What’s new for home viewing on Video on Demand and Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and other streaming services.
Top streams for the week
Elisabeth Moss is Shirley Jackson in “Shirley” (2020, not rated), a gothic psychodrama also starring Michael Stuhlbarg as her combative husband and Odessa Young and Logan Lerman as the young couple forced to endure their bickering and mind games. The indie drama from filmmaker Josephine Decker, originally slated for theaters, debuts on Hulu and on Cable on Demand and VOD.
The nonfiction series “Dear…” (2020, not rated) profiles American cultural figures, among them Oprah Winfrey, Gloria Steinman, Spike Lee and Lin-Manuel Miranda, through letters written by people whose lives were changed by their work. Streaming on Apple TV, new episodes each Friday.
Two popular Netflix shows aimed at teens and families come to end this month. The family sitcom “Fuller House: The Farewell Season” (TV-PG) and the young adult drama “13 Reasons Why: Season 4” (T V-MA), based on the novel by Jay Asher, bring each respective series to a close.
True stories:“Spelling the Dream” (2020, not rated) follows four Indian-American students as they compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee (streaming on Netflix), and “We Are Freestyle Love Supreme” (2020, not rated) chronicles the improv hip-hop group that featured “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda (streaming on Hulu).
Akash, a young competitor in “Spelling the Dream.” (Netflix / Netflix)
Classic pick: The original, multi-Oscar-winning version of the musical “West Side Story” (1961) with Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer is now streaming on Netflix and Criterion Channel. See it before Steven Spielberg delivers his upcoming remake.
Pay-Per-View / Video on Demand
Mia Wasikowska is a puppeteer who takes revenge on her violent husband and the rotten town where they perform in the darkly comic “Judy & Punch” (2020, not rated).
“The Infiltrators“ (2019, not rated) mixes documentary and drama in the story of undocumented youths who get deliberately detained to infiltrate a for-profit detention center.
Available direct to VOD is “Becky” (2020, R), an action thriller about a father and daughter (Joel McHale and Lulu Wilson) on vacation terrorized by escaped convicts; the cop drama “Body Cam” (2020, R) with Mary J. Blige; and crime drama “TheCollini Case” (Germany, 2019, not rated, with subtitles).
Netflix
Near-future thriller “The Last Days of American Crime” (2020, not rated) stars Edgar Ramirez, Anna Brewster and Michael Pitt as a team plotting the perfect heist before the government uses a form of mind control to stop all crime.
Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-nominated directorial debut “Lady Bird” (2017, R) is a funny and touching drama of a high school rebel (Saoirse Ronan) and the stormy relationship with her mother (Laurie Metcalf).
James Franco directs and stars as Tommy Wiseau in “The Disaster Artist” (2017, R), a stranger-than-fiction comedy based on the true story behind the creation of the midnight movie phenomenon “The Room.”
“Hannibal: Seasons 1-3” (2013-2015, TV-14) with Hugh Dancy as profiler Will Graham and Mad Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter is gruesome and beautiful.
More streaming TV:“Can You Hear Me?: Season 1” (not rated, with subtitles) follows three friends in a low-income neighborhood in French-speaking Canada. Also new: “Queer Eye: Season 5” (TV-14), which takes the Fab Five to Philadelphia, and “Supernatural: Season 15” (2019-2020, TV-14), which was supposed to bring the series to a close before COVID-19 shut down production.
International cinema: Ang Lee’s “Lust, Caution” (Taiwan, 2007, NC-17, with subtitles) is a tastefully erotic espionage thriller set in 1942 Shanghai.
Helen Mirren earned an Oscar playing Queen Elizabeth in “The Queen” (2006, PG-13) from director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Peter Morgan, who went on to create “The Crown.”
Amazon Prime Video
The Oscar-nominated “How to Train Your Dragon” (2010, PG) turns the series of storybooks by Cressida Cowell into a lively animated adventure of a meek but inventive Viking lad named Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) who befriends an injured dragon.
Robert Redford is a middle-aged baseball rookie in “The Natural” (1984, PG) based on the classic Bernard Malamud novel. Robert Duvall, Glenn Close and Kim Basinger also star.
Available through the month of June only are the first season of more than a dozen TV shows through Amazon Channels, including thriller “Liar” (2017, TV-14) with Joanne Froggatt and Ioan Gruffud (from Sundance Now); dramas “The L Word” (2004, TV-MA) and its sequel series “The L Word: Generation Q” (2019, TV-14) (from Showtime Anytime); British comedy drama “Doc Martin” (2004, TV-14), a PBS favorite with Martin Clunes (from Acorn TV); and “The Saint” (1962) with Roger Moore (from Shout! Factory TV).
Natalie Portman is an astronaut in “Lucy in the Sky” (2019, R), the feature directing debut of novelist and TV creator Noah Hawley (“Fargo”).
James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence are a part of “X-Men: First Class” (2011, PG-13), the 1960s-set prequel to the hit superhero series.
Warren Beatty stars in a trio of terrific films of the 1970s: conspiracy thriller “The Parallax View” (1974, R) and Robert Altman’s frontier Western “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” (1971, R) and romantic comedy “Heaven Can Wait” (1978, PG), both with Julie Christie.
James Coburn stars in the spy spoof double feature “Our Man Flint” (1966) and “InLike Flint” (1967).
Kid stuff: Is it time to introduce magnificent animated adventure “The Iron Giant” (1999, PG) and the live-action adolescent treasure hunt adventure “The Goonies” (1985, PG) produced by Spielberg to new audiences of children?
Streaming TV: The original British “The Office: Complete Series” (2001-2003, TV-MA) from creator Ricky Gervais and co-star Martin Freeman and the miniseries version of “Pride and Prejudice” (1995, TV-PG) with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth are perfect shows for binge watching.
Other streams
Tom Hanks earned an Oscar nomination playing influential children’s TV host Fred Rogers in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” (2019, PG), a drama about his friendship with a cynical magazine writer (Matthew Rhys). On all Starz platforms.
Marie Gillain stars as a TV announcer in 1950s Paris who solves crimes in “Speakerine: Season 1” (France, TV-14, with subtitles). New episodes each Tuesday on MHz.
“Trackers” (South Africa, not rated), a six-part crime thriller set in Cape Town and shot entirely in South Africa, debuts on all Cinemax platforms. New episodes on Friday nights.
The legacy of French colonialism haunts “Zombi Child” (France, 2019, not rated, with subtitles), Bertrand Bonello’s drama that weaves voodoo ritual, Haitian history and modern French culture. New on Criterion Channel. Also newly arrived: eight classic Hong Kong action comedies “Starring Jackie Chan”; two features and six shorts “Directed by Cheryl Dunye,” a trailblazer in queer cinema; “And When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead” (2015, not rated), a documentary on beat poet and activist Bob Kaufman by Billy Woodbury; and Gus Van Sant’s “My Own Private Idaho” (1991, R) with River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves.
Now available at Redbox
“Robert the Bruce,” “The Queen’s Corgi,” “The Intern”
Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and TV can be found at streamondemandathome.com.
