February 2024’s Best Streaming Titles: “Get Out,” “The Bad Batch,” “The Abyss,” “Citizen Kane,” “The Last Airbender”
Jordan Peele, Clone Force 99, deep sea mysteries, Rosebud, Team Avatar, and more.
As Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, et al. add more content, it can be difficult to know what to look for amidst all of the new titles. I’ve compiled a list of particularly noteworthy and interesting movies and TV shows to add to your streaming queues in the coming month.
Amazon Prime Video
Fiddler on the Roof (Feb 1)
Based on the Tony-winning play, and directed by Norman Jewison, Fiddler on the Roof follows the trials and tribulations of a Jewish family in Tsarist Russia. Village milkman Tevye (played with gusto by Topol) is doing his best to provide for his family, but he faces constant challenges in the form of rising pogroms and the Russian government’s interference. Meanwhile, his five daughters are challenging his precious traditions. Fiddler on the Roof has since come to be regarded as one of the finest movie musicals of all time, filled with heart, humor, and pathos.
Get Out (Feb 1)
Given his work with Keegan-Michael Key on the beloved sketch show Key & Peele, it would only make sense to expect Jordan Peele’s directorial debut to be a work of comedy. Instead, he delivered one of the most acclaimed horror films in recent memory. After a young Black man meets his white girlfriend’s upper-class family, he begins to notice strange behavior and soon finds himself caught up in a nefarious conspiracy. Get Out was a commercial and critical success, winning a “Best Original Screenplay” Oscar for Peele.
Ghost World (Feb 1)
Based on Daniel Clowes acclaimed comic, Ghost World is an acerbic film following two best friends — played by Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson — who’ve just graduated from high school and are trying to figure out what’s next in life. The film’s humor is as dry and bleak as the Sahara, and yet it’s hard not to feel compassion for its disaffected characters. The film also stars Steve Buscemi, Brad Renfro, and David Cross.
Hot Fuzz (Feb 1)
Nicholas Angel is London’s best cop. He’s so good, in fact, that he makes all of the other cops look bad. Which is why he gets transferred to the sleepy town of Sandford, where the crime rate is zero and nothing bad ever happens. But when locals start disappearing, Angel’s convinced something’s going on. Has Sandford gotten to him, or has he cracked the biggest case of his career? Inspired by classic buddy cop films like Lethal Weapon, Hot Fuzz is action comedy of the highest sort (read my review).
Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Season One (Feb 2)
Donald Glover and Maya Erskine star in this new TV series — based on the 2005 film of the same name that starred Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie — about a couple of spies who go undercover as a married couple. But their mission gets complicated when they actually begin to develop feelings for each other. The original Amazon series also stars Paul Dano, Parker Posey, Ron Perlman, Alexander Skarsgård, and John Turturro.