Streaming Preview: New Films To Watch From Home This Weekend

CHICAGO (Feb. 12, 2021) — Staying home is still the safest way to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and streaming services have answered the call for easily-accessible and seemingly endless entertainment. New releases are available on all the major platforms, along with in-theater offerings in states that allow limited cinema capacity.

Amazon Prime Video
“The Map of Tiny Perfect Things” is a charming young adult film based on a 2016 short story by Lev Grossman. Teens Mark and Margaret (the uniquely talented Kyle Allen and Kathryn Newton) find themselves trapped in an infinite time loop, reliving the same summer day over and over again. While the premise sounds familiar (and the film offers its own self-aware nods to “Groundhog Day” and “Edge of Tomorrow”), it is is free of cynicism and offers a timely, hopeful message about appreciating life’s simple pleasures - not just when you’re in a strange or scary situation, but all the time. This cheerful, charming film from director Ian Samuels begins streaming Feb. 12.

Discovery+
The brand new streaming app offers a one-week free trial for users to get a taste of its content. Along with old favorites from Food Network, HGTV and TLC, the service is also sharing original content from Chip and Joanna Gaines’ upcoming Magnolia Network and many more cable channels that streaming devotees might not be able to access otherwise. Home renovation shows abound, plus mystery docudramas and family lifestyle series which the network says amount to more than 50,000 hours of television. The ad-free option is $7.99 after the trial.

Disney+
The smashing success of Marvel Studios’ “Avengers” franchise remains steady as it transitions to television with “WandaVision,” which finds Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprising their roles as Wanda Maximoff and Vision who have become seemingly trapped inside the world of an old-school sitcom. Each Friday a new episode drops on the streaming service, expertly blending past eras of television comedy with the “Avengers” twists and characters that audiences have devotedly returned to for more than a decade. The first six episodes are now streaming on Disney+, with the finale set for March 5.

HBO Max
"Judas and the Black Messiah" chronicles the events that led to the brutal killing of Black Panther Party chapter leader Fred Hampton in 1969. Touched on briefly in last year’s Netflix courtroom drama “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” director Shaka King delves deeper in this new release starring Daniel Kaluuya, Jesse Plemons and LaKeith Stanfield. Streaming now on HBO Max and simultaneously playing in theaters.

Netflix
Lara Jean Covey returns for the final installment of the wildly popular young adult "To All The Boys" franchise. From novelist Jenny Han and a mostly-female creative team, the trilogy comes to an end with this timely Valentine’s Day release of "Always and Forever," finding Lana Condor’s main character looking to the future of life and wondering how her boyfriend Peter (Noah Centineo) fits into it. Though the sequels don’t match the big-hearted charm of the first film, it’s heartening that young women have an admirable protagonist to look up to, whose love story has as much do with her own growth as it does with teen angst.

VOD and Digital Platforms
“Cowboys” follows a father and his transgender son into the Montana wilderness, as they attempt to escape the labels and gossip of their small town - leaving behind a worried mother who doesn’t understand the complicated battle raging inside her child. Steve Zahn and Jillian Bell give understated performances in this award-winning and picturesque family drama from writer-director Anna Kerrigan. Now available on digital platforms like iTunes and Amazon Prime Video.

“Ruth: Justice Ginsburg In Her Own Words” is a documentary about the late supreme court justice who blazed endless trails for women, not only in law but in life. “The film is designed as an immersive experience through the direct words of Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a professor, advocate, Judge and Justice" and will be widely available March 9. Now streaming in some virtual cinemas.

“Breaking News In Yuba County” stars Academy Award and Emmy winner Allison Janney as a woman who becomes an overnight “celebrity” after her husband goes missing. From “The Help” director Tate Taylor and producer Jake Gyllenhall, the “dark and twisted comedy” also stars Gotham Award winner Awkwafina, Regina Hall and Mila Kunis.

In Select Theaters
Insanely offbeat "The French Exit" is a visually stunning but outlandish narrative that landed lead actress Michelle Pfeiffer a Golden Globe nomination. Also starring Lucas Hedges and Tracy Letts, the film follows a mother and son from New York to Paris after squandering their fortune.

Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby play unhappy farmers' wives who carry on a secret relationship in “The World To Come,” a Bleecker Street release also starring Casey Affleck and Christopher Abbott.

Robin Wright’s directorial debut and Sundance Film Festival favorite “Land” follows a woman who escapes to nature in the Pacific Northwest after experiencing a personal tragedy.