Here’s what’s new and ready to stream now on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Now, Showtime Anytime, FilmStruck, video-on-demand, and other streaming services …
The new Netflix teen comedy Everything Sucks!: Season 1 pits the A/V Club against the drama club in tale of social outcasts and unexpected romance in a 1990s high school in Boring, Oregon (a real town).
The comedy “has easy laughs and even easier cries, with a fair bit of filler in between,” writes Mike Hale for The New York Times. “It seems to have been assembled from bits and pieces of Freaks and Geeks, Stranger Things, the films of John Hughes and — in the way that the characters are constantly breaking out in musical and theatrical performances within the story — the sensibility of Ryan Murphy.” It features some strong language but otherwise is teen friendly.
10 episodes (under a half-hour each) now streaming.
Channing Tatum and Adam Driver play brothers who defy the Logan Lucky (2017, PG-13) family curse when they rob a North Carolina NASCAR track in Steven Soderbergh’s playful and clever heist comedy. Think of it as the red state answer to his jazzy, glitzy “Oceans” movies. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video and reviewed on Stream On Demand here.
Also on Prime Video is Human Flow (2017, PG-13), an epic documentary on forced migration and the plight of the displaced all around the around the world made with an eye for beauty and a sense of compassion by visual artist Ai Weiwei.
Gal Gadot is the original comic book super heroine in Wonder Woman (2017, PG-13), a refreshingly dynamic, rousing, and inspirational addition to the big screen universe of D.C comics. This one is set in World War I and pits the Amazon warrior princess against the God of War. Now on HBO, reviewed on Stream On Demand here.
And with Black Panther opening in what seems to be every theater in America, why not revisit the character’s introduction to the MCU in Captain America: Civil War (2016, PG-13) on Netflix. Reviewed on Stream On Demand here.
Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand
Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson are protective parents of a child (Jacob Tremblay) with facial deformities in Wonder (2017, PG), the family drama based on the children’s novel by R.J. Palacio. Also on DVD and Blu-ray and at Redbox.
Denzel Washington earned an Oscar nomination playing Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017, PG-13) in the legal drama co-starring Colin Farrell. Also on DVD and Blu-ray and at Redbox.
Available same day as select theaters nationwide is drama Golden Exits (2017, R) from filmmaker Alex Ross Perry with Emily Browning and Mary-Louise Parker and thriller Looking Glass (2018, R) Nicolas Cage and Robin Tunney, plus the comic documentary Poop Talk (2018, not rated) with comedians talking about bowel movements.
Netflix
The romantic drama Irreplaceable You (2018, not rated) stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Michiel Huisman as lifelong sweethearts whose future is in doubt after a grim diagnosis. Christopher Walken, Kate McKinnon, and Steve Coogan co-star in the Netflix original film.
Foreign affairs: Love Per Square Foot (India, 2018, with subtitles), a romantic comedy about a marriage of convenience in Mumbai, premieres in the U.S. the same week it opens in India.
True stories: Trophy (2017, not rated) takes on the big business of big game hunting and extreme mountaineering documentary Meru (2015, R) won a Sundance award.
Streaming TV: the comedic docuseries The Mortified Guide brings the live stage show featuring adults reading their teenage diaries and love letters to the small screen.
Three additional international shows debut this week:
- nonfiction sports series First Team: Juventus: Season 1, which goes behind the scenes with an Italian soccer club for a season;
- mystery drama Re:Mind: Season 1 (Japan, with subtitles)’
- crime thriller Day and Night: Season 1 (China, with subtitles).
Kid stuff: new episodes of teen boarding school drama Greenhouse Academy: Season 2 and animated DreamWorks Dragons: Race to the Edge: Season 6.
Amazon Prime
Good Time (2017, R) gives Robert Pattinson a deliciously mercenary role as a scuzzy, jittery small-time thief trying to score bail money to get his mentally disabled brother out of jail.
Clint Eastwood earned his second round of Oscars for best director and best picture for Million Dollar Baby (2004, PG-13), which also earned Oscars for star Hillary Swank and co-star Morgan Freeman. Reviewed on Stream On Demand here.
Also new: lean western remake 3:10 to Yuma (2007, R) with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, offbeat indie road movie comedy The Color Wheel (2012, not rated), and high-concept thriller Deep Blue Sea (1999, R) with Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, and Samuel L. Jackson versus a new breed of smart shark.
Best bad movies: Miami Connection (1988, not rated) mixes martial arts, rock and roll, vengeful drug dealers, and a brotherhood of orphans together with a level of incompetence that results in surreal entertainment.
Foreign affairs: The Connection (France, 2015, R, with subtitles) tackles the same real-life drug smuggling case that inspired “The French Connection” from the French perspective. Also new:
- wrestling comedy Foul King (South Korea, 2000, not rated, with subtitles) from director Kim Jee-woon and actor Song Kang-ho (of “The Good the Bad the Weird”);
- sly political satire Property is No Longer Theft (Italy, 1973, not rated, with subtitles) from filmmaker Elio Petri;
- sexy and stylish giallo double-shot Death Walks on High Heels (Italy, 1971, not rated, with subtitles) and Death Walks at Midnight (Italy, 1972, not rated, with subtitles).
Streaming TV: enter the beautiful and grotesque world of Hannibal: Complete Series (2013-2015) with Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Hannibal Lecter or, in much lighter vein, get a sixties comedy flashback with Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In: Complete Series (1967-1972). Sock it to me!
Also new: the fourth season of Amazon’s original drama Mozart in the Jungle, set in the classical music culture of New York City, and Ken Burns’ World War II documentary mini-series The War (2007).
Amazon Prime / Hulu
Chris Pine is young James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto is Spock in Star Trek (2009, PG-13), the big screen reboot / prequel from J.J. Abrams set in the Starfleet Academy years (Amazon Prime and Hulu). Reviewed on Stream On Demand here.
Hulu
Viggo Mortensen and Oscar Isaac are American hustlers in Greece in The Two Faces of January (2014, PG-13), a scenic thriller based on the Patricia Highsmith novel.
A 12-year-old inner city drug courier nicknamed Fresh (1994, R) uses his chess skills to outmaneuver a brutal druglord in this sharp urban thriller co-starring Samuel L. Jackson.
Foreign affairs: Gael García Bernal stars in Rudo y Cursi (Mexico, 2008, R, with subtitles) with Diego Luna playing brothers trying to escape poverty through soccer, and in the Oscar-nominated The Crime of Father Amaro (Mexico, 2002, R, with subtitles) a newly-ordained priest attracted to a beautiful young parishoner.
Streaming TV: the complete six-season run of the NBC dramedy Parenthood (2010-2015) with Lauren Graham and Peter Krause and the hilarious ABC workplace sitcom Better Off Ted: Complete Series (2009-2010) join Hulu’s growing TV library. Also new: crime drama Cardinal: Season 2 from Canada.
HBO Now
Holly Hunter and Tim Robbins are parents of a multi-ethnic family in Portland, Oregon in Here and Now, the new HBO original drama from “Six Feet Under” creator Alan Ball. New episodes arrive Sunday nights.
True stories: Atomic Homefront (2018, not rated) examines the impact of radioactive waste illegally dumped near St. Louis and Traffic Stop (2017) is an Oscar-nominated documentary short subject.
Arriving Saturday night is The House (2017, R), a comedy with Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler.
Showtime Anytime
True musical stories: Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars (2018, TV-MA) profiles the life and legacy of legendary rock guitarist and Word is Bond (2018, TV-MA) examines the reach and power of lyrics in hip-hop.
FilmStruck / Criterion Channel
Jacques Demy is FilmStruck’s director of the week and the collection includes his breakthrough romantic drama Lola (France, 1961, with subtitles) with Anouk Aimée and the musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (France, 1964, with subtitles) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (France, 1967, with subtitles) with Catherine Deneuve.
Also new are Oscar nominated foreign classics The Battle of Algiers (France, 1966, with subtitles) and Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (Japan, 1950, with subtitles) and a “Brit Noir” collection of dark British crime films including They Made Me a Criminal (1947) with Trevor Howard and the rare It Always Rains on Sunday (1947), which has never been released to home video in the U.S.
The Criterion Channel presents the newly restored presentation of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968, not rated) and includes many of the supplements from the newly released special edition DVD and Blu-ray release (reviewed on Stream On Demand here). Also new: John Huston’s The Misfits (1961) with Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift and boxing drama The Harder They Fall (1956) with Humphrey Bogart in his final performance.
BritBox
A pair of LGBTQ offerings: Matt Smith stars in Christopher and his Kind (2011), a British TV movies about writer Christopher Isherwood in 1920 Berlin, and Keeley Hawes stars in the mini-series Tipping the Velvet (2002), featuring an early performance by Benedict Cumberbatch.
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