What to stream this week: Zac Efron, Indigo Girls, ‘Dark Matter,’ Brooke Shields and Anne Hathaway
This week’s new streaming entertainment releases include a new documentary showing the Indigo Girls’ rise and subsequent marginalization, Joel Edgerton finding himself in an alternate timeline of his character’s life in the limited series “Dark Matter” and a new “Pretty Little Liars” returns Thursday on Max. Brooke Shields is the unwitting “Mother of the Bride” in a new romantic comedy coming to Netflix and there are two doses of Anne Hathaway — the frothy “The Idea of You” and the dark and moody “Eileen.” Or kick back and play the video game Animal Well, featuring a combat-free but tricky labyrinth with more than 250 puzzle-filled rooms.
Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White starring in the family wrestling dynasty in “The Iron Claw” and Brooke Shields playing the unwitting title role in the romantic comedy “Mother of the Bride” on Netflix 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: Colombian musician Ryan Castro’s new album “El Cantante Del Ghetto,” the series “Pretty Little Liars” returns on Max and a new documentary details the Indigo Girls’ rise and subsequent marginalization.
NEW MOVIES TO STREAM
— Whether or not you know anything about the tragedies that befell the Von Erich family wrestling dynasty, “The Iron Claw” is well worth a watch. Zac Efron stars as one of the brothers, Kevin, in an ensemble cast that includes Harris Dickinson and Jeremy Allen White as his brothers, Lily James as his wife, and Holt McCallany and Maura Tierney as his parents. In her AP review, Jocelyn Noveck wrote that “Efron, with his rock-hard physique and ‘70s mullet, turns in some of the most affecting work of his career. White, too, is excellent if more inscrutable as Kerry, initially the golden boy until his own brush with disaster sends him into a downward spiral.” It’ll be available on MAX on Friday, May 10.
— Brooke Shields is the titular mother of the bride in a new romantic comedy coming to Netflix on Thursday. The conceit here is that her daughter (Miranda Cosgrove) is getting married and she doesn’t find out until she arrives at the island resort where it’s happening that the groom is the son of the guy who broke her heart in college, played by Benjamin Bratt. “Mother of the Bride” was directed by Mark Waters (“Mean Girls” and “Just Like Heaven”).
— “The Idea of You” is good fun and Anne Hathaway looks incredible in it, but it’s on the lighter side. If you want to continue a Hatha-thon with something dark and moody, look no further than William Oldroyd’s “Eileen,” coming to Hulu on Friday, May 10. Hathaway is otherworldly as the glamourous, martini-swilling Rebecca Saint John, an endlessly quotable Hitchcock blonde with a doctorate from Harvard, in this stylish adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel. She becomes an object of fascination for Thomasin McKenzie’s mousy Eileen when she glides into the dreary juvenile detention center where they both work one winter, in Massachusetts 1964. The deranged, noir cousin to “The Idea of You,” there is also some flirting and dancing and drinking in “Eileen,” but with a shocking twist looming.
NEW SHOWS TO STREAM
— Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly star in the new limited series “Dark Matter.” Edgerton plays Jason, an unfulfilled physics teacher who is attacked one night by a masked man who also drugs him. When he comes to, Jason finds himself in an alternate timeline of his life where he’s a world-famous physicist. Jason’s wife Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) and son don’t exist in this alternate version, and he fights to return to them. “Dark Matter” is based on the book by Blake Crouch. It premieres Wednesday.