The weekend is here! If you’re looking for something to watch, we can help. We’ve dug through Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and Disney+ to find some of the best titles on each service. STREAMING ON NETFLIX ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’
For his third “Knives Out” mystery, the writer and director Rian Johnson sends his colorful and brilliant detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig, as delightfully eccentric as ever) to a remote church in upstate New York, where the polarizing monsignor (Josh Brolin) has been murdered under puzzling circumstances. All fingers seem to point to the new assistant pastor (Josh O’Connor), but nothing is ever as simple as it seems in a “Knives Out” movie, and that’s certainly the case here; Johnson fills out the film with a memorable cast of supporting characters (including Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny and Kerry Washington) and all sorts of peculiar possibilities. Those elements are expertly crafted but, by this point, expected — the surprise here is Johnson’s nuanced thematic exploration of the place of faith in a time of hate. These are the 50 best movies on Netflix.STREAMING ON NETFLIX ‘Death by Lightning’
Based on Candice Millard’s nonfiction book “Destiny of the Republic,” this entertaining and illuminating mini-series looks back at James Garfield’s unlikely ascension to the presidency and his subsequent assassination. Michael Shannon plays Garfield as a wise, calm, empathetic leader, working to reform a Republican Party that had become corrupted by decades in power, while Matthew Macfadyen plays the deranged killer Charles Guiteau as an outsider just desperate to be a part of something. “Death By Lightning” covers a pivotal moment in American history with an infectious energy. Our writer called the show “a trenchant reminder of the legacy of political violence in the United States. It’s also a hoot.” Here are 30 great TV shows on Netflix.STREAMING ON HULU ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’
The director and co-writer Armando Iannucci exhibits a light touch — even when dealing with matters of misery, poverty and death — in this merry adaptation of this classic Charles Dickens novel; Iannucci juices up the jokes, speeds up the pace and cheerfully indulges in colorblind casting. The result is a delightful mash-up of Dickens’s style and Iannucci’s own. Dev Patel is charming and charismatic in the title role; Hugh Laurie and Tilda Swinton shine in their juicy supporting roles; and Peter Capaldi is a pitch-perfect Micawber. It’s all refreshingly silly, delightfully high-spirited and gently layered with just enough pathos. Here are Hulu’s best movies and TV shows.STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO ‘Capote’
In 1959, the novelist and bon vivant Truman Capote traveled to Kansas to write about the shocking, unprovoked murder of the Clutter family. The resulting book, “In Cold Blood,” changed the author forever, according to this biographical snapshot by the director Bennett Miller, which argues that Capote’s interactions with (and betrayal of) the killers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith haunted him for the rest of his life. Philip Seymour Hoffman won a much-deserved Oscar for his stunning work in the title role, and much as his performance eschews impersonation in favor of psychological truth, “Capote” jettisons the clichés of the cradle-to-grave biopic, focusing instead on this key moment in the writer’s life and career and then zooming in. Here are a bunch of great movies on Amazon.STREAMING ON HBO MAX ‘One Battle After Another’
Starting with an opening sequence in which a band of leftist revolutionaries liberate immigrant detainees near the U.S. border with Mexico, Paul Thomas Anderson’s dazzling period piece speaks unmistakably to present-day tensions in America. Part political thriller, part shaggy-dog comedy, “One Battle After Another” largely covers the fallout 16 years after the leftist group breaks apart and its members, like the munitions expert Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio), hide from the authorities. Loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland” — Anderson’s second crack at Pynchon, after “Inherent Vice” — the film delves into the American underground, where forces of repression meet pockets of resistance. Manohla Dargis called it “snort-out funny, even when its laughs tremble with rage.” See more great movies streaming on HBO Max.STREAMING ON DISNEY+ ‘Freakier Friday’
It’s an understatement to say that much has changed in Lindsay Lohan’s life and career in the 23 years between her breakout role in the body-swapping comedy “Freaky Friday” and this slickly executed sequel. Many viewers will surely carry knowledge of that history into the new film and find plenty of reasons to root for Lohan, who carries the unmistakable glimmers of her younger self into the role of a put-upon single mother caught up in another metaphysical switcheroo with her mother (Jamie Lee Curtis) and two teenage girls. It’s a little tough keeping track of who’s supposed to be who, but hey, it wouldn’t be called “Freakier Friday” if it were any simpler. Despite these complications, Alissa Wilkinson assures, the film “ends in a satisfying place that echoes its predecessor.” The 50 best things to watch on Disney+ right now.
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