As usual… These aren’t necessarily recommendations; consider it more of an FYI – films we’ve talked about on this site, that are now streaming on Netflix, that you might want to check out for yourselves.

Without further ado, here’s this week’s list of 5:

1 – Acclaimed Venezuelan drama Hermano (or Brother), directed by Marcel Rasquin from a script penned by Rasquin and Rohan Jones.

An Academy Awards Submission for Venezuela in 2011, the film focuses on the journey two brothers Daniel (Fernando Moreno) and Julio (Eliú Armas), take, as they struggle to become professional soccer players amidst slum life and tragedy. 

Here’s its full synopsis:

Raised as brothers, intense teammates and competitors on the soccer field – the gregarious, swaggering Julio (Eliu Armas) and the wiry, focused Daniel/“Gato” (Fernando Moreno) have remained virtually inseparable ever since the newborn Daniel was found abandoned in a trash heap in their La Ceniza slum. The opportunity of their lives arrives when a football scout invites them to try out for the city’s top professional team, just as a tragic act of violence threatens to tear them apart and prevent them from achieving their dreams.

2 – The film for which Omar Sy won the César Award for Best Actor last year (the French equivalent of the Oscars) is now streaming on Netflix.

The box office record-setting dramedy Intouchables which is based on a true story, and centers on the relationship between a wealthy white aristocrat who becomes a quadriplegic after a paragliding accident, and the younger, poor black man he hires to take care of him.

Omar Sy stars as our poor black dude, Driss, while François Cluzet (one of France’s movie stars), plays Philippe the rich quadriplegic.

The film was a hit worldwide, even though we here at S&A had our problems with it. But now you can see it and judge for yourselves, via Netflix streaming.

Here’s its trailer:

3 – Written and directed by Brent McCorkie, and produced by Jason Atkins and J. Wesley Legg, Unconditional is based on the true events surrounding the character Michael Ealy plays, named Joe Bradford.

Synopsis reads as follows:

Samantha Crawford’s life is a storybook life: she’s happily married, she lives on a ranch where she keeps her beloved horse, and the stories she’s told and illustrated since childhood have become published books. When her husband Billy is killed in a senseless act of violence, Sam loses her faith and her will to live. But a death-defying encounter with two children leads to a reunion with Joe, her oldest friend. As Sam watches her friend Joe care for and love the kids in his under-resourced neighborhood, she begins to realize that no matter life’s circumstances, the love of God is always reaching out to us.

The real-life Joe Bradford serves seven at-risk communities in Nashville, TN through his Elijah’s Heart ministry.

Trailer below:

4 –  Donovan’s Echo stars Danny Glover as a man who lost his family in a tragic accident thirty years ago, as a series of events lead him to believe that history is repeating itself; so he goes out of his way to try and save his neighbor’s from a similar fate.

Costarring alongside Mr Glover are Bruce Greenwood and Sonja Bennett.

An actual synopsis reads:

Once a brilliant mathematician, Donovan Matheson (Danny Glover) has been an outcast since an accident that killed his wife and daughter three decades ago for which he blames himself. He finally returns home as the tragic event’s 30th anniversary approaches and begins discovering similarities to what had happened to him in the past. Convinced history is repeating itself, Donovan risks everything to save an unsuspecting family from the same tragic fate.

Check out the trailer for the drama/thriller below:

5 – He directed 2 of the most revered documentaries made in the last 20 years (Hoop Dreams and The Interrupters), and now director Steve James tackles the “concussion crisis in sports,” in his revealing feature documentary, Head Games.

Produced by Bruce Sheridan, and inspired by the 2006 book by Christopher Nowinski of the same name, in Head Games…

… Athletes and parents share their personal struggles in dealing with concussions from the professional to youth levels. Head Games takes a deeper look at the devastating and long-term effects of concussions in all sports. The film offers eye-opening insight and cutting-edge science on head trauma from the nation’s leading medical experts.

The only documentary on this week’s list, watch the trailer below: