The Best Movies to Stream This Week on Hulu
My picks for the best original movies and new(ish) Hulu movies this week are a study in contrasts. There are documentaries “Summer of Soul ” and “Some Kind of Heaven” – both excellent for different reasons – and also a straight-up showdown between “Freelance” , an entertaining action film that critics hated, and “Skinamarink “, a boring horror film. that no one except the critics can stand it. By the way, I like all these films equally.
Summer of Soul (2021)
This selection of performances from the Harlem Cultural Festival proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the music at Woodstock was awesome. Both events were held in the heady summer of 1969 at venues about 100 miles apart in New York City, but Woodstock had Sha Na Na and Country Joe and the Fish, and Harlem had Nina Simone and Sly Stone. Woodstock commissioned Ravi Shankar to play the sitar. In Harlem, Stevie Wonder played this drum solo in his prime. I wonder why Woodstock became a cultural touchstone that people still talk about, but everyone forgot about the Harlem Festival until Questlove pulled the footage out of the dusty basement a few years ago and made a documentary.
Freelance (2023)
According to Rotten Tomatoes , only 6% of critics consider Freelance a good film; but 77% of viewers rate it positively. I like John Cena and watched him on the plane, so I’m in the 77%. Cena plays a former special forces soldier who freelances to protect a journalist played by Alison Brie. She interviews the dictator of a fictional South American country, but a coup breaks out, forcing the trio to flee into the jungle, where they must survive and escape. It’s a solid action movie, followed by plenty of car chases and explosions, some silly jokes, and romance between charismatic movie stars. What’s not to like?
Skinamarink (2022)
Skinamarink is the opposite of Freelance. Rotten Tomatoes critics rave about this horror film – it’s 72% fresh, but the audience score is 44%. I’m sure that if such a movie was shown on airplanes, it would be much lower. There are no car chases, witty banter or charismatic stars in Skinamarinka . Almost nothing happens, and what little does happen is deliberately difficult to see or understand. Skinamarink’s goal is to create the unsettling atmosphere of a childhood nightmare, so there’s nothing there to comfort viewers. I suggest a double feature with Freelancer to see what kind of person you are.
Some kind of paradise (2020)
If you’ve ever wondered why Florida is so much like Florida, this documentary about The Villages, the largest retirement community in the world, offers some answers. Many of The Villages’ residents, depicted in the haunting imagery of Some Kind of Heaven , live in a dreamlike, eternal present where every day is a vacation day. They play golf, take belly dancing lessons, drink tropical drinks by the pool and wait; others search for personal meaning among orange groves and scooters; and some are on darker journeys, preying on others for money or drugs, as if they have learned nothing in all their years on earth.
Last week’s pick
Self-Reliance (2024)
This Hulu original comedy thriller asks the question: what if you were forced to participate in a reality show on the dark web where a gang of trained killers were paid to hunt you, but they couldn’t kill you if you were within a few feet of another person ? ? I would have just taken off the handcuffs and spent a few unpleasant weeks with my neighbor Gary, but Tommy’s character is a lonely, lonely guy with a penchant for outlandish lies, so it’s harder for him. The few people he is close to don’t even believe this scenario is real, and no one wants to go along with his seeming delusion. It’s a preposterous idea, but it’s executed here with charm and wit thanks to a funny script and a likeable cast, especially first-time director/star Jake Johnson.
Barbarian (2022)
If you are interested in horror films, you should definitely watch The Barbarian . The movie’s “there’s something creepy in the basement” idea might have become a cliché if Barbarian didn’t subvert narrative expectations at every turn, keeping audiences off balance throughout the film. The secret in the basement, by the way, is more than creepy. It’s uniquely, viscerally terrifying.
King Richard (2021)
In this sports biopic, Will Smith plays Richard Williams, the father of tennis phenoms Venus and Serena Williams. Smith gives one of the best performances of his career (and won an Academy Award for Best Actor) as his daughters’ coach in this inspiring story that explores family, dedication, and the sacrifices that come with the pursuit of excellence. .
Miranda’s Victim (2023)
We all know how police officers recite the phrase “you have the right to remain silent” to suspected criminals, but the crime behind the Supreme Court decision that defined our Miranda rights is much more obscure. Miranda’s Victims tells the story of the kidnapping and rape of 18-year-old Patricia Weir in 1963, and the subsequent trial and imprisonment of Ernesto Miranda. Weir was first a victim of Miranda, and then of the legal system. Miranda was also a victim, but a very different kind of victim—guilty but released from prison when the Supreme Court famously ruled that his confession was inadmissible. Miranda’s Victims carefully tells a complex story and features a stellar cast, including Abigail Breslin, Luke Wilson, Kyle MacLachlan, Ryan Phillippe, Mireille Enos and Donald Sutherland.
The Last Circus (2010)
The Last Circus, directed by Alex de la Iglesia, opens with performers from a flea-bitten circus being drafted to fight in the Spanish Civil War, big boots and all, and things get weirder from there. You could call The Last Circus a super violent, heartbreaking, romantic, dark, war, horror, social satire movie where a happy clown and a sad clown fight to the death for the woman they both love, or you could say The Last Circus. defies classification. Either way, it’s an explosive film that I guarantee is unlike anything you’ve seen before.
The Imitation Game (2014)
Almost born for the role, Benedict Cumberbatch plays pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing in this historical thriller. Turing, along with a group of other cryptologists and outcasts, legitimately saved the world by breaking the Enigma code during World War II, and was rewarded with years of post-war persecution and bullying for being gay. The imitation game basically boils down to a more exciting game of “we have to crack the code!” part of Turing’s life story, not his depressing later days.