By Vianney Morales
Over the span of a few years, many streaming services have appeared. The variety can be overwhelming to pick from so I chose my top picks from (almost) every streaming service.
HBO Max: “The King of Staten Island” (Movie)
This semi-autobiographical film based on and starring Pete Davidson, directed by Judd Apatow (“Knocked Up,” “The 40 Year Old Virgin”), is a comedy-drama about what Davidson has described his life would be like if he hadn’t become successful with comedy.
Davidson plays Scott, an unemployed 20-something who lives with his mom (Marisa Tomei). After his younger sister (Maude Apatow) moves away for college and his mom starts dating, Scott is left to decide what he wants and who he wants to be.
Despite it being a comedy, there’s something so comforting and honest about Scott’s struggles with mental health, grief and adulthood. Oddly, there’s something about this film that instills hope that everything will be okay.
Hulu: “Fresh” (Movie)
If you find that the modern horror genre is underwhelming, “Fresh” is the exception.
Starring Daisy Edgar Jones (“Normal People”) and Sebastian Stan (“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” “Pam & Tommy”), the film makes for a solid movie night.
Jones plays Gen-Z’er Noa, who is simply trying to conquer the unpleasant dating scene. After the film opens with Noa’s distasteful date, she has a “meet cute” with Steve (Stan) at the grocery store.
Witty and alluring, Steve charms Noa. After getting to know each other more, the pair end up going to Steve’s remote cabin where gruesome chaos ensues.
Noa’s friend Mollie (Jonica T. Gibbs), suspects Steve wasn’t as Noa believed him to be when Noa disappears. What Mollie and Noa find out about Steve and his career as a so-called surgeon is beyond what they could have ever imagined.
Prime Video: “Knives Out” (Movie)
Although this film was released in 2019, I will recommend it to everyone I know.
The star-studded cast in the whodunnit film, directed by Rian Johnson (“Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi”), seek to find out what really happened to the late famous crime novelist Harlan Thrombey.
Some notable names in the cast include Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Daniel Craig and Chris Evans. This movie has social commentary, suspense, comedy, and above all, a magnetic plot.
Showtime: “Yellowjackets” (TV Series)
It only has one season but it’s worth a watch. The series centers around a New Jersey girls soccer team that gets in a plane crash in Canada in the 1990s. Most of the girls survive and they’re left to fend for themselves.
The series rotates back and forth to the girls from 2021 and 1996.
I would describe it as an edgy crossover between “Lord of the Flies” and “Pretty Little Liars.”
The underlying theme is what the girls had to do in order to survive in the isolation of the woods and the trauma they endured afterwards.
There’s a lot of mystery regarding who actually survived the woods and who didn’t. Beware: the plane crash scene is graphic but it really cements how traumatic the event was for the survivors.
Disney+: “WandaVision” (TV Series)
Even those that aren’t huge Marvel fans can enjoy “WandaVision.”
Although it’s set in fantasy and superhero lore, there’s a realness to the portrayal of Wanda’s (Elizabeth Olsen) grief that the series explores throughout the season.
There’s many references to iconic sitcoms like “I Love Lucy,” “The Brady Bunch” and “Malcolm in the Middle.”
Initially set in the format of nostalgic sitcoms and seemingly focusing on the normal domestic life between two Avengers, everything is not as it seems in Westview, New Jersey.
It’s a great watch if you plan on watching the upcoming “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” film.
