By Sean Axmaker
What's new for home viewing on video-on-demand and Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and other streaming services.
Top streams for the week
Krysten Ritter as back as Marvel's most dysfunctional superhero-turned-private investigator in the second season of the Netflix original series "Jessica Jones." It leans even harder into themes of sexual assault touched on in the first season and the hard-drinking heroine has to confront it head on. All 13 episodes now streaming.
https://youtu.be/SL4Fo6dJ3o8
Crime drama "Collateral," Netflix-BBC co-production starring Carey Mulligan, is a four-part crime drama about the murder of a Muslim immigrant and the political and social web around the investigation. John Simm and Nicola Walker co-star in the original production from by Oscar- and Tony-nominated writer David Hare. Now on Netflix.
https://youtu.be/X_vVMmvjEts
Jim Sturgess and Agyness Deyn are wary partners in "Hard Sun: Season 1," a British crime drama set on the verge of the end of the world. Hulu gives the BBC shows its stateside debut; all 6 episodes now available.
https://youtu.be/7gItQzbxKeY
Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand
The God of Thunder reveals a sense of humor "Thor: Ragnarok" (2017, PG-13), one of the most colorful and playful Marvel superhero films to date. With the help of Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), he battles Goddess of Death Hela (Cate Blanchett) to save Asgard. Also on DVD and at Redbox.
https://youtu.be/ue80QwXMRHg
"The Disaster Artist" (2017, R), the stranger-than-fiction true story of one of the worst movies ever made from director/star James Franco, animated feature "The Breadwinner" (2017, PG-13), and documentary "Faces Places" (2017, PG) from 89-year-old filmmaker Agnes Varda and visual artist JR were all nominated for Oscars.
https://youtu.be/ZKxzlNE9_7Y
Also new: Woody Allen's "Wonder Wheel" (2017, PG-13) with Kate Winslet and Justin Timberlake, "The Man Who Invented Christmas" (2017, PG) with Dan Stevens as Charles Dickens and Christopher Plummer as Ebenezer Scrooge, and the animated drama "Ethel & Ernest" (2016, not rated) from UK.
Available same day as select theaters nationwide are two crime thrillers: "Bent" (2018, R) with Karl Urban and Sofia Vergara and "Juggernaut" (2017, not rated) with Jack Kesy and Amanda Crew.
Netflix
Jared Leto is an American soldier who stays in Japan after World War II and joins the Yakuza in "The Outsider" (2018, not rated), a Netflix original feature co-starring Japanese star Tadanobu Asano and Emile Hirsch.
https://youtu.be/QNNcl2mEHzQ
Oscar-nominated screenwriter Taylor Sheridan directs "Wind River" (2017, R), a muscular thriller set in the snowy Wyoming mountains with Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen.
"Gook" (2017, not rated), an indie drama about two Korean-American brothers trying to defend their struggling shoe store during the 1992 LA riots, won awards at Sundance and the Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Also new: fact-based drama "The Pirates of Somalia" (2017, R) with Evan Peters, Al Pacino, and Melanie Griffith, survival horror "Aftershock" (2012, R) from writer/producer/star Eli Roth, and teen rebel comedy "F the Prom" (2017, not rated).
Kid stuff: "Benji" (1974, G) and "For the Love of Benji" (1977, G), the family adventures featuring the most adorably scruffy dog of the seventies, arrive a week before Netflix delivers its new remake. Also new: family adventure "Aliens Ate My Homework" (2018, PG) with William Shatner.
Streaming TV: the third and final season of "Love," Judd Apatow's comedy of modern romance starring Gillian Jacobs and Paul Rust, is now available. Also new are the bake-off series "Nailed It," BBC's "The World's Most Extraordinary Homes," and "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman: Malala Yousafzai."
International TV: a prosecutor recruits a squad of crooks to take down a crime boss in "Bad Guys: Vile City" (South Korea, with subtitles) and a police detective covers up a murder to protect his family "Borderliner: Season 1" (Norway, with subtitles).
Foreign affairs: the short documentary "Ladies First" (India, 2017, with subtitles) profiles a young woman in rural India who became to top female archer in the world.
Stand-up: "Gad Elmaleh: American Dream" is the first English language special from the French comedian.
Amazon Prime Video
Kieran Culkin, Martin Starr, and Megan Mullally star in "Infinity Baby" (2017, not rated), a comedy about genetically-engineered infants who never age.
Tilda Swinton is the distraught mother of a sociopathic child in "We Need to Talk About Kevin" (2012, R), which touches on high school violence with its disturbing (though not necessarily illuminating) story. Timely, but maybe a little too much parental horror movie and not enough engagement with the kids.
For a generation of baby boomers, the TV movie "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" (1976, PG) with John Travolta is a touchstone of star-crossed teen romance with a novel medical twist.
Kid stuff: the animated comedy "The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature" (2017, PG) reunites the comic critters to save their park home from developers.
Foreign affairs: sci-fi gang war meets hip hop musical in "Tokyo Tribe" (Japan, 2015, R, with subtitles) from Japan's outrageous Sion Sono.
True stories: Take "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies" (1995, not rated) and get a crash course in the great American filmmakers who inspired Scorsese in a three-and-a-half hour tour. "The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille" (2017, not rated) documents the decades-long effort to excavate the set of the 1923 silent epic "The Ten Commandments" buried in the sands of the California desert.
Streaming TV: the Prime Video original con artist series "Sneaky Pete: Season 2" with Giovanni Ribisi and cross-border British-French murder mystery "The Tunnel: Season 2" with Stephen Dillane and Clémence Poésy are now streaming. Also new: music reality show "The Remix: Season 1" from India, where DJs and singers are teamed up to offer a new take on classic Bollywood songs.
https://youtu.be/WtNfRyWlO_c
Amazon Prime and Hulu
A new team of misfit teenagers suit up with alien technology to save the planet in "Power Rangers" (2017, PG-13), the big screen version of the TV superhero series (Prime Video and Hulu). Needless to say, it did not launch a movie franchise.
https://youtu.be/5kIe6UZHSXw
Arnold Schwarzenegger is grieving husband and father who goes the air traffic controller responsible for a plane crash in "Aftermath" (2017, R) (Prime Video and Hulu)
Hulu
"Fantasia 2000" (1999, G) updates of Disney's ambitious anthology film with seven new animated shorts (plus "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" carried over from the 1940 original).
"Crash" (2004, R) won three Academy Awards, including Oscars for best picture and original screenplay.
Streaming TV: Sean Bean is a deep cover operative who loses himself in his identities in "Legends." Hulu has both seasons of the TNT spy thriller.
HBO Now
Katherine Waterston leads the mission and Michael Fassbender plays two roles in "Alien: Covenant" (2017, R), the sixth film in the science fiction series.
https://youtu.be/svnAD0TApb8
Ben Affleck directs and stars in "Live by Night" (2016, R) as a Boston gangster who relocates to Florida during Prohibition.
Available Saturday night is "My Cousin Rachel" (2017, PG-13), a romantic drama turned Gothic thriller adapted from the Daphne Du Maurier novel and starring Rachel Weisz.
Showtime Anytime
Bryan Cranston is a suburban husband and father in an extreme mid-life crisis in "Wakefield" (2017, R), based on a short story by E.L. Doctorow.
FilmStruck / Criterion Channel
It's cocktail hour on the mystery beat in "The Thin Man" (1934), a sparkling and snappy adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s novel with William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. It spawned five sequels and FilmStruck offers them all in The Thin Man Collection, including "After the Thin Man" (1936) with Jimmy Stewart as a murder suspect.
Peter Falk is FilmStruck's Star of the Week and their collection includes such comedies as "Robin and the Seven Hoods" (1964) and "The In-Laws" (1979, PG), plus John Cassavetes' "A Woman Under the Influence" (1974, R) and Wim Wenders' transcendent "Wings of Desire" (Germany, 1987, not rated, with subtitles) with Falk playing himself… sort of.
Also new: the films of German director G.W. Pabst, including his classic silent films "Pandora's Box" (Germany, 1929, silent with score) and "Diary of a Lost Girl" (Germany, 1929, silent with score) with Louise Brooks and his version of "The Threepenny Opera" (Germany, 1931, with subtitles), and a collection of "Lovers on the Lam" movies, from the film noir classics "They Live By Night" (1948) and "Gun Crazy" (1950) to romantic outlaw pictures "Breathless" (France, 1960, with subtitles) and "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967, R) to Terrence Malick's "Badlands" (1973, PG).
Acorn TV
British dramedy "Delicious: Series 2" with Dawn French and Emilia Fox is now available and Franco Nero joins the cast.
BritBox
Rowan Atkinson takes his first dramatic role in "Maigret: Season 1" as Georges Simenon's brilliant Chief Inspector. The American premiere in the new British TV show arrives along with "Maigret: Seasons 1-2" of the 1990s series with Michael Gambon.
Also new: "300 Years of French and Saunders" with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders in their first TV comedy special in a decade.
New on disc this week:
"Thor: Ragnarok," "The Disaster Artist," "Wonder Wheel," "The Breadwinner," "Faces Places"
Now available at Redbox:
"Thor: Ragnarok," "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," "Lady Bird," "Murder on the Orient Express," "The Man Who Invented Christmas"
Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and TV can be found at http://streamondemandathome.com.
