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 …
Olivia Colman (soon to take over the role of Queen Elizabeth in the Netflix series The Crown) won the best actress Oscar for playing the lonely, tormented Queen Anne in The Favourite (2018, R), a darkly satirical historical drama costarring Oscar nominees Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone. On Cable On Demand and VOD, also on DVD and at Redbox
Juanita (2018, not rated), a romantic comedy based on Sheila Williams’s novel “Dancing on the Edge of the Roof,” stars Alfre Woodard as a working class woman who leaves the grown children she’s supporting and hits the road to find herself. Now streaming on Netflix.
Ricky Gervais writes, directs, and stars in After Life: Season 1 as a nice guy who turns rude and belligerent to deal with his grief after the death of his wife. TV Insider critic Matt Roush finds the series “Unexpectedly moving… Star-director-writer Gervais curbs the maudlin impulses that made his previous Netflix series, Derek, such a chore, finding sharp humor in Tony’s outrageous outbursts over petty grievances.”
David Bradley, Ashley Jensen, and Penelope Wilton costar in the new dark comedy now streaming on Netflix.
Classic picks: Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951), a thriller of nightmarish wish fulfillment starring Robert Walker as a demented playboy, is one of the great films from the master of suspense. Reviewed on Stream On Demand here.
Robert Mitchum is a demonic con man in preacher man’s robes in The Night of the Hunter (1955), one of the most beautiful pastoral nightmares the cinema has seen. On Amazon Prime Video.
News: Hulu has dropped the price in its basic, limited-commercial subscription plan from $7.99 to $5.99 a month, hoping to attract customers from Netflix after the dominant streamer’s recent price increase.
Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand
Julia Roberts is the concerned mother of a drug-addicted son (Lucas Hedges) in Ben Is Back (2018, R). Also on DVD and at Redbox.
Also new: boxing drama Creed II (2018, PG-13) with Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone;
- comedy Instant Family (2018, PG-13) with Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne;
- drama Vox Lux (2018, R) starring Natalie Portman as a jaded pop star;
- horror comedy The Cannibal Club (Brazil, 2018, not rated, with subtitles).
Available same day as select theaters nationwide is the drama I’m Not Here (2017, not rated) starring J.K. Simmons as an alcoholic contemplating suicide and documentary Time for Ilhan (2019, not rated) about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Netflix
Ewan McGregor is the grown-up Christopher Robin (2018, PG) who gets a little help from Winnie the Pooh and other childhood friends in this family adventure fantasy. And there are more family friendly films this week:
- adolescent rebellion comedy Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (2016, PG), based on the kids book by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts;
- Walk. Ride. Rodeo. (2019, not rated), a drama based on the real-life story of paralyzed racing champion Amberley Snyder;
- fantasy The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008, PG) about a hidden world discovered by three siblings;
- juvenile adventure fantasy Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (2002, PG) from Robert Rodriguez.
Supernatural TV: The Order: Season 1 drops a college student in the midst of a war between witches and werewolves and Immortals: Season 1 (Turkey, with subtitles) pits a vengeful vampire against the king of the undead. Both are Netflix Original series.
More streaming TV: the USA miniseries Unsolved: Tupac & Biggie (2018) stars Josh Duhamel, Bokeem Woodbine, and Jimmi Simpson. Also new:
- Shadow: Season 1 (South Africa), an English-language crime thriller set in Johannesburg;
- Australian political drama Secret City: Under the Eagle: Season 2 with Anna Torv and Jacki Weaver;
- historical adventure Resurrection: Ertugrul – Season 3 (Turkey, with subtitles);
- The Guild: Complete Series (2007-2013), the cult web series about a community of internet gamers created by and starring Felicia Day;
- Jeopardy!: Collection 2, featuring championship tourneys from the 2011-2014 seasons.
A collection of features from the Philippines have recently been added to the catalog, including the award-winning romantic dramas The Mistress (2012, Philippines, not rated, with subtitles) with John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo and Starting Over Again (2014, Philippines, not rated, with subtitles) with Toni Gonzaga. See the line-up here.
Foreign affairs: Cécile de France stars in Lady J (2019, France, with subtitles), a historical costume drama with a twist of revenge from the novel by Denis Diderot, originally released in France as “Mademoiselle de Joncquières.
True Stories: Formula 1: Drive to Survive: Season 1 is a non-fiction series following one season of Formula 1 racing. Also new:
- Weapon of Choice (Austria, 2018, not rated) on the Glock pistol and its place in gun culture and gun violence;
- The Rebound (2016, not rated), which follows a season of the wheelchair basketball league.
Also new: Wakefield (2016, R) starring Bryan Cranston as a man in an extreme mid-life crisis;
- British war drama Kilo Two Bravo (2014, R);
- Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine (2013, PG-13) with an Oscar-winning performance by Cate Blanchett;
- Oscar-nominated drama Doubt (2008, PG-13) with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman;
- Charlie Kaufman’s surreal Synecdoche, New York (2008, R) with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener;
- Oliver Stone’s W. (2008, PG-13) with Josh Brolin as George W. Bush;
- comedy The Jane Austen Book Club (2007, PG-13) with Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, and Kathy Baker;
- arms-dealing drama Lord of War (2005, R) with Nicolas Cage
- British crime thriller Layer Cake (2004, R) with Daniel Craig and Tom Hardy;
- offbeat buddy crime film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974, R) with Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges.
Amazon Prime Video
Megan Griffiths’ Sadie (2018, not rated), an independent drama shot in Washington State about an angry teenager (Sophia Mitri Schloss) with a single mother (Melanie Lynskey) and a soldier father serving overseas, is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
What We Do In the Shadows (2015, R) is a hilarious mockumentary of vampire roommates stuck in New Zealand from filmmakers and stars Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement.
Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman star as hustlers in New York City in John Schlesinger’s Oscar-winning classic Midnight Cowboy (1969, R).
Streaming TV: Tim Roth returns as the police chief in a rural Canadian town in Tin Star: Season 2. Also new:
- Neophyte: Season 1 (Russia, with subtitles), a crime thriller set in 1950s Leningrad;
- animated fantasy Costume Quest: Season 1 for kids.
- True stories: Tickling Giants (2017, not rated) profiles Dr. Bassem Youssef, the Egyptian surgeon turned comedian and political satirists.
Foreign affairs: Margherita Buy is a film director in an existential crisis in Mia Madre (Italy, 2016, R, with subtitles), costarring John Turturro.
Cult movies: Bubba Ho-Tep (2003, R) starring Bruce Campbell as Elvis Presley, mummy hunter;
- Heathers (1989, R) with Winona Ryder and Christian Slater;
- Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988, PG-13), a film that tells everything in the title.
Animation: Reign of the Supermen (2019, PG-13) completes the story begun in “The Death of Superman.” Also new are the animated features Galaxy Express 999 (Japan, 1979, PG) and Adieu Galaxy Express 999 (Japan, 1981, not rated), both in English language versions.
Also new: drama 1985 (2018, not rated) with Cory Michael Smith as closeted gay man coming home to his conservative Texas family;
- action thriller Abduction (2017, PG-13) with Taylor Lautner;
- fictional drama Coming Through the Rye (2016, PG-13) starring Chris Cooper as J.D. Salinger;
- indie romantic drama Keep The Lights On (2012, not rated) from director Ira Sachs;
- high school satire Saved! (2004, PG-13) with Jena Malone and Mandy Moore;
- comedy It Runs in the Family (2003, PG-13) with Michael Douglas and Kirk Douglas;
- romantic drama Nora (2001, R) with Susan Lynch and Ewan McGregor as James Joyce;
- BBC TV adaptation The Railway Children (2000) with Jenny Agutter and Richard Attenborough;
- Alan Clarke juvenile crime drama Made in Britain (1982, not rated) with Tim Roth;
- Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill (1980, R) with Michael Caine and Angie Dickinson;
- contemporary western Comes a Horseman (1978, PG) with Jane Fonda and James Caan;
- Otto Preminger’s Rosebud (1975, PG) with Peter O’Toole;
- the original Death Wish (1974, R) with Charles Bronson as an urban vigilante;
- offbeat buddy crime film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974, R) with Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges;
- World War II drama The Battle of Britain (1969, G);
- 19th century epic Khartoum (1966) with Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier;
- The Big Night (1951), a film noir revenge drama from filmmaker Joseph Losey.
Prime Video / Hulu
I Can Only Imagine (2018, PG) dramatizes the true story behind the inspirational hit song the Christian rock band MercyMe (Prime Video and Hulu).
Cult movies: The Ramones star in Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979, PG), the great teen rebel musical comedy (Prime Video and Hulu). Also new are Dudes (1987, R) (Prime Video and Hulu) and Suburbia (1983, R) (Prime Video and Hulu), two punk satires from Penelope Spheeris.
Hulu
Where Hands Touch (2018, PG-13) is a drama about a bi-racial teenage girl (Amandla Stenberg) struggling to survive in Nazi Germany.
Streaming TV: the British comedy Hang Ups: Season 1 stars Stephen Mangan as a therapist who conducts sessions over Skype.
Foreign affairs: Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu star in The Closet (France, 2001, R, with subtitles), a comedy by Francis Veber.
True stories: The Panama Papers (2018, not rated) digs into the global corruption scandal and the efforts of hundreds of journalists to break the story.
HBO Now
Leaving Neverland (2019, not rated) gives voice to two men who tell their stories of being abused by Michael Jackson when they were adolescents.
Dwayne Johnson takes on criminals in a towering inferno in China in Skyscraper (2018, PG-13).
From HBO Asia comes the historical drama Grisse about the 19th century rebellion against colonial government of Dutch India.
Available Saturday night is Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018, R) with Chris Pratt and Bruce Dallas Howard and the animated Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (2018, PG).
Acorn TV
Accused: Complete Series(2010-2013), created by Jimmy McGovern, is an anthology crime drama that follows the experiences of ordinary citizens accused of crimes. The award-winning BBC series features Sean Bean, Christopher Eccleston, and recent Oscar-winner Olivia Colman.
BritBox
British comedy series One Foot in the Grave: Seasons 1-3 (1990-1992) stars Richard Wilson as a hard-luck retiree.
MHz
A dirty cop tries to go straight in gritty crime thriller Alex: Season 1 (Sweden, with subtitles). Two episodes now streaming, new episodes on subsequent Tuesdays.
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