Looking to settle in with a good movie? Me too. That's why I've pored over the release schedules of major streaming services to bring you the best original and new-to-streaming movies you can watch right now.
This week, excellent professional wrestling movie The Iron Claw shows up on Max, and Tom Brady gets roasted on Netflix. That's not all, of course. Read on for the best original flicks to watch this week, with some "maybe you missed it in theaters?" choices too.
The Iron Claw (2023)
Even though The Iron Claw was nearly universally lauded by critics, it wasn't nominated for a single Oscar. Rip-off! Maybe a movie about professional wrestling is too lowbrow for "The Academy," but their loss. Yes, The Iron Claw is about wrestling, but it's also about mourning, loss, and the resilience of family. Plus, The Iron Claw features fantastic performances from Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White (The Bear), and Harris Dickinson as the real-life Von Erich brothers, a wrestling dynasty beset by so much tragedy they come to believe they've been cursed. After watching this flick, it's hard to argue with them.
Where to stream: Max
Roast of Tom Brady
Most football fans are eager to see ex-Patriots quarterback Tom Brady get taken down a few pegs, and this roast brings in Jeff Ross, Kevin Hart, and a host of the most vicious comedians on Earth to hit Brady harder than a 260-pound linebacker. And they don't make helmets for your feelings. The Roast of Tom Brady was broadcast live and unedited, ensuring an anything-might-happen evening of insults and comedy.
Where to stream: Netflix
Fire in the Sky (1993)
I recently went on a bender of movies where people are abducted by aliens, and Fire in the Sky is the best of them. Despite the mixed reviews from Rotten Tomatoes, this movie makes the most clichéd version of an alien kidnapping story terrifying by keeping everything as grounded and realistic as as possible, until main character Travis Walton takes a traumatic UFO ride (with probing). Then everything goes batshit. Fire in the Sky leans into the inscrutable, impossible-to-understand nature of aliens in a way I found deeply unsettling. The fact that everything in the movie can be fact-checked against real life (except the UFO trip, of course) makes it extra creepy.
Where to stream: Paramount+
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Picnic at Hanging Rock's director Peter Weir went on to make The Truman Show, but I prefer this film's mysterious vibe and slow burn. Set in the early 1900s, the picnic of the title is a Valentine's day excursion to Australia's Mt. Macedon undertaken by a group of students from a nearby girl's boarding school. While on the rock, something happens—it's not possible to say what, exactly—and only some of the party returns. Beautifully photographed and shot through with mystery, Picnic at Hanging Rock is must-watch.
Where to stream: Criterion Channel
Living with Leopards
I'm a sucker for nature documentaries, so I'm psyched for this made-in-the-UK movie that details the lives of a pair of leopard cubs, from birth to adulthood. Living with Leopards promises an up-close-and personal look at a the coming-of-age of some of the most majestic creatures on earth.
Where to stream: Netflix
Last week's picks
The Idea of You
If you like romantic comedies, The Idea of You will make your week. Based on a novel by Robinne Lee that began as a piece of Harry Styles fan fiction, this romantic comedy stars Anne Hathaway as Solène, a 40-year-old single mom who goes to Coachella and unexpectedly falls in love with Hayes (Nicholas Galitzine), the 24-year-old singer in August Moon, a band playing the main stage. The Idea of You is sitting at a 90% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers praising Hathaway's excellent performance, the romantic chemistry between the movie's leads, and the film's easygoing, character-driven comedy.
Where to stream: Prime
All that Heaven Allows (1955)
To accompany the release of The Idea of You, Prime is dropping an older take on the May/December romance genre for fans of classic films: 1955's All That Heaven Allows. Jane Wyman plays a rich widow whose life is defined by the opinions of her snooty children and the squares at the country club. Rock Hudson plays the dashing young landscaper/free spirit she falls in love with. Upon its release, All The Heaven Allows was regarded as a well-made melodramatic romance, but director Douglas Sirk was secretly satirizing 1950s middle-class mores and Hollywood romance clichés, a piece of cinematic misdirection that wasn't noticed until decades later.
Where to stream: Prime
Turtles All the Way Down
Based on the young adult novel by John Green (The Fault in our Stars), Turtles All the Way Down is a great choice if you're looking for a deeper than usual coming-of-age movie. High-schooler Aza Holmes (Isabela Merced) suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder, so the normal moments and milestones of her teenage life are informed by her mental illness—i.e., a first kiss is about both an expression of young love and her paralyzing fear of a potential bacterial infection. Green's novel has earned 4.5 stars from readers on Goodreads, and early reviews of the film are positive, so this is definitely worth a stream.
Where to stream: Max
Unfrosted
If you like movies about brands, you're going to be very pleased with Unfrosted. Jerry Seinfeld co-wrote, directed, co-produced, and stars in this comedy that tells the origin story of Pop-Tarts, America's favorite breakfast rectangle. Set in Michigan in 1963, Unfrosted details the cutthroat competition between breakfast kingpins Kellogg's and Post, as each races to develop and market a breakfast pastry for the masses before the other guy steals the show.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Contestant
Back in the late 1990s, Japan took reality TV to its limit with A Life in Prizes, a show in which unknown comedian Nasubi was imprisoned and naked in a bare room and tasked with staying there until he’d won a million yen through mail-order contests. Unbeknownst to Nasubi, his journey into near madness was being broadcast weekly and he’d become the most famous man in Japan. The Contestant tells the full story of this strange experiment through footage from A Life in Prizes and interviews with its director, producers, star, and others who were there. If you like out-there docs, give it a look.
Where to stream: Hulu
Stop Making Sense
Stop Making Sense is the best concert movie ever been made, and I will fight you if you disagree (it's also great to watch when you're high). To celebrate the 40th anniversary of its release, A24 has restored and remastered Jonathan Demme's masterpiece to preserve a pristine, streamable 4k vision of the Talking Heads at the height of their power for posterity (or for at least as long as it remains in Max's rotation). The years have done nothing to diminish the pure joy of watching a new wave band jamming out with funk legends like Parliament keyboardist Bernie Worrell and Brothers Johnson guitarist Alex Weir on banger after banger.
Where to stream: Max
Prom Dates
In this Hulu original coming-of-age comedy, Julia Lester and Antonia Gentry play best friends Jess and Hannah. They've always wanted to have a perfect prom night, but just a day before the big night, everything goes haywire, and they break up with their dates. With only 24 hours until prom, Jess and Hannah will have to get creative to make their perfect night happen. With its classic teen movie set-up and no-holds-barred portrayal of the awkwardness of adolescence, Prom Dates is one to watch for teens, and anyone who has been a teen in the past.
Where to stream: Hulu
The Beach Boys
I love The Beach Boys, first because of Brian Wilson's genius music, but also because, despite their squeaky clean image, they were the most hardcore, drugged out, batshit crazy rock band in history—think Black Sabbath times 100. I doubt this Disney+ documentary will dig into the story of The Beach Boys' collaboration with Charles Manson or other more extreme moments from their personal lives (too many actual band members interviewed for it to be that kind of movie) but I'll watch it anyway because Brian Wilson is the greatest that ever was.
Where to stream: Disney+
The Holdovers (2023)
I can’t say enough positive things about The Holdovers. A character-driven drama directed by the great Alexander Payne, The Holdovers stars Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham, a hardass classics instructor at a New England boarding school. Tasked with babysitting a crew of poor-little-rich-boys with nowhere to go over Christmas vacation, Hunham strikes up an unlikely friendship with troubled-but-intelligent delinquent Angus Tully (played by Dominic Sessa) and the school's cook, Mary Lamb (a role for which actor Da'Vine Joy Randolph won an Academy Award). It’s the kind of movie that you know will make you cry about five minutes in, but the tears are honest, man.
Where to stream: Prime
Secrets of the Neanderthals
Sir Patrick Stewart narrates this documentary that tries to figure out what those Neanderthals have been hiding from us for 300,000 years. In its quest for answers, Secrets of the Neanderthals takes viewers all over the world, examines the fossil record, and consults top researchers in the field to ask, "What is the deal with cavemen?"
Where to stream: Netflix
Peeping Tom (1960)
Whether Peeping Tom "counts" as the first slasher movie is debatable, but the film's portrayal of a serial killer who murders women with a blade attached to a camera so he can film their last moments is creepier than most splatter movies, even all these years later. Voyeuristic, violent, and deeply unsettling, Peeping Tom was once a critically-derided, impossible-to-see film. It has since been reappraised and given the Criterion blessing so all you need to do it click on it. If you're into horror, but also into quality, don't miss this blood-soaked gem.
Where to stream: Criterion Channel
All of the Die Hard movies
This week, action fans will be able to follow a quarter century of NYPD detective John McClane’s edge-of-your seat adventures when Hulu drops all five Die Hard movies, from the 1988 original to 2013’s A Good Day to Die Hard, all at once. Don’t act like you have something better to do than plan a marathon. It’s what Bruce Willis would want.
Where to stream: Hulu