Stream on Demand: Kids take control in some of this week’s top streaming picks
What’s new for home viewing on Video on Demand and Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max and other streaming services.
Top streams for the week
The half-hour teen dramedy “Genera+ion: Season 1” (TV-14), set in a Southern California high school, follows a diverse group of students exploring their limits and sexuality in the volatile years between childhood and adulthood. While the issues might be familiar, it plays out in a culture more open to expressing sexual identity, and it’s co-created by a teenager, Zelda Barnz, working with her filmmaker father Daniel Barnz. Three episodes now available, new episodes each Thursday. The second half of the season launches later this year. (HBO Max)
The hand-painted animated feature “Bombay Rose” (India, 2021, PG-13) is a romantic drama of two outsiders – a Muslim refugee and a Hindi girl escaping an arranged marriage – who dream of a Bollywood movie escape in the poverty of Mumbai. The award-winning film is the feature debut of Indian animation pioneer Gitanjali Rao. English and Hindi language versions. (Netflix)
Jennifer Garner produces and stars in “Yes Day” (2021, PG), a family comedy based on the children’s book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal about overprotective parents who reconnect with their kids and their own youth when the say “yes” to everything their children suggest for a day. Edgar Ramírez co-stars as the dad, and indie movie veteran Miguel Arteta directs. (Netflix)
The 14-part documentary series “Women Make Film” (2018, not rated), subtitled “A New Road Movie Through Cinema,” explores the art of moviemaking and storytelling through history and across the globe entirely through the work of women filmmakers. Directors Mark Cousins celebrates films and directors both familiar and unsung. Narrators include Tilda Swinton, Jane Fonda and Thandie Newton. (Criterion Channel)
Foreign language pick: “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” (Italy, 1971, R, with subtitles), the story of a wealthy Jewish family persecuted by Italy’s Fascist government in the 1930s, won the foreign film Oscar in 1972. (Amazon Prime)
Pay-Per-View / Video on Demand
“Antigone” (Canada, 2020, not rated, with subtitles), a modern adaptation of the Greek tragedy set in the immigrant community of Quebec, was Canada’s official entry for the 2020 Academy Awards. Also new:
Action thriller “Vanguard” (China, 2020, PG-13, with subtitles) with Jackie Chan.
Netflix
Science-fiction thriller “The One: Season 1” (TV-MA), based on the book by John Marrs, is set in a near future where DNA testing can match people with their perfect romantic partner. Hannah Ware and Stephen Campbell Moore star.
True stories: “Last Chance U: Basketball: Season 1” (TV-MA) is a spinoff of the college football documentary series.
Amazon Prime Video
Liam Neeson plays a reformed criminal who is double-crossed by corrupt cops in the crime thriller “Honest Thief” (2020, PG-13).
Hulu
An Angolan immigrant reunites his family in New York after years of separation in “Farewell Amor” (2020, not rated), an indie drama that observes how these people, now strangers to one another, reconnect while living in a one-bedroom apartment.
The documentary “Kid 90” (2021) uses video footage that “Punky Brewster” star Soleil Moon Frye’s shot in the 1990s to look at the lives of former child stars.
HBO Max
“South Park Vaccination Special” (2021, TV-MA) is the first new episode of the satirical animated comedy this year.
Five young filmmakers turn their cameras on themselves and their families in the documentary “COVID Diaries NYC” (2021, TV-14).
The limited run of powerful drama “Judas and the Black Messiah” (2021, R) ends this weekend.
Other streams
The documentary “Own the Room” (2021, TV-14) profiles five student entrepreneurs at an international business competition. (Disney+)
“63 Up” (2019, not rated) is the ninth installment of the landmark documentary series following the lives of 14 people across the social spectrum. Michael Apted directs. (BritBox)
Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and television can be found at streamondemandathome.com.