Stream on Demand: ‘Spider-Verse’ adds alternate dimensions to Netflix
What’s new for home viewing on Video on Demand and Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and other streaming services.
Top streams for the week
The Oscar-winning, family-friendly animated feature “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (2018, PG) offers a new take on the classic story with Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) getting bitten by the radioactive spider and a whole team of Spider-People from alternate dimensions helping him master his new powers. It also adds new dimensions to an animation style that draws directly from comic book graphics. The voice cast also includes Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Lily Tomlin and Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali. Now streaming on Netflix.
Mary Kay Place is “Diane” (2018, not rated) in the low-key, intimate drama of loneliness, community and late-life regrets. Jake Lacy and Estelle Parsons co-star in the fiction-filmmaking debut of film historian and documentary director Kent Jones. Streaming on Hulu.
Tim Burton directs “Dumbo“ (2019, PG), the live-action remake of the animated Disney classic about a misfit baby elephant with enormous ears that allow it to fly. Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito and Eva Green star in this version, which expands the story into a nostalgic big-top melodrama of eccentric circus folk versus a scheming amusement park owner. On Cable on Demand, VOD, DVD and at Redbox.
Emma Thompson stars in “Years and Years,” a limited series from creator Russell T. Davies (“Queer as Folk” and the “Doctor Who” revival) that follows a family from present-day Manchester through overwhelming change in the coming years. New episodes every Monday night on all HBO platforms.
Fans of “Killing Eve” and “Grey’s Anatomy” can see Emmy-nominated actress Sandra Oh’s first starring role in the indie romantic comedy “Double Happiness” (1995, PG-13), now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Pay-Per-View / Video on Demand
Robert Pattinson is a convict on a deep-space voyage in “High Life” (2019, R), a dreamy science-fiction film from French filmmaker Claire Denis. Juliette Binoche and Andre Benjamin co-star. Available two weeks before DVD. Also new: World War II romantic drama “The Aftermath” (2019, R) with Keira Knightley and Alexander Skarsgård; corporate thriller “The Hummingbird Project” (2018, R) with Jesse Eisenberg and Alexander Skarsgård; British prison break drama “Maze” (2017, not rated); Christian Petzold’s award-winning “Transit” (Germany, 2018, not rated, with subtitles) set in Nazi-occupied France (available two weeks before DVD); historical drama “Sunset” (Hungary, 2018, R, with subtitles) from director László Nemes; and action thriller “
Available the same day as select theaters nationwide is the mystery “Euphoria” (2017, R) starring Alicia Vikander and Eva Green as estranged sisters on a family vacation.
Netflix
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson directs “Anima” (2019, not rated), a short musical film featuring Thom Yorke of Radiohead.
In “20th Century Women” (2016, R), Annette Bening stars as a single mother of a teenage boy determined to give him good life lessons with the help of friends and boarders (Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig and Billy Crudup) in her sprawling old house in the loving Oscar-nominated drama from director Mike Mills.
Foreign affairs: “Triple Threat” (Thailand, 2019, with subtitles) pits Asian action superstars Iko Uwais, Tony Jaa and Tiger Chen against American martial-arts stars Scott Adkins and Michael Jai White. Features some English dialogue. Also new is the supernatural horror “The Golem” (Israel, 2018, not rated).
Streaming TV: The new Netflix Original true crime series “Exhibit A” looks at how innocent people have been convicted with dubious forensic evidence.
Foreign language TV: “Family Business: Season 1” (France, with subtitles) is a comedy about a would-be entrepreneur who wants to turn his family butcher shop into a marijuana café. Also new: “The Chosen One: Season 1” (Brazil, with subtitles) about three doctors who collide with a mysterious cult in the remote jungle; “Answer for Heaven: Season 1” (Thailand, with subtitles) about an angel on Earth who takes a job with an investigative journalist to study humans; and animated dramas “7SEEDS: Season 1” (Japan) and “Forest of Piano: Season 2” (Japan), both with Japanese and English soundtracks.
Kid stuff: “Motown Magic: Season 2” brings more animated adventures set to classic soul songs.
Stand-up: “Mike Epps: Only One Mike” (2019, TV-MA).
Amazon Prime Video
Foreign affairs: the offbeat thriller “The President’s Last Bang” (South Korea, 2005, not rated, with subtitles) recasts the real-life 1989 assassination of the South Korean president as a jaunty black comedy of errors. Also newly available: “The Light Thief” (Kyrgyzstan, 2010, not rated, with subtitles), a parable about an electrician who tries to bring wind power to his destitute community; “Stolen Life” (China, 2007) and “Uniform” (China, 2003), two dramas of life in urban China (both not rated, with subtitles); and coming of age drama “
Streaming TV: HBO musical comedy “Flight of the Conchords: Complete Series” (2007-2009) with Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie as the New Zealand folk-rock duo in New York City and non-fiction comedy “Penn and Teller: Bulsh*t!: Complete Series” (2003-2010) from Showtime are now available to stream.
Prime Video and Hulu
Rose Byrne, Chris O’Dowd and Ethan Hawke star in “Juliet, Naked” (2018, R), a romantic comedy based on the novel by Nick Hornby (Prime Video and Hulu).
On Saturday comes the comedy “The Spy Who Dumped Me” (2018, R) with Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon as best friends caught up in international intrigue (Prime Video and Hulu).
Hulu
Streaming TV: The British reality show “Love Island: Season 5” arrives with new episodes each Saturday.
HBO Now
Robert Redford brings his easy charm to the role of a gentleman octogenarian bank robber who lives for the thrill of the deed in “The Old Man & the Gun” (2018, PG-13), a strangely sweet and affectionate low-key drama co-starring Sissy Spacek and Casey Affleck. Redford said it is his last screen performance.
The documentary “True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality” (2019, TV-MA) profiles the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative.
Available Saturday night is the new version of “Robin Hood” (2018, PG-13) with Taron Egerton and Jamie Foxx.
Other streams
The Sundance Now thriller “Riviera,” with Julia Stiles as a widow searching for her husband’s killer in the European underworld, returns with new episodes each Thursday, and CBS All Access drama “Strange Angel,” with Jack Reynor as a World War II rocket scientist involved in a Los Angeles cult of sex and occultism, offers new episodes each Wednesday.
“Damned: Complete Series,” a British sitcom created by and starring Jo Brand and Alan Davies as social services workers battling bureaucracy, debuts on Britbox. Co-star Himesh Patel is the star of the new film “Yesterday.” Also new are the Agatha Christie films “The Mirror Crack’d” (1980, PG) with Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple and “Evil Under the Sun” (1982, PG) with Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot.
“Living a Lie: Season 1” (Wales, with subtitles), a political drama starring Catherine Ayers and Matthew Gravelle and the crime drama “Money Murder Zurich” (Switzerland, with subtitles) are now streaming on MHz. New episodes arrive each Tuesday.
Free streams: Kanopy adds Jonah Hill’s autobiographical comedy-drama “Mid90s” (2018, R), set in the skateboarding culture of the 1990s, along with the French dramas “Double Lover” (France, 2018, R, with subtitles) and Jean Cocteau’s “Les Parents Terrible” (France, 1948, with subtitles) and the literary adaptation “Maurice” (1987, R) from Oscar-winner James Ivory starring Hugh Grant.
Hoopla offers “Mapplethorpe” (2019, not rated) with Matt Smith, “Her Smell” (2019, R) with Elizabeth Moss, the award-winning “Shoplifters” (Japan, 2018, R, with subtitles) from Hirokazu Kore-eda, and the documentary “The Central Park Five” (2013, R) from Ken Burns. Both services are available through most public library systems.
New on disc
“Dumbo,” “The Aftermath,” “Maze,” “The Hummingbird Project,” “Transit”
Now available at Redbox: “Dumbo,” “The Aftermath,” “The Poison Rose,” “T-34”
Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and TV can be found at http://streamondemandathome.com.