Yes, it’s that time again, the weekend, and time to review the best new movies and television shows added online this week, to Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. And there are some exciting new adds this week, so let’s get started!
HULU
The super-huge add on Hulu this week has to be Pig, the 2021 Nicolas Cage drama. Here, Cage stars as the very reclusive Rob, who lives deep in a forest of the Northwest with his beloved pig and best friend, called Pig, who sniffs out the truffles they sell. So when Pig is stolen, Rob goes on a hunt for those responsible, to Portland, where he thinks the abductor is. But this isn’t a revenge film, but a lot more about regret and loss that can drive one’s life. Alex Wolff stars as Amir, Rob’s main buyer of truffles, and David Knell, Adam Arkin, Nina Belforte, Cassandra Violet and Julia Bray also star, while Michael Sarnoski not only directed, but wrote the screenplay, here. And Pig gets an incredible 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Wenlei Ma of News.com.au wrote “you will be rewarded with a melancholic and poignant story, and a superb, triumphant performance from Cage who has no trouble reminding audiences that he is an Oscar winner capable of incredible range and depth.” I’m tuning in. But Hulu also offers Ride the Eagle, a 2021 comedy. Jake Johnson(New Girl) stars as Leif, who travels to Yosemite, with his best friend(and dog) Nora, to find his estranged (kooky) mother Honey has left him an amazing cabin, but only if he finishes the to-do list she left him, first. These include all kinds of life-changing things, of course, but most impressively connecting with the girl who got away, Audrey(D’Arcy Carden of The Good Place!). J.K. Simmons(!) plays Honey’s forlorn lover, and Cleo King, Eric Edelstein, Luis Fernandez-Gil and Billy Bungeroth also star, with Trent O‘Donnell directing. And it gets an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, with Randy Myers of the San Jose Mercury News saying it “might be modest and simple but it’s also rewarding, a gentle comedy-drama about letting go and growing up.” It’s on my list. And that’s it for new adds on Hulu, but they have some overlooked gems like Swimming with Men, a 2018 British comedy. Rob Brydon stars, here, as Eric Scott, an accountant deep in the midst of a midlife crisis, estranged from his wife Heather(Jane Horrocks), whose life is definitely on the upswing, having won a local election and the interest of another man. But, one day, while swimming laps alone, he finds a group of men sitting on the bottom of the pool, gesturing at him. They’re a men’s synchronized swimming team, such as it is, and he gives them advice on their technique, where they invite him to join the club. And when he does, he finds belonging and even contentment. Rupert Graves, Tom Carter, Adeel Akhtar, Charlotte Riley, Thomas Turgoose and Daniel Mays also star, and Oliver Parker(An Ideal Husband) directed. And, no, it’s not The Full Monty, but something calmer and more subtle, and I love the focus on older actors. And it gets a 6.4/10 on IMDb. Teo Bugbee of the New York Times wrote “although the film has no grand cinematic ambitions, its unsensationalized focus on these aging bodies invites welcome kindness.” And I love the cast. I’m watching. And, finally, Hulu has added Star Trek Into Darkness, the 2013 Trekkie adventure. This finds the crew of the Enterprise returning to Earth after a terrorist attack leaves Star fleet decimated and the planet on the verge of all-out war. Captain Kirk(Chris Pine), who also has a personal score to settle with the perpetrator, decides to go after him, with the Enterprise and its crew wondering whether he made the right choice. Benedict Cumberbatch(!) Zoe Saldana(!), Zachary Quinto, Anton Yelchin and Simon Pegg(!) also star, and the great J.J. Abrams directs! And it gets an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, with Bob Mondello of NPR saying “happily, there’s a good deal of fun if you like things crashing violently into each other and out of warp-drive at regular intervals.” I’m tuning in.
NETFLIX
There are some huge adds on Netflix this week, like True Story, the 2021 drama series starring Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes. Here, Hart plays Philadelphia comic the Kid, doing fine until his black sheep brother r Carlton, wonderfully played by Snipes, who in one night, gets his brother off the wagon and into some big trouble, with a dead body in his hotel room the next day. So Carlton calls a fixer, Ari(Billy Zane), which, of course, only makes matters worse. Tawny Newsome(!), John Ales, Ash Santos, Paul Adelstein, William Catlett, Chris Diamontopoulos and Theo Rossi also star, and there are cameos by stars like Ellen DeGeneres and Chris Hemsworth. And there are 7 episodes now available for streaming. But the stellar cast is let down by pedestrian writing here, and so the series falls flat. It gets only a 45% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I agree with Nina Metz of the Chicago Tribune who writes “despite what True Story has going for it, it ultimately lacks any depth beyond what Snipes is bringing to it.” But Netflix also offers Spoiled Brats, a French comedy. When the three adult children, Philippe (Artus), Stella (Camille Lou) and Alexandre (Louka Meliava), of rich developer Francis Bartek (Gerard Jugnot) find themselves suddenly broke, with no credit, and worse, no cell phone service, they panic and find themselves at sea. But when Daddy carts them back to Marseilles, and tells them he’s accused of fraud, and they all must work for a living, they are even more bewildered. Will any of them survive? Tom Leeb, François Morel, Franck Adrien, Jean-Baptiste Sagory and Colette Kraffe also star, while Nicolas Cuche directs. And, though it gets only a 5.7/10 on IMDb, it’s early, and this movie is a lot of fun. Johnny Loftus of The Decider says it “has some laughs, some gentle social commentary, and most of all a game cast to drive home it’s ultimately winning family dynamic.” I’m watching. Netflix also has Bruised, the 2021 Halle Berry directorial debut. Berry plays Jackie Justice, an disgraced ex-MMA fighter, who decides to return to the arena in an underground fight, coaxed by her manager and boyfriend Desi (Adan Canto). But when the young son she gave up as an infant, Manny (Danny Boyd, Jr.), things gets far more complicated. Adriane Lenox, Stephen Henderson, Shamier Anderson, Sheila Atim and Denny Dillon also star, and Michelle Rosenfarb wrote the script. This film has already won the Rising Stars Award at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. And it gets a 5.9/10 on IMDb. Jason Shawhan of the AV Club writes “when it’s firing on all cylinders, Bruised finds the Sirk amid the Stallone, wringing truly grand melodrama out of women reshaping their lives while beating each other senseless.” A little too violent for me, though. I’d rather watch Outlaws, the 2021 Spanish drama. Also called The Laws of the Border, This takes place in 1978’s Girona, Spain, after the death of long-time dictator Franco, and a wave of freedom and rebellion hit the country, especially among youths like Nacho(Marcos Ruiz). Bullied and unpopular in school, the teen unexpectedly befriends Tere (Begoña Vargas) and El Zarco (Chechu Salgado), who convince him to join their gang of petty thieves. But when they move from petty thievery, to the bigger, more dangerous jobs, the stakes become higher, especially when a life is finally lost, and Nacho wonders about his part in it. Chechu Salgado, Xavier Martín, Jorge Aparicio, Cintia García, Elisabet Casanovas and Estefanía de los Santos also star, and Daniel Monzón directs. This film just premiered as part of the Official Competition of the 69th San Sebastian International Film Festival, and Chechu Salgado has already won a nomination for Best Actor at the 2022 Feroz Awards. And this gets an amazing 7/10 on IMDb, and the decider says to stream it, adding “Ruiz, Salgado, and Vargas have great chemistry as the heart and soul of the little criminal gang, and Outlaws delivers with its period setting and a coming-of-age premise heightened by crime spree thrills.” I’m definitely tuning in. And, finally, Netflix has added Light The Night, a 2021 Taiwanese thriller series. This takes place in 1988 Taipei, in the Red Light District, where two madams who run a nightclub called Light, tending to the rather chaste whims of their rich business patrons. Rose(Ruby Lin) and her partner Sue (Cheryl Yang) have their fast friendship tested by many adversities that occur, but especially when a buried human hand is found in the forest, and the clues there lead to the ladies club. Rhydian Vaughan, Tony Yang, Cammy Chiang, Esther Lio, Ching Liu and Nikki Hsieh also star, and there are 8 episodes available to devour now. And this series gets a stunning 7.3/10 on IMDb, with Joel Keller of The Decider saying to stream it , adding “The friendship at the core of Light The Night is what should carry most of the dramatic load.” And its a great ensemble cast. I’m watching.
AMAZON
Amazon has one big new add with Burning, their in-house documentary about the out-of-control,, climate change induced Australian wildfires. Director and Oscar-winning producer, Eva Orner (Chasing Asylum) aptly presents the huge growth in megafire in Australia, outdoing any others, including California, with 50 million acres burned during their infamous Black Summer of 2019/2020. She also offers clarity for those climate change doubters still around(?) with the testimony of former commissioner of Fire and Rescue New South Wales Greg Mullins, who say, though fires have always been a danger in Australia, they once assumed “a very damaging fire would occur in NSW about once a decade. But after 1994 it was clear, he says, that Australia was experiencing more and more of them, those old assumptions no longer applying.” Orner also ably presents the danger represented by right wing politicians like prime minister Scott Morrison, still insisting coal is a good thing and using parliament as “essentially a marketing presentation”. It can be a hard movie to watch, but an very important one, too. It made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and screened at the UN Climate Change Conference COP26. Orner was nominated for the Sustainable Future Award at the 2021 Sydney Film Festival, and it gets a 6.6/10 on IMDb. The Guardian calls it “a tremendously well-made film with a burning vitality: without question one of the most important Australian documentaries of the 21st century so far.” I’m definitely tuning in. Amazon also offers Season 1 of the drama series Rectify, from AMC+. Aden Young stars as Daniel Holden, a man released after 18 years in prison, seemingly vindicated by DNA evidence, only to find that his case is again being pursued by Senator Faulkes(Michael O’Neill), an ex-prosecutor. Meanwhile, he struggles to adjust to civilian life, as his family grapples with the furor over his release. Abigail Spencer, J. Smith-Cameron, Adelaide Clemens, Clayne Crawford and Hal Holbrook(!) also star, and there are 6 episodes to binge on before it’s disappearance back into the AMC+ zone on Dec 1. Which shouldn’t be hard, as it gets an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. Matt Zoller-Seitz of New York Magazine/Vulture wrote “that story is so powerful all by itself that I’m looking forward to seeing the show explore it at length, at its own pace, taking time without seeming to take time.” I’m tuning in. And that’s all for the adds this week, but don’t miss Amazon’s Black Friday 99¢ a month deals on premium channels like Showtime, Starz, Epix, Britbox and PBS Masterpiece. And you get the 99¢ deal for two months, after which, the channel returns to it’s regular price. You can get that deal here.
So sit back and binge this weekend, on classics, old and new, on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. Enjoy!
Grownups Guide to Streaming 