The Best Movies and TV Shows New to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and HBO in February
By Monica Castillo, nytimes.com
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New to Netflix-------
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American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson’ (Feb. 2) One of the best TV series of 2016 finally makes it to a subscription streaming platform. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Finding Dory’ This sequel to Pixar’s hit undersea adventure, “Finding Nemo,” catches up with Marlin the clown fish father (voiced by Albert Brooks), his son Nemo (Alexander Gould) and their forgetful friend, Dory the blue tang (Ellen DeGeneres). This time it’s Dory’s turn to seek her family across the ocean. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Paris Is Burning’ This 1991 documentary is a must for fans of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” or anyone interested in New York City or L.G.B.T. history. “Paris Is Burning” follows several drag queen groups (known as “houses”) in New York City as they compete against each other in extravagant drag balls. In between the fashion shows and vogue dancing, the subjects talk candidly about poverty and race. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Babe’ A misfit pig learns to herd sheep like his adoptive Border collie parents in this fluffy family movie, cowritten by the “Mad Max” director, George Miller. “Charlotte’s Web” vibes aside, “Babe” is a cute film about finding your place in the world. Or in Babe’s case, a farm. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Magic Mike’ Don’t forget to bring your own singles. In this Steven Soderbergh drama, Magic Mike (Channing Tatum) takes a young stripper-to-be (Alex Pettyfer) under his tutelage but secretly wants out of the spotlight to start his own furniture company. Thanks to an inspired casting decision, Matthew McConaughey plays Dallas, a strip-club owner and seductive M.C.. All right, all right. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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The Nightmare Before Christmas’ It is neither Halloween nor Christmas, but that won’t stop you from getting a Danny Elfman song (or two) from this movie stuck in your head. Halloween Town’s Jack Skellington (voiced by Elfman and Chris Sarandon) kidnaps Santa Claus and tries to help him by giving out gifts on Christmas Eve. Well, that was the plan. Then the Boogeyman arrives. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Clouds of Sils Maria’ (Feb. 12) A famous actress (Juliette Binoche) returns to the play that launched her career decades before, but this time in the role of an older, suicidal woman. A new starlet (Kristen Stewart) takes the actress’s original part, that of an attractive young woman, in this film about fame and youth. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Milk’ (Feb. 15) This portrait of California’s first openly gay official, Harvey Milk, follows the politician’s rise from San Francisco activist to civil servant. Sean Penn won a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Milk. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
Arnold Schwarzenegger in “The Running Man.”Braveworld Productions
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New on Hulu-------
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The Golden Girls’ (Feb. 13) Thank you for being a friend, “Golden Girls,” and for finally being available to stream. The veteran comedy, about four senior women (including one mother-daughter pair) living together in Miami, is one of the greats, and it more than holds up, even 25 years after it went off the air. If you haven’t seen it in a while, be prepared to be delighted: It’s funnier — and, honestly, dirtier — than you might remember. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Sabrina’ Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn may have had a slight age difference (O.K., a 30-year difference), but that didn’t stop old Hollywood from coupling them up in this 1954 romantic comedy from director Billy Wilder. Hepburn plays the love interest of two rich brothers played by Bogart and William Holden. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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The Running Man’ It’s 2017, the economy has collapsed, the United States has shut its borders and represses dissenters … and wait, where are you going? I haven’t gotten to the part where Arnold Schwarzenegger competes in a deadly reality TV show! (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Shakespeare in Love’ For the English Lit majors who wrote fanfic about The Bard, here’s a 1998 romantic drama starring Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow as the poet and his muse. Academy voters fell for the movie too, awarding “Shakespeare in Love” seven Oscars, including best picture and, for Paltrow, best actress. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Soapdish’ In this 1991 movie, a chaotic soap opera set becomes comedic fodder for a large ensemble cast that includes Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Robert Downey Jr. and Whoopi Goldberg. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Margin Call’ (Feb. 3) This 2011 financial thriller follows several employees as they try to rescue the investment bank where they work, after a junior analyst (Zachary Quinto) discovers that the bank may be going bust. Years after the 2008 recession, this movie still has bite, tapping into lingering economic anxieties. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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The Dog’ (Feb. 3) In the sweaty 1975 New York film “Dog Day Afternoon,” a charismatic bank robber (Al Pacino) botches a heist to steal money for his partner’s sex change operation. As if that story weren’t sensational enough, the documentary “The Dog” reveals the real-life robber who inspired it as an even more outrageous and unapologetic figure than his Hollywood counterpart. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
Also of Interest
“The American President,”
“Escape from Alcatraz,”
“The Firm,”
“Girl, Interrupted,”
“Hoosiers,”
“Revolutionary Road,”
“Pretty in Pink,”
“The Station Agent,”
“There Will Be Blood”
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New on Amazon Prime-------
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The Americans’ Season 4 (Feb. 15) Amazon Prime has been the streaming home for “The Americans” for a while now. If you aren’t caught up through last season’s episodes, you still have a few weeks before the Season 5 premiere on March 7. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Author: The J.T. LeRoy Story’ (Feb. 16) Writer Laura Albert wasn’t the first author to try to pass as someone else, but her creation of a young man (J.T. LeRoy) suffering from H.I.V. and abuse earned her celebrity attention and public adoration. Well, until her alternative persona was exposed. This documentary retraces Albert’s deception and its subsequent fallout. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Thelma & Louise’ (Feb. 27) This girl power favorite about two best friends (Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon) starts innocuously enough but gets serious when the friends have to flee the cops after one of them kills a rapist. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
Also of Interest
“Nuts!,”
“Hoosiers,”
“Sabrina,”
“The Running Man,”
Several James Bond movies (again!)
“Margin Call” (Feb.4).
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Movies New to HBO-------
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A Bigger Splash’ Tilda Swinton plays a (temporarily) voiceless rock star, Ralph Fiennes is her former manager, and Matthias Schoenaerts and Dakota Johnson play their partners in this lusty psychodrama set in a gorgeous island paradise. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Broadcast News’ In this 1987 romantic comedy by James L. Brooks, workplace drama flows freely in a love triangle between an ambitious news producer (Holly Hunter), a principled reporter (Albert Brooks) and a charismatic but dim anchorman (William Hurt). (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Clockers’ Several Spike Lee movies are coming to HBO this month, including this murder mystery starring Mekhi Phifer, Harvey Keitel and John Turturro, based on a book by the great novelist Richard Price. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Crooklyn’ This film shows a milder side of Spike Lee (it’s rated PG-13) compared with his usual fare . With a nostalgic lens on his Brooklyn neighborhood in the ’70s, Lee’s 1994 drama follows the busy brownstone life of a teacher (Alfre Woodard), her musician husband (Delroy Lindo) and their five rambunctious kids. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Do the Right Thing’ Perhaps the most recognized Spike Lee movie, the Oscar-nominated “Do the Right Thing” is as potent and relevant now as it was in 1989, as its characters face racism, gentrification and police brutality. Set on the hottest day in the year, Mookie (Lee) observes the rising racial tensions between his neighbors, business owners and cops on his Brooklyn block. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Mo’ Better Blues’ Since Denzel Washington is up for yet another Oscar for his latest film “Fences,” check out one of his earlier roles as a quarreling jazz bandleader in this 1990 drama from Spike Lee. Wesley Snipes and Samuel L. Jackson co-star. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Raging Bull’ Robert De Niro gives one of cinema’s most unforgettable performances in this 1980 Oscar-winning drama from Martin Scorsese, “Raging Bull.” In telling the story of boxer Jake La Motta, De Niro shaped his body and mannerisms to play the fighter throughout his career, from a scrappy rookie to an overweight has-been. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Crimson Peak’ (Feb. 5) Guillermo del Toro’s latest was marketed as a horror film, but this gothic romance/ghost story is more in line with Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” than it is with “The Conjuring.” In it, a young writer in 1887 (Mia Wasikowska) is wooed away by a dashing stranger (Tom Hiddleston) to his creepy house, which is most certainly haunted. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Tickled’ (Feb. 27) When the journalist David Farrier set out to do a puff piece about a tickling competition, he didn’t intend to discover the dark underbelly of a subculture of tickling fetishists. This was one of the more original and surprising documentaries of 2016. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
HBO Original Series
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Girls’ (Feb. 12) Season 6 will be the final season for Lena Dunham’s hot-take-inspiring series. (Add it to your Watchlist.)
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Big Little Lies’ (Feb. 19) There’s nothing little about the big name cast (Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley) in this adaptation of the 2014 novel by Liane Moriarty.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/w...T.nav=top-news