Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish movies available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
1. Coming 2 America (Amazon Prime)
The original Coming to America might not be the world’s funniest movie, but it remains pleasant, a world of memorably kooky characters, with the occasional incredible line, like “you all remember him as Joe the Police Officer from the What’s Happening episode of That’s My Momma.” The sequel is the same, more extravaganza than movie, with some of the best costume design ever and the occasional inspired moment — like Wesley Snipes playing a step-dancing African warlord. More than anything else, it’s a movie that’s plain fun to look at, which is a seemingly-obvious but often overlooked quality of a good movie these days. Watch it on Prime Video.
2. Nomadland (Hulu)
In his review of the film last year, our Mike Ryan wrote, “there’s a scene in Nomaldland so beautiful I gasped as it whisked my brain to some of Terrence Malick’s early work.” That pretty much sums it up well — Nomadland is one of the most beautiful and touching movies we’ve seen in a while. Watch it on Hulu.
3. Minari (VOD)
Do you want to make Alan Kim happy? You should, as he’s the world’s most adorable child. All you have to do is watch Minari. Not only will you get to enjoy a very good movie about a Korean-American family, including patriarch Steven Yeun, living in small-town Arkansas in the 1980s, you will also bring a smile to make this gosh-darn cute kid’s face. Watch it on VOD.
4. Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell (Netflix)
The thing that makes this Biggie doc stand out from the others is the previously unseen video footage from his pre-fame life. It’s worth watching to see Biggie rapping to the beat of Toto’s “Africa” alone. Watch it on Netflix.
5. I Care A Lot (Netflix)
Netflix’s I Care A Lot gave us what we really needed in a complicated lady: more of sociopathic, deranged, and unrepentant Rosamund Pike, who is at her best when she’s playing characters who we can’t stop watching but would never want to see coming our way one day in a retirement home. Seriously strong (and possibly intentional from a casting standpoint) Gone Girl vibes applied to a frightening plight that could hit anyone, and Rosamund did her thing while playing a reprehensible character who’s fearsome but still capable of eliciting audience admiration. It’s a downright diabolical thriller that gives Rosamund’s character exactly what she deserved, and we also got a gangster Peter Dinklage, which always makes everything better. Watch it on Netflix.
6. Raya and the Dragon (Disney+)
Raya and the Last Dragon is the latest film from the storied Disney animation team, and it hits all the classic notes: heartwarming story, stunning visuals, skilled voice work by notable names (Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Sandra Oh, just to name a few. It’s a solid weekend option for anyone with kids to entertain or anyone who just likes Disney movies and doesn’t feel the need to explain that to anyone. You’re the boss of you. Do what you like. Watch it on Disney+.
7. Judas and the Black Messiah (HBO Max)
Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah is casually referenced as “the movie about Fred Hampton” (played by Daniel Kaluuya, who is fantastic), but that doesn’t really tell the full story. The film’s main character is William O’Neal (played by the also fantastic LaKeith Stanfield), the man who infiltrated Hampton’s Black Panthers as an FBI informant (an option given to O’Neal instead of jail time), later giving the FBI the information that would get Hampton killed. It’s the portrait of a desperate man who did a reprehensible act and had to live with that fact for years, until he couldn’t live with it anymore. Watch it on HBO Max.
8. Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry (AppleTV)
R.J. Cutler takes a year-in-the-life look at Billie Eilish’s meteoric rise to pop superstardom, exploring the complex journey that’s taken Eilish to a place as one of the definitive cultural figures of our time all before the age of 20. This is a great time for music documentaries, in general, and this particular option is one of the best, taking viewers on a ride to superstardom in a way we don’t usually get to see. Watch it on AppleTV.
9. The Sound Of Metal (Amazon Prime)
Riz Ahmed is terrific in The Sound of Metal and is a, mark it down, done deal for a Best Actor Oscar nomination. Ahmed plays Ruben Stone, a drummer in a heavy metal band who is losing his hearing at a dramatic speed. As a former addict, he worries about relapsing and checks himself into a shelter for deaf addicts. It’s here he learns to sign and starts to accept himself in new ways. Things get complicated after Ruben has surgery to install implants that, sort of, restore some of his hearing, but now he’s caught between two worlds and has to decide how he wants to live. Ahmed gives a reserved performance (at least for a character who plays in a heavy metal band) as he copes with the anguish of who he was, who he is now, and who he’s going to be. Watch it on Amazon Prime.
10. Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar (VOD)
For their follow-up to the Oscar-nominated Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo made a kitschy comedy about two best friends from Nebraska who vacation to Florida, whether they unknowingly become entangled in a villain’s plot to kill the town’s residents with deadly mosquitoes. Also, the guy from Fifty Shades of Grey sings a dramatic ballad about seagulls. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is deliriously and proudly silly in an Austin Powers and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story kind of way. All hail the silly comedy. Watch it on VOD.