What's new on Netflix, Crave, Prime, Disney Plus, CBC, Apple TV, Criterion

A weekly round-up of the new movies and TV series on Netflix, Crave, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, CBC Gem and Criterion Channel

New on Netflix

The life of Tejano pop star Selena was already brought to the screen in the 1990s with Jennifer Lopez in the title role. Netflix’s take on her life and tragic death is the self-evidently titled Selena: The Series with Walking Dead alum Christian Serratos in the lead. It hits Netflix today alongside the long-anticipated fourth season of Big Mouth, the first to come out after Jenny Slate stepped down from voicing the character of Missy, a POC who is voiced by Ayo Edibiri in the last few episodes of the season. Other highlights for today include the Turkish comedy Layla Everlasting and the Indian animated film Bombay Rose.

David Fincher’s decades-in-the-making labour of love Mank also premieres today (see my review here). Based on a screenplay by his late father Jack, Mank follows alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he navigates the burgeoning movie industry and eventually writes Citizen Kane for “boy genius” Orson Welles.

There is, of course, a variety of Christmas specials and other Yuletide-themed programming of unclear origins hitting the service this week as well. I cannot vouch for the quality of things like Super Monsters: Santa’s Super Monster Helpers, but I’m sure they are appropriately Christmassed-out.

It’s not a huge week in terms of licensed titles, with three additions: Asghar Farhadi’s Everybody Knows (starring Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz), the Jessica Chastain-starring spy thriller Ava and Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, which is in fact the animated version from 2018 where Benedict Cumberbatch voices the titular character.

New on Crave

After a short-lived retirement that, in typical Soderbergh fashion, turned into increased productivity, Steven Soderbergh has been hard at work making every conceivable form and genre of movie again. Let Them All Talk (Dec. 10) sounds more like a Nancy Meyers movie than a Soderbergh one, but what’s a Soderbergh movie these days, anyway? Meryl Streep stars as an author who goes a cruise with her friends (Dianne Wiest, Candice Bergen) and is based on a screenplay by celebrated short-story writer Deborah Eisenberg.

Season 11 of Shameless — the most-watched and longest-running show no one ever talks about — begins on Dec. 6 alongside Bryan Cranston in Your Honor, a legal drama miniseries based on an Israeli series in which he plays a judge whose son (Hunter Doohan) is involved in a fatal hit-and-run. Two HBO documentaries are also making their premiere this week. Alabama Snake (Dec. 9 at 9 p.m.) explores the world of Pentecostal snake handlers and more specifically of a case in the early ’90s when a minister was accused of trying to murder his wife with a snake. 40 Years a Prisoner is an activist documentary following Mike Africa Jr., a man whose parents were jailed after police raided their radical back-to-earth commune in the 1970s and a police officer was killed.

New on Disney Plus

Jillian Bell stars as a fairy-godmother-in-training in Godmothered, a comedy from Sharon Maguire (Bridget Jones’ Diary). Bell’s godmother-in-training must take a jaded widow (Isla Fisher) under her wing and get her to believe, once again, in happily ever after. Also hitting the service this week is Cameron Crowe’s dopey We Bought a Zoo and Disney’s expensive bomb The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, starring Keira Knightley and Helen Mirren.

New on Amazon Prime Video

If you felt you’d been missing out on the discourse surrounding queer rom-com Happiest Season, you’re in luck — it hits Amazon Prime Canada this week! Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis star in this holiday-themed comedy.

New on Apple TV Plus

It’s Christmas-special season and Mariah Carey’s getting in on the action with Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special. The pop diva stars alongside Ariana Grande, Tiffany Haddish, Billy Eichner and… Snoop Dogg, of course.

New on CBC Gem

Deepa Mehta’s latest, Funny Boy, is premiering directly on the CBC’s streaming platform today, Dec. 4. An adaptation of the novel of the same title by Shyam Selvadurai, it tells the story of the sexual awakening of a young Sri Lankan boy during the Civil War. The film was Canada’s selection for the International Feature Film Oscar this year. Also hitting the service today is season 2 of The Detectorists and the British series Quiz, a dramatization of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire scandal starring Matthew Macfadyen (Succession).

New on Criterion Channel

Arnaud Depleschin’s forever impossible-to-find My Sex Life . . . or How I Got Into an Argument hits the Criterion Channel this week alongside its follow-up My Golden Days. An eight-film Mae West retrospective is available as of Dec. 6, as is the influential drag documentary Paris Is Burning. Three of Barbra Streisand’s directorial efforts are also available as of Wednesday. ■

See what’s new on Netflix Canada here.

For what’s new on Crave, click here.

Find out what’s new on Amazon Prime Video here.

See what’s new on Disney Plus here.

For what’s new on CBC Gem, click here.

Find out what’s new on Apple TV Plus here.

See what’s new on Criterion Channel here.

For more film and TV coverage, please visit the Film & TV section.

A weekly round-up of the new movies and TV series on Netflix, Crave, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, CBC Gem and Criterion Channel