It’s Unstreamable! Where Jas Keimig and Chase Burns recommend movies and TV shows you can't watch on major streaming services in the United States. We post on Wednesdays unless we’re tired or busy 😊
Got a recommendation for Unstreamable? Give us the scoop at unstreamablemovies@gmail.com.
USA, 1993 – 2005, Various Directors
One of the most overlooked sections inside Scarecrow Video is the skateboarding section, which is loaded with grimey, stylish skate videos, many from the ‘90s and early aughts. My current fav to rent, produced between 1993 and 2005, is 411 Video Magazine, which released a total of 67 issues, one issue dropping per season. Usually ranging around an hour, these “video magazines” were laid out like regular magazines, with profiles, editors notes, and advertising breaks.
A good entry point into the series is 411VM issue 60, released for $30 in 2003 as a four-disc collector's edition. (It originally came with a 48-page booklet and stickers.) Featuring a profile on Stevie Williams, 411VM 60 is mostly filled with highlights from the first ten years of 411. AKA: hours of vibey, bloody, masochistic shredding, usually with celebrities like Tony Hawk, Bam Margera, and Bob Burnquist. As with all 411 videos, part of this release’s value today is in rewatching its commercials, which are loud and DIY and for products like sports deodorants and DC shoes. But my favorite parts of 411 videos are the street shots. Nothing captures early 2000s streets the way these videos do. Rent these discs and light up. CHASE BURNS
Find it in the Sports section under Skateboards and Skating or rent it by mail.
USA, 1994, 92 min, Dir. Michael Lehmann
It’s kind of hard to believe that such a rich text of ‘90s references and fashion like Airheads is so unavailable to stream! I’ll sketch the story for you briefly: a Los Angeles hard rock band consisting of Fraser, Adam Sandler, and Steve Buscemi (swoon) accidentally hijack a radio station in an attempt to force the jockeys to play their demo. They want a record deal, after all. It’s a plot that is probably nonsensical to Zoomers and plays like an extended SNL sketch. I loved it.
The fashion alone is great because they all kinda dress like hot lesbians. Fraser with his long hair and leather jacket, Sandler with his shaved head and flannel, and Buscemi’s band tee and bad attitude. And, of course, the vision-less critics of the time absolutely panned the film and it absolutely tanked at the box office. By Airheads’ 25th anniversary, however, the movie became—say it with me—a cult classic. The brotherhood of Airheads is a strong one. During one of Variety’s Actors on Actors interviews, Sandler revealed that he threatened to walk if Lehmann didn’t cast Fraser in the role. "I said, 'Just know Adam Sandler ain't going to be in Airheads unless old Fraser is in it,” said Sandler. How’s that! JAS KEIMIG
Find it in the Comedy section or rent it by mail.
Looking for more? Browse our big list of 350+ hard-to-find movies over on The Stranger.
*The fine print: Unstreamable means we couldn’t find it on Netflix, Hulu, Shudder, Disney+, or any of the other hundreds of streaming services available in the United States. We also couldn’t find it available for rent or purchase through platforms like Prime Video or iTunes. We don’t consider films on sites that interrupt with commercial breaks, like Tubi, to be streamable. Tubi is like Neu Cable. And yes, we know you can find many things online illegally, but we don’t consider user-generated videos, like unauthorized YouTube uploads, to be streamable.
