What to stream this week: Jason Momoa roaming, Green Day rocking and ‘Fast X’ exploding
This week’s new streaming entertainment releases include albums from indie rock heroes Sleater-Kinney and the pop-punk trio Green Day, the Finnish romantic comedy “Fallen Leaves,” and the big, fun action movie “Fast X” racing to Prime Video. There’s also a Paramount+ documentary on June Carter Cash, a Prince of Persia video game reboot and fashion model Bethann Hardison looks back at her five decades as a Black woman in the industry in the documentary “Invisible Beauty.” Plus, Mandy Patinkin and Violette Beane star in a whodunit aboard an ocean liner in the Mediterranean in Hulu’s “Death and Other Details.”
Jason Momoa hosting a new travel docuseries for Max called “On the Roam” and the Finnish romantic comedy “Fallen Leaves” are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are Mandy Patinkin starring in a whodunit aboard an ocean liner in Hulu’s “Death and Other Details,” the big and fun action movie “Fast X” and a Paramount+ documentary on June Carter Cash.
NEW MOVIES TO STREAM
— The best romantic comedy of the year was an 81-minute Finnish film called “Fallen Leaves,” which will be streaming on MUBI on Jan. 19. Director Aki Kaurismäki points his lens towards an alcoholic construction worker, Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) and a supermarket employee, Ansa (Alma Pöysti) who has just been sacked. Their surroundings are bleak, but their awkward courtship is anything but. AP film writer Jake Coyle named “Fallen Leaves” his No. 1 of 2023 and wrote in his review that “short, sweet and utterly delightful, (‘Fallen Leaves’) is the kind of movie that’s so charming, you want to run it back the moment it’s over.”
— Fashion model Bethann Hardison, now 81, looks back at her five decades as a Black woman in the industry in a documentary she co-directed with Frédéric Tcheng, “Invisible Beauty,” which begins streaming on Hulu on Jan. 18. Hardison famously participated in the 1973 “Battle of Versailles” fashion show and later founded coalitions to encourage more diversity in high fashion. “Bethann’s legacy is undeniable,” Tcheng told the AP in an interview last year. “She’s really changed the way fashion looks. She singlehandedly led the industry to really change the way they thought about racial diversity and integrated the modeling industry. And she went way beyond that. Now she’s working with designers and just creating community at every stage of her life.”
— Or if you just want some big, dumb, fun action “Fast X” is racing to Prime Video on Jan. 16. AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote in his review that “Fast X” is monstrously silly and stupidly entertaining — just Wile E. Coyote stuff, ridiculous stunts employing insane G-forces and everything seemingly on fire. There are elements of ‘Mission: Impossible,’ 007 and ‘John Wick,’ as if all the action franchises were somehow merging. But here’s a warning: It careens to an end without a payoff, a more dangerous stunt than any in the movies themselves.” Kennedy singled out Jason Momoa’s bad guy as one of the main reasons to watch and called the film “pure popcorn lunacy.”
— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr
NEW SHOWS TO STREAM
— Mandy Patinkin and Violette Beane star in a whodunit aboard an ocean liner in the Mediterranean in Hulu’s “Death and Other Details.” The pitch for the series may have described it as “The White Lotus” meets “Knives Out” meets “Murder on the Orient Express.” Beane’s character, Imogene Scott, becomes the prime suspect of a murder aboard the cruise ship and she must rely on detective extraordinaire, Rufus Cotesworth, (Patinkin)to clear her name. The 10-episode series premieres Tuesday on Hulu.