If you're a cinema snob who believes film can be fully appreciated only on a big screen, here's some advice: Get over it.
"Roma," which received 10 Oscar nominations Tuesday, including best picture, showed in just a handful of U.S. theaters before premiering on Netflix. So did "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs," which earned the Coen brothers yet another nod for best screenplay.
In addition, a record number of high-caliber movies in 2018 were screened only in New York and Los Angeles, just to qualify for major awards, with distributors focusing instead on the audience for streaming services.
Really, you should see "Roma" on the big screen (it's still showing at the Edina) to appreciate its vast scale and stunning black-and-white images. Some scenes have the grandeur of a classic John Ford western. It's also easier to fall under the spell of Alfonso Cuarón's autobiographical story — centering on a maid who helps to raise a splintered family in 1970s Mexico City — in a theater where that bag of Doritos in the cupboard isn't calling your name.
But for most viewers, the only opportunity to see what all the fuss is about is through Netflix, where they can appreciate Cuarón's insistence that the tiny details of everyday lives are something to attend to and celebrate.
If "Roma" ends up as the academy's best picture on Feb. 24, it will dramatically elevate the status of streaming services. But for now, they still have a stigma.
Here are 12 more streaming movies you shouldn't ignore:
"You Were Never Really Here": Joaquin Phoenix gave the most monumental movie performance of the year in Lynne Ramsay's disturbing thriller about a contract killer on the trail of someone who is exploiting young girls. His skill is matched by Ramsay, whose movies ("We Need to Talk About Kevin," "Ratcatcher") use stylish, spare visuals to help us understand horrifying behavior. Amazon Prime