What to Stream May 5

Yes, it’s the weekend again, and time to discuss what new movies and TV series are newly available to stream. So lets get right to it!

Hulu

There are some good new additions on Hulu this week, and one of them is Starting Out in The Evening, a 2007 movie starring Frank Langella, Lauren Ambrose and Lili Taylor. Langella stars as a celebrated writer who struggle to finish his final novel  and a young woman who wants to base her masters thesis on his biography. It’s got such a great cast, and Roger Ebert gave it 4/4 stars and IMDb gives it a 7/10. Frank Langella won acting awards for this film from different Film Critics Groups, like the Boston Society of Film Critics, and it is well worth a view. Also new to Hulu is American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. It too, is a movie from 2007, directed by Ridley Scott, about Frank Lucas(Washington) who became a major crime leader in Harlem and Richie Roberts(Crowe), the detective responsible for his arrest, and conviction. This movie has a great cast, in addition to it’s two leads, with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin and Ruby Dee. And it gets a 7.8/10 on IMDb and again, a 4/4 from Roger Ebert. Also, on Hulu, is Map of the Human Heart, a movie from 1992. It’s a New Zealander film directed by Vincent Ward, about an Inuit boy, who falls prey to tuberculosis and falls in love with a Causcasian girl, during his treatment, in Montreal. It stars Robert Joamie, Jason Scott Lee and Anne Parillaud, with cameos by John Cusack and Jeanne Moreau. It was nominated for many awards, and , it too, gets a 4/4 from Roger Ebert, and a 7.2/10 on IMDb. And, finally, Hulu has Permanent, a 2017 movie starring Patricia Arquette and Rainn Wilson. Permanent was written and directed by Colette Burson and is a comedy about a tween played Kira McLean, and her efforts to get a new hair cut. And it doesn’t get the best reviews, it gets only a 2/4 on Roger Ebert.com and a 5.4/10 on IMDb, but it stars Arquette and Wilson, so I’m putting it out there.

Netflix

The most exciting addition to Netflix, in my mind, is Anon, a noir science fiction  movie starring Clive Owen and Amanda Seyfried. It is written and  directed by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca) and set in a future world where privacy is gone, and Owen is a detective tacking a killer. And, yes, it only gets a 5.8/10 on IMDb and lukewarm reviews thus far, but it’s scifi and a mystery, so I’m watching. And a new series on Netflix is very interesting,  The Rain, about a Swedish population trying to survive six years after a terrible virus spread by the rain. It’s a  Danish production from 2018 and stars Alba August, Lucas Lynggaard Tonneson and Mikkel Boe Folsgaard. It’s trailer looks great, tense and scary, and it gets a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.1/10 on IMDb. Another new movie on Netflix is God’s Own Country, a British production from 2017. It’s directed by Francis Lee and stars Josh O’Connor and Alec Secareanu in a love story between a sheep farmer and his migrant worker. This won the world cinema directing award at the Sundance Film Festival and lavish praise from countless reviews. It gets a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.7/10 on IMDb. And finally, Netflix has End Game, a documentary about terminally ill patients and their extraordinary doctors who offer new ways to look at death. It was directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, and gets a 7.8/10 on IMDb and a 3.5/4 on RogerEbert.com.

Amazon Prime

The biggest new addition to Amazon Prime in weeks is Last Flag Flying, the 2017 movie starring Steve Carrell, Laurence Fishburne and Bryan Cranston. It was directed by Richard Linklater and is about three Vietnam vets, taking Carell’s son’s casket to Arlington National Cemetery for burial. It’s adapted from a book by Darryl Ponicsan which is actually a sequel to The Last Detail. It’s a comedy-drama that debuted at the New York Film Festival and gets a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.9/10 on IMDb. It’s not perfect, but it’s good and has a wonderful cast. And Amazon has some great classics available, including one of my favorite mysteries on film,Murder on the Orient Express, from 1974. It not only stars Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, but also has Ingrid Bergman, Vanessa Redgrave, Lauren Bacall and John Gielgud, too. It’s based on the Christie classic of the same name, and received six Academy Award nominations, and for which Ingrid Bergman won as Best Supporting Actress. It was directed by Sidney Lumet. It gets a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.7/10 on IMDb. Another classic movie on Amazon is Spaceballs, the Mel Brooks space farce from 1987. It stars Rick Moranis, John Candy and Daphne Zuniga. It’s a parody of Star Wars and gets a 7.1/10 on IMDb and a 57% on Rotten Tomatoes. And, finally, Amazon offers one of the greatest movies of all time, in my opinion, Gone With the Wind, from 1939. It stars Vivian Leigh in her Oscar winning role of Scarlett O’Hara, and Clark Gable as Rhett Butler. It also starred Olivia DeHavilland, Hattie McDaniel(who won  the Best Supporting Actress Oscar) and Ashley Howard. It was produced by David O’Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming and won 8 Academy Awards. It got a 4/4 from Roger Ebert and an 8.2/10 on IMDb.

So sit back and relax, and skip the horse race instead enjoy the weekend by binging on  some of the best movies around!