the director’s verve and
imagination is already on display in this, a caper
that continues the exploits of the debonair thief
Arsène Lupin. Here Lupin discovers the loot from
a casino heist is counterfeit.
--Buster Keaton: No child raised on Buster
Keaton can turn out bad. It’s just a fact. Most
even young children recognize, and laugh their
heads off at, his genius. Keaton’s features are
widely available, but many of his equally brilliant
shorts can be streamed for free. Among them,
“One Week,” in which he tries to assemble a
house; “The Goat,” wherein Keaton is mistaken
for a murderer; and “Cops,” in which he angers
the entire Los Angeles police force.
— “Stop Making Sense”: Concert films are an
underutilized source of entertainment for kids.
Jonathan Demme’s glorious Talking Heads
documentary, available for digital rental and to
stream for free via Vudu, is a good place to start.
And since David Byrne slowly assembles his
band — beginning with just himself, an acoustic
guitar and a tape deck, on “Psycho Killer” —
“Stop Making Sense” offers a good step-by-step
education on how to build a post-modern funk