What to stream: The Eras Tour, Frida, The Girls on the Bus
Here’s a collection of notable movies and series available to stream this week.
Movies
• Taylor Swift’s concert film The Eras Tour is now on Disney+. The streaming cut features five new songs, including Cardigan. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour was a phenomenon at the theatrical box office, grossing over $262 million US worldwide in a groundbreaking deal with AMC Theaters, which released the film instead of a traditional Hollywood studio.
• Film editor Carla Gutiérrez (RBG) makes her directorial debut with Frida, a portrait of artist Frida Kahlo. Gutiérrez used Kahlo’s diary entries, letters, essays and her paintings to drive the narrative, which delves into her childhood, her marriage, her style, her accident and, of course, her art. It’s now on Prime Video and the CTV app.
• Nicolas Cage embraces the drab in Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario as Paul Matthews, a perfectly average college professor, husband and father whose life is turned upside down when millions of strangers start seeing him in their dreams. In her AP review, Jocelyn Noveck wrote that “Borgli, the Norwegian writerdirector making his Englishlanguage debut here (Ari Aster co-produces), is aiming for a broader statement about the nature of fame. And while the topic, which he’s broached before, may not be original, it’s ripe for exploration in the right hands — especially with an actor as inventive and unpredictable as Cage. Fame can be intoxicating, this film is saying, but it can and probably will turn on you in an instant.” It’s available to stream on digital platforms. — Lindsey Bahr
Series
• Over the years, the characters on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy have achieved medical breakthroughs, crisis situations, office romances, staffing shakeups and three hospital name changes. We’ll now see what’s in store for season 20 as the popular medical drama hit Disney+ last week. This season, Ellen Pompeo — who plays Dr. Meredith Grey — will not be a series regular, but will appear periodically. Shonda Rhimes’ other ABC show, the firefighter drama Station 19, also returned last week for its seventh and final season on Disney+.
• The comedy Girls5Eva has jumped from Peacock to Netflix for its third season. The musical comedy is about a girl group from the ’90s who achieved a tiny bit of fame and are hoping to revive their celebrity status decades later. The show is executive produced by Tina Fey and stars Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Paula Pell and Busy Philipps. All six episodes of season are out now. Seasons one and two are also on Netflix.
• Just in time for this election year, a new dramedy follows female reporters embedded on a presidential campaign. The Girls on the Bus stars Melissa Benoist as Sadie McCarthy, a newspaper reporter who is enamoured with old school journalism and idolizes Hunter S. Thompson. She travels the country by bus with a seasoned print reporter who always gets the scoop (Carla Gugino), a broadcast reporter at a conservative network (Christina Elmore) and a young journalist (Natasha Behnam), who embraces new media and uses Substack, sponsors and social media to reach an audience. The Girls on the Bus debuted Thursday on Crave. — Alicia Rancilio