‘Divergent: Insurgent’ now available
What’s new for home viewing on video-on-demand and Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other streaming services.
Pay-per-view / video-on-demand
“The Divergent Series: Insurgent,” the second film in yet another young adult dystopian fable, features the superb Shailene Woodley in a secondhand story full of action and lazy metaphors. It’s PG-13 for violence and adult themes. Also on Blu-ray and DVD.
Carey Mulligan is the headstrong young heiress in the new version of Thomas Hardy’s “Far from the Madding Crowd” and Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, and Tom Sturridge are her suitors. The 19th-century drama is PG-13 for violence and sexuality. Also on Blu-ray and DVD.
Available same day as select theaters nationwide are the thrillers “Dark Places” with Charlize Theron (rated R) and “The Falling” with Maisie Williams (not rated).
Netflix
The BBC miniseries “ Dancing on the Edge,” starring Chiwetel Ejiofor as a bandleader in early 1930s London, mixes jazz and politics for a fascinating period piece. Not rated, some nudity and violence.
Kathryn Bigelow’s “ The Hurt Locker” (2008), starring Jeremy Renner as head of a bomb disposal unit in Iraq, won six Oscars, including best picture and best director. Rated R.
Here’s some kid stuff with a side of education: In the new Netflix original series “ Project MC2,” four brainy girls use science to battle bad guys. For younger kids, there’s “ Reading Rainbow: Season 1” with LeVar Burton and “ Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood: Season 2.”
Amazon Instant Prime
“ A Most Violent Year” (2014), a smart, shadowy tribute to the American crime dramas of the 1970s, features Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain fighting shady politics and mob attacks on their business in the crime-ridden culture of early 1980s New York City. R for language and violence.
Clint Eastwood’s “ Unforgiven” (1992) won four Oscars, including Eastwood’s first for best picture and best director. A year later he played an aging Secret Service agent chasing assassin John Malkovich in “ In the Line of Fire” (1993). Both rated R.
Larry David’s HBO comedy series “ Curb Your Enthusiasm: Seasons 1-8” (1999-2011) features a “Seinfeld” reunion (co-written by Jerry Seinfeld) in the seventh season. Features adult language.
Porkers rule in a pair of G-rated films: the live-action “ Babe” (1995) and the original animated “ Charlotte’s Web” (1973).
Hulu
Julie Klausner and Billy Eichner are “ Difficult People” in the Hulu original sitcom about acerbic New York comedians who drag their contempt through their everyday lives. It debuts this week.
HBO Now
Along with its acclaimed original programming, HBO Now features the Oscar-winning best picture “Birdman: or (The Unexpected Virtue of Innocence)” this month.