What’s New to Streaming, Feb. 2018

After a slow start,things are picking up as far as streaming! There are new movies and series available for viewing , so lets get right to it!

Hulu

There are  some really good new movies on Hulu, some that are below the radar. A great movie is coming February 11th. It is Lucky,one of  the last movies to star Harry Dean Stanton, a great character actor we unfortunately lost last year. He stars as the title  character, in a quiet movie about a 90 year-old atheist in a small town.It also stars David Lynch and Ed Begley, Jr., and  got rave reviews. If you like Kathryn Bigelow, you might have been kind of sore, since Bigelow’s Detroit, wasn’t available on Hulu last month , as promised. Now Hulu promises it will be available on February 23rd, But  they DO offer The Hurt Locker, Bigelow‘s break out hit of 2008 about an Ordinance Disposal team in Iraq. It stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Ralph Fiennes and was nominated for nine academy awards of which it won it won six, including Best Picture. Hulu also offers The Looming Tower, starting February 28. It’s a Hulu original series, starring Jeff Daniels, Sullivan Jones and Tahar Rahim. It’s based on the book of the same title by Laurence Wright , about the rising threat of Al Qaeda. And starting February 5, Weiner is available. A documentary about the already infamous Anthony Weiner, and his bid for election as mayor of New York in 2013.It won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for a documentary at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for many other awards. And, February 10, Hulu has Tom of Finland, a Finnish movie about artist Touko Valio Laaksonen, who, as Tom of Finland broke boundaries for gay men and gay art as well. It stars Pekka Strang,Lauri Tilkanen and Jessica Grabowsky and is directed by Dome Karukoski.

Netflix

A big release for Netflix this month is Altered Carbon, a Sci-Fi Netflix Original series set in  the year 2384.  Mercenary Takeshi Kovacs ( Joel Kinnaman) is brought back to life to solve the murder of the world’s richest man. It also stars Martha Higareda and Antonio Marzale. Vox calls it the “TV’s raddest science fiction show” , others aren’t so sure, but if you miss Blade Runner 2049, this is a series for you. If you prefer a more historical show, Netflix gives you Babylon Berlin. It is a mystery set in Berlin during the Weimar Republic, in 1929-34.  It is a dark, lushly produced and   explicit, but  well acted and stars Volker Bruch, Liv Lisa Fries and Matthias Brandt. It is well worth your time, if you like a noirish mystery. And, on February 23, Netflix debuts Seven Seconds , a mystery from the woman(Veena Sud) who gave us The Killing. It studies the accidental killing  of an African American teen from Jersey City, and what follows. It’s based on a 2013 Russian film and stars Clare-Hope Ashitey, Regina King and Beau Knapp. Coming from creator Veena Sud, it looks engrossing and captivating. And, coming February 16 is Everything Sucks! , a high school comedy taking place in Boring(it’s a real town!), Oregon, in 1996. It stars Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Payton Kennedy and Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako and concerns the ttravails of kids in the Audio/visual and drama clubs. After the other recent Netflix show’s starring teens, I’m in. And, finally, on Netflix, on February 9, comes The Trader(Sovdagari), a documentary about a Georgian trader. That’s EAST Georgian, and Gela(the trader) is in search of potatoes, Georgian gold.It is directed by Tamta Gabrichidze, and won best short documentary at Hot Docs. It also won recognition at Sundance, and it is a short, so if you’re NEW to documentaries, this is a good one to start with.

Amazon Prime

New to Amazon Prime this month is Absentia, an Amazon Original about an FBI agent who is declared dead, in absentia, only to reappear six years later, with no memory of her missing years.It stars Stana Katic, Patrick Heusinger and Cara Theobold. It’s the tale of a woman trying to reclaim her life and family and is implicated in a new series of murders. It is well-produced  and directed by Oded Ruskin. If you like tense thrillers, this one is for you. Available February 11 is Good Time crime drama starring Robert Pattinson as you have never seen him before.It also stars Benny Safdie and Jennifer Jason Leigh, if you needed another reason to watch. It also got a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.  And, starting February 13, The Ballad of Lefty Brown is available. Starring  Bill Pullman, Peter Fonda and Kathy Baker, it’s the story about a sidekick, looking for revenge in old Montana, and is a tribute to spaghetti westerns like the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. And February 14, Star Trek(2009)  returns, the first of J.J. Abrams reboot of the Star Trek series, with the Starship Enterprise on her maiden voyage. Starring Jon Cho, Ben Cross and Bruce Greenwood, you could pair it with Star Trek Beyond(2016), also on Prime. And available February 16, is Human Flow, the Amazon Original movie by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. It is Weiwei’s take on the global refugee crisis, the biggest since World War II, Amazon says. It has gotten raves from critics already.

So there are plenty of hours to be spent vegging out in front of your TV this weekend, so kick back and stream this weekend with these picks.