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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“Godzilla Minus One”
American studios have been steadily churning out Godzilla movies and shows for over 25 years, so we thought we knew the difference between a good Godzilla (the 2014 version) and a bad Godzilla (the 1998 version), but the latest Japanese monster movie, Godzilla Minus One, blows away the American version on a fraction of the budget.
Set in 1950s Tokyo, Minus One follows the journey of Koichi (Kamiki Ryunosuke), a former kamikaze pilot disgraced and considered a coward for not dying in a Godzilla attack during World War II. Koichi is part of a non-traditional nuclear family, raising an orphaned child (Hamabe Minami) with a woman who lost her entire family in the war (and Godzilla’s subsequent rampage). When the Japanese government puts out a call for volunteers to stop Godzilla, Koichi sees a chance for redemption, despite (understandably) suffering from the fight-or-flight response.
Godzilla Minus One goes far beyond your standard monster movie by telling a story of heroism and questioning the changing social consciousness of Japan before and after the atomic bombing. But don’t worry, Godzilla is still as big, as awesome, as destructive and as loud as ever.
How to watch: “Godzilla Minus One” is now available on Netflix.
“Hitman”
Richard Linklater’s latest film has many of the director’s hallmarks: dark comedy, erudite philosophical ramblings and a humanistic streak that runs throughout the film. The only thing missing is Linklater’s former baseball player agent. Starring the actor who made his breakthrough in Linklater’s 2016 film Everybody Wants Some, Hitman is based on the true story of a smug college professor (Powell) who moonlights as a fake hit man for the New Orleans Police Department.
Afraid to break from his low-risk routine, Gary sees the undercover job as a chance to become someone else. When he meets an attractive woman (Adria Arjona, “Andor”) in his hitman persona (this time a tough guy named Rod), his ego and superego (also the name of Gary’s cat) collide. Powell, who co-wrote the screenplay with Linklater, carefully calibrates his performance as the lines between Gary and Rod blur, but not necessarily in a bad way. “The Hitman” is sexy, thought-provoking and funny. For a movie about an incorrigible fake hitman, it’s surprisingly grounded in reality when it comes to pondering love, hate and the nature of the self.
How to watch: “Hitman” is available to stream on Netflix.
“Perfect Days”
Though it had no chance of dethroning “The Zone of Interest” for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” was one of the best movies of 2023. A calming meditation on finding beauty in every moment of every day, Hirayama (Yakusho Koji) delights in a daily life filled with cassette tapes, nature photography and paperback books, and takes pride in his job as a cleaner in Tokyo.
The first hour of the film draws the audience into his everyday life, demonstrating how even the smallest differences in mundane life can be seen as life’s little treasures. The closest parallel is Jim Jarmusch’s “Paterson,” in which a bus driver (Adam Driver) writes poetry about the daily hustle and bustle of his city and its people. Though that routine is in flux in the film’s second half, Hirayama never loses sight of that fact, as he often says: “Next time is the next time, and now is now.”
How to watch: “Perfect Days” is currently streaming on Hulu.
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“Altarman”
Judging by its 26 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, there appears to be some sort of angry fan controversy brewing over the latest Star Wars series, “The Acolyte.” I’m not going to bother looking into it (because the fan complaints are undoubtedly extremely stupid), but instead I’ll wholeheartedly endorse “The Acolyte,” a show that’s refreshingly detached from the Star Wars canon.
Set a century before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, the show is set in a world where the Jedi are all-powerful and truly keep order in the galaxy. But assassins start killing Jedi Masters one after another. Fearing public stigma, the Jedi Council blames Osha (Amandla Stenberg), a Jedi training dropout who is also being taught by a witch. With the help of her former Jedi master Sol (Lee Jung-jae, The Game), Osha must clear her name and discover the who, why and how behind the murders. The Acolyte is fast-paced, features some of the best action in a recent Star Wars film, and, while not on the same level as Andor, breaks the standard Lucasfilm mold.
How to watch: “Acolyte” is available on Disney+, with new episodes added weekly.
“Renaissance Fair”
HBO, the network that brought us Game of Thrones and Succession, is a perfect fit for Renaissance Faire. The three-part documentary series follows the king of a Texas Renaissance Fair as he tries to decide who should take over his business after his death. The “king” of the Renaissance Faire is an octogenarian named George Coulum, whose main goals are to find someone to take over his business and to find a buxom woman to spend the rest of his days with. George’s whole situation (king of a cheap tourist spot) and attitude (boundless ego and sex drive) are reminiscent of Joe Exotic, the vain, bombastic star of the Netflix documentary Tiger King.
Watching George’s handpicked potential successors grovel and maneuver to stay in his good graces reads like fiction, but the truth is that when someone dedicates their life to a calling, whether it’s a media conglomerate like Waystar Royco or a giant amusement park in the middle of nowhere, the stakes are real.
How to watch: “Ren Faire” is now streaming on Max.
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