Stream on Demand: For everything, there is a season – including jobs, cons and road trips
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
Frances McDormand is superb as a widow who lost her home in the recession and lives out of a van in “Nomadland” (2020, R), a poignant portrait of modern migrant life. The third feature from independent filmmaker Chloe Zhao is set over the course of a year and is shaped by the rhythms of her life and the relationships she forms while moving from one seasonal job to another. The Oscar favorite has already won numerous awards. A powerful experience and a film for our uncertain times. (Hulu)
In the dark comedy “I Care a Lot” (2021, R), a con artist (Rosamund Pike) who preys on elderly adults, draining their savings while serving as a court-appointed legal guardian, meets her match in her newest client (Dianne Wiest). Peter Dinklage, Eiza González, Chris Messina, Isiah Whitlock Jr. and Alicia Witt also star. (Netflix)
The heart-wrenching drama “Supernova” (2020, R) stars Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth as longtime partners on a final road trip through Northern England as one of them succumbs to disease and dementia. It’s the third film starring the longtime friends and their rapport gives their relationship a grounded history. (VOD and Cable On Demand)
Will Smith hosts the six-part documentary series “Amend: The Fight for America” (2021, not rated), which brings alive the continuing history of the battle for equal rights promised in the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. (Netflix)
“It’s a Sin: Season 1” (TV-14), a drama about three young men (Olly Alexander, Omari Douglas and Callum Scott Howells) exploring their identities in London’s gay community at the dawn of the AIDS epidemic in 1981, comes from Russell T. Davies, creator of “Queer as Folk.” Lydia West and Neil Patrick Harris co-star. New episodes each Thursday. (HBO Max)
Binge alert: Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and the entire Muppet crew present “The Muppet Show: Complete Series” (1977-1981, TV-PG), the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational TV variety show you’ve ever seen. (Disney+)
Pay-Per-View / Video on Demand
Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo co-write and star in the comedy “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” (2021, PG-13) as middle-age best friends who get tangled in a dastardly plot while vacationing in the Florida resort town. Also new:
• “Silk Road” (2021, R), a crime thriller about the creation of the darknet black market site, starring Jason Clarke and Nick Robinson;
• Action spectacle “Monster Hunter” (2020, PG-13), directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa.
• “Tomato Red” (2017, not rated), a drama set in the Ozarks starring Sammy Barlach and Julia Garner.
Netflix
Kevin James is the old school crew chief on a NASCAR team with a young new owner in the sitcom “The Crew: Season 1” (not rated).
Bear Grylls stars in the interactive wildlife adventure “Animals on the Loose: A You vs. Wild Movie” (2021, not rated).
“Monsoon” (2019, TV-MA) stars Henry Golding as a gay man in England who returns to his Vietnam home for the first time in 30 years.
The British mystery “Behind Her Eyes” (TV-MA) is a limited series about a single mother who is in an affair with her boss while befriending his wife.
Amazon Prime Video
Amy Brenneman and Lily Rabe star in the morally murky crime thriller “Tell Me Your Secrets: Season 1” (not rated). Enrique Murciano and Hamish Linklater co-star in the drama originally created for TNT and now debuting as an Amazon Original.
The young adult thriller “The Boarding School: Las Cumbres: Season 1” (Spain, with subtitles, not rated) is set in a fortress-like school with a troubled history and a dark secret that goes back to its medieval origins.
Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore and Stephen Rea star in the romantic drama “The End of the Affair” (1999, R), Neil Jordan’s adaptation of the Graham Greene novel.
”Assassination of a High School President” (2009, R) is a teen conspiracy comedy costarring Bruce Willis as a tough principal.
True stories: “Catfish” (2010, PG-13) is the original documentary that launched the long-running MTV reality show.
”The Illusionist” (France, 2010, PG), inspired by an unproduced script by French comedy master Jacques Tati, and the steampunk adventure “Steamboy” (Japan, 2004, PG-13) from Katsuhiro Ôtomo, director of the anime landmark “Akira,” are two inventive animated features worth discovering.
Amazon Prime and Hulu
The cartoonish adaptation of the video game “Sonic the Hedgehog” (2020, PG) features James Marsden, Jim Carrey and the voice of Ben Schwartz.
Devika Bhise plays “The Warrior Queen Of Jhansi” (2019, R) in the true story of the Indian freedom fighter, costarring Jodhi May, Derek Jacobi and Rupert Everett.
Hulu
Guillermo Del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” (2017, R) a monster movie turned romantic fantasy about a mute janitor (Sally Hawkins) and an amphibious creature held captive in a government lab, won four Oscars including best picture.
Channing Tatum and Adam Driver play brothers who defy the “Logan Lucky” (2017, PG-13) family curse when they hatch a plan to rob a North Carolina NASCAR track in Steven Soderbergh’s red state heist comedy. Riley Keough, Katie Holmes and Daniel Craig co-star.
The FX documentary limited series “Hip Hop Uncovered” (TV-MA) looks at how the streets shaped the musical culture. Two episodes available, new episodes stream a day after network debut.
HBO Max
The new season of the weekly comic commentary series “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” (TV-MA) begins with new episodes Sunday nights.
The documentary “Jimmy Carter: Rock and Roll President” (2020, TV-14) explores the American president’s relationship with music.
Denzel Washington and Mila Kunis star in the end-of-the-world odyssey “The Book of Eli” (2010, R). (All HBO platforms)
The streaming superhero universe expands with the animated shows “The Batman: Complete Series” (2004-2008, TV-Y7) and “Static Shock: Complete Series” (2000-2004, TV-Y7).
”Sex and the City: Complete Series” (1998-2004, TV-MA) is now streaming in high definition in an edition newly remastered widescreen from the original film elements.
Disney+
A 10-year-old girl (Matilda Lawler) rescues a squirrel with superpowers in “Flora & Ulysses” (2021, PG), a live-action comic adventure based on the Newbery Award-winning book.
A boy embarks on an odyssey that takes him to the underworld in the animated fantasy “The Book of Life” (2014, PG) produced by Guillermo Del Toro and featuring the voices of Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, and Channing Tatum.
Peacock
Johnny Depp is John Dillinger and Christian Bale is FBI Agent Melvin Purvis in “Public Enemies” (2009, R), Michael Mann’s take on the hunt for the legendary gangster.
The new NBC sitcoms “Young Rock” (TV-PG), about the early (and future) life of wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson, and “Kenan” (TV-PG), starring Kenan Thompson as a single dad, stream the day after their respective network debuts.
Kid stuff: “Archibald’s Next Big Thing is Here!: Season 1” (TV-G) reboots the animated series “Archibald’s Next Big Thing,” originally produced for Netflix.
Other streams
Season 2 of the alternate-history space race drama “For All Mankind” (TV-MA) is now underway with new episodes each Friday. (Apple TV+)
Keeley Hawes plays a London DCI whose investigation into an “honor” killing dredges up police neglect in “Honour” (2020, not rated). (BritBox)
Killer monsters dominate “After Midnight” (2019, not rated) and “Head Count” (2019, not rated), two recent horror films now streaming. (Shudder)
Mark Cousins’ “A Story of Children and Film” (2013, not rated) surveys kids in global cinema, from famous films to unsung gems, and Kevin Jerome Everson’s epic immersive documentary “Park Lanes” (2015, not rated) takes the viewer through a full eight-hour workday experienced in real time. New on Criterion Channel, along with:
• “After the Curfew” (Indonesia, 1954, with subtitles), newly restored by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation;
• A double feature starring Godfrey Cambridge, the comedy “Watermelon Man” (1970, R) and the crime drama “Cotton Comes to Harlem” (1970, R);
• “Three Short Films by Ramin Bahrani” including the ecological love story “Plastic Bag” (2009) narrated by Werner Herzog.
Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and television can be found at streamondemandathome.com.