Do you feel like you’re drowning … but you haven’t even left your couch? Welcome to the Great Content Overload Era. To help you navigate the choppy digital waves, here are The Globe’s best bets for weekend streaming.
What to watch in 2023: The best movies (so far)
BlackBerry (on-demand, including Apple TV)
Just more than a month after it burst into theatres – very likely becoming the biggest Canadian film of the year – Matt Johnson’s intensely entertaining BlackBerry is now available to watch at home. Johnson’s film isn’t so much a game-changer as it is a game-affirmer: confirmation that the outspoken, mischief-making Canadian director behind Operation Avalanche has delivered on his many film-industry promises and salvos. Shot as if captured by hidden cameras – scenes are partially obscured by office furniture or caught with the intentionally unsteady hand of a cameraman who is in fear of being found out – the film has an air of DIY guerrilla, you-are-here naturalism. You’re pulled in, tossed around, given a shake – just as Research In Motion co-chiefs Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel, tender and tragic) and Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton, belching fire) turned and reconfigured their own world to upend the way we all communicate. Across two swift and sharp hours, BlackBerry follows a corporation’s rise and fall that radiates live-wire energy. Read review.
Wes Anderson collection (Crave)
Wes Anderson at a photocall for the film Asteroid City at the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 24.VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images
Just in time for next week’s release of Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, Crave is on June 16 adding a handful of the filmmaker’s titles to its catalogue: The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited, Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr. Fox. (Unfortunately Anderson’s best film, Rushmore, requires a separate subscription to Disney+.) This far into the filmmaker’s immaculately tailored career, you already know whether you’re an Anderson person or not. For those who savour his whimsically beautiful, fantastically delightful aesthetic and penchant for casting the same (wonderful) performers, then there is no better time to embark on a deep dive into Anderson-land (just not a Steve Zissou-esque dive, as The Life Aquatic is also a Disney+ proposition).
Fast X (on-demand, including Apple TV and Google Play)
Well, that was ... you know. Just three weeks after zooming into theatres, Fast X is available to watch in the comfort of your own Dodge Charger/living room. Against all industry and existential odds, the 11th film in the Fast & Furious-verse hits like a souped-up road hog whose engine runs on rocket fuel – a beast that knows no brakes. Once it starts, you’re strapped in till the jaws of life (the end credits) can set you free. And true blockbuster fanatics – audiences who can check their brains at the door with no compunction – will thank our lord and saviour Vin Diesel for every shard of twisted metal. Read review.
I Think You Should Leave, Season 3 (Netflix)
With distressingly little notice, Netflix has slipped the latest season of Tim Robinson’s wonderfully surreal, frequently angry sketch-comedy series into the smoky atmosphere. It only takes about two minutes for the new batch of episodes to inspire its first sure-to-be-meme’d gag – that would be Robinson’s news talk-show host who, when challenged by his more educated guests, resorts to pulling out his phone until the segment wraps. Who knows how many more times we’ll see Robinson’s mug plastered onto social-media timelines by the summer’s end – and thank goodness for that.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (on-demand, including Apple TV, Google Play, Cineplex Store)
Regrettably ignored during its theatrical run, writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig’s adaptation of Judy Blume’s iconic 1970 middle-grade novel is now available to introduce to your tweens at home. As my colleague Marsha Lederman wrote during the film’s initial release the other month, Craig (The Edge of Seventeen) does not mess this opportunity up, with this tale of an 11-going-on-12 girl named Margaret working especially well not only because of its director’s affection for the source material, but a fantastic lead performance from Abby Ryder Fortson that captures Margaret’s pubescent angst with an “AAA+” performance. Read review.