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 ‘American Gangster’
In casting this crime epic, the director Ridley Scott teamed his brother Tony’s favorite leading man, Denzel Washington, with his own frequent collaborator Russell Crowe and watched the sparks fly. Washington is electrifying as Frank Lucas, the real-life 1970s-era Harlem drug kingpin; Crowe balances Washington’s furious energy with reactive repose as the lawman who convinces Lucas to inform on his associates. The leisurely pace may put off those looking for a slam-bang action movie, but Scott’s handling of the give-and-take relationship between his leads is gripping, and his reproduction of New York in the ’70s is remarkable. These are the 50 best movies on Netflix.STREAMING ON NETFLIX ‘St. Denis Medical’
This sweet, snappy sitcom is set at an Oregon hospital, where an overworked staff gives high quality care on a low budget. “St. Denis Medical” is essentially a workplace comedy — co-created by Justin Spitzer, whose “Superstore” and “American Auto” are among the genre’s best. The ensemble cast has remarkable comic chemistry, and using the modern health care system as a backdrop makes the stakes feel more real. Our critic wrote, “Its mockumentary format mocks quite gently, and the show mostly dodges the inherent intensity of an emergency room by focusing on peccadilloes and quirks.” Here are 30 great TV shows on Netflix.STREAMING ON HULU ‘Moon’
Sam Rockwell stars in this story of a working-class astronaut who’s grinding away the final days of his three-year solo mission to oversee a fuel harvest on the moon’s surface. That’s a long time to spend alone on another celestial body, so when he starts seeing a doppelgänger, he understandably assumes it must be an illusion. It’s not. This brainy sci-fi slow-burn from the director Duncan Jones is almost entirely a one-man show, and Rockwell is the man for the job — alternately tragic, funny, driven and bitter, often in the same scene, frequently playing to himself. “Moon” is thrilling and thought-provoking, with a stunning finale. Our critic called it a “modest, haunting first feature” for Jones. Here are Hulu’s best movies and TV shows.STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO ‘Roofman’
There’s a tension at the heart of Derek Cianfrance’s latest, which finds the director of intense indies helming a high-concept romantic comedy like a ’70s crime drama. Cianfrance’s unconventional approach grounds the potential wackiness and his unconventional casting choices (top-tier character actors Melonie Diaz, Ben Mendelsohn, and Juno Temple all turn up in small roles) give it a nice, messy edge. Yet it’s mostly successful because of its stars, Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst. Tatum is enormously likable even while he’s lying and stealing and Dunst’s heart is so on her sleeve that their relationship becomes real-deal emotional, particularly in a tremendous scene where a whole conversation plays out between them in tentative yet telling looks, and a final conversation as raw and unguarded as you’d expect from the director of “Blue Valentine.” Here are a bunch of great movies on Amazon.STREAMING ON HBO MAX ‘All the President’s Men’
Based on the book by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein about their investigation into the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post, “All the President’s Men” remains the gold standard of journalism movies, following the two reporters (Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman) as they collect tips and sources like a breadcrumb trail to the White House. Yet there’s exceptional vitality, too, in the unsettling ambience that the director Alan J. Pakula brings to the table, which captures the paranoid mood of the country more profoundly than an artless, just-the-facts procedural. Vincent Canby called it “a vivid footnote to some contemporary American history that still boggles the mind.” See more great movies streaming on HBO Max.STREAMING ON DISNEY+ ‘Zootopia 2’
The first “Zootopia” established a lively buddy-cop dynamic between Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), a by-the-books bunny, and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a sly fox with a con artist past. “Zootopia 2” frees itself to explore the secret history of its animal metropolis, like a multispecies “Chinatown.” The mystery of why reptiles have never been seen in Zootopia has been batted around by conspiracy theorists, but it comes rushing to the surface during the city’s centennial celebration, when Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan) kidnaps the founder’s grandson. An investigation by Judy and Nick runs afoul of the police chief and various elites — a buddy-cop scenario that means they’re on the right track. Brandon Yu called this sequel “more expansive and action-packed” than the original. 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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