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

A weekly roundup of the new movies and TV series on Netflix, Crave, Prime and Criterion.

It’s an uncharacteristically big week for home video and streaming release, so much so that this is perhaps the first week since the beginning of the pandemic that would also be a big week were theatres open. Besides Judd Apatow’s The King of Staten Island (which is available through traditional VOD) and Artemis Fowl (which is the only new title to hit DisneyPlus this week), the week’s biggest title has to be Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee’s extraordinary new epic war movie. It hits Netflix today alongside a new stand-up special from Jo Koy and a new season of F Is for Family. Today also marks the release of The Search, a Spanish drama series based on a true story in which a little girl is found dead in bed after going missing for nine days. A little later this week, season 2 of the British crime drama Marcella, starring Anna Friel, drops on June 14. 

Conversely Netflix is a little light in terms of new. catalogue titles, with Sicario 2, Pitch Perfect 2 and Captain America: Civil War all hitting the service this week.

New on Amazon Prime

Amazon doesn’t have a big title to flaunt this week, but they practically make up for it with Knives Out, Rian Johnson’s extremely well-received murder mystery from last year. Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon and Daniel Craig star in this old-fashioned whodunit that is streaming on Amazon Prime as of today. Interestingly, a major Bollywood movie that saw its release cancelled is also being distributed by Amazon today. Gulabo Sitabo is a black comedy starring Amitabh Bachchan (likely the most famous movie star in India) as one of two men who go to war over a townhouse (or haveli). Another great movie from last year, the not-quite-a-biopic A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood also hits Amazon on June 18. There’s also a small drop of Canadian content with all six seasons of Republic of Doyle and the first three seasons of the Great Canadian Baking Show also hitting the service this week.

New on Crave

Season 2 of The Rookie, a basic cable cop show starring Nathan Fillion, drops today on Crave alongside James Gray’s Ad Astra and Corporate Animals, a black comedy starring Jessica Williams, Ed Helms and Demi Moore. That’s about it for Crave — unless you also have the Starz package, which adds half-a-dozen catalogue titles (Spy Game, Billy Elliot, etc.).

New on Criterion Channel

Criterion Channel has been unlocking films from their catalogue by Black filmmakers or about Black people and making them available even to non-subscribers. Films now available for streaming include Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, Maya Angelou’s Down in the Delta, Shirley Clarke’s Portrait of Jason, Agnès Varda’s Black Panthers, Kathleen Collins’ Losing Ground and Franco Rosso’s Babylon.

As part of the regular programming, find a queer retrospective programmed Michael Koresky named “Turn the Gaze Around” that features My Own Private Idaho, Fassbinder’s Querelle and Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus. On Monday, the extremely difficult to find documentary Original Cast Album: Company premieres on the Channel. Directed by D.A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back), it takes a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Stephen Sondheim’s Company. Later in the week, the Channel also features partial retrospectives of the works of Bette Gordon and Gregg Araki. ■

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.

For more coverage of new movies and TV series, visit the Film & TV section.

A weekly roundup of the new movies and TV series on Netflix, Crave, Prime and Criterion.