Watch at Home: Tales from Captain Marvel's City, Mother
Nathaniel R giving you the heads up on what's available to you now to screen at home.
New on DVD/Blu-Ray
Captain Marvel - The year's second biggest hit, and less of a prequel of Avengers Endgame than we were expecting given Carol Danvers itty-bitty part in that ensemble behemoth, is now available in a physical copy if you're into those. Also out today: the hit indie The Mustang starring Belgium's golden perfection Matthias Schoenaerts, the sci-fi drama Captive State, and the romantic drama Five Feet Apart.
Notable iTunes 99¢ Deals
It's a weak week this time for those special deals with not much in the way of exciting pictures. But if you've never seen David Cronenberg's masterful Dead Ringers (1988) or the lesbian indie classic The Watermelon Woman (1996) now is as good a time as any.
New to Streaming
[LAUGHING] Oh this is surreal!
Tales of the City (2019) on Netflix
The Lovely Laura Linney is back in one of her signature roles as Mary Ann Singleton in this continuation of the classic Armistead Maupin series about life in gay ol' San Francisco...
Paul Gross and Olympia Dukakis also reprise their roles from the original series though most of the characters / cast are new. Murray Bartlett (from Looking) takes over the role of Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver which has been played by a different actor in all three 'seasons' (1993, 1998, and 2019). Cannot wait to watch this.
Did I tell you to go through my stuff?
I Am Mother (2019) on Netflix
For a second we were hoping this was a documentary on mother! (2017) but it turns out its a new sci-fi Netflix original about a teenage girl raised by a robot. Somehow Hilary Swank factors in (we assume she's the teen star's onscreen biological mother because they look so similar) but we haven't watched it yet. You?
What is it?
Vox Lux (2018) on Hulu
I know Natalie I know. That's what I was asking about this whole movie. If you've seen this we'd love to hear your take on Natalie Portman's bold gif-friendly performance as an abrasive pop star with a mass shooting as part of her origin story as a teenager. At the time we wondered if it she was going way too big, but the performance sure does linger and we love that she's been experimental in her star turns lately.
Al-Qaeda? Aren't they a country? Why can't we just bomb them?
Vice (2018) on Hulu
See why it was nominated for 8 Oscars! (Actually the smug chaotic movie won't solve that riddle... we're still asking why. Who loved it enough to vote for it everywhere?)
-I told you but you were already fucking drunk and pissin' yourself a swansong.
A Star is Born (2018) on HBOGo
Still so mad the Oscar for Supporting Actor didn't go to either Sam Elliott or Richard E Grant in terrific actually supporting roles. And I rage whenever I think of Bradley Cooper's wrenching soul-deep star turn losing Best Actor to a weak all surface impersonation. ARGHHHHH. Time only makes us angrier about the mass delusions that Bohemian Rhapsody was a quality picture. True story: Yesterday I actually had a dream that I was watching a new musical in a movie theater and when the end credits started during the final song the movie theater turned off the sound (the way TV ignores shoves end credits to the side and plays commercials over them) and piped in a radio station as waiting music and the song was "Bohemian Rhapsody". I turned beat red and was screaming like a madman demanding to speak to the manager.
Clearly I need some therapy to get over the last Oscar season before the madness starts all over again.
also...
New to Netflix this week: Malibu Rescue s1, Madame Secretary s3, Documentary Now s3, 3% s3, Designated Survivor s3, Black Mirror s5, Belmonte, Black Godfather, The Chef Show, Dr Seuss the Grinch, Elisa & Marcela, A Silent Voice, Alles is Gut, Berlin I Love You, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Todos Lo Saben,Pachamama, Rock My Heart, and Super Monsters Monster Pets
New to Hulu this week: The Weekly s1, District 9, Jackass 3, The Handmaids Tale s3, Shakespeare in Love, Into the Dark: They Come Knocking, So you Think You Can Dance s16, and I Still See You (Hulu)
New to Prime this week: Chasing Happiness, Creative Galaxy s3, Home Again, District 9, and Jackass 3
New to HBOGo: Axios s2, Chernobyl, The 15:17 to Paris, The Cold Blue, Big Little Lies 2, Gentleman Jack finale, and Ice on Fire.
ICYMI --What's streaming in June
Reader Comments (10)
I need more Laura Linney in my life. I've seen her Tony's beef like 30 times.
I feel you Nat my votes were with Grant and Elliot,either would have been extremely worthy,nothing agianst Ali's performance just his winning for it
Tales of the City is just ... fine
Yep, BR success, Green Book’s triumph and, most of all, Close’s loss (I know, Olivia, I know, still...) were too much to bear in just one evening, at least for me...
Nathaniel, that's an odd comment re: Vice! Not about its quality (though I liked it a bit more than you did) but asking who loved it enough to vote for it everywhere. Answer: no one! Because it racked up its nominations through the different branch votes - so at nominating stage, any voter could only vote for it in Best Picture and in the category (or in the case of acting, categories) their branch nominates - as you know! (But yes, eight nominations was a bit excessive.)
I share your pain on Bohemian Rhapsody's wins and on Bradley's loss!
I mean, I can kind of understand the Lead Actor nomination and the makeup nomination, and would have understood a Carell Supporting Actor nomination. But Rockwell? Adams? Direction? Picture? The script!? I mean, Fast & the Furious as the ending "look at how stupid these people are"? At least Bayformers is regressively stupid. Knocking a franchise that, as dumb/silly as it is, is TRYING to show the right future? Yeah, you look like the bigger idiot for singling it out. That ALONE should have DQ'd it from a script nomination.
Portman is tremendous in Vox Lux. You're right; it does linger, it may be the most memorable lead actress performance last year, aside from McCarthy's. I can't wait to rewatch it.
Congrats to The Handmaid's Tale and Bradley Whitford for finally giving us an interesting male character on that show, although the writing on the series has become so schizophrenic that June will probably move to a new house within the next 3 episodes.
Tales of the City is a cute enough distraction. The tone isn’t what I expected, but I’m not familiar at all with the previous installments of the series. All I know is that I love Laura Linney, and Murray Bartlett and Charlie Barnett are hot.
Thus far we are 3 episodes into Tales of the City and it's...you know, pretty good. It's quite *earnest* and that's not such a bad thing, but I miss the wry, distanced, gently satirical tone of the original PBS series (it was about as perfect an adaptation as could be). The followups were much less successful, as some of the key actors couldn't rejoin the cast. At any rate as far as the new series is concerned, it's great to see Laura Linney as Maryann again (even if I'm not crazy about the writing of her character thus far), and very nice to have Paul Gross reprise his role as Brian. Plus there's Murray Bartlett, who I've had a crush on since Looking, - he's doing great as Michael (do not like the actor playing his boyfriend though). The new characters are engaging, esp. Jake and Margot, and of course it's always good to see Ellen Page and Zosia Mamet (whose character here couldn't be any farther removed from her Shoshanna on Girls). I hate the music though: It sounds like the background music you hear on television ads for prescription medications, and the opening credits feel like an afterthought. Still, overall enjoying this, and look forward to seeing how it all wraps up.
Captain Marvel was a total dud. I like Larson generally, but she was not particularly good in it, either.