Flawless

Flawless (1999) is a New York drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Joel Schumacher and built around one of the decade's most unlikely screen partnerships. Robert De Niro plays Walt, a retired security guard and unreconstructed conservative who suffers a debilitating stroke and ends up half-paralysed in his own apartment.

The rehab program includes singing lessons. His only available teacher is Rusty — the drag queen next door he has spent years avoiding. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Rusty with a specificity that goes well past a supporting turn; it's the kind of performance that quietly takes over the film. De Niro, meanwhile, does something harder than usual: he plays a man who has lost command of his own body, slowly finding his way back one humiliation at a time.

The two actors are reason enough to sit down with this film. Schumacher keeps the story grounded rather than sentimental, and the result is sharper than the premise suggests. Watch Flawless (1999) online on iFILM.