USA TODAY International Edition
Big stars, super squirrel fill screen
New streaming movies are coming to entertain you and your family during socially distanced times.
This weekend features the arrival of a couple of awards- season players: Frances McDormand hits the road for director Chloe Zhao’s new Oscar- contending drama on Hulu, and recent Golden Globe nominee Rosamund Pike shows shades of “Gone Girl” in her new Netflix crime comedy. Disney+ has a movie about a superhero squirrel, a “Romeo & Juliet”- type love story gets a mystery twist, there are a couple of dramas about drugs in America, plus Dan Stevens, Leslie Mann and Isla Fisher go for laughs with a 1930s- set Noel Coward adaptation.
Here’s a rundown of new movies hitting streaming and on- demand platforms this week, for every cinematic taste.
If you want to see Frances McDormand travel the country: ‘ Nomadland’
Zhao’s drama brilliantly captures a way of life for many baby boomers who hit the road after the Great Recession of the 2000s. McDormand stars as an aging spark plug who, after her husband dies and their Nevada town goes under, forms a mobile family with fellow nomads and goes where the work is – be it an Amazon fulfillment center in Nebraska or South Dakota’s tourist- friendly Wall Drug Store. And because Zhao cast real- life folks living this existence, the film oozes authenticity. h Where to watch: Hulu
If you dig two actors just acting their butts off: ‘ I Care a Lot’
In J Blakeson’s irresistible crime thriller with a dark comedy edge, Pike plays a conniving legal guardian who takes on older wards, sticks them in a care facility and drains them of their wealth. The grift is going well until she takes on a new client ( Dianne Wiest) personally connected to a ruthless gangster ( Peter Dinklage). The increasingly volatile battle of wills between Pike’s and Dinklage’s characters is absurdly entertaining, a vibe that belies but doesn’t ignore the serious real- life issues at hand.
• Where to watch: Netflix
If you’re down for pet Avengers: ‘ Flora & Ulysses’
This one might not grab your average Marvel movie fan, but kids will dig it. Flora ( Matilda Lawler) is a superhero fan and cynical girl who befriends a squirrel and names him Ulysses after
the little dude is sucked up into a vacuum and is endowed with extraordinary abilities. The flying, crazystrong rodent also might be the key to getting Flora’s parents, an aspiring comic- book artist ( Ben Schwartz) and a struggling romance novelist ( Alyson Hannigan), back together.
• Where to watch: Disney+
If you like complicated love stories: ‘ The Violent Heart’
High school senior Cassie ( Grace Van Patten) falls for 24- year- old mechanic Daniel ( Jovan Adepo), a young man trying to get a second chance in life and join the Marines after serving jail time for a brutal assault he committed as a teen. Yet their engaging romantic tale is hijacked by a murder mystery – who killed Daniel’s sister 15 years ago? – and an ending that has more forced twists than a pretzel.
• Where to watch: Apple TV, Vudu, FandangoNOW
If you’re already skeptical of our health care system: ‘ Body Brokers’
The shady rehab industry gets “The Big Short” treatment with this cautionary tale. Jack Kilmer and Alice Englert star as young Ohio junkies who are recruited by a seemingly good Samaritan ( Michael K. Williams) to go to an L. A. treatment center that’s part of a large- scale grift involving kickbacks and recruitment of clients with excel
lent health insurance. Frank Grillo plays the shadowy owner of the center and the narrator who explains everything you’d want to know about shenanigans involving “helping” addicts.
• Where to watch: Apple TV, Vudu, FandangoNOW
If you’re up for a history lesson about the dark web: ‘ Silk Road’
A thriller that’s pretty devoid of actual thrills, the true- life story digs into how Ross Ulbricht ( played by Nick Robinson) created a website on the darknet where users could buy or sell anything anonymously. “Silk Road” depicts how it quickly became an “Amazon for drugs,” its creator became obsessed, and everything came on the radar of the feds. Jason Clarke co- stars as a DEA agent who learns computers on the fly and navigates some moral quandaries in his quest to take Ulbricht down.
• Where to watch: Apple TV, Vudu, FandangoNOW
If you live for old- school screwball comedies: ‘ Blithe Spirit’
The so- so all- star adaptation of Noel Coward’s play features an extraordinarily hammy Dan Stevens and plenty of cheese. In 1937, a successful and neurotic novelist ( Stevens) is having serious writer’s block as he adapts one of his books to the screen, and a séance with a medium ( Judi Dench) accidentally conjures his dead wife ( Mann), who was his primary muse. Naturally this causes various ghostly high jinks, and troubles arise with the writer’s highstrung current spouse ( Fisher).
• Where to watch: Apple TV, Vudu, FandangoNOW