Yes, it’s the weekend, again, and time to discuss the new movies and television shows added on Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime. So let’s gets right to it!
HULU
Okay, Hulu doesn’t have any big additions this week, but there are some good new shows there, if you poke around enough. One of them is the 2018 British series Butterfly, with Anna Friel. The series also stars Callum Booth-Ford as a transgender child, in the process of discovering she is really a girl. Butterfly also stars Emmett J. Scanlan,Seán McGinley, Millie Gibson and Alison Steadman and is written and directed by Tony Marchant. The Guardian review called it “delicate, compassionate and moving” and it gets an amazing 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s important to see. Also, new to Hulu is Fyre Fraud, the 2019 Hulu original movie about the scam Fyre Festival. The Fyre Festival in the Bahamas was supposed to be the music event of the decade, but went bust, leaving thousands stranded on the island. Hulu‘s Fyre doc even has an interview with Billy McFarland, one of the organizers, now in jail, for wire fraud(Netflix has a Fyre doc too, I’ll tell you about that later). And Fyre Fraud gets an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. Hulu has also added Afterimage, the 2016 Polish biographical drama. It is about the avant-garde artist Wladyslaw Strzeminski and how he stood up to Stalinist officials in Poland, refusing to renounce abstract art,resulting in some of his work being destroyed. It stars Boguslaw Linda as Strzeminski, and also stars Bronislawa Zamachowska, Krzysztof Pieczynski,Mariusz Bonaszewski and Paulina Galazka. This film was Poland‘s entry in the Academy Award competition for Best Foreign Film and gets an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. And, finally, Hulu has The Alchemist Cookbook, the 2016 horror movie from writer/director Joel Potrykus(BUZZARD, ape). This film tells the story of an alchemist, played by Ty Hickson, who lives in a trailer in the woods, with his cat, seeking answer to eternal secrets through alchemy, but calling for the devil, instead. This isn’t your ordinary horror movie, don’t watch for constant action and thrills, this is more about paranoia, mania and isolation. It also stars Amari Cheaton and Fiji. And it gets an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. Watch if you dare.
NETFLIX
Netflix, too, has some exciting female lead movies as new additions this week, the most interesting being Io, the 2019 American sci-fi movie. On a dying Earth, scientist Sam Walden, played by Margaret Qualley, seeks to save the planet, while others are scrambling to catch the last flight to Io, Jupiter’s moon. Io also stars Anthony Mackie, Danny Huston and Tom Payne(there really aren’t many people left!). This is a quiet, cerebral, post-apocalyptic movie, it isn’t a thriller, so maybe that’s why it only gets a 4.7/10 on IMDb and a 57% on Rotten Tomatoes. But it’s still sci-fi to me, so I’m watching. Also new on Netflix is Soni, the 2018 Indian drama. The lead is played by Geetika Vidya Ohlyan, as a police officer and her superintendent, played by Saloni Batra, who together investigate crimes against women in Delhi. Variety says it has an “intelligent, subtle script, ” and it’s an ” indie Indian gem,” and it got a standing ovation, when it premiered in the Orrizonti(Horizon) section at the 75th Venice Film Festival. And it gets an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.4 on IMDb. Also, new on Netflix, is their take on the Fyre music Festival, Fyre, from director Scott Tobias. This one is a depiction of organizer Billy McFarland as a kind of mad emperor, who clearly had no clothes, swindling everyone involved in the so-called “Festival” that really couldn’t possibly come to be. And Fyre gets a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Also new on Netflix, is Close, the 2019 thriller from Britain. Close features Natalie Rapace as a bodyguard for for an heiress, played by Sohpie Nelisse. The cast also features Olivia Jewson, Abdellatif Chaouqi, Hugh Parmenter, Indira Varma and Cherise Silvestri. It gets 3/4 stars on rogerebert.com and is described as “a tight, tough film.” It also gets a 5.5/10 on IMDb. And, finally, Netflix has added the Season 5 of Grace and Frankie, the comedy featuring Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. A favorite series of mine, with an outstanding cast, with Sam Waterston, Martin Sheen, Lisa Kurdrow, Brooklyn Decker , in the story of Grace and Frankie, two reluctant(at the beginning) friends who end up roommates and business partners. These further adventures continue to tell the story of adult people, over the age of 50, who aren’t all retired, playing someone’s parent, but vitally involved in their community and the world as a whole. And it gets an 8.7/10 on IMDb.
AMAZON
Okay, the big news on Amazon is the Eighth Grade is now available! It’s Bo Burnham‘s directorial debut, he’s also a comedian)and in it he tells the tale of Kayla Day(Elsie Fisher) and she tries to navigate graduating from Middle School, while dealing with social anxiety, and just being a twelve year old, in the days of social media. It also stars Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson, Jake Ryan and Fred Hechinger and was chosen by both The National Board of Review and the AFI as one of the top films of 2018. Fisher was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role here, and may be announced this Tuesday morning for an Academy Award nomination, as well. and it gets a stunning 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.5/10 on IMDb. Amazon has also added Jane Eyre, the 2011 classic starring Mia Wasikowska. This version has a stellar cast, including Michael Fassbender, Judy Dench and Jamie Bell, in the telling of Eyre’s tale, a governess at Thornfield Hall, after enduring a abusive childhood as an orphan. It’s directed by Carey Fukunaga(Beast of No Nation) and the movie was nominated for an Academy Award. And it gets an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.4/10 on IMDb. Amazon has also added Grey Gardens, the HBO production from 2009. Based on the real-life “Big Edie and Little Edies, covered by the Mayles brothers 1975 doc of the same name. This dramatic version stars Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore as the eccentric pair, and also stars
Jeanne Tripplehorn, Malcolm Gets, Daniel Baldwin,
Ken Howard, Arye Gross and Justin Louis .Itwas nominated for 17 primetime Emmy‘s, of which it won 3, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie, Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie (Lange) and Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie(Howard. And it gets an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.5/10 on IMDb. And, finally, Amazon has added Brazil, the 1985 cult classic directed by Terry Gilliam. A loopy dystopian stars Jonathan Pryce as Sam Lowry, searching for a woman, literally from his dreams, while working a mind-numbingly boring job, in a world of rarely working, whimsical machines. It’s a world seemingly inspired by 1984, run by a bureaucratic, totalitarian government. It also stars Robert DeNiro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins(!), Michael Palin, Ian Richardson and Kim Griest. In 2017 Timeout Magazine, ran a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics who voted it the 24th best British film ever, a high honor, and it gets an amazing 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8/10 on IMDb. I’m tuning in.
So sit back and relax this weekend and feast on wonderful movies and television shows online, on Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime. Enjoy!
J
Grownups Guide to Streaming 