Movies Update: Streaming Recommendations and a New Beastie Boys Documentary

Plus, escape into the trippy world of 1930s musicals.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story April 24, 2020

By Kyle Buchanan

Hey, movie fans. This week brings several new films for at-home viewing — among them, the Hugh Jackman vehicle “Bad Education” on HBO, a new Beastie Boys documentary on Apple TV Plus and the Chris Hemsworth action movie “Extraction” on Netflix. (Other Netflix offerings include the animated comedy “The Willoughbys,” the documentary “Circus of Books” and the Polish thriller “The Plagues of Breslau.”)

Then again, perhaps you’ve been using this time to dig into classic movies, as our critic Manohla Dargis did for her essay on 1930s musicals. Or maybe you’ve been rustling around some streaming services to look for some underseen gems. We can help you with that: Here’s a list of some stranger-than-fiction documentaries on Hulu. Or, if you want to keep it brief, check out the various short films we’ve been recommending each day.

Anuj Shrestha   Your Weekend Watch With Tony And Manohla How Many More Weeks (Years)? Watching ‘Groundhog Day’ Together It’s the same thing every day. Clean up your room. Stand up straight. Sit down for a classic comedy while we’re in quarantine. Here’s what happened at our viewing party. By A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis HBO Films   Critic’s Pick ‘Bad Education’ Review: Adding Fraud to the Curriculum Hugh Jackman is darkly charismatic as the real-life schools superintendent who admitted to stealing $2 million from his Long Island district. By Ben Kenigsberg Apple TV Plus   Critic’s Pick ‘Beastie Boys Story’ Review: Pass the Mic, and the Memories Ad-Rock and Mike D share stories and grief in a live documentary directed by Spike Jonze. By A.O. Scott

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STREAMING RECOMMENDATIONS Warner Bros.   Critic’s Notebook Escape With Me Into the Trippy World of 1930s Musicals The old Hollywood spectacle — with its fantasias, tap numbers and heavenly music — lets us forget our troubles. Shall we dance? By Manohla Dargis Greenwich Entertainment   11 Stranger-Than-Fiction Documentaries on Netflix and Hulu Stream films about triplets separated at birth, a con artist’s international wine-fraud scheme, the world of “competitive endurance tickling” and more. By Scott Tobias Lucasfilm/Disney   The 50 Best Things to Watch on Disney Plus Right Now The new streaming platform has hundreds of movie and TV titles from Disney, Star Wars, Marvel and more. These are our favorites. By Scott Tobias David Bornfriend/A24   The 50 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now We’ve plucked out the 50 best films currently streaming on Netflix in the United States. Take a look. By Jason Bailey Paramount Pictures   The Best Movies on Amazon Prime Video Right Now We’ve plucked out 100 of the absolute best movies included with a Prime subscription right now. Take a look. By Jason Bailey

ANATOMY OF A SCENE Jasin Boland/Netflix   Anatomy Of A Scene How ‘Extraction’ Leaps Into Action The director Sam Hargrave discusses how he jumped across a building with his camera to capture energetic stunts for his debut feature. By Mekado Murphy

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MOVIE REVIEWS Samuel Goldwyn Films   ‘To the Stars’ Review: Rebels in Bobby Socks, Yearning for More In a claustrophobic small town in the early 1960s, two teenage girls find friendship and maybe even a way out. By Manohla Dargis Jasin Boland/Netflix   ‘Extraction’ Review: All Fight, No Fun The debut feature by Sam Hargrave serves up a barrage of bullets and blown-up cars in a properly global thriller. By Devika Girish Netflix   ‘Circus of Books’ Review: A Community Takes Pride in Its Porn Store A woman’s documentary on the gay pornography and adult goods shop her parents ran for three decades brims with warm remembrances by those who frequented it. By Teo Bugbee Netflix   ‘The Willoughbys’ Review: Parental Guidance Ejected Children conspire to off their neglectful parents in this giddy animated adventure based on Lois Lowry’s satirical book. By Natalia Winkelman Screen Media   ‘Robert the Bruce’ Review: The Return of the King Angus Macfadyen, who first played the medieval Scottish king in “Braveheart,” reprises his role in this introspective historical drama. By Jeannette Catsoulis IFC Films   ‘True History of the Kelly Gang’ Review: a 19th-Century Outlaw Tale A new cinematic story about the legendary Australian outlaw Ned Kelly, directed by Justin Kurzel, has a lot of visual pizazz and a lot of tiresome clichés. By Glenn Kenny Music Box Films   ‘Eating Up Easter’ Review: The Wasteful Side of Tourism A filmmaker shows the daily environmental struggles of his native home. By Kristen Yoonsoo Kim Dark Sky Films   ‘1BR’ Review: Losing Much More Than the Security Deposit A young woman’s starter apartment turns into a roach motel in this psychologically nuanced thriller. By Jeannette Catsoulis

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NEWS & FEATURES Amazon Studios   How the World of ‘Selah and the Spades’ Was Created The writer and director Tayarisha Poe discusses the influences behind her boarding school drama streaming on Amazon Prime. By Lovia Gyarkye Emiliano Ponzi   Critic’s Notebook Once Upon a Timeline in America “The Plot Against America” on HBO is the latest production to reimagine the past. These alternative histories tell us both what could have been — and what might be. By A.O. Scott 20th Century Fox; 20th Century Fox; Barry Wetcher/Disney   Critic’s Notebook Someday My Prince Will Leave Me for Someone More Low-Key Don’t hate the uptight women dumped by rom-com heroes. They’re high-strung, but they’re assertive. Are they monsters just because they know what they want? By Alexis Soloski Bettmann/Getty Images   Falling in Love Again With ‘All About Eve’ The magical kingdom of Broadway is shuttered, but our critic returned to it — or rather a version of it that opened his eyes, Bette Davis wide, to New York theater. By Ben Brantley via Thessaloniki Film Festival   Finding the Magic of Cinema in the Tedium of Quarantine A Greek festival invited some top art-house filmmakers to create short movies about the lockdown experience. Here are five. By Farah Nayeri

CRITICS’ PICKS critic’s pick ‘Selah and the Spades’ Review: This Isn’t Your Average Teen Drama New talent behind and in front of the camera elevates a familiar tale of high-school strife. By Teo Bugbee

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