Streaming Picks: January 2021

With so many new streaming services, I figured this year I’d expand the scope of this column again. I’m adding Disney+ and HBO MAX, so bear with me as a lot of new titles get added. I’ll still try to pick at least one thing on each service to highlight. 

FILMS
Top Picks
Save Yourselves! – Hulu 1/1
Pieces of a Woman – Netflix 1/7
The Intouchables – Netflix 1/11
One Night in Miami… – Prime 1/15
The Little Things – HBO MAX 1/29
The classic of the bunch is The Intouchables. The French drama is inspirational without being corny, and more authentic than the star-studded U.S. remake (The Upside).

Prime and Netflix are getting their Oscar plays out with One Night in Miami… and Pieces of a Woman. Both should be getting, at a minimum, some acting nods, though bigger categories will depend on their campaigns.

Save Yourselves! is the ludicrous but timely sci-fi comedy that I saw at the Atlanta Film Festival this year. A hipster couple decide to do an “unplugged weekend” at a remote cabin the day before an alien invasion overtakes the Earth.

Finally, The Little Things is the first of HBO MAX’s 2021 slate to hit theaters and the service on the same day. This is the perfect test case, since it’s unlikely I would have paid to see this garbage crime movie (starring three Oscar winners!) in theaters, but will absolutely be watching Denzel Washington and Rami Malek try to catch a serial killer the weekend it goes up.

Recent Selections
Like a Boss – Hulu 1/1
Ma – HBO MAX 1/1
Piter – HBO MAX 1/1
Ready Player One – HBO MAX 1/1
A Star Is Born – HBO MAX 1/1
The High Note – HBO MAX 1/2
Mighty Oak – Hulu and Prime 1/6
Gretel & Hansel – Hulu and Prime 1/7
The Silencing – Prime 1/8
The King of Staten Island – HBO MAX 1/10
The Rhythm Section – Hulu and Prime 1/11
Promare – HBO MAX 1/12
Turtle Tale – HBO MAX 1/12
Alone – Hulu and Prime 1/14
The Secrets We Keep – Hulu 1/14
Pinkfong & Baby Shark’s Space Adventure – Netflix 1/15
Si Yo Fuera Rico – HBO MAX 1/15
Radium Girls – Netflix 1/16
No Escape – Hulu 1/17
Sightless – Netflix 1/20
Terra Willy – Hulu 1/22
Don’t Let Go – HBO MAX 1/23
Chick Fight – Prime 1/29
Mortal – Prime 1/29
Fatima – Netflix 1/31

Originals
The Minimalists: Less Is Now – Netflix 1/1
What Happened to Mr. Cha? – Netflix 1/1
Asphalt Burning – Netflix 1/2
30 Coins – HBO MAX 1/4
Ratones Paranoicos: The Band That Rocked Argentina – Netflix 1/6
Tony Parker: The Final Shot – Netflix 1/6
Charming – Netflix 1/8
Herself – Prime 1/8
Lupin – Netflix 1/8
Stuck Apart – Netflix 1/8
Tiger – HBO MAX 1/10
Double Dad – Netflix 1/15
Outside the Wire – Netflix 1/15
The Ultimate Playlist of Noise – Hulu 1/15
In & Of Itself – Hulu 1/22
So My Grandma’s a Lesbian! – Netflix 1/22
The White Tiger – Netflix 1/22
Penguin Bloom – Netflix 1/27
¡Animo Juventud! – HBO MAX 1/29
Below Zero – Netflix 1/29
The Dig – Netflix 1/29
Finding Ohana – Netflix 1/29
June & Kopi – Netflix TBD
Locked Down – HBO MAX TBD

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What I Watched This Week: 20 Dec 2020

BINGEING
Black Mirror – Season 2 (A- average)
I’m including the stellar “White Christmas” here, which ups the season average. “Be Right Back” and “White Bear” represent the show at its pitch-black best, but “The Waldo Moment” was full of facile political satire that didn’t work.

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law – Season 2 (B+ average)
The animation is a lot smoother, but the jokes are more scattershot. Still, it’s incredibly amusing, especially when its got more bite. Stephen Colbert’s vocal performance as Phil Ben Sebben is among the very best.

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What I Watched This Week: 13 Dec 2020

NEW SHOWS
The Mandalorian – “The Rescue” (A-) / season finale
A thrilling finale marred by self-indulgent fan service. Based on what happens, there should never be another episode. But God knows there will be, and I will probably watch.

BINGEING
Killing Eve – Season 3 (B+ average)
Is it a step down from the previous two seasons? Sure, but few shows are as stylish, funny and sexy. Another show that should end here, but I will probably get sucked right back into the next season.

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What I Watched This Week: 6 Dec 2020

NEW SHOWS
The Mandalorian – “The Believer” (A)
I hope Bill Burr comes back for a death-defying mission every season.

BINGEING
Animaniacs – Season 1 (B+ average)
All my fears about this reboot disappeared as soon as they made a joke about urban decay in cities that host the Olympics. The show is just as funny, with just as much specific, weird and adult-aimed humor as the original run, but they’ve jettisoned all the side characters that never worked. I hope this runs for many more years.

How To with John Wilson – Season 1 (B+ average)
As delightful and weird as everyone said, with its finale one of the most touching and authentic pieces of art made during the pandemic.

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What I Watched This Week: 29 Nov 2020

NEW SHOWS
The Mandalorian – “The Tragedy” (A)
All of the nonsense action figure battles I made up as a kid came to life in this episode, which gave fans steeped in lore and those who enjoy solid action TV everything they could have possibly wanted.

BINGEING
The Crown – Season 4 (A- average)
The best season yet, because it focuses on the most human (Lady Diana) and inhuman (Margaret Thatcher) characters of Britain in the 1980s. Tremendous stuff.

REWATCH
The Simpsons – Season 8 (A average)
Season 4 still remains the show’s peak, but this season might have the most highs, from the lone appearance of Hank Scorpio (“You Only Move Twice”) to the Van Houtens’ divorce (“A Milhouse Divided”), Ned’s crisis of faith (“Hurricane Neddy”) to Homer & Marge’s marital crisis (“El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer”), and Homer’s encounters with a gay man (“Homer’s Phobia”) and his bitter rival (“Homer’s Enemy”).

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Streaming Picks: December 2020

FILMS
Top Picks
Eyes Wide Shut – Hulu 12/1
Mank – Netflix 12/4
Sound of Metal – Prime 12/4
Stanley Kubrick’s final film has returned to Hulu, just in time for a supremely fucked up holiday season. If you’ve been putting it off, it might just be fitting in a year that seems to make no sense.

Mank and Sound of Metal are Oscar hopefuls from Netflix and Amazon. The former, the latest from David Fincher, is sure to be the frontrunner, a historical bit of fiction about the making of Citizen Kane. The latter, featuring the great Riz Ahmed as a drummer going deaf, will likely find itself with at least a Best Actor and Best Sound nomination.

Recent Selections
Christmas Chalet – Prime 12/1
Euphoria – Hulu and Prime 12/1
The Happytime Murders – Netflix 12/1
Hot Air – Hulu and Prime 12/1
The Kingmaker – Prime 12/1
Los Rodriguez el más allá – Prime 12/1
Peppermint – Netflix 12/1
Snowbound for Christmas – Prime 12/1
U-Turn – Netflix 12/1
She Dies Tomorrow – Hulu 12/4
Black Ops – Hulu 12/5
Mr. Jones – Hulu 12/5
Waiting for the Barbarians – Hulu 12/5
How to Fake a War – Hulu 12/6
The Secret Garden – Hulu 12/6
Ava – Netflix 12/7
Valley Girl – Hulu and Prime 12/7
Bobbleheads: The Movie – Netflix 12/8
The Fairy Princess and the Unicorn – Hulu 12/8
Kalel, 15 – Netflix 12/9
Out Stealing Horses – Hulu 12/10
Rent-a-Pal – Hulu 12/11
Spy Cat – Hulu 12/11
Endless – Hulu 12/12
Dirt Music – Hulu 12/15
Grizzlies – Netflix 12/15
The Professor and the Madman – Netflix 12/15
Braven – Netflix 12/17
Blackbird – Prime 12/18
Guest House – Netflix 12/18
The Con Is On – Netflix 12/21
After We Collided – Netflix 12/22
Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer’s Llamas – Netflix 12/22
You Cannot Kill David Arquette – Hulu 12/22
American Animals – Hulu 12/27
Hope Gap – Hulu and Prime 12/28
Bayou Caviar – Hulu 12/31
Supervized – Hulu and Prime 12/31

Originals
Angela’s Christmas Wish – Netflix 12/1
Fierce – Netflix 12/2
Break – Netflix 12/3
Bombay Rose – Netflix 12/4
Christmas Crossfire – Netflix 12/4
Just Another Christmas – Netflix 12/4
Leyla Everlasting – Netflix 12/4
Rose Island – Netflix 12/9
Canvas – Netflix 12/11
I’m Your Woman – Prime 12/11
The Prom – Netflix 12/11
A California Christmas – Netflix 12/14
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – Netflix 12/18
The Midnight Sky – Netflix 12/23
Your Name Engraved Herein – Netflix 12/23
Sylvie’s Love – Prime 12/25
Asphalt Burning – Netflix 12/26
DNA – Netflix 12/26
Cops and Robbers – Netflix 12/28

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What I Watched This Week: 22 Nov 2020

NEW SHOWS
The Mandalorian – “The Jedi” (A-)
Other than some cut-scene quality dialogue, this was a thrilling episode that will still mean ore to people steeped in Star Wars lore. That cold open was phenomenal.

BINGEING
Succession – Season 2 (A average)
An incredible season and took the leap from an already excellent first season. Still, it would only have been No. 3 at best among last year’s shows. That’s how good a year it was for television.

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What I Watched This Week: 15 Nov 2020

NEW SHOWS
The Mandalorian – “The Siege” (A-)
Couldn’t ask for much more. Yes, there was another mission and another gun battle, but it was exceptionally thrilling, and featured Baby Yoda eating blue macarons. I’m not immune to that.

BINGEING
Succession – Season 1 (A- average)
I was already in after the first episode, but it really did pick up mid-season as the corporate subterfuge took over. And I could not have foreseen the way that finale ended.

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Too Early for This: Oscar Picks – 15 Nov 2020

BEST PICTURE
Da 5 Bloods
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Minari
News of the World
Nomadland
One Night in Miami
The Trial of the Chicago 7

The skinny: We already have our first victim of bad reviews: Ron Howard’s Hillbilly Elegy. Netflix’s adaptation of J.D. Vance’s controversial memoir has already been thoroughly pilloried in the weeks leading up to its release. I’m leaving Amy Adams and Glenn Close in my predictions for now though.

What seems most shocking at the moment is Netflix could have four Best Picture nominees, each potentially turning on each other like the end of Reservoir Dogs.

BEST DIRECTOR
Spike Lee, Da 5 Bloods
David Fincher, Mank
Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
Regina King, One Night in Miami

The skinny: It would be absolutely wild if for the first time ever, the directing line-up featured just one white guy (and an extraordinary one at that), so don’t expect this to pan out. That this would also mean two Black filmmakers and two Asian-American filmmakers and two women – all of them extremely talented – would be truly astonishing.

BEST ACTOR
Tom Hanks, News of the World
Anthony Hopkins, The Father
Delroy Lindo, Da 5 Bloods
Gary Oldman, Mank
Steven Yeun, Minari

The skinny: Tom Hanks getting nominated is something we take for granted. Last year was his first nod in nearly two decades. So don’t be surprised if he falls out in favor of the late Chadwick Boseman, who’s going lead for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, but may have a better chance of getting a posthumous nomination in the supporting category.

BEST ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Hillbilly Elegy
Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand, Nomadland

The skinny: The big question mark here is Day, whose movie won’t be coming out until February, just before the new eligibility deadline. Will it make that release date, or will the studio move it to further into 2021, just like the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect? McDormand feels like the frontrunner, but having just won for Three Billboards, it seems unlikely she’d win again so soon.

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What I Watched This Week: 8 Nov 2020

NEW SHOWS
Saturday Night Live – “Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters” (B+)
The cold open wasn’t a complete atrocity, like Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton singing “Hallelujah,” but it wasn’t anything special either. Chappelle’s blistering monologue was excellent, as was the Aunt Jemima/Uncle Ben sketch. But aside from an incredible digital short, the show seemed to just peter out, though it was nice to see Michael Che take off his clip-on tie and have a drink now that Trump’s going to be a one-term president.

The Mandalorian – “The Heiress” (B+)
Another thrilling episode, though almost of the significant plot seems to be only relevant to those obsessed with the wider mythology/canon of Star Wars, which is definitely not me.  

BINGEING
The Queen’s Gambit (A- average)
Its first episode is kind of a drag, but it’s brimming with life once Anya Taylor-Joy takes over the lead role: an orphan, an addict and a genius. Even if you’re not into chess, this is an often thrilling, well-acted, perfectly controlled show. One of the year’s best surprises.


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