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 ‘The Bling Ring’
Sofia Coppola takes on conspicuous consumption, Millennial malaise, and upper-class entitlement in this darkly funny and stylishly thought-provoking true story (adapted from a Vanity Fair article by Nancy Jo Sales). Emma Watson leads a crew of young, attractive rich girls who spent years helping themselves to the homes (and spoils) of their famous neighbors, partying in Paris Hilton’s “nightclub room” and casually lifting Lindsay Lohan’s jewelry. Coppola refuses to condemn their crimes or apologize for them; it is, A.O. Scott wrote, “neither a cautionary tale of youth gone wrong nor a joke at the expense of kids these days.” These are the 50 best movies on Netflix.STREAMING ON NETFLIX ‘One Piece’
Since 1997, the manga series “One Piece” has followed the adventures of a friendly, superpowered young pirate captain named Monkey D. Luffy, who leads his stylishly attired Straw Hat crew on a quest for a legendary treasure. The comics have inspired movies, video games, and a long-running anime; and it has now been adapted into a live-action series with an international cast, led by Iñaki Godoy as Luffy. Colorful and action-packed, this “One Piece” is like a cartoon come to life. Our critic said it “excels at capturing the spirit of the original.” Here are 30 great TV shows on Netflix.STREAMING ON HULU ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’
Even those who don’t lock in to it will have to give credit to Mona Fastvold for the sheer audacity of this combination of historical epic, religious drama and … musical? Fastvold reunites with her co-writer on “The Brutalist,” Brady Corbet, to tell the story of Ann Lee, the religious leader who led the Shakers sect of the Quaker religion (short for “Shaking Quakers”) in the early American colonies. Amanda Seyfried plays Lee like a woman possessed; it’s a performance of startling gravitas and full-throated physical and emotional commitment, and she never comes up short. Fastvold manages to make the picture feel both vast and intimate, and she weaves together original songs and traditional hymns with real dexterity. The vibe is so heightened, in fact, that it somehow feels inevitable when the characters burst into song. Here are Hulu’s best movies and TV shows.STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO ‘A Little Prayer’
David Strathairn led the all-star cast of “Good Night, and Good Luck” in 2005, got an Oscar nomination for his trouble, and then … kept right on being David Strathairn, making small movies with lesser-known directors (rather than cashing in as, say, a Marvel villain). He’s particularly good in this modest drama of a quietly messy family, from the writer-director Angus MacLachlan. As the patriarch Bill Brass, Strathairn is solid as a rock; he knows this guy to the marrow of his bones, and the anguish and indecision of MacLachlan’s script offer him much to play, but (as ever) he underplays beautifully. The surrounding performers are excellent, but this is Strathairn’s show; near the end, there’s a tight close-up of his face, with miles in its lines and pain in its eyes, that makes you realize what a treasure we have in this actor. (For more indie comedy-drama, stream “The Station Agent” or “Mistress America.”) Here are a bunch of great movies on Amazon.STREAMING ON HBO MAX ‘Marie Antoinette’
After making two movies about young women in the gilded cages of suburbia (“The Virgin Suicides”) and celebrity (“Lost in Translation”), it seemed only natural that the director Sofia Coppola would attempt a sympathetic portrait of Marie Antoinette in 18th-century Versailles. With contemporary pop and punk songs pulsing on the soundtrack, the film gets drunk on the indulgent fashions and confections on offer to the ill-fated queen (Kirsten Dunst), but emphasizes the suffocating lack of agency that would eventually lead to her doom. Coppola’s hip sensibility brazenly defies the stuffy conventions of historical biography. A.O. Scott wrote that its “visual extravagance somehow conveys its heroine’s loneliness as well as the sheer fun of aristocratic life.” See more great movies streaming on HBO Max.STREAMING ON DISNEY+ ‘Summer of Soul’
As Woodstock became a generational event in the summer of 1969, with an estimated 400,000 attendees and a feature film, the six-week Harlem Cultural Festival unfolded in Mount Morris Park to much less media fanfare. But “Summer of Soul,” from Ahmir Thompson, better known as Questlove, makes the case for its significance as a musical and political revelation. The documentary unearths stirring footage of Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Sly and the Family Stone and others performing at an anxious time for Black people in America. Our critic Wesley Morris called it “a mind-blowing moment of American history.” The 50 best things to watch on Disney+ right now.Want to see more of our expert reporting in your Google search results?
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