Yes, it’s the weekend, and time to review the notable new movies and TV shows available for streaming on Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime! So let’f get started!
HULU
Hulu has some great adds this week, the best of which is The Sisters Brothers, a dark comedy finally available on Hulu. Based on the novel of the same name by Patrick deWitt, this is the tale of a pair of brothers, played by John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix, who are hired assassins, and their chase for two men, played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed, who owe him money. The cast also includes Rebecca Root, Allison Tolman, Carol Kane, Rutger Hauer and Ian Reddington and the film is directed by Jacques Audiard(it’s his first English language film). This movie got rave reviews, it premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion for Best Direction, and went on to win other awards as well, including three César Awards. It gets an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7/10 on IMDb. But this isn’t your average western, there’s lots of violence, but no heroes here. But it’s darn funny. Hulu has also added Border, a 2018 Swedish fantasy thriller film. It’s stars Eva Melander as an unusual woman,in looks and abilities, Tina, who can smell fear and guilt, who works as a border guard. Isolated and different, she comes to meet a man, Vore, played by Eero Milonoff, who resembles her in more than looks. Things develop from there. Tina‘s father is played by Sten Ljunggren and Jörgen Thorsson, Viktor Åkerblom,Rakel Wärmländer and Ann Petrén round out the cast. This movie won numerous awards, including the Un Certain Regard at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was selected as the Swedish entry for the Best Foreign Film category at the 2018 Oscars. And it gets an amazing 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.1/10 on IMDb. Hulu has also added Don’t Go, a 2018 supernatural mystery starring Stephen Dorff. In this, Dorff and Melissa George as parents who suddenly lost their daughter, and as George’s character moves on, Dorff‘s is haunted by realistic seeming dreams that reunite him with his daughter. The movie also stars Grace Farrell, Aoibhinn McGinnity, Simon Delaney and Gavin O’Connor and is directed by David Gleeson. Don’t Go gets a 39% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.1/10 on IMDb but Dorff and George give exceptional performances here. And, finally, Hulu has Book Club, the 2018 comedy romance. This stars Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen as four friends who decide to read Fifty Shades of Grey as their monthly book club. That shakes up their lives and relationships. The cast also includes Andy Garcia, Richard Dreyfuss, Craig T. Nelson, Ed Begley Jr., Wallace Shawn and Alicia Silverstone. The movie gets a 54% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.1/10 on IMDb, but, even though the movie is a little pedestrian and the subject mediocre, the all-star cast makes it all worthwhile. I’m watching.
NETFLIX
Netflix too, has some good adds this week, including Chambers, the 2019 Netflix original horror series. In this show, Sivan Alyra Rose stars as a teenager who has a heart attack, and undergoes a heart transplant, only to start experiencing strange visions and decides to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding her heart’s donor. Uma Thurman and Tony Goldman play the parents of the donor and Lilliya Reid, Nicholas Galitzine, Kyanna Simone Simpson and Lilli Kay complete the cast. This series is about more than horror, though, it’s about assimilation, too, of Native Americans and about class divisions in our society. And it gets a 6.9/10 on IMDb. Netflix has also added Bonding, a Netflix original comedy series. It stars Zoe Levin as a New York psych. grad student who moonlights as a dominatrix, to earn money, and enlists her gay best friend, played by Brendan Scannell, to be her assistant. The series also stars Micah Stock, Kevin Kane, Stephanie Styles, D’Arcy Carden, Theo Stockman, Alex Hurt and Gabrielle Ryan. It was created by Barry actor Rightor Doyle, and the series episodes are all shorter, between 15 and 20 minutes. It’s not too everyone’s taste, but has some wonderful performances, including D’Arcy Carden’s(The Good Place). And it gets a 7.4/10 on IMDb. Netflix has also added The Sapphires, a 2012 Australian comedy. Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens and Miranda Tapsell star as four indigenous Australians who form a singing group, known as The Sapphires, who performed in Vietnam for the troups, with the help of a talent agent, played by Chris O’Dowd. This is partly based on a true story and is based on a 2004 stage play of the same name.The cast also includes Don Battee, Tory Kittles, Eka Darville and Kylie Belling, and was directed by Wayne Blair. It’s a lovely, heart-warming movie, with good music, too, and gets a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7/10 on IMDb. If you want something scary, Netflix has added Aurora, a 2018 horror movie from the Phillipines. In this movie, a pair of sisters(one of whom can see dead people), living on a peaceful island, are forced to recover the bodies from a deadly ship crash, of the Aurora, until the dead start to visit them. It stars Anne Curtis and Phoebe Villamor, with Mercedes Cabral,Marco Gumabao, Sue Prado, Allan Paule and Andrea Del Rosario also starring. It was an official entry in the 2018 Metro Manila Film Festival, and it gets a 5.3/10 on IMDb. And, finally, Netflix has offered Street Food, a foodie’s delight of a 2019 series. This first season covers street food from the Pacific Rim, with the first episode concentrating on Bangkok, Thailand. It’s a beautifully shot, mouth-watering show, that actually introduces us to some of the local street chefs that have spent their lives cooking specific dishes for their customers. It’s an amazing show with 9 episodes available now, and it gets a stunning 8.3/10 on IMDb. Definitely fit this in to your schedule, I am.
AMAZON PRIME
Amazon, too, has some interesting additions this week, including
King of Thieves, a 2018 British crime film starring Michael Caine. This tells the story of the Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary in 2015, when a famous thief, played by Caine gets together a ragtag group of older criminals to stage the robbery. And those older criminals are played by veteran actors like Micheal Gambon,Tom Courtenay, Jim Broadbent, Paul Whitehouse and Ray Winstone and the cast also includes Charlie Cox and Francesca Annis(!). It didn’t get great reviews, Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 34%, but IMDb gives it a 5.5/10 and with such a stellar cast, you can’t lose. I’m watching. Amazon also offers A is for Acid, a 2002 British suspense mystery starring Martin Clunes. In this, Clunes stars as murderer John George Haigh, who killed at least 6 people in the 1940’s England, and then used sulfuric acid to dispose of the bodies. It also stars Keeley Hawes, Richard Hope, Celia Imrie, Rowena Cooper,John Flanagan and Matyelok Gibbs and is directed by Harry Bradbeer. Clunes won great acclaim for his role here, and the film gets a 7.1/10 on IMDb. Amazon has also added Harry Price: Ghost Hunter, a 2015 mystery drama from Britain. Rafe Spall plays Harry Price, a con artist/ghost hunter, who is summoned to investigate whether an MP‘s house is haunted, after the MP’s wife is found naked on the street.The movie takes place in 1920’s London and also stars Cara Theobold, Tom Ward(Silent Witness), Zoe Boyle(Downton Abbey),Richie Campbell(Frankenstein Chronicles) and Richie Campbell. The Telegraph calls it “captivating” and it gets a 6.7/10 on IMDb. And finally, Amazon offers Hunters Lodge, a Canadian suspense movie from 2018. This tells the tale of Harry Collins, played by Tim Ahern, who is the last surviving of three friends and Vietnam veterans, after the suspicious death of his friend Peter. He travels to the Hunters Lodge for the funeral,an old hangout, only to find infighting over the lodge being left to the caretaker, played by Janis Ahern and nightmares and visions of those dead. It also stars Matt Oliver, Nicola Wright, Paul Wilkinson, Paul Maddison and Kim Driver. There’s definitely some horror here, and supernatural goings on, and it gets a 5.4/10 on IMDb. I’m watching, if it’s not too scary.
So sit back and binge this weekend, on great movies and television shows, new and old, on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. Enjoy!