Yes, t’s that time again, time to review the good new movies and tv shows added to Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. So let’s get started!
HULU
There is some good adds on Hulu, especially if you look carefully. First, there’s Unicorn, the 2018 comedy directed by Robert Schwartzman. This features a long engaged couple, played by Lauren Lapkus(Orange is the New Black) and Nick Rutherford, who , upon visiting her parents and finding their wild secret to a happy marriage, decide to try some wildness themselves, with some very awkward results. Her parents are played by Beverly D’Angelo and John Kapelos and the cast also includes Lucy Hale,Beck Bennett, Darell Britt-Gibson, Dree Hemingway and Maya Kazan. Matt Fagerholm of rogerebert.com calls it “an endearing symphony of misread cues, fumbling advances and accidental epiphanies,” and it gets a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. Hulu has also added Funny Cow, the 2017 British comedy drama starring Maxine Peake. This follows Funny Cow through her career as a female comedian in a densely male , and deeply exist, comedy circuit in England, in the 70‘s and 80′s. It also stars Steven Graham, Tony Pitts, Paddy Considine, Alun Amstrong, Lindsey Coulson and Christine Bottomley and was directed by Adrian Shergold. Kevin Maher of the Times(UK) says” it’s a tough, passionate and compassionate account of survival at all costs…and a troubling portrait of an unsavoury element of national character that still very much exists,” and it gets a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes. A movie everyone should see. Hulu also offers One Million American Dreams , a 2018 documentary directed by Brendan Byrne. This movie investigates four families whose beloved relations ended up on Hart Island, the potter’s field or cemetery for those people of New York who are unidentified, or who can’t afford a burial place. It follow four families in particular, as they deal with their grief and the knowledge that their family members will be buried in a cheap pine box, in a trench, by Rikers Island inmates, for fifty cents an hour. It’s narrated by Sam Rockwell and gets an astonishing 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. And, finally, Hulu has Dinosaur 13, the 2014 documentary about the most complete T. Rex ever found, the famous Sue, and the battle over her bones. It follows American Paleontologist Sue Hendrickson and Pete Larson and his Black Hills Institute of Geological Research team, as they first find the T. Rex bones, near Faith, South Dakota, and the incredible fight with the FBI, National Park Service and the landowner of the parcel containing the remains. It’s suspenseful and involving and directed by Todd Douglas Miller. Susan Wloszczyna says its ““Kramer vs. Kramer” for paleontologists, an absorbing documentary that recounts a torturous decade-long custody battle over the miraculously well-preserved skeletal leftovers of a Tyrannosaurus Rex that were discovered along a remote stretch of the South Dakota prairie,” and I loved it. It gets a 7.2/10 on IMDb and a 72% on Rotten Tomatoes. If you love dinosaurs(and who doesn’t), this movie is for you!
NETFLIX
Netflix, too, has some great additions this week, with Wine Country, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph’s 2019 comedy heading the list. And Poehler also directed this movie about a group of female friends, going on a wine tasting tour for one of the women’s 50th birthday. And those women are played by Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer, Paula Pell, Emily Spivey and Tina Fey, and of course, things don’t go quite according to plan. This great cast gets better with Cherry Jones, Jason Schwartzman,Maya Erskine, Sunita Mani and Jay Larson. And the cast is the main reason I’m watching, this is not a perfect movie, it gets a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.4/10 on IMDb, but the wonderful talent makes it worth seeing. And Netflix has also added The Wandering Earth, an amazing 2019 sci-fi movie from China. Based loosely on a novella by Liu Cixin(Hugo Award winner!), this has the Earth headed for a disastrous collision with Jupiter and a team of astronauts guiding the Earth away from an expanding sun! The astronauts are played by Qu Chuxiao, Li Guangjie, Ng Man-tat, Zhao Jinmai, Wu Jing and Qu Jingjing and the movie is directed by Frant Gwo. This movie was a hit in China, when it was released earlier this year and already grossed 700 million dollars. Simon Abrams of rogerebert.com gives it 3/4 stars and says it “cured my winter depression!” And it gets a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.4/10 on IMDb. I’m tuning in! Netflix also offers The Society, an American 2019 mystery series. This show tells of a group of teens, who seem to be the only inhabitants left of their town, West Ham, with no parents left and all the exits from the town blocked. the teens are played by Kathryn Newton, Gideon Adlon, Sean Berdy, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Jacques Colimon, Olivia DeJonge, Alex Fitzala, Kristine Froseth, Jose Julian, Alexander MacNicoll, Toby Wallace and Rachel Keller and this is definitely a teen show, there are no adults seen. It’s melodramatic, and soapy, with lots of car chases, and fights, once the partying subsides. But kids especially, might like it, and it gets a 6/10 on IMDb. Also added to Netflix is Shéhérazade, the 2018 drama from director Jean-Bernard Marlin(Golden Bear winner). This is the dark, realist portrayal of a romance between a teen from Marseilles(Dylan Robert), recently released from a correctional facility, and Shéhérazade(Kenza Fortas), an independent sex worker. It also stars Idir Azougli, Lisa Amedjout and Kader Benchoudar. Forta won the César Award for Most Promising New Actress, and Robert won the César for Most Promising Actor and Jean-Bernard Marlin and producer Grégoire Debailly also won at Cannes. It’s a heartbreaking movie, told in the cinema vérité style, and it gets a 7.1/10 on IMDb. And, finally, Netflix has In Family I Trust, a 2019 Netflix original Spanish language comedy. A feel good movie based on a novel by Laura Norton, this has an architect, played by Clara Lago, return to her home town and family, after being publicly cheated on my her partner. It also stars Fernando Guallar, Carmen Maura, Alexandra Jiménez, Álex García,Paula Malia and Núria Gago. And it gets a 6.2/10 on IMDb. And don’t forget to turn your subtitles on!
AMAZON
Amazon Prime has the most exciting movie added this week with A Private War, starring Rosamund Pike. Pike stars here as the famous(and fearless) war correspondent Marie Colvin, who sacrificed so much for her job, including losing her eye in Sri Lanka. The piece also stars Jamie Dornan, Stanley Tucci, Faye Marsay, Tom Hollander and Nikki Amuka-Bird and is directed by Matthew Heineman. It’s a devastating portrayal of how much of her normal life Colvin and other war correspondents give up, like family, health and personal life, and of the horrific reality of war. It premiered last year at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival , and gets a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.7./10 on IMDb. It’s on my list, for sure. And if you’re all excited about George Clooney’s Catch-22 mini-series coming out on Hulu later this month, you might want to brush up for it with the original Catch-22, starring Alan Arkin. Directed by the great Mike Nichols, and based on the classic satirical novel by Joseph Heller, this tells the tale of crazy outfit during World War II and the bombardier’s like Captain John Yossarian(Arkin) and others played by Art Garfunkel, Bob Balaban, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Bob Newhart, Buck Henry and Richard Benjamin. And it gets an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.2/10 on IMDb. Definitely a classic. And, finally, Amazon has Le Jour Se Lève, the 1939 classic starring Jean Gabin. In this movie, Gabin plays a foundry worker who commits murder, and then, holed up in his apartment, besieged by police, he reflects on what led up to the crime and drove him to it. It also stars Jules Berry, Jacqueline Laurent,Arletty, Arthur Devère and Bernard Blier and was directed by Marcel Carné(Children of Paradise). It gets a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and Richard Brody of the New Yorker says it was the “prototype of film noir, from 1939, is both a grim feast of prewar French acting and a catalogue of French moods on the eve of disaster.” I’m watching.
So sit back and relax this weekend and binge on wonderful movie and television series on Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime. Enjoy!
Grownups Guide to Streaming 