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 …
Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart, and Lily Gladstone are Certain Women (2016, R) in Kelly Reichardt’s intimate, compassionate portrait of frustrations, isolation, and small victories in three stories of small-town lives in the American Midwest. It’s Reichardt’s first film shot outside of Oregon in over a decade and she creates just as powerful a connection with the Montana landscape as she did with Oregon’s. All of her featured actresses are superb but Lily Gladstone is the revelation here, an unknown whose quietly powerful portrait of a woman in love is tender and devastating. Based on the short stories of Maile Meloy. Streaming on Netflix.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is disillusioned idealist Edward Snowden in Snowden (2016, R), Oliver Stone’s drama about the NSA whistleblower who leaked thousands of classified documents revealing illegal government surveillance. Framed by the famous meeting in a Hong Kong hotel room where Snowden (played with modest integrity by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) shared top-secret files revealing illegal surveillance programs with journalist Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) and documentarian Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo), it tells the story of a patriot from a conservative background who decides to serve his country working for American intelligence after an injury in basic training ends his career as an enlisted soldier, and then becomes disillusioned by the abuse of power under cover of the Patriot Act. Now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Reviewed on Stream On Demand.
A Quiet Place (2018, PG-13) is a horror film with a high-concept premise (alien invaders hunt humans by sound) but behind the jumps and monster-movie spectacle is a drama rooted in guilt and love and the drive to protect family at all costs. On VOD and Cable On Demand, also on DVD and at Redbox.
Lean on Pete (2018, R), shot in Oregon by British filmmaker Andrew Haigh (“45 Years”) and starring Charlie Plummer as a teenager who bonds with the horse he tends, challenges the sentimentality of the “boy and his horse” genre with an emotionally authentic story. It debuts on VOD and disc but Amazon Prime Video subscribers can stream it for free right now.
Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand
Jason Clarke is Ted Kennedy in Chappaquiddick (2018, PG-13), which dramatizes the real-life car accident that killed a young woman (Kate Mara) and the scandal that ensued. Also new:
- road movie comedy The Leisure Seeker (2017, R) with Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland;
- coming of age comedy Krystal (2017, R) with Rosario Dawson and Nick Robinson.
Available same day as select theaters nationwide is Shock and Awe (2018, R), directed by Rob Reiner and starring Woody Harrelson and James Marsden as reporters digging into the lies behind the 2003 Iraq war. Also new:
- Siberia (2018, R), a crime drama starring Keanu Reeves;
- French zombie drama Night Eats the World (France, 2018, not rated, with subtitles).
Netflix
Ben Affleck made his directorial debut with the modern private eye drama Gone Baby Gone (2007, R), based on the novel by Dennis Lehane and starring his brother, future Oscar-winner Casey Affleck, with Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, and Amy Ryan in an Oscar-nominated performance. Reviewed on Stream On Demand here.
Theo James and Forest Whitaker star in the made-for-Netflix apocalyptic thriller How It Ends (2018, TV-MA).
Scream 4 (2011, R) reunites director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson for a revival of the self-aware horror franchise, with Hayden Panettiere, Emma Roberts, and Kieran Culkin joining series vets Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courtney Cox.
The Netflix Original animated series The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants: Season 1 continues the comic adventures of the hapless high school principal begun in the 2017 animated movie.
More streaming TV: Netflix Original true-crime series Drug Lords: Season 2 and baking competition show Sugar Rush: Season 1.
Stand-up: Jim Jefferies: This Is Me Now (2018, not rated) and Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain (2013, R).
Amazon Prime Video
Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975, PG) is the original summer blockbuster. It’s on Prime Video along with the increasingly ridiculous sequels. Reviewed on Stream On Demand here.
NYPD Blue: The Complete Series (1993-2005) presents all 12 seasons and 261 episodes of the great modern cop drama that, in retrospect, was always about the redemption of Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz).
More streaming TV: Comicstaan: Season 1, a stand-up comedy showcase from Amazon Prime India;
- Australian crime drama Deep Water (2016) with Yael Stone and Noah Taylor;
- British kid-oriented sci-fi adventure Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: Complete Series with a cast of marionettes.
Cult movies: Jonathan Demme made his directorial debut with the wild women-in-prison film Caged Heat (1974, R) for Roger Corman and Joe Don Baker is Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser in the original Walking Tall (1973, R).
True stories: Take Me to the River (2014, PG) chronicles the recording of an album uniting classic R&B and blues artists (among them Bobby Blue Bland, Mavis Staples, and Booker T. Williams) with the new generation of rappers.
Hulu
Lake Bell directs and stars as a voice artist in a male-dominated business in the entertainment industry comedy In a World… (2013, R).
The Hulu Original series Harlots: Season 2, set in the culture of sex workers in in 18th century London brothels, is now underway. Two episodes now streaming, new episodes arrive each Wednesday.
More streaming TV: Mary Kills People: Season 2, the Lifetime Network series about an ER doctor (Caroline Dhavernas) who helps terminally ill patients who desire physician-assisted suicide;
- FX comedy You’re the Worst: Season 4;
- kid-friendly animated superhero series Teen Titans Go!: Season 4B from Cartoon Network;
- BBC horror-tinged comedy The League of Gentlemen: Complete Series.
Available Saturday is Emmy-nominated FX comedy Better Things: Season 2, created by and starring Pamela Adlon.
HBO Now
Amy Adams is a reporter confronting the psychological scars of her past while covering a murder in the HBO Original miniseries Sharp Objects, based on the Gillian Flynn novel and directed by Emmy-winner Jean-Marc Vallée.
Justice League (2017, PG-13) stars Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot as Batman and Wonder Woman, the veteran heroes who join forces with The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg to save the world after the death of Superman.
Stand-up: Bill Maher: Live from Oklahoma (2018, TV-MA)
Available Saturday night is Battle of the Sexes (2017, PG-13) starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell as Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.
Showtime Anytime
Chadwick Boseman plays young Thurgood Marshall in Marshall (2017, PG-13) from filmmaker Reginald Hudlin and Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac are Soul Men (2008, R) in the comedy of estranged singing partners reunited for a special concert.
Available Saturday is Baby Driver (2017, R), Edgar Wright’s inventive and energetic take on the getaway driver crime drama, and romantic comedy Home Again (2017, PG-13) with Reese Witherspoon.
FilmStruck
TCM Select Pick of the Week is Auntie Mame (1958) starring Rosalind Russell as an eccentric heiress who raises her orphaned nephew in a free-spirited, bohemian lifestyle. Streams through December 27, 2018
“Star of the Week: John Wayne” collects 19 films featuring The Duke, from his breakthrough role in Stagecoach (1939) to seventies cop drama McQ (1974), shot in Seattle. In between are a number of collaborations with John Ford (including The Long Voyage Home, 1940, and biographical drama The Wings of Eagles, 1957, with buddy Ward Bond playing John Ford), Howard Hawks western Rio Bravo (1959) with Dean Martin and Angie Dickinson, and cattle drive drama The Cowboys (1972, PG) with Roscoe Lee Brown and Bruce Dern.
FilmStruck’s collection of “Eighties Fantasies” includes John Boorman’s Arthurian epic Excalibur (1981, PG), Terry Gilliam’s time-traveling caper comedy Time Bandits (1981, PG), and medieval romantic adventure Ladyhawke (1985, PG-13) with Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer, and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Also new: “Cinematography by Caleb Deschanel” celebrates the work of the great director of photography with four films, including the gorgeous The Black Stallion (1979, R) and Oscar-nominated The Right Stuff (1983, PG), and “Director of the Week: Jean Rouch” spotlights nine films from the nonfiction filmmaker, including his acclaimed Chronicle of a Summer (France, 1961, with subtitles).
BritBox
A collection of BAFTA-winning British television dramas make their respective American debuts. Murdered by My Boyfriend (2014), Murdered by My Father (2016), and Murdered for Being Different (2017) form a loose trilogy of heart wrenching dramas based on true stories. In a similar vein and also inspired by a true story is Killed by My Debt (2018), also making its U.S. debut.
Also new: Doctor Blake Mysteries: Seasons 4 & 5, the final seasons in the Australian crime drama set in the 1950s and starring Craig McLachlan as a crime-solving surgeon.
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