Yes, it’s the weekend and the first of the month, so of course, there are a lot of new exciting movies available on Hulu, Amazon and Netflix, so let’s get right to it!
HULU
Hulu has some big additions this week, including Downsizing, the 2017 sci-fi comedy with Matt Damon and Kristin Wiig. This movie is about a financially stressed couple in the near future, who decide to undergo a new scientific process(thought to help with overpopulation and climate change), to get downsized to 5 inches, and live at Leisureland, New Mexico. Well, of course it doesn’t work out too well, with Wiig divorcing Damon and still worse to come. Downsizing has a great cast, with Christopher Waltz, Hong Chau and Jason Sudeikis. And it’s directed by Sideways director, Alexander Payne. It’s funny, though a little uneven, and it gets a 5.7/10 on IMDb and a 49% on Rotten Tomatoes. And, drumroll please, Killing Eve, the amazing series from BBC America starring Sandra Oh, is now on Hulu. This is an exciting new show about an assassin who’s starting to lose it,- and becoming a little messy- and the MI5 officer(Sandra Oh) who’s on her trail. Jodie Comer plays the hit woman, and the rest of the cast is wonderful, too, with Fiona Shaw, Darren Boyd, Owen McDonell and Kirby Howell-Baptiste. This is an amazing show, witty and funny with plenty of girl power, but it is explicitly violent, so don’t watch with the kids. And it gets a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.3/10 on IMDb. Hulu has also added Best of Enemies, the 2015 documentary about the Vidal/Buckley debates of 1968. These historic debates took place during the 1968 presidential election in August, during the Democratic convention, between Gore Vidal(liberal) and William F. Buckley(conservative) and were famous for being heated, vitriolic and insulting, on both sides. This film was co-directed by Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville, premiered at Sundance and gets a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes! Hulu also offers Lane 1974, a 2017 coming of age movie. About a 13 year old girl, Lane(Sophia Mitri Schloss), whose erratic and unconventional mother moves from situation to situation, through 70’s California, with her children in tow . It also stars Katherine Moennig(The L Word), Sara Coates, Jasmin Sandy Brown and Linas Phillips and is directed by Seattle-based filmmaker SJ Chiro. And it gets a 78% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 6/10 on IMDb. And, finally Hulu has added Mrs. Dalloway, the 1998 Virgina Woolf classic starring Vanessa Redgrave. Redgrave stars as Mrs. Dalloway, the wife of a dangerous politician, as she goes through her day. It’s cast also includes Vanessa Redgrave, Natascha McElhone, Rupert Graves, Michael Kitchen and Lena Headey and was directed by Marleen Gorris(Antonia’s Line). Redgrave is always captivating, and the film got 3.5/4 stars from Roger Ebert, and gets a 6.8/10 on IMDb. On my list, for sure.
NETFLIX
Netflix, too(of course) has some exciting new additions this week, including The World is Yours, a 2018 movie starring Isabelle Adjani. This is a comedy/action movie about a petty mobster(Karim Leklou), anxious to escape his life of crime, so he agrees to one last gig. Adjani plays his overpowering Mom, and it also stars François Damiens, Vincent Cassel, Oulaya Amamra and Gabby Rose. It’s a funny and fun take on an action pic, and it gets an astounding 100% on Rotten Tomatoes! Remember to turn on subtitles, though, the dubbing on Netflix can be painful to bear. Netflix also offers 1983, a new Polish sci-fi thriller series. In this alt-history, Poland is still under the grip of the USSR, when a law student uncovers a conspiracy that changed Poland’s history. It stars Ewa Blaszczyk, Andrzej Chyra, Agnieszka Glinska, Wojciech Kalarus and Michalina Olszanska and was created by Joshua Long and Maciej Musial. It’s exciting, dark and violent and gets a 7.3/10 on IMDb. Also, new on Netflix, is Happy as Lazzarro, a 2017 Italian film. Directed by Alice Rohrwacher(The Wonders), this movie takes place in the modern day, but in a pastoral area of Central Italy, where farmers still work like serfs. It covers the friendship of seemingly simple Lazarro and Tancredi, the Marchessa’s son, with the backdrop of the inequality that still exists in some parts of Italy. It stars Adriano Tardiolo, Alba Rohrwacher, Tomasso Ragno, Luca Chikovani and Agnese Graziani and gets a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. Tomris Laffly, on RogerEbert.com, calls it “easily among this year’s finest films”, and it’s a beautiful pastoral tale with a more modern message. Another fascinating movie on Netflix is Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story, the 2015 doc about a Hollywood power couple of the recent past. Harold Michelson was a storyboard artist, and Lilian was a film researcher, and they worked on some famous movies, like The Birds, West Side Story, Scarface and Rosemary’s Baby. This film tells you about the pair by interviews with friends like Mel Brooks, Francis Ford Coppola and Danny DeVito and enchanting animation. And it gets a 100%(!) on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.9/10 on IMDb. An amazing unknown Hollywood history. And finally, Netflix has added Time Share, the 2018 Mexican thriller. It’s about a family on vacation, where two men start to suspect the American owned resort of something sinister. It stars Luis Gerardo Méndez, Miguel Rodarte, RJ Mitte,
Cassandra Ciangherotti and Montserrat Marañon and won the Special Jury Prize for World Drama at Sundance, among the many awards it gained. And it gets a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. I’m watching.
AMAZON
Okay, so Amazon hasn’t added a ton of incredible new movies yet, but they have added some interesting stuff. The first of which is The Grand Seduction, a 2013 Canadian comedy. Its stars Brendan Gleeson, in the tale of a Canadian fishing town, trying to lure a much needed doctor, for a lucrative business deal to go through. It’s cast also includes Taylor Kitsch, Liane Balaban, Gordon Pinsent, Mark Critch, Mary Walsh and Cathy Jones. It was directed by Don McKellar and was nominated for four Canadian Screen Awards, with Gordon Pinsent won for Actor in a Supporting Role. also, new on Amazon, is The Darling Buds of May, the ITV comedy series, with three full seasons, from 1991-1993. It’s a British comedy about rural life, in Kent, and the Larkin family, which include Pa, Ma(his common law wife) and children, including eldest daughter Mariette, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones. It also stars Pam Ferris, Philip Franks, David Jason,Julie Stichbury, Abigail Rokison and Christina and Catherine Giles. It was quite a ratings hit in Britain and it gets a 7.6/10 on IMDb. Amazon also added Inside Jokes, a new comedy series. This one follows unknown stand-up comedians as they try to make their mark at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, in the New Faces Showcase.A terrifying idea, it comes from producer Jimmy Fox and director Neil Berkeley and the New Faces showcase has brought us great comedians like Amy Schumer, Kevin Hart, Kumail Nanjiani and Jimmy Fallon. But this show hasn’t been such a hit in reviews and it gets a 3.6/10 on IMDb. and, finally, Amazon has added the classic Cactus Flower, a comedy from 1969. This was the breakout movie for Goldie Hawn, for which she won an Academy Award, and she’s great, but my favorite in this movie is Ingrid Bergman, playing a rival with Hawn, for the affections of Walter Matthau, an aging dentist in the middle of a mid-life crisis. It’s adapted from the Broadway play, of the same name, by Abe Burrows, and was the eighth highest grossing film of 1969. And it gets a 7.6/10 on IMDb and an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. Don’t miss it.
So sit back and binge on amazing movies and television series this weekend on Amazon, Hulu and Netflix. Enjoy!
Grownups Guide to Streaming 