Do you feel like you’re drowning … but you haven’t even left your couch? Welcome to the Great Content Overload Era. To help you navigate the choppy digital waves, here are The Globe’s best bets for weekend streaming.
What to watch in 2023: The best movies (so far)
Justified (Disney+ with Star)
Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins, Justified FXPrashant Gupta/FX
Ahead of this summer’s hotly anticipated premiere of the miniseries Justified: City Primeval, Disney+ Canada has recently (under its adult-oriented Star banner) added all six seasons of the original Justified series starring Timothy Olyphant. For audiences already acquainted with Olyphant’s slick lawman (first introduced in novels by Elmore Leonard), then you’re probably already navigating your smart TV trying to figure out how to binge all the deliciously twisty episodes. For those who have yet to experience the darkly funny drama, which centres on a marshal going toe-to-toe with his childhood best friend/criminal rival (played by Walton Goggins), then you are in for a drawl-heavy treat.
Another Round (Mubi)
When Mads Mikkelsen isn’t busy as Hollywood’s go-to villain of vague European ancestry – see the Danish actor bust out a Nazi-era German accent in this summer’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – the performer is making some of the best small-scale dramas of our times. Take this 2020 film from frequent collaborator Thomas Vinterberg, which won best international film at the 2021 Academy Awards (not that many noticed, given that year the Oscars were basically an awards show with an asterisk). Now streaming on Mubi – which is making a bigger push into Canada – the film stars Mikkelsen as a father enduring a midlife crisis the only way he can: by drinking himself stupid. But Another Round isn’t an Apatow-esque exercise in manly buffooneries – this is a layered, heartfelt and ultimately uplifting masterpiece.
The Intern (Netflix)
The other week, director Nancy Meyers was catapulted back into the film-trade headlines after it was reported that Netflix balked at the $130-million budget for Paris Paramount, her first feature since 2015′s The Intern. While the fate of that new movie is uncertain, the whole news cycle provides as good a reason as any to revisit Meyers’s last film, an extremely delightful charmer that finds great buddy-comedy chemistry between Anne Hathaway (playing a workaholic executive) and Robert De Niro (as her new intern, entering the job force to distract him from the death of his wife). And yes, the film features some tremendous kitchens, as is expected from any Nancy Meyers joint.
Unarmed Verses (Highball TV)
Sometimes you have to expand your streaming horizons beyond the big players and seek out the more niche outlets. Such as Canadian indie streamer Highball TV, which has quietly been building a solid library of licenced and original programming. Released in 2017, Unarmed Verses is Canadian documentarian Charles Officer’s look at chronicling urban change and renewal. Looking at the revitalization of Toronto’s Villaways housing complex, the film uses young resident Francine Valentine as an avatar to examine themes of gentrification, community and class. That Officer is able to accomplish such a task with effortless grace makes the doc a priceless artifact of 21st-century urban life.
Succession (HBO/Crave)
After four episodes of extremely high drama (and gutter-low insults), Succession is set to deliver the next episode of its fourth and final season with some big surprises. Truly, because at this point, every television writer is flying blind, having been given early access by HBO to only the season’s first four instalments. Will Kendall really torpedo his father’s legacy, against the wishes of brother and new co-CEO Roman? Is Connor’s marriage going to survive his presidential bid? Will Tom and Greg continue their run as the “disgusting brothers”? So many questions, and the only answers will be provided live on Sunday between 9 and 10 p.m. (and then immediately afterward on every single social-media platform you belong to).