New movies to stream this week

Set on the last day before a global catastrophe will wipe out life on Earth, the comedy “How It Ends” is a sweetly oddball and cheekily unlikely meditation on making amends before it is too late and reconnecting with your inner child. Or something like that. Zoe ListerJones (who also co-wrote and co-directed the film with Daryl Wein) stars as Liza, a 30-something app developer in Los Angeles who spends the film walking to an end-of-the-world party in cute but inappropriate heels after her car is stolen. Accompanying her on this trek through the streets of Hollywood - where she finds time to confront her emotionally distant father (Bradley Whitford); her estranged former BFF (Olivia Wilde); an exboyfriend (Lamorne Morris); her mother (Helen Hunt); and the love of her life (Logan Marshall-Green) - is Liza’s younger self (Cailee Spaeny). Y.S, as Spaeny’s character is known, is there to offer insight into missed opportunities, etc., but mostly for comic repartee. Spaeny is absolutely adorable as a metaphysical construct, but Lister-Jones is pretty pleasant to spend time with too, in what amounts to a slight but charming philosophical inquiry into the meaning of life. Sure, it’s about two inches deep, but that’s appropriate to the format, which is essentially a series of vignettes - some silly, some unexpectedly beautiful in which Liza encounters a cast of doomed but oddly cheerful characters, played by a talented roster of actors including Fred Armisen, Whitney Cummings, Charlie Day, Nick Kroll, Colin Hanks, Finn Wolfhard, Bobby Lee, singer Sharon Van Etten, Paul Scheer and, perhaps strangest of all, Pauly Shore. R. Available on various streaming platforms. Contains coarse language throughout, sexual references and drug material. 82 minutes.

Also streaming

The latest film by Agnieszka Holland, “Charlatan” is a fictionalized biopic about Jan Mikolasek (1887-1973), a Czech healer and herbalist who ran afoul of authorities in the postStalinist era. Ultimately, according to the Hollywood Reporter, “the film leaves a bitter taste as the broad strokes depicting a self-sacrificing holistic healer are overlaid with finer details about his hair-trigger personality, his adept use of political expediency for his own ends and his shocking lack of morality toward those closest to him.” Unrated. Available at virtualavalon. org. In Czech with subtitles. 118 minutes.

“Cousins” tells the story of three Maori cousins in New Zealand (Tanea Heke, Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne and Hariata Moriarty) and their struggle to reunite after years of separation. The film, according to the New York Times, “trembles with sound, color and feeling, deriving much of its power from an excellent ensemble cast.” TVMA. Available on Netflix. In English and Te Reo Maori with subtitles. 98 minutes.

In the fantasy romance “Here After” a struggling actor (Andy Karl) dies immediately after breaking up with his girlfriend, only to be told by his crossover guide (Christina Ricci) that he must find a dead soul mate before he can pass fully into the afterlife. The good news is: He meets and falls for someone (Nora Arnezeder). The bad news? She’s still alive. Unrated. Available on demand. 121 minutes.

“Holy Beasts” stars Geraldine Chaplin as an actress filming a vampire musical in the Dominican Republic. Udo Kier also stars in the film, which Movie Nation calls a “dreamy making-a-movie narrative of stunning locations, elaborate costume parties and drugs, of geezers remembering their “quaalude” days, and thankful that “Tough weeds never die.” Unrated. Available on Film Movement Plus. In Spanish with subtitles. 90 minutes.

Based on a novel by Jojo Moyes (“Me Before You”), “The Last Letter From Your Lover” stars Felicity Jones as a journalist who becomes obsessed with unraveling the mystery surrounding a decades-old love affair between a married woman (Shailene Woodley) and another man (Callum Turner) after she comes across a letter from the 1960s describing their illicit relationship. TV-MA. Available on Netflix. 110 minutes.

Two FBI agents (Bruce Willis and Megan Fox) and a Florida cop (Emile Hirsch) become caught up in hunt for a possible serial killer in the crime thriller “Midnight in the Switchgrass.” R. Available on Apple TV and other streaming platforms. Contains violence and strong language throughout. 98 minutes.