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 …
Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn star as a married couple struggling to have kids late in life in Private Life (2018, not rated), a spiky drama with comic edges from director Tamara Jenkins.
“Private Life is impressively squirmy, delving into every nook and cranny of Richard and Rachel’s experience as a 40-something couple trying to conceive a child,” writes David Sims for The Atlantic. “Rather than delight in their cosmopolitan lifestyle, Jenkins uses her gift for capturing intimacy as a weapon, telling a story that’s sometimes brutal, other times acidly funny, but always honest.”
It comes direct to Neflix from the film festival circuit.
Into The Dark: The Body, a darkly comic tale of a hitman hauling a body across town on Halloween, is the debut installment of the horror anthology series created by low budget horror specialist Blumhouse Production.
Variety critic Daniel D’Addario describes it as “a down-and-dirty eighty-minute gorefest whose rapid pace and nihilistic attitude recall, for instance, this summer’s Blum flick Upgrade or his Purge franchise. If episodes of anthology series are indeed films, this is streaming’s version of a B-movie.”
Inspired by a true story and shot in and around Portland, Oregon, Leave No Trace (2018, PG) is a touching indie drama starring Ben Foster as a troubled military vet and loving single father trying to raise a daughter (Thomasin McKenzie in a revelatory performance) off the grid. On Cable On Demand and VOD, also on DVD and at Redbox.
RBG (2018, PG) charts the life and career of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg from legal scholar to pop culture icon. Could it be more timely? It debuts on Hulu.
Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the sketch troupe that changed TV comedy with Monty Python’s Flying Circus: Complete Series, featuring all 45 episodes original episodes, plus Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979, R), concert movies Monty Python: Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982, R) and Monty Python Live (Mostly): One Down, Five to Go (2014, TV-MA), the six-part documentary Monty Python’s Almost the Truth (2009), and more, all new to Netflix this month.
Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand
Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018, R), starring Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin, blurs the line between the war on drugs with the war on terror. It’s both a straightforward thriller and a complicated story of government cover-ups and human sacrifices and one man’s moral code defying orders to do right. Italian filmmaker Stefano Sollima (in his English language debut) does justice to both. Also on DVD and at Redbox.
Also new is the horror prequel The First Purge (2018, R) and the documentaries Three Identical Strangers (2018, PG-13) and A Dangerous Idea (2018, not rated).
Available same day as select theaters nationwide is Loving Pablo (2018, R) with Javier Bardem as drug lord Pablo Escobar and Penélope Cruz as journalist Virginia Vallejo and heavy metal comedy Heavy Trip (2018, Finland, not rated, with subtitles).
Netflix
Netflix Original horror film Malevolent (2018, not rated) stars Florence Pugh and Ben Lloyd-Hughes as a fake paranormal investigators in a real haunted house.
Jason Clarke is Ted Kennedy in Chappaquiddick (2017, PG-13), which dramatizes the real-life car accident that killed a young woman (Kate Mara) and the scandal that ensued.
Netflix is picking up Designated Survivor, the unusual Kiefer Sutherland political drama that was recently cancelled by ABC. As it prepares to give the show a third season, you can now stream the first two seasons.
More streaming TV: BBC documentary series Civilisations: Season 1 (2018) is presented by Simon Schama and narrated by Liev Schreiber. Also new:
- Gotham: Season 4 with Ben McKenzie as James Gordon fighting supervillains before Batman;
- animated series Big Mouth: Season 2 from Nick Kroll;
- non-fiction history series Empire Games: Season 1;
- reality show Dancing Queen: Season 1.
Foreign language TV: Élite: Season 1 (Spain, with subtitles) is a melodrama set in an exclusive private school where the rich and poor clash. Also new:
- workplace sitcom YG Future Strategy Office: Season 1 (South Korea, with subtitles);
- romantic drama Little Things: Season 2 (India, with subtitles) set in modern Dubai.
Kid stuff: Creeped Out: Season 1 offers spooky stories for older kids and the animated Super Monsters: Season 2 and feature-length adventure Super Monsters Save Halloween play it for humor for younger tykes.
Also new this month: coming of age drama London Town (2016, R) set during the rise of punk in early 1980s England;
- Blaxploitation parody Black Dynamite (2009, R) with Michael Jai White;
- Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008, R) with Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks;
- romantic drama The Lake House (2006, PG) with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves;
- dystopian thriller V for Vendetta (2005, R) with Natalie Portman;
- Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning Mystic River (2003, R) with Sean Penn and Tim Robbins;
- romantic drama Message in a Bottle (1999, PG-13) with Kevin Costner and Robin Wright;
- Jackie Chan’s U.S. breakthrough action hit Rumble in the Bronx (1995, R);
- Mel Brooks’ comedy classic Blazing Saddles (1974, R);
- and for kids and families there’s the comedy Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985, PG) and the fantasy adventure The NeverEnding Story (1984, PG).
Stand-up: Joe Rogan: Strange Times (Netflix Original)
Amazon Prime Video
Prime Video original series The Man in the High Castle returns for a third season of the alternate history thriller of America under Nazi occupation.
Haunting horror remake Let Me In (2010) relocates the adolescent vampire drama from Sweden to the American Midwest and made a star of Chloë Grace Moretz.
The live TV version of Arsenic & Old Lace (1962) features Boris Karloff in the role of Jonathan, which he created on Broadway but never before played on screen.
Foreign affairs: Wong Kar-wai’s gorgeous, ruminative romantic drama In the Mood for Love (Hong Kong, 2000, PG, with subtitles) with Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung is streaming under the title Those Good Old Years” Also new:
- sweeping fantasy adventure The Monkey King: Havoc in Heaven’s Palace (China, 2013, not rated, with subtitles) with Donnie Yen and Chow Yun-fat;
- Jean-Pierre Melville’s crime classic Le Doulos (France, 1963, with subtitles) with Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Also new this month: Edward Norton is The Illusionist (2006, PG-13) in the turn-of-the-20th-century magician mystery;
- comedy reboot Get Smart (2008, PG-13) with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway;
- John Boorman’s The General (1998, not rated) with Brendan Gleeson as a real-life Irish criminal;
- indie comedy Kicking and Screaming (1995), the debut film from Noah Baumbach;
- romantic comedy IQ (1994, PG) with Walter Matthau as Albert Einstein, matchmaker;
- romantic drama Frankie & Johnny (1991, R) with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer;
- Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam War drama Full Metal Jacket (1987, R);
- fantasy Legend (1985, PG) with Tom Cruise;
- Oscar-winning crime drama Witness (1985, R) with Harrison Ford in Amish country;
- Americana epic Ragtime (1981, PG) from Oscar-winning director Milos Forman;
- epic drama Exodus (1960) with Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint;
- social drama Let Us Live (1939) with Henry Fonda.
More streaming TV: family sitcom Growing Pains: Complete Series (1986-1992) with Alan Thicke and Kirk Cameron and comic supernatural mystery series Pushing Daisies: Complete Series (2007-2009) from Hannibal and American Gods creator Bryan Fuller.
True stories: award-winning documentary Hoop Dreams (1993, PG-13) follows the lives two students from inner-city Chicago struggling to becomes college basketball players.
Amazon Prime / Hulu
Director Bill Condon won a writing Oscar for Gods and Monsters (1998), starring Ian McKellan as Frankenstein director James Whale in his final days (Prime Video and Hulu).
Galaxy Quest (1999, PG), a Star Trek spoof with Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver, has become a cult comedy in its own right (Prime Video and Hulu).
When making your Halloween list, don’t forget to add Zombies of Mass Destruction (2010, R), a satirical and witty gore-fest produced in and around Seattle by local filmmakers (Prime Video and Hulu).
Also new this month: theater drama Stage Beauty (2004, R) with Billy Crudup and Claire Danes (Prime Video and Hulu);
- indie Thanksgiving comedy Pieces of April (2003, PG-13) with Katie Holmes (Prime Video and Hulu);
- crime thriller The Way of the Gun (2000, R) with Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro (Prime Video and Hulu);
- timely social satire Election (1999, R) with Reese Witherspoon (Prime Video and Hulu);
- Paul Verhoeven’s cult science fiction thrillers Starship Troopers (1997, R) (Prime Video and Hulu) and Robocop (1987, R) (Prime Video and Hulu);
- science fiction conspiracy drama The Arrival (1996, PG-13) with Charlie Sheen (Prime Video and Hulu);
- Kathryn Bigelow’s Blue Steel (1990, R) with Jamie Lee Curtis (Prime Video and Hulu);
- Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull (1980, R) with Robert De Niro (Prime Video and Hulu).
Hulu
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993, PG) brings the playfully macabre humor of Tim Burton to life through the old-school magic of stop-motion animation by director Henry Selick and music of Danny Elfman. It’s a Christmas movie and a Halloween treat all in one and is family friendly to boot!
True stories: The Gospel According to André (2017, PG-13) profiles trendsetting fashion editor André Leon Talley.
Foreign affairs: the powerful immigrant drama Dheepan (France, 2016, R, with subtitles) from Jacques Audiard won the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2016. Also new:
- Julio Medem’s drama Ma Ma (Spain, 2015, R, with subtitles) with Penelope Cruz;
- Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone (France, 2012, R, with subtitles) with Marion Cotillard.
Also new this month: Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia (2002, R) with Al Pacino and Hilary Swank;
- romantic comedy Music and Lyrics (2007, PG-13) with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore;
- Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning Vietnam War drama Platoon (1986, R);
- Oscar-winning comedy Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) with Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, and Sidney Poitier;
- cult melodrama Valley of the Dolls (1967) with Patty Duke, Sharon Tate, and Susan Hayward.
HBO Now
Paul Thomas Anderson’s fashion world drama Phantom Thread (2017, R) earned five Oscar nominations, including acting nods for Daniel Day-Lewis and Lesley Manville.
Also new: the animated comedy Early Man (2018, PG) and the documentaries Queen of the World (2018, not rated) and Student Athlete (2018, not rated).
Older films returning to HBO include the animated Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009, PG) from Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice (2014, R) with Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin.
Arriving Saturday night is the comic thriller Game Night (2018, R) with Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams.
FilmStruck
TCM Select Pick of the Week is Random Harvest (1942), one of sixteen films featuring “Star of the Week: Greer Garson.”
Also featured is “Director of the Week: Roberto Rossellini,” from his landmark Neo-realist classics Rome Open City (Italy, 1945) and Paisan (Italy, 1946) to his historical studies The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (Italy, 1966) and The Age of the Medici (Italy, 1973), and “Cinema Passport: Taiwan,” a selection of five films including A Touch of Zen (Taiwan, 1971) and Yi Yi (Taiwan, 2000). All unrated and with subtitles.
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