5 films streaming on Hulu you shouldn’t miss
As the streaming age has expanded, Hulu has found itself somewhat lost in the shuffle, but it hosts a rotating library of movies rivaling that of many competitors. Here are five films available on the service now that many have overlooked.
“Beach Rats” (2017)
Eliza Hittman (“Never Rarely Sometimes Always”) writes and directs the muted yet moving story of Frankie (the sublime Harris Dickinson), a sexually conflicted young man who fears his orientation is at odds with his persona and finds himself struggling to live within the lies he’s built.
“Booksmart” (2019)
Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein are the delightful duo at the center of this teen comedy from the actor-turned-director Olivia Wilde. Our heroines are overachievers who’ve focused on their studies all through high school, only to discover on the eve of graduation that their hard-partying classmates nevertheless landed at prestigious universities themselves. And thus, they must recover four years of lost opportunities in a single night.
“Mike Wallace Is Here” (2019)
Avi Belkin’s biographical documentary takes an unconventional but effective approach to chronicling and eulogizing the legendary newsman. Abandoning the traditional devices of omniscient narration and retrospective interviews, Belkin tells Wallace’s story using only archival materials.
“Diane” (2019)
Mary Kay Place has carved out a remarkable career as a valuable supporting player, but she was rarely given the opportunity to show what she could do in a leading role. The writer and director Kent Jones changed that with this acclaimed independent drama, featuring Place as a good citizen who spends her days volunteering in her small town, supporting friends and family in various states of duress.
“Minding the Gap” (2018)
Bing Liu was nominated for a best documentary Oscar for this, his debut feature, a candid and sometimes agonizingly intimate portrait of his loose crew of skateboarding pals, weaving what A.O. Scott called “a rich, devastating essay on race, class and manhood in 21st-century America.”