
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
“Aftersun”
This weekend marks the premiere of “Janet Planet,” a new coming-of-age drama that A24 shot in Massachusetts, though it doesn’t open in Boston-area theaters until next Friday. In the meantime, it’s worth checking out another A24 film about a young child slowly coming to understand that his single parents are fully grown people, flaws and all, in 2022’s “After Sun,” which starts streaming on Netflix on June 21.
First-time director Charlotte Wells’ semi-autobiographical story follows pre-teen Scottish girl Sophie (Frankie Corio) as she holidayed in Turkey with her 31-year-old father Callum (Paul Mescal, Normal People). Wells layers in melancholy as Sophie’s realisation of her father’s troubles and anguish creates a rift between them, one that neither can fully express or acknowledge. The film’s ending packs an emotional punch that still pierces nearly two years after its initial release.
How to watch: “After Sun” is available to stream on Netflix.
“Body Snatchers”
Donald Sutherland, who died Thursday at age 88, was an actor’s actor. Though he rarely starred solo in movies, Sutherland always delivered impactful performances, whether in two-person roles (Klute), blockbusters (M*A*S*H), or one-scene roles (JFK). You can stream any of his roughly 150 films this weekend, but my personal pick is The Body Snatchers, a remake of the 1978 horror in which aliens secretly transform the world’s population into pod humans in their sleep.
Sutherland’s public health inspector is one of the few people truly aware of the looming threat, but when he and a colleague (Brooke Adams) try to warn the government, they only end up discovering more alien replicas. The film’s final scene takes on a second life as an Internet meme, and it’s heartbreaking to watch Sutherland’s character subtly adjust his performance (before the big reveal, which we won’t spoil here).
How to watch: “The Body Snatchers” is available to stream on Prime Video.
“Uncut Gems”
Celtic Pride isn’t currently available on any major services, so you can instead celebrate the Celtics’ 18th championship by watching Kevin Garnett in Adam Sandler’s Uncut Gems. The 2019 thriller, which was added to Max this month to celebrate the Safdie brothers’ new HBO documentary series, Ren Faire, stars Sandler as Howard Ratner, a Manhattan jeweler who’s always on the hunt for his next big fortune.
Plagued by unpaid debts and the thugs hired to pay them off, an impending divorce and a serious gambling problem, Ratner has his eye on a rare, uncut black opal that he hopes to sell to Garnett (playing himself). (The film is set in 2012, during the Eastern Conference semifinal series between the Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers.) “Uncut Gems” keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the film, as Howard’s increasingly reckless decisions (like giving KG’s 2008 championship ring to a pawnbroker as collateral) threaten his and his family’s lives.
How to watch: “Uncut Gems” is available to stream on Max.
tv set
“Cult Massacre: A Day in Jonestown”
As my colleague Matthew Gilbert pointed out, every streaming company is producing multiple documentaries about cults, making them third on the list of documentary topics behind serial killers and fraud: Just two weeks ago, Netflix released “Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult,” and this week Hulu released “Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown,” a look at the history of cult leader Jim Jones.
Unlike other documentaries hastily produced to capitalize on recent headlines and trends, “Jonestown” takes the time to set straight the Peoples Temple, its community in Guyana, and its historical legacy, where hundreds of members were ritually murdered in 1978. For a younger generation who may only vaguely be familiar with the phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid,” the three-part series helps show that the alleged “mass suicide” is better understood as mass murder. It also shows how Jones studied the writings of Hitler and Mao to enlist the support of elected officials and create a personality cult for thousands of followers.
How to watch: “Cult Masquerade: One Day in Jonestown” is available to stream on Hulu.
“House of Dragons”
Following the premiere of Season 2 of HBO’s “House of Dragon,” the jury is still out on whether Ryan Condal’s “Game of Thrones” prequel can maintain the must-watch quality of its predecessors in its next season. The first episode follows the general pattern of many great episodes, with the action jumping from the Wall to Storm’s End to King’s Landing as the ramifications of Season 1’s death of Lutharis and the consolidation of power between the two Targaryen branches become clear.
Some of the more interesting characters, particularly Emma Darcy’s Rhaenyra Targaryen, were somewhat sidelined in the premiere, and Paddy Considine (who played King Viserys in Season 1) was certainly noticeable by his absence. Once we get used to seeing more developed versions of King Aegon Targaryen and his brother Aemond, and have a strong sense of rooting for who should ultimately sit on the Iron Throne, I believe “House of the Dragon” will start to move.
How to watch: “House of the Dragon” Season 2 is available to stream on Max, with new episodes airing Sundays on HBO.
Loading…