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 ‘Steel Magnolias’
Robert Harling’s adaptation of his modest Off Broadway play set entirely in the beauty parlor of a small Louisiana town hit the big screen as a big event. The director Herbert Ross (“The Turning Point,” “The Goodbye Girl”) filled his cast with boldfaced names: the Oscar winners Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine and Olympia Dukakis; the ’80s icon Daryl Hannah; the force of nature Dolly Parton; and a then-unknown actress named Julia Roberts, who ended up landing, surprisingly enough, the film’s only Academy Award nomination. Despite Ross’s efforts to open it up, “Steel Magnolias” still feels like a filmed play, and that’s to its benefit; the characters are big, the emotions are bigger, and the comic dialogue has the zing of a Southern-fried Neil Simon. These are the 50 best movies on Netflix.STREAMING ON NETFLIX ‘The Forsyte Saga’
John Galsworthy’s novels about the fabulously rich, desperately unhappy Forsyte family have gotten multiple adaptations over the past century, including an internationally popular late-1960s TV mini-series and a similarly successful early 2000s version. In that 2000s take on “The Forsyte Saga,” Damian Lewis plays Soames, a solicitor and a shrewd businessman, whose sour relationship with his wife, Irene (Gina McKee), causes problems that ripple across the years, inspiring affairs, betrayals and vengeful financial machinations. Like “Downton Abbey” and “The Gilded Age,” the series tracks changing times and fluctuating fortunes. In 2012, our reporter wrote, “Viewed a decade later, the luxuriant sets and subtle performances still hold up.” Here are 30 great TV shows on Netflix.STREAMING ON HULU ‘Lincoln’
When the director Steven Spielberg set out to make a film about Abraham Lincoln, the early scripts encompassed the entirety of his presidency. But Spielberg and his screenwriter, Tony Kushner, wisely chose to focus on a single moment in Lincoln’s life — the passage of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery — and ingeniously use that struggle as an emblem not only of Lincoln the politician, but also of Lincoln the man. In doing so, this biographical snapshot tells us far more about its subject than the typical, shallow, cradle-to-grave biopic. Nominated for a dozen Oscars (Daniel Day-Lewis won for his towering work as the 16th president), “Lincoln” is, according to A.O. Scott, “a rough and noble democratic masterpiece.” Here are Hulu’s best movies and TV shows.STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO ‘Bring It On’
This beloved hit from director Peyton Reed has all the trappings of a typical teen comedy. But underneath the bright colors and energetic dance numbers is a sly and subtle commentary on race, class and cultural appropriation. Kirsten Dunst is marvelous as Torrance, the head cheerleader who discovers her award-winning squad in San Diego, the Toros, has been stealing its routines from a rival group in Los Angeles. She meets her match in Isis (Gabrielle Union), who leads East Compton’s Clovers. Here are a bunch of great movies on Amazon.STREAMING ON HBO MAX ‘Lurker’
The parasocial attachment between fans and pop stars has been a phenomenon since long before Beatlemania, but the unnerving indie thriller “Lurker” explores the particular dangers of this relationship in the age of social media. In a truly diabolical lead performance, Théodore Pellerin stars as a retail worker who ingratiates himself to an ultra-hip musician (Archie Madekwe) and becomes part of the sycophantic entourage that follows the artist around on concert dates, video shoots and hangout sessions. Pellerin’s creepy performance suggests a TikTok Tom Ripley, a mimic whose singular obsession takes ever-darker turns. Alissa Wilkinson said Pellerin “expertly somersaults from pathetic to dangerous to wretched to disturbing.” See more great movies streaming on HBO Max.STREAMING ON DISNEY+ ‘The Punisher: One Last Kill’
Parents who associate the Marvel label with noble, bloodless superhero adventures should know to mind the TV-MA rating on “The Punisher” TV series, and that holds doubly true of this 45-minute special: a no-holds-barred gore-fest that feels like a fusion between an 1980s inner-city revenge thriller and a Hong Kong action movie. Co-written by its charismatic star, Jon Bernthal, “The Punisher: One Last Kill” takes place in New York’s Little Sicily, which is still overrun by crime despite Frank Castle (Bernthal) mowing down most of the Gnucci mob family. Despite the lingering trauma of past violence, Castle summons the energy to rebuff an attack on an apartment complex, even with his pants quite literally on fire. The 50 best things to watch on Disney+ right now.
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