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 ‘13 Going on 30’
This likably goofy and endlessly charming romantic comedy is, essentially, a gender-swapped remake of the beloved “Big,” this time with Jennifer Garner as a 13-year-old whose birthday wish to be “30 and flirty and thriving” unexpectedly comes true. Garner is warm and endearing, a loose-limbed wonder at capturing the awkward gawkiness of a teen trapped in an ill-fitting body, while Mark Ruffalo finds just the right mixture of confusion and sweetness as her childhood friend who’s become quite the babe. 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. 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 ‘Brokeback Mountain’
Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway turn in career-high performances in Ang Lee’s adaptation of Annie Proulx’s short story of the same name about the 20-year romance between Ennis (Ledger) and Jack (Gyllenhaal), two rough-edged cowboys who meet in the summer of 1963. The men are required, by the times and the expectations of those around them, to hide their love. The Oscar-winning screenplay by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana renders their passion, longing and loneliness with clarity and sensitivity; our critic called it a “moving and majestic film.” Here are Hulu’s best movies and TV shows.STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO ‘Cyrano’
Edmond Rostand’s late-19th-century play “Cyrano de Bergerac” has proved to be quite a durable text, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise; few things translate as well as the feeling that the person you love could never feel the same. This adaptation by the director Joe Wright (“Pride & Prejudice”), first presented onstage by the New Group in 2019, changes the source of the title character’s low self-image: Instead of an oversize nose, he is of undersize height. Peter Dinklage is marvelous in the starring role, finding the cockiness and bluster that Cyrano uses to compensate, while showing the beating heart just under that hard surface. He also provides a pleasant baritone for the songs by members of the National, which are the film’s other deviation from Rostand’s original. They’re a masterstroke, beautifully conveying the longing and regret of this tragic tale. Here are a bunch of great movies on Amazon.STREAMING ON HBO MAX ‘A Complete Unknown’
While it by no means avoids all the common pitfalls of musician biopics, “A Complete Unknown,” from the “Walk the Line” director James Mangold, dodges an important one by limiting its treatment of Bob Dylan to the early part of his career. Beginning with a pilgrimage to meet his ailing idol, Woody Guthrie, in 1961 New York City and ending with his notorious plugged-in performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, the film tracks Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) as he becomes a musical sensation while carefully cultivating an image that’s both alluring and impenetrable. Manohla Dargis admired it for not trying “to make Bob palatable, nice or, finally, comprehensible in the usual dreary biopic fashion.” See more great movies streaming on HBO Max.STREAMING ON DISNEY+ ‘The Princess and the Frog’
As computer animation became the dominant format at Disney and other major studios, “The Princess and the Frog” brought the company to its hand-drawn roots, evoking New Orleans of the Roaring Twenties with exceptional color and warmth. It also offered Disney’s first Black princess in Tiana (Anika Noni Rose), a waitress whose dreams of owning as restaurant are derailed by her bayou quest to help a prince break a curse that has turned him into a frog. The film’s reputation has improved over the years, buoyed by its vibrancy and jazz-infused songs, as well as the aspirations of a heroine who wants to be more than royalty. The 50 best things to watch on Disney+ right now.
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