Stream On Demand: A star comes to home screens
What’s new for home viewing on Video on Demand and Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and other streaming services.
Top streams for the week
“A Star Is Born” (2018, R), Bradley Cooper’s latest remake of the Hollywood classic with Lady Gaga in the starring role, earned eight Academy Award nominations. You can catch up with the film before the Oscars are handed out on Sunday, along with “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (2018, R) featuring Oscar nominees Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant, on Cable On Demand and VOD. Also on DVD and at Redbox.
Foreign language film nominee “Shoplifters” (2018, Japan, R, with subtitles), which took home the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival last year, is on Cable On Demand, VOD, and DVD.
Ray Romano and Mark Duplass play neighbors and best friends in “Paddleton” (2019, not rated), a low-key comedy with a dramatic gut-punch: one of them is dying of cancer and the two reminisce and argue on a road trip to secure end-of-life drugs. The film, co-written and produced by Mark and Jay Duplass, comes to Netflix direct from its premiere at Sundance.
Actor and former member of President Obama’s White House team Kal Penn hosts “This Giant Beast That is the Global Economy,” an eight-part documentary series from producers Adam McKay and Will Ferrell that uses humor to explore the complexities of the world economy. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Pay-Per-View / Video on Demand
World War II action meets monster movie in “Overlord” (2018, R), a thriller with Nazi super-soldier zombies. Also new:
- the latest revival of “Robin Hood” (2018, PG-13), this one with Taron Egerton and Jamie Foxx;
- drama “The Maestro” (2018, not rated) with Xander Berkeley as real-life composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco;
- “Lords of Chaos” (2018, R), a based-on-a-true-story drama that arrives two weeks after its theatrical debut.
Available same day as select theaters nationwide is thriller “The Changeover” (2019, not rated), based on the award-winning children’s novel by Margaret Mahy and starring Timothy Spall, Melanie Lynksey, and Lucy Lawless, and racing drama “Trading Paint” (2019, R) with John Travolta.
Netflix
“The Photographer of Mauthausen” (2018, Spain, not rated, with subtitles) dramatizes the true story of Catalan photographer Francesc Boix, who documented and smuggled evidence of atrocities out of a Nazi concentration camp in World War II.
Also new: Jude Law leads a shady submarine crew into the “Black Sea” (2015, R) to find a fortune in sunken gold;
“Spy Kids: All the Time in the World” (2011, PG) brings a new team of junior agents into the kids adventure franchise;
Steve Carrell is “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” (2005, R) in the hit comedy from director Judd Apatow.
Foreign affairs: Korean superstar Song Kang-ho is “The Drug King” (South Korea, 2018, not rated, with subtitles) in this crime thriller starring Doona Bae. Also new:
- “Paris Is Us” (France, 2019, not rated, with subtitles), starring a young woman stars to lose her grip on reality after missing an airline flight that crashes;
- “Firebrand” (India, 2019, not rated, with subtitles), a Marathi-language drama about sexism and trauma produced by Priyank Chopra.
True stories: “Studio 54” (2018, not rated) looks back on the iconic club that epitomized the glamor and excess of the disco era and “Period. End of Sentence.” (not rated, with subtitles) is nominated in the documentary short subjects category at this year’s Oscars.
Streaming TV: the Canadian comedy “Workin’ Moms: Season 1” follows four 30-something friends trying to balance jobs, family, and love lives in Toronto. Also new:
- young adult drama “GO! Live Your Way” (Argentina) set in a high school drama for the performing arts;
- British drama “Rebellion: Season 2” set during the 1916 conflicts in Ireland;
- crime drama “Suburra: Season 2” (Italy, with subtitles);
- culinary shows “Chef’s Table: Volume 6” and “The Big Family Cooking Showdown: Season 2”;
- CNN documentary miniseries “The 2000s” (2018).
Amazon Prime Video
Hilary Swank and Michael Shannon star in the drama “What They Had” (2018, R), playing siblings with an ailing mother (Blythe Danner) and a father (Robert Forster) resistant to letting her go to a care facility.
Two of the best crime dramas of the 1980s are now streaming in their entirety. “
Also newly arrived is “Naked City: Season 1” (1958-1959), one of the first great TV crime dramas, and from Canada comes the smart and nuanced “Intelligence: Complete Series” (2006-2007).
More streaming TV: Louis C.K. writes, directs, and stars in “Horace & Pete: Complete Series” (2016) with Steve Buscemi and Edie Falco and Brian Cox stars in the Australian crime drama “The Straits: Complete Series” (2012). Both ran a single season.
Foreign affairs: Jiri Menzel’s Oscar-nominated comedy “My Sweet Little Village” (Czechoslovakia, 1985, not rated, with subtitles) is still considered the most popular film of all time in the former Czechoslovakia.
Kid stuff: “Odd Squad: Odds and Ends” (2018) is a special double-length episode of the PBS kids series.
Also newly arrived: John Travolta and Gene Hackman in “Get Shorty” (1995, R), based on the Elmore Leonard novel;
- comedy “The Birdcage” (1996, R) with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane;
- the original “The Terminator” (1984, R) with Arnold Schwarzenegger;
- “Glastonbury Fayre” (1972), a documentary about the seventies music festival featuring Fairport Convention, Linda Lewis, Arthur Brown, and Traffic. Nicolas Roeg is an uncredited co-director.
Prime Video and Hulu
Sally Potter’s “The Party” (2017, R) is a satirical look at politics and personal relations starring Patricia Clarkson, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Cillian Murphy (Prime Video and Hulu).
Hulu
Benicio Del Toro and Tim Robbins play aid workers in a war zone in the political satire “A Perfect Day” (2016, R).
Streaming TV: Jennifer Lopez, Ed Sheeran, Josh Groban, John Legend, and Carrie Underwood are among the stars of the “Elvis All-Star Tribute” (2019, TV-PG). Also new: “Stan Against Evil: Season 3” with John C. McGinley.
HBO Now
“Deadpool 2 (Super Duper Cut)” (2018, not rated) is a longer cut of the cheeky, super-violent Ryan Reynolds superhero hit that includes footage unseen in theaters.
The sixth season of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” is now on with new episodes on HBO Sunday nights and streaming the next day.
True stories: “United Skates” (2018, TVG-14) looks as the roller skating culture in African-American communities.
Available Saturday night is the HBO original movie “O.G.” (2019, not rated) starring Jeffrey Wright and the companion documentary “It’s a Hard Truth Ain’t It” (2019, not rated).
Other streams
The new “Desus & Mero” features TV and podcast personalities hosting a weekly talk show. New episodes Thursday nights on Showtime Anytime.
The 12-part Dutch crime thriller “The Oldenheim Twelve” (Netherlands, with subtitles) debuts in the U.S. on Acorn TV. Also new is the TV movie “Marvellous” (2014, not rated), a heart-warming, based-on-a-true-story drama starring Toby Jones.
Jo Joyner and Mark Benton are “Shakespeare and Hathaway: Private Investigators” in the first season of the comic mystery series set in modern Stratford-Upon-Avon. Streaming on BritBox.
New on disc
“A Star is Born,” “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” “Overlord,” “Robin Hood,” “The Maestro”
Now available at Redbox: “A Star is Born,” “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” “Overlord,” “Robin Hood”
Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and TV can be found at http://streamondemandathome.com.