On Netflix, Amazon and Disney+
The weekend is here, and Sunday is Mother's Day. Regardless of what streaming service you subscribe to, we want to help you find something great to watch. We've gone through Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ to find the best titles on each service — and each of the picks below has a memorable mother or two. |
Here's one of the 50 best movies on Netflix |
 | | Saoirse Ronan, left, and Laurie Metcalf in "Lady Bird."Merie Wallace/A24 |
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Greta Gerwig made her solo feature directorial debut with this funny and piercing coming-of-age story, set in her hometown, Sacramento, Calif. Saoirse Ronan dazzles in the title role as a quietly rebellious high-school senior whose quests for love and popularity bring her long-simmering resentments toward her mother (Laurie Metcalf, magnificent) to a boil. Parent-child conflicts are nothing new in teen stories, but Gerwig's perceptive screenplay slashes through the familiar types and tropes, daring to create characters that are complicated and flawed, yet deeply sympathetic. A.O. Scott praised the film's "freshness and surprise. |
Here is one of the best TV shows on Netflix |
 | | An episode of Netflix's "Stranger Things 2" featuring, from left, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp, Winona Ryder and Sadie Sink.Netflix |
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The first season of the retro science-fiction series "Stranger Things" arrived with little hype and quickly became a word-of-mouth sensation: Viewers were enchanted by its pastiche of John Carpenter, Steven Spielberg, Stephen King and John Hughes — all scored to '80s pop. This story of geeky Indiana teenagers fighting off an invasion of extra-dimensional creatures from "the Upside-Down" has the look and feel of a big summer blockbuster from 30 years ago — "a tasty trip back to that decade and the art of eeriness," our critic noted, but "without excess." (Winona Ryder's character, the mother of two boys, gets pulled into the cross-dimensional conflict.) |
Have a Hulu subscription? It's a lot to wade through. We can help! |
 | | Cho Yeo Jeong in "Parasite."Neon |
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The South Korean director Bong Joon Ho, who previously smuggled trenchant class commentary into genre movies like "The Host" and "Snowpiercer," takes a more direct route with this story of a household of grifters who smooth-talk their way into the home of a clueless upper-class family. What begins as a clever con comedy turns into something much darker (and bloodier), a "brilliant and deeply unsettling" examination of privilege and power, orchestrated by a filmmaker working at the top of his craft; the results were thrilling enough to win not only the Palme d'Or at Cannes, but the first best picture Oscar for a film not in English. |
Amazon Prime Video doesn't make it easy to find stuff. Luckily, we have done the work for you. |
 | | Zhao Shuzhen, left, and Awkwafina in "The Farewell."Casi Moss/A24 |
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Billi (Awkwafina), a Chinese immigrant who grew up to be a starving artist in New York City, returns to her homeland to help perpetrate a family hoax in this charming and beguiling comedy/drama from the writer-director Lulu Wang. The reason for the homecoming is her grandmother, known as Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen), who has only months to live, but doesn't know it. The family hastily arranges a premature wedding as a chance to say goodbye, resulting in misunderstandings, realizations and reconciliations. A.O. Scott praised the film's "loose, anecdotal structure" and "tone that balances candor and tact." |
Disney+ is full of older classics (and newer things, too). |
 | | Brandy as Cinderella, left, and Whitney Houston as the fairy godmother in "'Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella."Disney+ |
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'Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella' |
30 years after Rodgers & Hammerstein wrote their only made-for-television musical — a live event with Julie Andrews in the lead — Disney revived it for a relaunch of "The Wonderful World of Disney" anthology, with Brandy, the first Black Cinderella, leading a diverse cast of Broadway ringers and recognizable stars. The TV production values are more modest than the talent deserves, but Brandy makes a headstrong and luminous heroine, the prince (Paolo Montalbán) is more than a generic royal prize and Whitney Houston, who co-produced the film, summons a magic as the Fairy Godmother that has little to do with ho-hum special effects. |
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