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)
The Whale (Prime Video)
The one overwhelmingly positive thing that you’ve heard about Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale is true: Oscar-wining star Brendan Fraser does a remarkable job. Playing a morbidly obese English professor who spends his life refusing to leave the confines of his dank apartment, Fraser not only brings a level of tenderness to the proceedings but genuine excitement and spirit. By channelling heretofore unseen depths of emotional strength, Fraser accomplishes something far more impressive than simply resurrecting his career – he resurrects his own moribund movie, which without him would evaporate. Read review
Sisu (on-demand, including Apple TV and Google Play)
Taking Brad Pitt’s famous Inglourious Basterds monologue to ridiculously gory new heights, the Finnish action movie Sisu is all about “doin’ one thing and one thing only: killin’ Nazis.” And director Jalmari Helander’s new film does that one thing very, very well. Across 91 swift and brutal minutes, Sisu explores new and vividly grisly ways to dispose of Nazis, following a war vet Aatami (Jorma Tommila) prospecting for gold in the remote wilderness who is confronted by a squad of SS officers. What follows is a cavalcade of hardcore violence, with the stoic and largely silent Aatami picking off members of the platoon one by one, like a 1940s era John Wick. If watching mass-murdering maniacs get absolutely destroyed on-screen is your thing – and it very much is mine – then Sisu is a perfectly depraved night in.
Wind River (Netflix)
Today, Taylor Sheridan is television’s billion-dollar man, responsible for running the increasingly sprawling Yellowstone franchise. But half a decade ago he was just making his directorial bones, starting with this tight little thriller whose setting (a Native American reservation in Wyoming), story (a murder-mystery), and characters (taciturn heroes holding grudges and secrets) telegraphed where he was heading. Starring Jeremy Renner as a veteran game-tracker and Elizabeth Olsen as a FBI agent, Wind River follows the unlikely pair as they unravel a murder-mystery. It’s a tidy little whodunit, with a late-act switch in perspective that works better than it should. Although, sure, it could use some Kevin Costner gravitas.
Soft (on-demand, including Apple TV and Google Play)
When it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this past September, Canadian filmmaker Joseph Amenta’s feature debut arrived with a more provocative, but perhaps unsellable, title. Now making its way to home audiences after a short theatrical run, it is very much worth taking the time to explore the hard world of Soft. A coming-of-age film that feels like Larry Clark’s infamous urban tragedy Kids stripped of its sleaze, the film follows three young genderqueer friends in Toronto over the course of one summer. Amenta operates with their heart on their sleeve and ambitions on-camera, finding tremendous strength with its trio of performers and a vision of the city that is as alive and energetic as it is malicious.
The Office, Seasons 1-9 (Crave)
There could be a whole essay – or even limited series, really – about how the biggest thing to come out of the streaming wars is the resurgence of decades-old U.S. network television. There’s a reason, after all, why Crave sent out a press release the other week trumpeting its biggest acquisition of the year. No, it wasn’t a new movie or original series, but all nine seasons of NBC’s The Office. Previously housed in Netflix Canada’s catalogue, the sitcom is now live on Crave – because some times you’d just rather watch Michael Scott burn his foot on a George Foreman Grill for the umpteenth time rather than watch something new. Hey, I feel you.
Barry Hertz