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.
Daughters (Netflix)
The new Netflix documentary Daughters.Courtesy of Netflix/Netflix
Bizarrely not being released on Father’s Day weekend, the new Netflix documentary Daughters is still appointment viewing that will leave any parent absolutely crushed, in the most beautifully tragic kind of way. Directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, the Sundance hit follows a group of incarcerated men near Washington, who prepare for an annual tradition that is as heartbreaking as it sounds: a daddy-daughter dance held inside the walls of a jail. Intertwining narratives of the men as they participate in a fatherhood-coaching program and the children that they have left behind, the film builds to a crescendo of eye-watering emotion. Yet the filmmakers never condescend to their subjects or audience, letting the various families’ stories build naturally. The result is a documentary as intimate as it is overwhelming. I can tell that you’re already crying. Just sit back and embrace the tears.
Jackpot! (Prime Video, starting Aug. 15)
John Cena and Awkwafina in Jackpot!danmcfadden-legendary/Amazon Prime
Technical problems prevented me from previewing the new action-comedy Jackpot! ahead of its release, but I have reasonably high hopes for what might otherwise appear to be dead-end summer junk. Sure, the plot might be a so high concept that it borders on Running Man-redundancy: Set in the near future, the film imagines a California that has established a lottery in which the lucky person who kills a randomly selected citizen gets a multibillion-dollar payday. But on the other hand, the new action-comedy is directed by Paul Feig, who made Bridesmaids, The Heat, A Simple Favor, and 2015′s Spy, the latter being one of the best comedies of the past quarter-century. (Yes, I am deadly serious. Go watch it!) Plus, Jackpot! is also headlined by John Cena, who is consistently game for whatever goofy antics are thrown his way, no matter the strength of the material. One more for the demerit side, though: Cena is paired here with Awkwafina, who can be either charmingly relatable (The Farewell) or aggravatingly annoying (almost everything else).
Le Bureau, full series (Paramount+)
Mathieu Kassovitz in Le Bureau.Courtesy of Sundance Now
Before director George Clooney’s remake of the French spy series Le Bureau, retitled The Agency and starring Michael Fassbender, arrives on Paramount+ later this year, the streamer has wisely added all five seasons of the original drama. And if you binge the series like my wife and I did at the start of the pandemic, when it was only available via the more niche streamer Sundance Now, you might quickly wonder why Clooney and his talented cast – which also includes Jeffrey Wright, Katherine Waterston, Jodie Turner-Smith and Richard Gere – have even bothered to try to recapture the addictive je ne sais quoi of the original.
Starring Mathieu Kassovitz as a legendary undercover agent working for France’s equivalent of the CIA, Le Bureau relies less on massive twists than it does the intricate details and complex geopolitics of international espionage. A healthy layer of sexual intrigue, and the late-series addition of French superstar Mathieu Amalric as a slippery foe to Kassovitz’s character, propel Le Bureau to fantastic just-one-more-episode heights. Watch it now, before Clooney and Co. surely attempt to soften the often brutally intense material.
Despicable Me 4 (on-demand, including Apple TV, Amazon, Cineplex Store)
Gru, voiced by Steve Carell, and Gru Jr. in a scene from Despicable Me 4.Illumination & Universal Pictures/The Associated Press
Something is definitely amiss when the No. 3 movie at the North American box office is also available to now watch at home, but such are the mysteries of the movie business circa 2024. I’m sure someone is making gobs of money somehow, so I guess parents might as well succumb and digitally purchase Despicable Me 4 now that the hit is available on any screen, at any time.
The Minion mayhem this time around is about as madcap as the previous three Despicable Me movies – plus the little yellow guys’ stand-alone spinoff from a few years back. Yet, from my somewhat defeated perch, the Minions have evolved from being mildly irritating merchandising opportunities to subversively slapstick-ian anti-heroes of the first order. Given that contemporary animated films operate on either one of two default modes – Pixar’s sentimental nostalgia or Disney’s theatre-kid mythology – there is something admiringly unruly about the Minions and their episodic anarchism.
Especially if the little weirdos are placed in such a bizarrely frenetic film as Despicable Me 4. The sequel isn’t a masterpiece of children’s entertainment by any stretch, but it is sufficiently bizarre and thrilling enough to turn the head of any kid, parent or – judging by the curiously populated press screening I attended – fully grown and childless adult around and around till the room resembles a Looney Tune.
Summer Qamp (Super Channel)
The Canadian documentary Summer Qamp is available on Super Channel.Theresa TET Millare/Cineflix 2023
After winning over audiences across the festival circuit – from last year’s world premiere at TIFF to Palm Springs and beyond – the Canadian documentary Summer Qamp is available as part of the perpetually overlooked programming on Super Channel. Chronicling one summer for a group of queer, non-binary and trans youth at a rural Alberta camp, director Jen Markowitz’s film arrives like a cozy fireside chat: tender, caring and warm. There are no political agendas here, only an honest portrait of kids being themselves. Grab a pack of smores and gather ‘round.