Skip to main content
film review

Stop the endless scrolling and find the standouts from May’s new releases, whether you’re looking for a movie or a TV show to binge

This article was published more than 3 years ago. Some information may no longer be current.

The flood of movies being released directly to video on-demand continues, while Hot Docs at Home offers documentaries to stream in place of the cancelled festival. For the literary-minded there are several new shows based on books, including Little Fires Everywhere on Amazon Prime Video, Normal People on CBC Gem and I Know This Much is True from HBO. Read on to find out what’s worth your screen time.


Streaming television

Amazon Prime Video

Open this photo in gallery:

Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon as Mia and Elena in Little Fires Everywhere.Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

  • Little Fires Everywhere offers incendiary angst in the suburbs (8 episodes)
  • The Great amounts to fun and frolics with the story of Catherine the Great (10 episodes)
  • Upload: What if heaven is as hellish as the near future? (10 episodes)

CBC Gem

Open this photo in gallery:

Based on Sally Rooney’s best-selling novel, Normal People follows the relationship of Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal).Courtesy of CBC Gem

  • Normal People is beautifully made and achingly powerful (12 episodes)

Crave

Open this photo in gallery:

Mark Ruffalo plays twins Dominick and Thomas Birdsey in HBO's I Know This Much is True.HBO / Crave

  • HBO’s I Know This Much is True is searing, soulful family heartache (6 episodes)
  • Love Life, a gift of smart romantic storytelling, is exactly what the world needs right now (10 episodes)

Netflix

Open this photo in gallery:

Jerry Seinfeld: 23 Hours to Kill is a breezy, angst-free delight.Netflix

  • Documentary Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich gives voice to victims, but can’t tell the whole story (4 episodes)
  • Comedy special Jerry Seinfeld: 23 Hours to Kill is a tonic for terrible times (1 hour)
  • First there was Netflix reality show Too Hot to Handle. Now we have The Big Flower Fight on competitive flower arranging (8 episodes)
  • If documentary Trial by Media aims to indict “the media” it fails, instead indicting human nature and human frailty (6 episodes)
  • Valeria, a new Netflix original from Spain (with English subtitles), is utterly escapist but clever fun (8 episodes)

(Return to top)


Streaming films

Amazon Prime Video

Open this photo in gallery:

Set in 1950s New Mexico, The Vast of Night tells the story of switchboard operator Fay (Sierra McCormick) and radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz).Amazon Prime Video

  • The Vast of Night is low-fi sci-fi at its very B-movie best (3.5 stars; PG; 89 minutes)

Netflix

Open this photo in gallery:

I’m No Longer Here follows the plight of Ulises (Juan Daniel Garcia Trevino), a teenager in the Mexican mountain town of Monterrey.Courtesy of Netflix

  • I’m No Longer Here is a beautiful and intoxicating trip into a Mexican subculture (3 stars; 105 minutes)
  • The Lovebirds doesn’t quite portend the death of the big-screen comedy, though it doesn’t help, either (2.5 stars; R; 86 minutes)
  • Michelle Obama documentary Becoming is nothing more than a commercial for the former first family (2 stars; PG; 89 minutes)
  • The Wrong Missy proves that just as Adam Sandler can giveth, he can taketh away (1 star; 89 minutes)

On-demand

Open this photo in gallery:

Castle in the Ground is a delicate coming-of-age movie about living in pain.Courtesy of Game Theory Films

  • Canadian opioid-crisis drama Castle in the Ground will haunt long after the credits roll (3.5 stars; 14A; 105 minutes – read more on filmmaker Joey Klein)
  • Biosphere 2 doc Spaceship Earth is an endlessly curious, wildly fascinating film for our sealed-inside era (3.5 stars; PG; 113 minutes)
  • The Painter and the Thief is the best documentary of the year, if you could fairly call it a documentary (3.5 stars; PG; 102 minutes)
  • Documentary Beyond Moving chronicles a real-life, and Canadian-made, Billy Elliot story of hope (3 stars; 90 minutes; available on D.O.C./Blue Ice Docs and Hot Docs at Home)
  • Canadian micro-budget drama Easy Land proves that misery might actually be the best company (3 stars; PG; 90 minutes; available on Apple TV)
  • Dan Sallitt’s drama Fourteen grasps for something profound, aiding ailing indie cinemas along the way (3 stars; 94 minutes; available on VIFF at Home)
  • The High Note is the smooth, charming, and chart-topping rom-com that we need right now (3 stars; PG; 113 minutes) – read our interview with director Nisha Ganatra
  • Journalism documentary This Is Not a Movie plays like Robert Fisk’s greatest hits and misses (3 stars; PG; 106 minutes – available on Hot Docs at Home)
  • Capone features Tom Hardy’s whackadoo take on Al Capone – untouchable, but not in a good way (2.5 stars; R; 103 minutes)
  • With his strangely dark drama Dreamland, Bruce McDonald wakes up the weirdos (2.5 stars; 14A; 92 minutes)
  • The Trip to Greece wasn’t designed to feel like a cruel joke, but it’s deeply depressing all the same (2.5 stars; PG; 110 minutes)
  • Military Wives is the definition of ‘crowd-pleaser,’ but also a few other, less kind words (2 stars; PG; 112 minutes)
  • Canadian rom-com Red Rover resurrects the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, with unbearably quirky results (2 stars; PG; 95 minutes)
  • Scoob! would have gotten away with being an interesting reboot, too, if it weren’t for you meddling studio executives (2 stars; PG; 90 minutes)
  • Javier Bardem drama The Roads Not Taken should have heeded its own title advice, and never been made (1.5 stars; R; 85 minutes)

(Return to top)

Plan your screen time with the weekly What to Watch newsletter. Sign up today.

Your Globe

Build your personal news feed

Follow topics related to this article:

Check Following for new articles