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 ‘Tootsie’
Dustin Hoffman memorably sent up his own image and reputation with this acclaimed comedy, starring as a struggling New York actor whose demands and perfectionism render him unemployable — so he dresses as a woman to get a plum role on a daytime drama. The plot is worked out to screwball perfection, with Larry Gelbart’s uproarious screenplay, which deftly deploys overlapping romances, pursuits and deceptions. But the director, Sydney Pollack, wisely gives the picture a post-women’s movement edge, anchoring the high jinks to the emotional journey of a man who comes to realize how poorly he treats women. These are the 50 best movies on Netflix.STREAMING ON NETFLIX ‘The Boroughs’
Alfred Molina plays a grumpy but lovable widower named Sam in this science fiction mystery series, set at an upscale desert retirement community beset by paranormal phenomena. When Sam discovers that some area residents have been dying or disappearing — or have been seeing shadowy monsters — he enlists a few of his eccentric neighbors to help him investigate. The supporting cast includes the formidable veteran actors Alfre Woodard, Clarke Peters, Geena Davis and Bill Pullman, among others. Our critic wrote that the show “exploits the comic and sentimental possibilities of putting older baby boomers into action, and jeopardy, as crotchety sleuths.” Here are 30 great TV shows on Netflix.STREAMING ON HULU ‘12 Years a Slave’
An Academy Award winner for best picture, this dramatization of the true ordeal of Solomon Northup — a free Northern Black man kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery — is a harrowing, heart-wrenching, visceral experience, brought to vivid life by the director Steve McQueen, the screenwriter John Ridley (who also won an Oscar) and the actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays Northup with an absorbing combination of tragedy and tenacity. He is supported by a brilliant ensemble cast, including Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Fassbender as plantation owners (one seemingly kind, one undeniably cruel) and Lupita Nyong’o, whose stunning work as a perpetually abused slave won her an Oscar for best supporting actress. Here are Hulu’s best movies and TV shows.STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO ‘Man on Wire’
James Marsh’s Academy Award winner for best documentary tells the exhilarating story of French daredevil Philippe Petit, whose team of friends and accomplices sneaked into the World Trade Center one night in 1974 and spent the night running a high-wire between the Twin Towers, so Petit could dazzle downtown New York with an early morning tightrope walk. Marsh ingeniously meshes archival footage and contemporary interviews with stylish re-enactments, framing Petit’s daring feat as a heist movie where the payoff is the possibility of death. A thrilling and fascinating film, and a quiet valentine to the vanished skyscrapers. Here are a bunch of great movies on Amazon.STREAMING ON HBO MAX ‘Ratcatcher’
Before moving forward with films like the cult favorite “Morvern Callar” and the recent Jennifer Lawrence drama “Die My Love,” the Scottish director Lynne Ramsay brought her impressionistic style to bear on “Ratcatcher,” a debut feature that defies the conventions of kitchen-sink realism. Set in a Glasgow apartment block during a garbage strike in the early ’70s, the film follows the unstructured days of a 12-year-old boy (William Eadie) whose lyrical dreams of his family moving to the country are checked by the poverty and danger of his daily life. While Ramsay doesn’t flinch from the bleak parameters of her young hero’s world, she taps into his capacity for mischief and imagination. Elvis Mitchell called it “a gorgeous blend of beauty and squalor.” 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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