Yes, it’s the weekend and time for another roundup of what new movies and shows are out there on the three major streaming sites. Let’s get right to it!
Hulu
Okay, there were very few new movies added to Hulu, so I’m going to mention some I didn’t get to last week. A great classic movie added to Hulu is My Left Foot, starring Daniel Day Lewis. The movie is a semi-autobiographical story of Christy Brown, a Irishman with cerebral palsy, who could only control his left foot, and became a successful writer and artist. It’s got a wonderful cast, including Brenda Fricker, Ray McAnally and Fiona Shaw, and Lewis won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role, and Fricker won for Best Supporting Actress. It gets a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.9/10 on IMDb. Also, new on Hulu, is The History Boys, a 2006 comedy. It’s an adaptation of a Tony Award winning play of the same name, is a story of boys school in 1983. It’s got an amazing cast, with Richard Griffiths, Frances De La Tour, Penelope Wilton and James Cordon(!), and gets a 6.9/10 on IMDb. Another classic newly on Hulu is Trainspotting, the 1996 film from director Danny Boyle. A dark comedy, Trainspotting follows a group of heroin addicts through life in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stars Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Kevin McKidd and Kelly MacDonald. It’s not light fare, but it’s been named the best Scottish film of all times and ranked 10th in the British Film Institutes list of the Top 100 British Films(wikipedia told me so). And it gets a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.2/10 on IMDb. And finally, Hulu added Event Horizon, the 1997 scifi/horror movie starring Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill. It also stars Kathleen Quinlan and Joely Richardson and follows a spaceship looking for the lost ship Event Horizon, around Neptune. It’s science fiction, got a great cast, and gets a 6.7/10 on IMDb, but beware, it gets a 24%(!) on Rotten Tomatoes!
Netflix
The most interesting new addition on Netflix this week is Ali’s Wedding, a Netflix original from Australia. It’s a comedy based on a true story, about lying to your parents and family expectations. It stars Osamah Sami, Helana Sawires and Frances Duca and won awards at the Sydney Film Festival, Melbourne Film Festival and the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards and won for Best Original Screenplay. And it gets an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.6/10 on IMDb. Also, new on Netflix, is Alex Strangelove, a Netflix original movie about a teen who might find out he’s gay. It stars Daniel Doheny in the title role, as a teenager with conflicting interests, and also features Madeline Weintstein, Antonio Marziale and Kathryn Erbe. It’s modeled on the John Hughes movies of the 80’s, and gets a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.9/10 on IMDb. And, Netflix has added The King’s Speech, the 2010 award winner starring Colin Firth. Firth stars as the future King George the VI, battling a stammer, and his work with a therapist, played by Geoffrey Rush, who helps and befriends him. It also stars Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce and Derek Jacobi, and won Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor Oscars. And it gets a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8/10 on IMDb. And Netflix also offers The Staircase, a deeper look into the murder mystery that was covered on the SundanceTV 2005 show of the same name.Directed by Jean-Xavier LeStrade, it covers the death of telecom executive Kathleen Peterson, and whether she was, indeed, murdered at all. It’s a more subtle true crime series, with less gore and exploitation, I think, but it may not have all the answers, either. It gets an 8.0/10 on IMDb and gets good reviews, too.
Amazon Prime
Amazon finally added Lady Bird, which I have mentioned before, starring Saorise Ronan and Laurie Metcalf. It’s a fictionalized version of director Greta Gerwig‘s own teenage years in California and it’s heartwarming and funny. It also stars Timothee Chalamet, Lucas Hedges and Lois Smith. It made the AFI’s list of the Ten Best movies of 2017, was nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress and gets a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. Amazon also has Daphne, a 2017 British movie about young womanhood. It stars Emily Beecham, Geraldine James, Nathaniel Martello-White and Sinead Matthews. It’s a character study and comedy, with less sap. It won multiple Film Festival Awards for Beecham‘s performance, and gets 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. And finally, Amazon has Ice Mother, a 2017 movie from the Czech Republic. It’s the story of a 67 year old widow who finds love, and stars Zuzana Kronerova, Pavel Novy and Vaclav Neuzil. It got great reviews at the Tribeca Film Festival and gets a 100% Audience review on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s a wonderful chance to see a romance with two older adults that just hasn’t been seen in this country too much.
So sit back and relax this weekend and binge watch your favorite movies or TV shows online!
Grownups Guide to Streaming 