Here’s what’s new and ready to stream now on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Now, video-on-demand, and other streaming services …
Mary Poppins Returns (2018, PG) stars Emily Blunt as Britain’s most famous nanny, who floats back into the lives of the now-grown Jane and Michael Banks (Emily Mortimer and Ben Whishaw) to help with Michael’s children. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Meryl Streep co-star in the musical sequel. Now streaming on Netflix.
Chadwick Boseman plays Thurgood Marshall in Marshall (2017, PG-13), a legal drama about the future Supreme Court Justice when he was an NAACP attorney in 1940 fighting a seemingly unwinnable case. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Looking for something more educational to occupy kids in the summer break? Some of the most visually engaging natural history documentaries from BBC Earth are on Netflix, including Planet Earth (2006) and follow-up Planet Earth II (2016), Frozen Planet (2011) about life at the poles, and Life Story (2014) about the life cycle of animals across the globe. All are hosted by David Attenborough. Now on Netflix.
Foreign language pick: dry wit and playful storytelling help make Woman at War (Iceland, 2018, not rated, with subtitles) both a serious drama of ecological activism and a warm, winning story of devotion, sacrifice, and family. Streaming on Hulu.
Free pick: Before she was Captain Marvel, Brie Larson won an Oscar in the gripping and emotionally layered drama Room (2015, R). Streaming on Hoopla, which is available through most public library systems.
Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand
A bullying CEO (Regina Hall) wakes up as her young self in Little (2019, PG-13), a comedy costarring Issa Rae and Marsai Martin. Also on DVD and at Redbox. Also new:
- horror movie remake Pet Sematary (2019, R) with Jason Clarke and Amy Seimetz;
- young adult romantic drama After (2019, PG-13).
Available same day as select theaters nationwide is the comedy Miss Arizona (2019, not rated) with Johanna Braddy, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, and Missi Pyle.
Netflix
Anthony Mackie is an ER nurse who teams up with a wounded criminal (Frank Grillo) to take on corrupt cops and save his kidnapped wife in Point Blank (2019, not rated), an American remake of a 2011 French thriller.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Complete Series (1993-1999) joins the Star Trek universe of shows on Netflix, which now spans the original series to Enterprise.
More streaming TV: a Seattle family adjusts to life in a small town in Georgia in the family-friendly sitcom Family Reunion: Season 1 with Anthony Alabi and Loretta Devine. Also new:
- foodie series Taco Chronicles: Season 1 (Mexico, with subtitles) on the history and culture of the taco;
- competition show Blown Away: Season 1 featuring a glassblowing sculpture challenge’
- reality show Extreme Engagement: Season 1 that sends an engaged couple around the world to explore different marriage customs;
- foreign language family dramedy Bonus Family: Season 3 (Sweden, with subtitles).
Kid stuff: the animated True Tunes: Songs creates colorful music videos for classic nursery rhymes. Also new: equestrian drama Free Rein: Season 3 for teens and tweens and animated sci-fi adventure 3Below: Tales of Arcadia: Part 2 for adolescent audiences.
Foreign affairs: crime thriller Cities of Last Things (Taiwan, 2019, with subtitles), a dystopian drama set in near-future Taiwan, comes to Netflix direct from the film festival circuit. Also new:
- award-winning crime drama Sicilian Ghost Story (Italy, 2017, with subtitles, not rated), a mix of true-life crime drama and supernatural fantasy;
- abduction thriller Kidnapping Stella (Germany, 2019, not rated, with subtitles) about a victim who fights back with her wits;
- road movie dramedy 4L (Spain, 2019, not rated, with subtitles) with Jean Reno;
- musical biopic El Potro: Unstoppable (Argentina, 2018, not rated, with subtitles) about superstar singer Rodrigo Bueno;
- documentary Parchís: The Documentary (Spain, with subtitles) profiles the boy/girl pop band that became a phenomenon in Spain in the 1980s.
Amazon Prime Video
Robert Pattinson plays a magazine photographer assigned to cover James Dean (Dane DeHaan) in Life (2015, R), directed by Anton Corbijn (A Most Wanted Man).
Streaming TV: Magnum, P.I.: Seasons 1-5 & 7-8 (1980-1988) offers almost the complete run of the original hit series starring Tom Selleck as a private detective in Hawaii.
Foreign affairs: Sobibor (Russia, 2019, not rated, with subtitles), Russia’s official submission to the 2019 Academy Awards, dramatizes the only successful escape from a Nazi concentration camp. Also newly arrived is another World War II true story: Downfall (Germany, 2005, R, with subtitles), with Bruno Ganz as Hitler in the final days of the war.
Foreign language TV: new seasons of the crime drama Trapped (Iceland, with subtitles) and standup comedy competition Comicstaan: Season 2 (India, with subtitles) are now available.
Cult movies: horror legend George Romero reworks the King Arthur story in Knightriders (1981, R), starring Ed Harris as the idealistic leader of a troupe of cycle-riding gypsies in a traveling Renaissance Fair, and the dystopian science fiction drama A Boy and His Dog (1975, R) with Don Johnson remains the best adaptation of Harlan Ellison’s work.
American comedy director Frank Oz captures the British comic sensibility in the farce Death at a Funeral (2007, R) and American actor Alan Tudyk practically steals the film from the British cast. Also newly arrived:
- classic courtroom drama Inherit the Wind (1960) with Spencer Tracy and Fredric March;
- the Tony-nominated production of Macbeth (2010, not rated) with Patrick Stewart, a stage production filmed for the PBS showcase Great Performances.
Prime Video / Hulu
Ben Affleck adapts Dennis Lehane’s mystery novel for his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone (2007, R), starring his brother (and future Oscar-winner) Casey Affleck and featuring Amy Ryan in an Oscar-nominated performance (Amazon Prime and Hulu).
Hulu
James Badge Dale stars in the acclaimed crime thriller The Standoff at Sparrow Creek (2018, not rated) as an ex-cop ferreting out a killer in a militia group. Also newly arrived:
- Sam Elliot in The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot (2018, not rated), a mix of tall tale, action movie, and character study;
- Lords of Chaos (2018, R), a dark drama set in Norway’s Black Metal culture starring Rory Culkin;
- indie science fiction drama Prospect (2018, R) about a father/daughter team on a mercenary moon.
The Hulu Original series Harlots: Season 3 with Samantha Morton and Lesley Manville is now underway with new episodes each Wednesday.
HBO Now
Rami Malek won an Academy Award playing Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in the rock biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (2018, PG-13).
The two-part documentary I Love You, Now Die (2019, TV-MA) examines the suicide of 18-year-old Conrad Roy and the trial of his girlfriend Michelle Carter, who encouraged him to kill himself with texts.
Available Saturday night is the Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018, PG-13) with Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, and Johnny Depp.
Showtime Anytime
Showtime debuts the documentaries General Magic (2019, TV-PG), about the rise and fall of the 1990s Silicon Valley start-up that created the first viable smartphone, and Shangri-La (2019, not rated), which profiles legendary music producer and Def Jam Records co-founder Rick Rubin.
BritBox
Timothy Spall and Brian F. O’Byrne star in The Heist at Hatton Garden (2019, not rated), a limited series based on the real-life diamond robbery launched by four elderly men. The British TV production makes is U.S. debut on Britbox.
The Criterion Channel
Criterion presents “Directed by Pedro Almodóvar,” a collection of nine films from the acclaimed Spanish filmmaker including the Oscar-nominated Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Spain, 1988, R, with subtitles), and four classic musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers including a special edition of Swing Time featuring commentary, interviews, and a documentary on the musical numbers.
Hoopla
Ryan Reynolds is a traveling gambler in the buddy road movie Mississippi Grind (2015, R) and Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain star in the superb drama A Most Violent Year (2015, R). Also new to Hoopla:
- Lynn Shelton’s Seattle-shot comedy Laggies (2015, R) with Keira Knightley and Chloë Grace Moretz;
- Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring (2013, R) with Emma Watson and The Virgin Suicides (2000, R) with Kirsten Dunst;
- Harmony Korine’s day-glo crime romp Spring Breakers (2013, R) with James Franco and Selena Gomez.
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