As usual…. To reiterate a suggestion I previously made, if you’re a filmmaker/producer/distributor reading this, and your film is streaming on Netflix, please let me know. Netflix unfortunately doesn’t have what I feel should be a more efficient search/sort method, and it can be quite a chore trying to find something worth watching. So, help me out if you can.

The same goes for non-filmmakers. If you stumble across any titles that you think should be featured in this weekly series, let me know!

But as usual… These aren’t necessarily recommendations. Consider the list more of an FYI – films and TV shows we’ve talked about on this site, at one time or another, that are now streaming on Netflix, that you might want to check out for yourselves.

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

1 – George Tillman Jr.’s "The Inevitable Defeat Of Mister And Pete."

The 2013 Sundance Film Festival drama selection stars Jennifer Hudson, Skylan Brooks, Anthony Mackie, Jordin Sparks, Jeffrey Wright, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, in a film that sees Jennifer Hudson as a drug addict mother whose arrest forces her son and his best friend to fend for themselves.

During a sweltering summer in New York City, 14-year-old Mister’s hard-living mother is apprehended by the police, leaving the boy and nine-year-old Pete alone to forage for food while dodging child protective services and the destructive scenarios of the Brooklyn projects. Faced with more than any child can be expected to bear, the resourceful Mister nevertheless feels he is an unstoppable force against seemingly unmovable obstacles. But what really keeps the pair in the survival game is much more Mister’s vulnerability than his larger-than-life attitude. 

Skylan Brooks leads the cast as the titular Mister.

The script was penned by Michael Starrbury, and by co-produced by Alicia Keys.

Trailer below:

2 – The sci-fi thriller "The Colony," which stars Laurence Fishburne. 

Budget at $16 million, the Canadian-produced film is directed by Jeff Renfroe, from a script he co-wrote with Patrick Tarr, Pacal Trottier and Svet Rouskov, and the story centers on a group of underground survivors fighting to survive after the next Ice Age, fending off an invasion of feral cannibals.

Bill Paxton co-stars with Fishburne.

Paul Barkin, Matthew Cervi and Pierre Even produced. 

Trailer for the film below:

3 – Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s 2013 Cannes Competition entry "Grigris," which won the Vulcan Award for technical achievement at the festival. 

The film centers on Grisgris, a 25 year old young man with dreams of becoming a dancer despite the fact that he’s paralyzed from the waist down. His dreams are shattered when his uncle falls seriously ill. To save him, he decides to go work for petrol traffickers.

It stars Soulémane Démé, Mariam Monory, Cyril Guei, Anaïs Monory and Marius Yelolo (who’s worked with Haroun on at least 2 other past films).

"Grisgris" is produced by Florence Stern for Pili Films, with Chad’s Goï Goï Productions and Frances 3 Cinéma.

Here’s a trailer:

4 – A drama titled "Four Of Hearts" from writer/director Eric Haywood.

The film’s synopsis reads: A young husband and wife attempt to rekindle the fading spark in their relationship by having a one-night fling with another couple, but find themselves unprepared for the tangled web of guilt, jealousy, and forbidden attractions that follows.

The film stars Darrin Dewitt Henson (The Last Fall), Nadine Ellis (Let’s Stay Together), Gabriel Olds (Boardwalk Empire), and Michelle Krusiec (Fringe).

Watch the trailer below:

5 – Former Executive Vice President of Tyler Perry Studios, Roger Bobb, who left the company earlier last year to start his own film production company called Bobcat Films, made his feature film directorial debut with "Raising Izzie" – a film that’s based on the grand-prize winning script of the 1st annual GMC Faith & Family Screenplay Competition 3 years ago.

Bobb, who also produced the work, and whose past credits include directing several episodes of Tyler Perry TV shows, directed from a script penned by David Martyn Conley, that centers on two orphaned sisters and a teacher who takes them under wing.

Here’s a longer synopsis: When their mother passes away leaving them without an adult guardian, Sisters Izzie (Kyla Kenedy) and Gertie Nash (Victoria Staley) are forced to grow up fast. Afraid her daughters will be separated if they are placed in the foster care system, their mother makes the necessary arrangements for Gertie and Izzie to live on their own, with a bank account, apartment and small on-line business to support themselves. Older sister Gertie takes care of her little sister in addition to working and attending school. For a year, the girls are able to hide their predicament from their neighbors, their landlord and even their teachers. But when Tonya Freeman (Vanessa Williams), Gertie’s new teacher, becomes suspicious, the girls have to come up with a new plan to protect their secret. After Tonya confronts the girls and they confess to their situation, Tonya has to decide how to protect them and keep them together against the will of her husband Greg (Rockmond Dunbar). 

Shot in Atlanta, the film’s starring cast includes Vanessa Williams (of "Soul Food" fame, not the former Ms America), Rockmond Dunbar, Kyla Kenedy and Victoria Staley.

Here’s the film’s trailer: