Welcome to Boston.com Your weekly streaming guideEvery week, we bring you our top 5 must-watch movies and TV shows available on streaming platforms. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO MaxPeacock, Paramount+, etc.
Many of the recommendations are for new shows, but some are for under-the-radar releases you may have missed, or classics that are set to be removed from streaming services at the end of the month.
If you have a new favorite movie or show, please share it with us in the comments, or email me at kevin.slane@boston.com. Looking for more great streaming options? Check out our previous articles. Here’s the must-see list.
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‘Furiosa: The Mad Max Saga’ is the best prequel movie of all time
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Dune Part 2 is a triumph of storytelling and spectacle
movie
“The Beach Boys”
Following the streaming debut of the remastered Beatles documentary Let It Be, Disney+ is releasing another documentary exploring the story of 1960s music icons in The Beach Boys. Directed by Frank Marshall and Tom Zimny, The Beach Boys is an enlightening yet frustrating film. The Wilson family story is a sad one, rife with lawsuits, mental breakdowns and lost royalties. While some of that is covered in the film, Marshall and Zimny strategically decided to focus on the 1960s and almost entirely omit the trials and tribulations of the band’s final four decades.
To an extent, this decision is forgivable, as the film would likely have been three times as long. Also, the film’s decision to focus on the 1960s means we get to see Brian Wilson and co. in the studio concentrating on the making of the iconic album, “Pet Sounds.” Ultimately, “The Beach Boys” is worth watching, even if it would have been better if they had focused solely on the making of “Pet Sounds” (as did Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary, “Get Back”), or tackled it more extensively in a multi-part documentary series.
How to watch: The Beach Boys is available to stream on Disney+.
“Dune Part 2”
Following a strong box office run, Dune Part Two made its streaming debut on Max earlier this week. Director Denis Villeneuve’s sequel is not only faithful to Frank Herbert’s groundbreaking novel, it also surpasses 2021’s Dune in both scale and ambition. (For more, check out my full Dune Part Two review.)
Dune Part 2 picks up a little after the conclusion of the 2021 film, with Paul and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), battling the forces of the Harkonnen on Arrakis. In the 2021 film, Chalamet’s Paul is portrayed as skilled in combat and politics, but still skinny and hesitant. In Dune Part 2, Paul is a young man with enough strength and charisma to be able to create a religion around reasonably intelligent people, which is what happens, with the Fremen believing him to be the long-prophesied Muad’Dib.
“Dune Part 2” is a triumph of storytelling, a masterful adaptation of one of the densest and most influential novels in sci-fi history without neglecting the story too much. It’s also a technical marvel, featuring some of the year’s most beautiful camerawork and a toothsome Hans Zimmer score. It tackles difficult themes without winking at the camera or letting the audience slip away with self-destructive jokes. Whether or not Villeneuve makes a Dune Messiah, likely the third (and final) film in the series, nothing can detract from the realization of his grand creative vision.
How to watch: “Dune Part Two” is available to stream on Max.
“Mad Max 2”
First things first, grab your tickets to Furiosa: The Mad Max Saga, the latest installment in George Miller’s post-apocalyptic series, and it’s an absolute masterpiece. (If you want to know more, read my full Furiosa review here.) Once you’ve got your tickets, prepare yourself for this cinematic experience by rewatching 1981’s Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.
Whether due to budgetary constraints or fears that audiences wouldn’t accept his uncompromising vision, Miller’s original Mad Max was good but not great, bearing little resemblance to his 2015 hit Mad Max: Fury Road. Miller took a big step forward with Mad Max 2, in which drifter Max (Mel Gibson) arrives to rescue a gas-rich village under siege from the bombastic Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson) and his gang of predatory bikers.
While the Australia of the 1979 Mad Max bore some resemblance to modern society, Mad Max 2 is completely removed from reality in the best sense of the word. Sentries with giant flamethrowers. A human being strapped to the front of an ATV like a hood ornament. A non-mute 8-year-old boy with a mullet throws a bladed boomerang known as a “Wild Child.” What a picture!
How to watch: “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior” is available to stream on Max.
tv set
“Dark matter”
The effects of a midlife crisis typically range from the innocuous (a new sports car, a bad haircut) to the devastating (unemployment, divorce). In the first 20 minutes of “Dark Matter,” suburban Chicago college professor Jason (Taron Egerton) sees his colleagues succeeding while he himself stagnates, but encounters a much darker worst-case scenario: Jason is kidnapped, drugged, and dropped into another world by an alternate version of himself called Jason 2 (Egerton), who is also a version of Jason experiencing a midlife crisis and decides to take the place of the original Jason and start living his life.
Based on a 2016 novel by Blake Crouch (who also serves as showrunner), “Dark Matter” begins a dreary beginning but picks up steam in the nine-episode second half, with elements of John Woo’s John Travolta/Nicolas Cage drama “Face/Off” in a scene where Jason’s wife (Jennifer Connelly) begins to suspect that her husband’s behavior is contrary to his appearance.
How to watch: “Dark Matter” is available now on Apple TV+.
“Sympathizer”
If you’re late to the party like me, this weekend is the perfect time to catch HBO’s seven-episode miniseries, The Sympathizer, which airs its final episode on Sunday at 9pm. Based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Sympathizer is a darkly comedic spy thriller about a North Vietnamese spy called “The Captain” (Hoa Xuan De) who infiltrates the South Vietnamese army during the Vietnam War. After the war, the Captain flees Vietnam and settles in Los Angeles, where he easily adapts to Western life but is pressured to continue his communist mission.
The series is directed by acclaimed Korean director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden, The Goodbye), who brings an auteur flair to the film, and Robert Downey Jr. also gets a chance to shine in four different roles, including a CIA officer and a Hollywood director modeled after Francis Ford Coppola.
How to watch: “The Sympathizer” is available to stream on Max.
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