The weekend is here! If you're looking for something to watch, we can help. We've dug through Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Max and Disney+ to find some of the best titles on each service. STREAMING ON NETFLIX 'Psycho'
Alfred Hitchcock revolutionized the horror movie and reinvented himself with this wildly influential (and still plenty scary) hit. After a series of handsomely mounted, star-studded, full color, on-location thrillers like "North by Northwest" and "To Catch a Thief," the master filmmaker chose to upend expectations by making a stripped-down black-and-white chiller on a B-movie budget. He cast mostly lesser-known actors, save for the leading lady, Janet Leigh, then shocked audiences by killing her off at the end of the first act. That murder in a motel shower would become one of the most iconic single sequences in all of cinema; the rest of the picture is nearly as frightening. These are the 50 best movies on Netflix.STREAMING ON NETFLIX 'The Residence'
Shonda Rhimes's Shondaland production company is behind this inspired adaptation of Kate Andersen Brower's nonfiction book "The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House." Like the book, the series explains how the White House's domestic staff helps behind the scenes with the affairs of state. But in the TV version, the death of the staff's chief usher (Giancarlo Esposito) during a swanky state dinner adds a lightly comic mystery element. Uzo Aduba plays Cordelia Cupp, a special D.C. police consultant who is determined to find out what happened and who learns along the way about Washington's complicated social dynamics. Our critic called the show "fun," with "ample Agatha Christie references, a whooshing momentum and plenty of intrigue." Here are 30 great TV shows on Netflix.STREAMING ON HULU 'Stress Positions'
The stubborn insistence among many mainstream moviemakers that the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown simply didn't happen has been one of the most frustrating elements of recent cinema. Thankfully, the writer-director-actor Theda Hammel is an exception to the rule, making her feature debut with this raucous, transgressive and frequently uproarious return to the summer of 2020. She assembles an oddball ensemble of weirdos and hangers-on around a Brooklyn brownstone in the depths of lockdown — chief among them Terry (the comedian John Early), a neurotic worst-case scenarist desperately clinging to his Covid safety protocols; and Karla (Hammel), a cynical massage therapist. Hammel bounces the two off each other, creating what initially feels like a blackout-sketch assemblage before revealing itself as a keenly observed portrait of a blurry, barely remembered time. Here are Hulu's best movies and TV shows.STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO 'Pineapple Express'
The "Freaks and Geeks" stars Seth Rogen and James Franco reunited for this uproariously funny stoner action comedy, penned by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and directed by David Gordon Green, then best known for modest indie dramas like "George Washington." Rogen and Goldberg's script is wry and witty, Green's direction is sure-handed, and Rogen and Franco are a pitch-perfect team, their opposites-attract chemistry recalling '80s buddy movies like "48 Hrs." and "Midnight Run." Our critic praised the film's "waves of playful nonsense." Here are a bunch of great movies on Amazon.STREAMING ON MAX 'Flow'
The little Latvian animated film that could, Gints Zilbalodis's low-budget odyssey, crafted entirely on open-source software called Blender, won the Oscar over nominees from Hollywood animation goliaths like Pixar and DreamWorks. Over a wordless, mesmerizing 84 minutes, "Flow" follows a scrawny, intrepid cat that scrambles for survival during a cataclysmic flood that seems to have wiped out the human population. When the cat makes its way onto a boat, it befriends a quirky group of fellow survivors, including a yellow Labrador, a lemur, a capybara and a secretary bird that's lost its flock. Calum Marsh wrote that Zilbalodis's commitment to having his characters act like real animals "makes the emotion that much more powerful." See more great movies streaming on Max.STREAMING ON DISNEY+ 'Daredevil: Born Again'
It would be charitable to call the original slate of Marvel television series for Netflix a mixed bag, but along with "Jessica Jones," the three seasons of "Daredevil" that aired on the platform were enough to make us lament the end of the Marvel-Netflix collaboration. The good news for fans is that "Daredevil: Born Again" is a de facto fourth season renewal, expanding on the core dynamic of Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, the blind lawyer and vigilante crime fighter, and Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, the big-city businessman who doubles as his archenemy. The revival opens with Murdock setting up shop at a new law firm, Fisk expanding his political power in conspicuously Trump-like fashion and masked threats emerging. The 50 best things to watch on Disney+ right now.
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