Pay Attention to Movies Released on Streaming Platforms

I saw two movies yesterday. One of them, David Lowery’s “A Ghost Story,” which opens in July, is among the most exhilaratingly original films I’ve seen in a while. The other, Adam Leon’s “Tramps,” an amiable but insubstantial adolescent romantic adventure, opens today—sort of. Some people might say that it doesn’t open at all, because it isn’t being released in movie theatres but, rather, online only, on Netflix. Both movies are freestanding, non-serial, complete, and integral dramas that run about an hour and a half each. “A Ghost Story” got largely favorable reviews when it premièred at Sundance, in January; “Tramps” was also widely praised when it was shown at the Toronto Film Festival, last September. But “A Ghost Story” will be eligible for consideration in year-end movie awards in 2017 and “Tramps” won’t, because the prevailing definition of a film’s “release” is its theatrical release—even if that release is only in a single New York or Los Angeles theatre for a single week.