Don’t spend hours scrolling the menus at Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other movie services. I point you to the best new films and hidden gems to stream.
This is a taste of my Weekend Watchlist emails, which go out on Fridays to my paid Substack and Patreon supporters.
both sides of the pond
The always delightful Andrew Garfield earned an Oscar nomination this year for his performance in tick, tick… BOOM! — and it was well deserved. He’s wonderfully engaging in this rock musical about the creative trials and tribulations of composer Jonathan Larson, based on the one-man stage show written by Larson himself. He would go on to write the genre-busting, critically acclaimed, long-running stage musical Rent, but this earlier work is a bittersweet wail that captures his struggles as an artist in late-80s/early-90s New York City. (The title is an allusion to the clock he hears counting down to his imminent 30th birthday, which feels like an important deadline for him to achieve something.) This film is also the directorial debut of Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of In the Heights and Hamilton; its his tribute to one of his creative inspirations. The fact that Larson died, unexpectedly, aged only 35, literally the night before Rent’s off-Broadway premiere, and so never knew what a phenomenon his work would become, renders this all the more poignant.
globally: streaming on Netflix
There’s much more! This week’s edition features a film leaving HBO Max soon in the US (one that Andrew Garfield fans might want to watch), and a hidden gem on US streaming service Hulu. On the UK side, there’s a TV miniseries new to Disney+ and a film new to Mubi that’s an even better ode to deeply devoted film fans than *ahem* one opening new in cinemas this weekend. I’d be delighted to have to join me at either Substack or Patreon.
