Top streams for the week
Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen are best friends whose new "Book Club" (2018, PG-13) choice recharges their sex lives in the romantic comedy for the retirement set. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Hulu.
https://youtu.be/LDxgPIsv6sY
John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix are frontier assassins in the offbeat western "The Sisters Brothers" (2018, R), adapted from the cult novel by Patrick Dewitt and directed by award-winning filmmaker Jacques Audiard. Streaming on Hulu.
https://youtu.be/3OwvqKwTKmE
"I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson: Season 1" is an original sketch comedy written by and starring the "Saturday Night Live" veteran with guest appearances by many of his old cast mates. Streaming on Netflix.
https://youtu.be/vrZkGgoVSFk
A college student with a sideline as a dominatrix (Zoe Levin) hires her gay best friend (Brendan Scannell) as her assistant in the new Netflix Original series "Bonding: Season 1." The eight episodes of the short form comedy run under 20 minutes apiece. Streaming on Netflix.
Classic pick: John Wayne is "Hondo" (1953), a Cavalry scout who falls in love with an abandoned homesteader and mother (Geraldine Page) while a frontier war heats up around them, in one of Wayne's best westerns. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
News: Netflix is raising prices again. Starting in May, the basic plan (stream to one screen in standard definition) increases from $7.99 to $8.99 a month, the standard plan (two screens, HD) goes up from $10.99 to $12.99/month and the premium plan (four screens, HD and UltraHD) increases from $13.99 to $15.99/month.
Pay-Per-View / Video on Demand
Nicole Kidman delivers a ferocious performance as a damaged police detective in Karyn Kusama's hard-edged crime thriller "Destroyer" (2018, R). It comes to VOD, Cable On Demand, DVD, and Redbox, and is also streaming on Hulu. Also new:
https://youtu.be/bqHaLUoiWZU
- horror film "Escape Room" (2019, PG-13) with Deborah Ann Woll and Tyler Labine;
- surreal thriller "Under the Silver Lake" (2018, R) with Andrew Garfield and Riley Keough;
- urban sports drama "Sprinter" (2018, not rated) with Lorraine Toussaint and David Alan Grier;
- "Hagazussa" (Germany, 2017, not rated, with subtitles), a folk horror fable set in Middle Ages;
- animated adventure "Yamasong: March of the Hallows" (2018, not rated) featuring the voices of Nathan Fillion and Abigail Breslin.
Available same day as select theaters nationwide is "JT Leroy" (2018, R), a drama based on the infamous literary con, with Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern, and Jim Sturgess.
Netflix
Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" (2015, R), an epic widescreen western in the intimate quarters of a stagecoach stopover during a blizzard, is filled with violence, cruelty, racism, and the storytelling verve and narrative twists that have made Tarantino's reputation. Samuel L. Jackson and Walton Goggins stand out is a terrific cast that also includes Kurt Russell, Jenifer Jason Leigh, and Tim Roth. Netflix presents the extended version of the film.
https://youtu.be/1Bzbj_9nhTQ
"The Sapphires" (2012, PG-13) stars Chris O'Dowd as an Irish entertainer who turns an Australian aboriginal sister act into a powerhouse pop group performing for American soldiers in Vietnam in the sixties. Also new:
- romantic drama "Paper Year" (2018, not rated) with Eve Hewson and Andie MacDowell;
- comedy sequel "Bridget Jones's Baby" (2016, R) with Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth;
- battle-of-the-sexes romantic comedy "The Ugly Truth" (2009, R) with Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler.
More streaming TV: "Chambers: Season 1," a horror series about a young woman whose personality changes after a heart transplant, stars Sivan Alyra Rose, Tony Goldwyn, and Uma Thurman. Also new is the foodie series "Street Food: Season 1."
https://youtu.be/DOCrOzKkGHc
Foreign language TV: an American entrepreneur crosses the border into Mexico and becomes a drug lord in "Yankee: Season 1" (Mexico, with subtitles). Also new:
- romantic drama "My Dear Boy: Season 1" (Taiwan, with subtitles);
- family drama "Selection Day: Season 1, Part 2" (India, with subtitles) set in the professional cricket world;
- fantasy thriller "The Protector: Season 2" (Turkey, with subtitles).
True stories: "Grass is Greener" (2019, TV-MA) explores America's complicated relationship with marijuana and the racially-charged roots of the war on drugs. Also new:
https://youtu.be/IET4K5npNOg
- "ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads" (2019, not rated), about the legend behind the legacy of Robert Johnson;
- "The Last Resort" (2018, not rated), a documentary on Jewish retirees on South Beach in the 70s.
Kid stuff: "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Season 2" offers more animated adventure.
Prepare for "Avengers: Endgame" by revisiting "Avengers: Infinity War" (2018, PG-13).
Amazon Prime Video
"Unexpected" (2015, R) stars Cobie Smulders as an unmarried high school teacher who becomes pregnant at the same time as one of her most promising young students (Gail Bean).
Streaming TV: Aidan Gillen and Charlie Hunnam star in the original "Queer as Folk: Complete Series" (1999-2000), the groundbreaking series created by Russell T. Davies about the lives of young gay men in Manchester.
Foreign affairs: Kim Ji-Woon’s violent gangster thriller "A Bittersweet Life" (South Korea, 2005, with subtitles) is a stylish yet dispassionate lament of mutual destruction in the key of doom.
True stories: "Wyeth" (2018), originally made for the PBS showcase "American Masters," profiles the great American artist and "Sharkwater Extinction" (2018, not rated) exposes the illegal shark fin industry.
Also new: coming of age drama "All These Small Moments" (2018, not rated) with Molly Ringwald and Jemima Kirke;
- romantic drama "Indecent Proposal" (1993, R) with Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, and Robert Redford;
- British horror film "The Ghoul" (1974) with Peter Cushing and John Hurt.
Prime Video and Hulu
"The Next Three Days" (2010, PG-13) stars Russell Crowe as a husband who breaks his wife (Elizabeth Banks) out of prison when she is wrongly convicted of murder (Prime Video and Hulu).
Hulu
"Border" (Sweden, 2018, R, with subtitles), a dark fairy tale about a border agent who can "smell" guilt, was an Oscar nominee in the foreign film category.
https://youtu.be/QMs28A1s1OA
True stories: foodie documentary "Noma, My Perfect Storm" (2015, not rated) profiles the Copenhagen restaurant that won the "Best Restaurant in the World" award four times.
HBO Now
Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman" (2018, R), a savvy take on the true story of a black police officer (John David Washington) who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in 1970s Colorado, is provocative, satirical, angry, irreverent, outraged, and very timely, and it earned Lee an Oscar (his first) for the screenplay.
https://youtu.be/pFc6I0rgmgY
Suranne Jones is Anne Lister, aka "Gentleman Jack," in the new HBO coproduction with BBC inspired by a true story. New episodes each Monday.
Available Saturday is the "2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony" featuring Stevie Nicks, Janet Jackson, Def Leppard, The Cure, and The Zombies.
Other streams
BroadwayHD celebrates Shakespeare's birthday with the all-star BBC special "Shakespeare Live!" (2016) from the stage of the Royal Shakespearean Theater in Stratford-upon-Avon with hosts David Tennant and Catherine Tate and a guest list that includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, and Helen Mirren, plus BBC productions of "A Midsummer Nights Dream" (2016) with Maxine Peake and John Hannah and "Measure for Measure" (2004) with Mark Rylance.
"Cobra Kai: Season 2" continues the "Karate Kid" sequel series with William Zabka and Ralph Macchio on YouTube Premium.
The long-running mystery series "Wilsberg" (Germany, with subtitles), starring Leonard Lansink as Münster private detective Georg Wilsberg, debuts on MHz. Two episodes now available, new episodes arrive each Tuesday.
New on disc and at Redbox this week:
"Destroyer," "Escape Room"
Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and TV can be found at http://streamondemandathome.com.
