Welcome to Stream Scene, where we highlight any noteworthy new movies and series hitting online streaming services.
Apple TV’s flagship drama series, The Morning Show, returns this week for its second season, while the fruity streamer also offers up some big name movie rentals in The Suicide Squad and Reminiscence for those people who missed them in cinemas recently. If you have a way to access HBO Max locally, you can also check out arguably the biggest respective new movie and TV series releases for the coming week in Clint Eastwood drama Cry Macho and returning wacky DC Comics show Doom Patrol. No HBO Max? Don’t worry though as there’s still plenty other titles to choose from on Netflix and Showmax, including foreign-language series and acclaimed film fest feature films.
Movies
Nightbooks
Netflix (SA) – 15 September 2021
Full confession: I somehow missed this new PG-13 horror-fantasy in last week’s round-up as it actually released this past Wednesday. So I’m including it this week as reviews have been very solid and the world always need more Krysten Ritter. Especially Krysten Ritter as a scenery-chewing evil witch who traps a young boy in her apartment, only for the horror story-obsessed hero with a talent for spinning a yarn to challenge his captor’s witching ways.
Cry Macho
HBO Max (US) – 17 September 2021
Clint Eastwood made a decades-spanning career out of playing Western hardmen, but in drama Cry Macho – which he stars in, directs, and produces – the 91-year-old screen legend subverts those tropes as an ex-rodeo star who needs to reunite a troubled young man with his father.
Intrusion
Netflix SA – 22 September 2021
Freida Pinto and Logan Marshall-Green (aka who you get when you order Tom Hardy from Wish) star in this home invasion thriller as a couple who see their lives unravelling following a dangerous altercation in their dream home.
The Nest
Showmax (SA) – 23 September 2021
Written, directed, and produced by acclaimed Martha Marcy May Marlene filmmaker Sean Durkin, the 1980s-set The Nest drew some very good buzz when it debuted on the film festival circuit last year. Stars Jude Law and Carrie Coon turn in stellar performances as a husband and wife whose relationship spirals out of control after they move to England.
The Suicide Squad
Apple TV (SA)/Google Play Movies (SA) – 16 September 2021
If you missed writer/director James Gunn working his off-the-wall bonkers and R-rated bloody magic on the DC Comics universe last month, then you’re in luck. The Suicide Squad is now out for rental on Apple TV or Google Play Movies for R169.99 in glorious 4K with Dolby Atmos!
Reminiscence
Apple TV (SA) – 17 September 2021
Reminiscence hit cinemas and HBO Max less than a month ago, but the Hugh Jackman-led sci-fi thriller/drama is already out for rental on Apple TV for just R169.99. That’s almost what a single IMAX ticket would have cost you.
Series
The Morning Show S2
Apple TV+ (SA) – 17 September 2021
The flagship launch title of Apple TV+, The Morning Show was a star-studded affair that gave normally comedic actors Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell some serious dramatic meat to chew on as the show mixed newsroom politics with a very nuanced take on the #MeToo movement. After the first season ended with a bombshell (which I won’t spoil here for those people catching up) all the way back in 2019, it’s been a long wait to see how things play out.
Doom Patrol S3
HBO Max (US) – 23 September 2021
Easily the weirdest and wackiest – and arguably best – comic book TV series out there right now, the hotly anticipated third season of Doom Patrol is most definitely not taking its foot off the oddball accelerator pedal. This time there’s a big ol’ time travel mess to contend with.
Squid Game
Netflix (SA) – 17 September 2021
Reality TV game shows get a deadly twist in this South Korean TV series which looks to continue the trend of eye-catching entertainment from the Asian country. While we wait on the next season of Japanese show Alice in Borderland, this looks like it could definitely scratch that itch.
Jaguar
Netflix (SA) – 22 September 2021
If you enjoyed Hunters, Amazon Prime Video’s recent drama series about Nazi hunters, but thought it needed a bit more realism, then Jaguar could be just the show for you. Set in the 1960s, this Spanish production stars Blanco Suarez as a concentration camp survivor searching for the twisted Nazi commander who killed her father, only to stumble into a much larger conspiracy.