What’s new on Netflix, Prime, Crave and Criterion this week

It’s a “big” week for Netflix, relatively speaking. They have quite a line-up for us this week, though, as always, it’s a bit difficult to parse what’s of interest and what isn’t when pretty much no one on Earth has seen this stuff. (Case in point: I absolutely whiffed on the interest that the world would have for Tiger King when I previewed it a few weeks ago.)

The biggest title this week is almost certainly Tigertail, the feature directorial debut by Alan Yang, who is probably best known for his work on Parks and Recreation, Master of None, The Good Place and Amazon Prime’s Forever. Tigertail tells the story of a Taiwanese man (Tzi Ma, last seen in The Farewell) who moves to America to make a better life for himself. (See our review of Tigertail here.)

Probably less bound to be good is the latest jam from WWE Studios, who have partnered with Netflix for the family-oriented The Main Event starring Tichina Arnold, Adam Pally, Ken Marino and half-a-dozen actual WWE superstars. French slam superstar Grand Corps Malade co-directed La vie scolaire, a dramatic comedy about a young teacher who takes a job in a rough inner-city neighbourhood; the film was released to overall good reviews in France, while Netflix is handling distribution in the rest of the world. 

Olivia Munn and Sam Claflin star in Love Wedding Repeat, a romantic comedy that certainly sounds like it will hit all the bases of what one expects from a romantic comedy.

New shows and specials on Netflix

In terms of shows, there’s a new series called Brews Brothers about a pair of brothers who… open a microbrewery. (This exact set-up was explored in all three seasons of Easy, so who knows what’s left to say.) Comedian Chris d’Elia’s new special No Pain drops on April 15 and the only new catalogue title is Ocean’s 8, the impossibly generic all-female reboot whose chief quality is an excellent comedic performance from Anne Hathaway.

New on Prime

April 16 is the big release day over at Amazon Prime. First off, you can stream the first five seasons of the hit CBC show Schitt’s Creek, which came to an end this week. April 16 also sees the fairly belated and under-the-radar streaming release of A Million Little Pieces, the adaptation of the controversial James Frey novel starring Aaron Taylor-Johnston and Billy Bob Thornton. The film didn’t get panned when it premiered at TIFF last year, but it kind of came and went without much fanfare. Selah and the Spades is the directorial debut of Tayarisha Poe. It tells the story of two teenagers (Lovie Simone and Jharrel Jerome) who run a drug trafficking ring out of a prestigious private school. I didn’t love Zombieland 2: Double Tap (far from it, in fact) but I must admit that had I not already seen and hated it, I would probably be drawn to its brainless stupidity in these times.

In somewhat lesser news, B-grade actioner Line of Duty starring Aaron Eckhart drops on April 13 alongside Little Monsters, a horror-comedy starring Lupita Nyong’o. On April 15 you can catch the first four seasons of Superstore, the NBC workplace sitcom starring America Ferrara, as well as Citizen K, an Alex Gibney documentary about post-Soviet Russia and more specifically about exiled Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

New on Crave

On April 10, not just one but both of the cheesy live-action talking-dog movies released by studios in the last year comes to Crave. A Dog’s Journey, sequel to the 2017 film A Dog’s Purpose, sees Josh Gad as the voice of a dog who is reincarnated several times over. The Art of Racing in the Rain chronicles the life of a Golden Retriever voiced by Kevin Costner. In another act of bizarre serendipity, April 10 also sees the streaming release of the foul-mouthed-preteens comedy Good Boys and the foul-mouthed-high-schoolers comedy Good Girls Get High. I haven’t heard much about the latter, but the former is a pretty decent stab at a genre that is all but gone from mainstream movie screens. (Not that those are particularly alive these days.)

Crave also stars streaming the new season of Insecure as of April 12, alongside the first episode of the new dark comedy Run, starring Merritt Weaver (Marriage Story) and Domnhall Gleeson (Brooklyn). The only catalogue title this week is the Al Pacino-starring thriller Sea of Love from 1989.

New on Criterion Channel

Keeping with its tradition of featuring at least one extensive collection every week, the Criterion Channel presents Starring Gary Cooper. The 19-film collection of works starring the prototypical Hollywood everyman starts streaming as of April 12. The next day, three films directed by Otto Preminger are on offer: Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and Bunny Lake is Missing (1965). For more recent arthouse hits, look no further than The Fits from 2012 or 45 Years from 2015. ■

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See what’s new on Netflix Canada here.

For what’s new on Crave, click here.

Find out what’s new on Amazon Prime here.

See what’s new on Criterion Channel here.

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