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 me 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.
movie
“Brats.”
Disney and Hulu have churned out a flurry of nostalgia-inducing documentaries about the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Jim Henson in the last month alone, but “Bratz,” a new documentary about the loose network of 1980s movie stars known as the Brat Pack, is something else entirely.
Of course, there are plenty of heartwarming memories to dig up as Andrew McCarthy (Pretty in Pink, Weekend at Bernie’s) chats with former A-listers like Demi Moore, Rob Lowe and Emilio Estevez, but McCarthy’s documentary also addresses some harsh truths about the nature of fame and controlling your own narrative, using the idea of the documentary as an extended therapy session for himself and the other members of the Brat Packers.
How to watch: “Brats” is currently streaming on Hulu.
“Inside Out”
If you missed my review of Inside Out 2 earlier this week, the short story is that while the sequel doesn’t quite re-create the magic of 2015’s Inside Out, it’s still a fun 90 minutes at the cinema. Whether you’re heading to the cinema or not, now’s a good time to revisit this fascinating story of anthropomorphic emotions that live inside the mind of a young girl named Riley.
Joy (Burlington native Amy Poehler) runs things in Rileyville and things usually work out just fine, but when Riley’s family moves across the country, Sadness (Phyllis Smith, “The Office”) starts to take over. Inside Out not only provides grown-up laughs while showing us how Riley’s brain works, it also teaches the valuable lesson that there is a time and place for every emotion in a well-rounded person.
How to watch: Inside Out is now available on Disney+.
“Monkey Man”
Dev Patel’s harmonious performance came in Danny Boyle’s 2008 Best Picture winner, Slumdog Millionaire, in which he played Jamal Malik, an orphan from India’s lowest caste who is on the brink of making it big in an Indian version of Slumdog Millionaire. Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man, shares many characteristics with Boyle’s film: slick camerawork, flashy editing and a hero’s journey story that offers commentary on contemporary Indian society.
“Monkey Man” tells the story of a fighter named Kid (Patel) who hides out in a fictional Mumbai suburb, infiltrating the city’s high society and plotting to exact revenge on those who have wronged him. Drawing inspiration from Hong Kong action films and movies like “The Raid,” “Monkey Man” has some of the best fighting scenes you’ll see this year. The film also struggles at times to balance these scenes with heavier socio-political commentary and flashbacks about Kid’s family. But overall, “Monkey Man” is a promising showcase for the actor to flex his filmmaking chops, and one that hopefully won’t be the last.
How to watch: “Monkey Man” is available to stream on Peacock.
tv set
“the boys”
As the old saying goes, the night is darkest before the dawn. With Amazon announcing that hit series The Boys will end with Season 5, we can only hope that the show’s fourth season, which premiered on June 13, will be as dark and bleak as it gets. Showrunner Eric Kripke has always been clear that The Boys is meant to be a dark allegory for our current sociopolitical climate, stating: Entertainment Weekly The show is said to portray “conspiracy theories and far-right media outlets,” so if you’re the type of person who gets anxious thinking about the upcoming presidential election, “The Boys” season 4 might not be for you.
As the all-powerful conglomerate Vought International continues to consolidate its power around the Superman-like Homelander (Antony Starr), it simultaneously finds new superheroes who fit its prescribed worldview and even gives one of its heroes a political talk show, Vought News. The anti-Vought faction, led by Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher, is fighting both fascism and the soul of Homelander’s son, Ryan.
How to watch: The Boys Season 4 is now available on Prime Video.
“Presumed innocent”
I’ve only seen a few episodes of David E. Kelley’s Apple TV+ miniseries Presumed Innocent, but so far I prefer the 1990 movie starring Harrison Ford. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch it. Kelley’s specialty is adapting tense courtroom thrillers for TV, and he does well here. In his first TV series, Jake Gyllenhaal plays the role of Ford, who plays prosecutor Rusty Sabich, the prime suspect in the murder of his fellow prosecutor Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsweg), with whom he was having an affair.
Gyllenhaal plays a dirtier, more lovable Rusty than Ford, and it remains to be seen whether he can redeem himself enough to win audiences’ support. Besides Gyllenhaal, “Presumed Innocent” has some excellent supporting actors, particularly Massachusetts native Bill Camp (“The Queen’s Gambit”) as the embattled state’s attorney and Ruth Negga (“Loving”) as Rusty’s long-suffering wife.
How to watch: “Presumed Innocent” is available on Apple TV+, with new episodes premiering on Wednesdays.
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