Stream on Demand: ‘Mudbound’ comes from Sundance to Netflix
What’s new for home viewing on video-on-demand and Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other streaming services, for Friday.
Top streams for the week
“
“The Punisher,” starring Jon Bernthal as the gun-toting anti-hero who appeared in “Daredevil,” is more of a conspiracy thriller than a superhero show. The action series delves into PTSD and military veterans abandoned by their country after returning home, but it’s also a show with a lot of gun violence and brutality. 13 episodes now available on Netflix.
Also debuting this week is the sixth and final season of the Western crime show “Longmire” starring Robert Taylor as the leathery sheriff of a Wyoming county. Fans will definitely want to check in after the cliffhanger that ended the last season. 10 episodes on Netflix.
Hulu launches its newest original show, the action comedy “Future Man,” starring Josh Hutcherson as an underachieving janitor whose video gaming skills win him a spot on a time-traveling strike team from the future. Seth Rogen and Even Goldberg produce and direct the pilot episode. The first five episodes now available, new episodes arrive each Tuesday.
“There’s … Johnny!,” a comedy about a teenager (Ian Nelson) hired as a gofer on “The Tonight Show” in 1972, was created by Paul Reiser for the streaming service Seeso, which folded before the show launched. The entire 7-episode run makes its debut on Hulu.
Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand
One of the most impressive action films of the year, the stunt-filled spy thriller “Atomic Blonde” (2017, R) stars Charlize Theron as a British agent in 1980s Berlin in the days before the fall of the Berlin wall. James McAvoy, Sophia Boutella, and John Goodman co-star. Director David Leitch, a veteran stunt coordinator, previously produced and provided uncredited directorial assistance on “John Wick.”
Jeremy Renner is a game tracker who teams with a rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) to track a murderer through the snowy Wyoming mountains in “Wind River” (2017, R), directed by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (”Hell or High Water”).
Also new: animated comedy “The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature” (2017, PG), indie dramedy “
Available same day as select theaters nationwide is romantic comedy “Almost Friends” (2016, not rated) with Freddie Highmore, and mockumentary “Cook Off” (2017, R), with Melissa McCarthy and Louie Anderson, which was actually shot a decade ago.
Netflix
The documentary “Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton” (2017, not rated) looks back at how Jim Carrey inhabited the role of Andy Kaufman so completely on the set of “Man on the Moon.”
“A Christmas Prince” (2017, not rated), starring Rose McIver as an undercover journalist romanced by a playboy prince, is the streaming version of Lifetime holiday movie.
Kid stuff: the new animated series “Stretch Armstrong & the Flex Fighters” turns the classic stretchy toy into a superhero for kids. Also new: “Luna Petunia: Season 3” and “Spirit: Riding Free: Season 3.”
True stories: the nonfiction series “Shot in the Dark: Season 1” follows freelance video journalists who rush to crimes scenes for footage to sell to news outlets. This serves as a real-life companion piece to the fictional “
Also new: John Ridley’s “Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992” (2017, not rated) is an epic survey of the culture of Los Angeles in the decade leading up to the beating of Rodney King.
Stand-up: “
Amazon Prime Video
“Landline” (2017, R) reunites “Obvious Child” director Gillian Robespierre and star Jenny Slate for a comedy of infidelity, guilt, and searching for a missing family member in the era before cellphones.
Pilot season is back on Amazon. You don’t have to be member to stream and vote on the pilot episodes of three dark comedies vying to become full series. Glenn Close is retiree with sponging relatives in “Sea Oak,” created by author George Saunders, Bridget Everett stars in “Love You More,” which she created with Michael Patrick King (“Sex and the City”) and Bobcat Goldthwait, and “The Climb” features web star Diarra Kilpatrick as a telemarketer who aspires to social media celebrity.
Crime thriller “Shot Caller” (2017, R) stars Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as a gangster trying to survive prison and comedy “Baby Steps” (2015, not rated) is an LGBT indie film set in the Taiwanese-American culture.
Anna Magnani stars in “The Golden Coach” (France/Italy, 1952), Jean Renoir’s comedy of love, art, and royalty in 18th century Peru. Amazon streams Renoir’s preferred English language version.
Hulu
Mindy Kaling’s sitcom “The Mindy Project” comes to end; the series finale debuted on Hulu this week.
Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy star in “Their Finest” (2016, R) as a team trying to create uplifting films for British audiences during World War II.
Also new: “Parkland” (2013, PG-13), a drama about the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination in 1963, the small business satire “Extract” (2009, R) with Jason Bateman, and the Nazis-on-the-moon spoof “Iron Sky” (Germany, 2012, R).
True stories: “Obey Giant” (2017, R) profiles artist Shepard Fairey from punk and skateboarding culture to his creation of the Obama “Hope” poster, and “Citizen Jane” (2017) looks as urban activist Jane Jacobs, who fought to save historic New York City from urban redevelopment in the 1960s.
HBO Now
“The LEGO Batman Movie” (2017, PG), a spin-off of the animated hit “The LEGO Movie,” is an irreverent, kid-friendly take on the Dark Knight, and “A United Kingdom” (2017) dramatizes the true story of the Botswana chieftain (David Oyelowo) who married a white British woman (Rosamund Pike), creating political and diplomatic turmoil in the 1950s.
Trues stories: “War Dog: A Soldier’s Best Friend” (2017, not rated) looks at the K9 units in combat in the American forces overseas.
“The Magical Wand Chase: A Sesame Street Special” launches a new season of the educational children’s show.
Arriving Saturday night is the Chinese-U.S. co-production “The Great Wall” (2017), a mix of historical epic and fantasy starring Matt Damon and Andy Lau, and the fundraising entertainment special “Night of Too Many Stars: America Unites for Autism Program” hosted by Jon Stewart.
Showtime Anytime
The British series “Ill Behaviour,” a black comedy starring Tom Riley and Lizzy Caplan, makes its stateside debut on Showtime.
FilmStruck / Criterion Channel
FilmStruck presents the original, recently-restored Marseilles Trilogy, Marcel Pagnol’s classic drama of a love affair told over three movies: “Marius” (France, 1931), “Fanny” (France, 1932), and “Cesar” (France, 1936). All in French with subtitles.
Also featured are seven films from Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski, including “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” (Germany, 1972), the remake “Nosferatu” (Germany, 1979, with subtitles), and “
Criterion Channel debuts Jan Troell’s “Everlasting Moments“ (Sweden, 2008, not rated), Donna Deitch’s “Desert Hearts“ (1986, R), and David Lynch’s theatrical prequel “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me“ (1992, R).
Acorn TV
Michael Kitchen and Sophie Okonedo star in the three-part British murder mystery “Alibi.”
News
Beware of a phishing scam purporting to come from Netflix requesting personal information. These are not from Netflix. If you are ever worried about the legitimacy of an e-mail from a company you do business with, don’t click on the link in the E-mail. Go directly to the company website to make your inquiries. More details here.
Tt Redbox:
“Wind River,” “Girls Trip,” “Amityville: The Awakening,”
Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and TV can be found at http://streamondemandathome.com.
Copyright © 2017 by Sean Axmaker