This week’s new streaming selection makes up in variety what it lacks in pure numbers, as there’s a little something for everybody. Headlined by a sweet new sci-fi drama starring Tom Hanks, offerings also include a rom-com, socially charged drama, Korean thriller, Swedish real-life mystery, and an animated video game adaptation.
MOVIES
Finch
Apple TV+ – 5 November 2021
Tom Hanks is basically the world’s dad and we all love him for it. So if you tell me he’s in a movie where he essentially plays a father to a “newborn” robot and a dog following an apocalyptic solar event that wiped out most of humanity, I am totally into it already.
Love Hard
Netflix – 5 November 2021
Post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama not up to your speed? Maybe try rom-com Love Hard which sees Nina Dobrev as an LA girl who travels cross-country to surprise the ruggedly handsome guy she’s recently fallen for on a dating app, only to discover she’s been catfished by her online beau’s childhood friend.
Passing
Netflix – 10 November 2021
Based on Nella Larsen’s acclaimed 1929 novel, this is a black-and-white feature film adaptation in more ways than one. Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga star as two black women, once childhood friends, who are able to “pass” as white, but with only one of them actually doing so. When a chance encounter in 1920s New York reunites the two after many years, it sets into motion a whirlwind of social drama that threatens to tear down the reality one of these women has created for herself.
SERIES
Dr. Brain
Apple TV+ – 3 November 2021
Yes, you read that right. 3 November. I don’t know how I missed this one in last week’s round-up, but I’m definitely not leaving it out now. And that’s mainly because this new Korean sci-fi drama series – about a doctor who loses his family in a tragic accident, and then invents a way to sync up the memories of the dead with his own – was created by Kim Jee-Woon, the acclaimed writer/director behind revenge masterpiece I Saw the Devil. His involvement alone is enough to sell me here.
The Unlikely Murderer
Netflix – 5 November 2021
In 1986, Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme was shot dead while walking home from the cinema with his wife. There were a small handful witnesses to the assassination, but first on the scene was Stig Engström, a mild-mannered man who would become the key witness. Except the deeper police dug into his story, the more things didn’t add up. This Swedish-language dramatization recounts the many twists and turns the investigation would take over the next decade and more.
Arcane
Netflix – 7 November 2021
I will readily admit that I know next to nothing about League of Legends, other than me making fun of a friend (Hi, Glenn!) for playing the popular MOBA videogame. However, I am mightily intrigued by Arcane, the upcoming animated action-fantasy series produced by game developer Riot Games, which takes place in the LoL universe. The show is set before the events of the game… which means absolutely nothing to me, but it looks superb thus far with incredible visuals and featuring the voice talents of Oscar-nominee Hailee Steinfeld and Army of the Dead’s Ella Purnell in the leads.