With Valentine’s Day just weeks away, the streamers are feeling some true romance. Plus, a timely and nuanced take on gun violence and policing, and (another) recent love letter to the medium of cinema.
ON NETFLIX
Starts Feb. 10
Your Place or Mine
An American romantic comedy that evokes the genre’s 90s/early 2000s peak, this sweet-natured and general audience-friendly (it’s rated PG-13) picture is the sort that used to play in theaters more frequently; now it’s the domain of small screens everywhere. Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher play best friends who shared an intimate night together in their youth—a flame that Kutcher’s Peter would secretly like to rekindle. Their lives are shaken up when they swap coastal houses for a week, with Witherspoon’s Debbie pursuing a dream in Peter’s New York apartment, and Peter watching Debbie’s adolescent son in Los Angeles. Zoe Chao, Jesse Williams, Tig Notaro and Steve Zahn contribute inspired support in this directorial debut from Aline Brosh McKenna, whose screenplays enlivened movies from “The Devil Wears Prada” to “We Bought a Zoo.”
ON AMAZON PRIME
Starts Feb. 10
Somebody I Used to Know
Another romantic comedy about lost lovers reuniting will drop on Amazon on the weekend before Valentine’s Day. “Somebody I Used to Know” stars Allison Brie as Ally, a workaholic TV producer who escapes a stressful period in her life by returning home, where, to her surprise, her ex-boyfriend Sean (Jay Ellis) is getting married to a woman named Cassidy (Kiersey Clemons) whose zest for life reminds Ally of her free-spirited youth. Brie’s real-life spouse, Dave Franco, directed the movie, his sophomore feature following 2020’s indie horror pic “The Rental,” and this time endeavoring for a more comedic, and also more substantial emotional tenor. I expect “Somebody I Used to Know” to balance its rom-com sweetness with a fair amount of discomfort for the characters he thrusts into his fragile triangle. Co-stars include Danny Pudi, Haley Joel Osment, Amy Sedaris and Julie Hagerty.
ON HBO MAX
Starts Feb. 7
Empire of Light
Olivia Colman delivers another expectedly moving and harrowed performance in “Empire of Light,” director Sam Mendes’ first feature since 2019’s award-winner “1917.” One of the season’s many love letters to the medium of cinema, Mendes’ tribute is set in the tumultuous period of 1980-1981, when the historic (and fictional) Empire Cinema in Margate, England is preparing for a major renovation in advance of the blockbuster opening of “Chariots of Fire.” Outside the hallowed hall of celluloid, racism is on the rise in the form of the National Front, a backdrop that will effect the clandestine relationship between Colman’s Hilary Small, an increasingly mentally unstable duty manager at the theater, and Stephen (Michael Ward), a younger Black man who takes a job at the cinema. Tender and nostalgic, “Empire of Light” co-stars Colin Firth and Toby Jones; it boasts an exceptionally ethereal score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross; and Roger Deakins’ cinematography is vying for an Academy Award next month.
ON HULU
Starts Feb. 18
Hold Your Fire
Writer-director Stefan Forbes’ riveting and compassionate “Hold Your Fire” may be a documentary, but it often plays like a thriller, capturing the events and aftermath of a tense and impactful criminal standoff with an immersive eye for rhythm and detail. Forbes reflects on a 1973 incident in Brooklyn in which four young Black men planned to steal a cache of firearms from a sporting-goods store. They bungled the crime, leading to a standoff with police and a hostage situation which, through the pioneering work of psychologist Harvey Schlossberg, helped to develop protocols for hostage negotiation that are still in use today. In a world of police violence against African-Americans that continues to resonate anew, Forbes manages to find empathy everywhere, absorbing comments from the perpetrators, the police and the owner of the shop where the crime took place, and integrating them into a rich mosaic. Most bittersweet are the vital contributions from Schlossberg, who died shortly after filming.
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