New to streaming this weekend: What to watch
If you’re sticking close to home, here’s a rundown for streaming and on-demand.
New streaming movies are coming to entertain you and your family during socially distanced times. h This weekend, Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto head up a Netflix drama exploring gay men in the 1960s, women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem gets an Amazon biopic starring Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander, scary stories are at the heart of a new Shudder horror comedy, and a filmmaker honors her father’s life in a Netflix documentary depicting many faux deaths. h If that’s not enough to get you online and watching movies, the American Black Film Festival is presenting a three-film Chadwick Boseman retrospective on Saturday and Sunday, showcasing three of the late actor’s iconic roles: Jackie Robinson in “42,” James Brown in “Get On Up” and Thurgood Marshall in “Marshall.” The movies will be available on demand for free via ABFF PLAY. h Here’s a rundown of new movies hitting streaming and on-demand platforms this week, for every cinematic taste:
If you’re looking for a little Broadway at home: ‘The Boys in the Band’
Directed by theater veteran Joe Mantello, this version of the stage play takes audiences back to New York City circa 1968 for a birthday party celebrated by a group of gay friends. Michael (Parsons) hosts the shindig, which is full of dancing, revelry and banter until his old college roommate, the possibly closeted Alan (Brian Hutchison), shows up and is the spark for a lot of tension and feelings revealed. Parsons and Quinto (as birthday boy Harold) stand out in an intriguing drama about identity and prejudice.
Where to watch: Netflix
If you want to see a bunch of actresses play Gloria Steinem: ‘ The Glorias’
The feminist icon’s story is interesting enough on its own, but director Julie Taymor goes to some exceedingly trippy, downright strange and honestly distracting places to liven things up. Steinem’s travels during her life (living like a nomad as a kid, spending time in India in her 20s) become a device that features Moore, Vikander, Lulu Wilson and Ryan Kiera Armstrong as various
Glorias – from her earliest years to an influential adulthood – and they even interact, including one extraordinarily out-there sequence that marries misogyny and “The Wizard of Oz.”
Where to watch: Amazon
If you dig flicks with kids taking on monsters: ‘Vampires vs. the Bronx’
There’s a fun horror comedy vibe a la “Lost Boys” and “Monster Squad” with this tale of three young New York pals (Jaden Michael, Gerald W. Jones III, Gregory Diaz IV) who want to save the local bodega. A bigger problem, though, is the vamps (or “suckheads,” as the kids call them) who’ve moved in under the guise of gentrification and want to take over the Bronx. Come for the heroic youngsters, stay for a cool adult supporting cast including Zoe Saldana, Shea Whigham and Cliff “Method Man” Smith.
h Where to watch: Netflix
If you’re a fan of ‘SNL’ regular Chris Redd: ‘Scare Me’
Ghoulish storytelling is at the heart of the horror comedy starring Josh Ruben (who also writes and directs) and Aya Cash as a pair of strangers staying in neighboring cabins in the Catskills who, when the power goes out, engage in an all-night battle of who can tell the most chilling tale. The competition gets heated, especially when a horror-adoring pizza delivery guy (Redd) shows up in this occasionally meta, often amusing start to the Halloween season.
● Where to watch: Shudder
If you’re up for a thrilling history lesson: ‘A Call to Spy’
Based on real-life figures, the immersive World War II drama focuses on Britain’s formation of a female spy network based in France as the Nazis are on the move and close to crossing the English
Channel. The film focuses on talented radio operator Noor Inayat Khan (Radhika Apte); Virginia Hall (Sarah Megan Thomas), the American spy ring leader with a wooden leg; and Vera Atkins (Stana Katic), the Romanian-born Jewish recruiter who fights for her charges amid an internal political battle.
● Where to watch: Apple TV, Vudu, FandangoNOW
If you’re down for a cool slice of indie sci-fi: ‘2067’
This dystopian treat imagines a world where climate change renders the air unbreathable and unfortunately synthetic oxygen is causing widespread illness. Enter Ethan (Kodi SmitMcPhee), an underground tunnel worker who’s summoned by a cryptic message from the future, volunteers for a death-defying, humanity-saving mission and gets catapulted time travel style into a very different world from his own. It’s a neat premise that’s melodramatic in spots but offers awesome visuals courtesy of director Seth Larney.
Where to watch: Apple TV, Vudu, FandangoNOW
If you never want to go on vacation with your spouse again: ‘Death of Me’
Maggie Q and Luke Hemsworth (older bro of Chris and Liam) play a couple on an island getaway near Thailand who wake up with a hangover not remembering anything that happened the night before.
They do have a video, however, which shows him murdering her. That’s a pretty fantastic premise for the horror flick directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (”Saw”) but the unfurling mystery and its denouement are ultimately bungled with a black magic bent that gets way too complicated.
● Where to watch: Apple TV, Vudu, FandangoNOW
If you’re in the mood for tons of blood and some laughs: ‘12 Hour Shift’
Angela Bettis, who came on horror fans’ radar in 2002’s exceptionally creepy “May,” impresses again as an Arkansas nurse who endures the most bonkers night ever in this gore-filled dark comedy. Bettis’ Nurse Mandy snorts coke and shuttles organs out of the hospital as a side gig, but when her demented cousin (Chloe Farnworth) loses a kidney meant for the black market and they have to find a replacement, it sparks a series of loony events involving a dimwitted cop (Kit Williamson) and a killer convict (David Arquette).
● Where to watch: Apple TV, Vudu, FandangoNOW
If you’re yearning for a touching oddity: ‘Dick Johnson Is Dead’
Equally moving and madcap, filmmaker Kirsten Johnson’s documentary is a celebration of her 86-year-old psychiatrist father’s life as dementia takes away bits and pieces of his mind. She also finds an amusing way to cope with loss, filming various cinematic “death” scenes starring her dad and a healthy dose of gallows humor.
Dick Johnson is an absolute charmer but also a thoughtful soul as he and his daughter navigate his condition while revisiting his late wife’s battle with Alzheimer’s.
● Where to watch: Netflix