It’s a markedly less cheery female-centred Netflix film that has been in my thoughts more this week, however: Horse Girl, one of the first titles from this year’s Sundance festival crop to go directly to streaming, and one that deserves a higher profile. Expect the new film to break that somewhat invisible record. When Susan Johnson’s sweetly, imaginatively styled teenage romcom To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before landed in summer 2018, it became a genuine word-of-mouth phenomenon: Netflix, always cagily selective about revealing its viewing figures, claimed it was one of the most-streamed original films they’d ever produced. Rarely has Netflix yielded a sequel by such popular demand. Cannily timed for Valentine’s Day, it’s been as eagerly awaited by legions of young women, in particular, as any big-screen young adult franchise film. In streaming terms, the arrival of the somewhat awkwardly titled To All the Boys: PS I Still Love You on the Netflix menu last week was a blockbuster-scale event.
Which is not to say they can’t be a big deal. For now, however, a brief off-season ensues, as the streaming giant renews its focus on the cheaper, more televisually scaled films that the term “Netflix movie” initially connoted.
The next round will start up soon enough, as the glitzier big-name titles on its 2020 roster pop up at various festivals. N etflix’s latest awards-film cycle finally wrapped up last week, having yielded an Oscar apiece for Marriage Story and the exceptional documentary American Factory, and a disappointing shutout for The Irishman, which will nonetheless live on in streaming eternity.
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