Heartfelt, heartbreaking, and pulse-pounding romances make up most of the best streaming platforms have to offer this week. There’s comedy, suspense and hopefully a few chills. In addition, there is a film with Daniel Radcliffe as a windy corpse. What more could a viewer want?
What to watch on Netflix
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The guilty pleasure phenomenon is back, now with a new location, a new alias for Penn Badgley’s serial killer and a new (ish) obsession. The first part of you Season 4 sees Joe in London, free from his past life in the United States, disguised as a literature professor and rubbing shoulders with some of the British elite. Tati Gabrielle returns as Marienne, though it’s unclear how she’ll resurface after narrowly escaping Joe and his dearly departed. Only five episodes will be released in this Part 1 batch, so you’re sure to be left with a lot of questions, cliffhangers, and nail biters. Part 1 of Season 4 of you premieres on Thursday, February 9e.
What to watch on Hulu
Ruby Sparks
The manic pixie dream girl trope was a blight on female representation in the ’00s and ’10s, but few movies were smart enough to satirize it as Ruby Sparks. In this quasi-romcom, Paul Dano plays a struggling young novelist, desperate for an idea that will live up to the high expectations of his first release. Inspired by a dream, he creates and falls for a character he calls Ruby Sparks – but is barely prepared when Ruby shows up at his house. Zoe Kazan does double duty writing the script while also playing Ruby. Ruby Sparks became available to stream early this month.
What to watch on Amazon Prime
Beast
We’ve seen about a billion and two movies between man and shark, but last year’s Beast shook things up a bit by putting the audience in the middle of the African savannah, facing a terrifying lion. Idris Elba stars as a recent widower who brings his two daughters to a nature reserve in South Africa, hoping to take their minds off the loss of their mother and reconnect with them. Of course, the family outing hardly goes as planned; instead, a lion seeks vengeance against the humans who have hunted its kin, but it is barely able to tell the difference between friend and foe, predator and prey. Beast premieres on Tuesday, February 7e.
What to watch on HBO Max
Swiss Army
Although director duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert have clearly hit the jackpot Everything Everywhere Everything at once, which is hardly their first strange success story. In fact, Daniels’ feature film debut, Swiss Army, is perhaps even more strange. Paul Dano stars as Hank, a man stranded on a deserted island and ready to end it all, until he sees another man – or rather a corpse – wash up on shore. From fart jokes to spontaneous CPR, it’s a movie that prides itself on its many quirks, including a stellar Daniel Radcliffe as the aforementioned corpse. Swiss Army started streaming at the beginning of the month.
rich in light
An Academy Award nominee for Best Cinematography (thanks, Roger Deakins), rich in light notices that writer-director Sam Mendes is getting significantly smaller than his last few films. In this romantic drama, Olivia Colman plays a cinema manager in a small English coastal town in the early 1980s, plagued by mental illness and desperate for a meaningful connection. She finds one in Stephen (Michael Ward), but as one of the few black Britons around, he is the target of racial harassment and violence. Though each person struggles, they find a piece of themselves in each other and the cinema that employs and enlivens them. rich in light premieres on streaming Tuesday, February 7e.
What to watch on Apple TV+
Dear Edward
This new drama looks at the aftermath of a particularly tragic survival story. Dear Edward focuses on a 12-year-old boy who is the sole survivor of a plane crash. After losing his parents and his brother, he must move in with his aunt (Taylor Schilling), a woman who must juggle the hardships of losing a sibling with the newfound responsibility of caring for a child. The show also lasts a This is us kind of approach to drama, delving into other storylines surrounding those lost in the crash and exploring how their loved ones live. Dear Edward premieres on Friday, February 3ed.
What to watch is a regular endorsement of movies and TV worth your streaming time.
