From fierce female fighters (see Warrior Nun and Hanna) to series filmed during pandemic lockdown (try Isolation Stories or Homemade), there’s plenty to keep you occupied in streaming television right now. We also highlight a few new Canadian films, including the wildly thrilling White Lie, Semi Chellas’s American Woman, Atom Egoyan’s Guest of Honour and Jay Baruchel’s Random Acts of Violence. For more recommendations, sign up for our weekly What to Watch newsletter.
Streaming television
Amazon Prime Video
Esmé Creed-Miles stars as teenage assassin Hanna.Christopher Raphael/Amazon Prime Video
- The second season of Hanna delivers the innocent-but-badass teenage girl as empowerment icon (8 episodes)
- Standup special Jim Gaffigan: The Pale Tourist is the gentle laughter we all need right now (2 episodes)
BritBox
"I think there will be an appetite to reflect what we went through," says Isolation Stories’ writer and executive producer Jeff Pope.Handout
- Isolation Stories, shot in Britain entirely during lockdown, explores the pandemic’s key themes of loneliness, anxiety and heartache (4 episodes)
CBC Gem
Roommates Gemma (Thalissa Teixeira), Ray (Ariane Labed) and Kieran (Gary Carr) in Trigonometry.Mark Johnson/cbc
- Mini-series The Hunting is a complex drama about teenagers and cyber-sex (4 episodes)
- Trigonometry paints a rich picture of a polyamorous romance (8 episodes)
Crave
Blondie's Debbie Harry and Chris Stein in Punk.Handout
- Docu-series Punk is a pretty, sometimes vacant history of a significant subculture (4 episodes)
Netflix
Alba Baptista stars as Ava and Tristan Ulloa as Father Vincent in Warrior Nun.Courtesy of NETFLIX/Netflix
- Homemade is an enormously ambitious anthology of shorts about lockdown life during the pandemic (17 episodes)
- Warrior Nun, about roving gangs of armed and dangerous nuns, is wonderfully weird (10 episodes)
Streaming films
Apple TV+
Tom Hanks stars in Greyhound.APPLE TV+
- Tom Hanks’ Second World War naval thriller Greyhound misses the boat (2.5 stars; PG; 91 minutes)
Disney+
Left to right: Daveed Diggs, Okieriete Onaodowan, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr. and Anthony Ramos are seen in a filmed version of the original Broadway production of Hamilton.Courtesy of Disney+
- Hamilton is tremendous entertainment, perfect for the (living) room where it happens (3 stars; PG; 160 minutes)
Netflix
Charlize Theron stars in the new Netflix action thriller The Old Guard.AIMEE SPINKS/NETFLIX
- The Old Guard doesn’t give the kick-butt Charlize Theron nearly enough butts to kick. Read our interview with director Gina Prince-Bythewood (2.5 stars; R; 118 minutes)
- Rom-com Desperados is a crass but ultimately harmless comedy about one young woman’s quest for love (2 stars; R; 105 minutes)
- Fatal Affair is in the vein of low-brow movies-of-the-week that will bore you to a bloodless death (1.5 stars; N/A; 89 minutes)
On-demand
Kacey Rohl stars in White Lie as a young woman faking a cancer diagnosis.Courtesy of levelFILM
- The Painted Bird is an unforgettable, soul-crushing and essential tour through fascism’s madness (3.5 stars; R; 169 minutes)
- Canadian thriller White Lie is a wild, nail-biting look at our immeasurable capacity for self-deception (3.5 stars; PG; 96 minutes)
- Canadian heist thriller American Woman knows when to simmer and when to boil over (3 stars; 14A; 85 minutes)
- From the Vine is worth sipping, if only for Joe Pantoliano’s drunk-on-life performance (2.5 stars; N/A; 97 minutes)
- Atom Egoyan’s Guest of Honour dines as much on weirdness as it does melodrama. Read our interview with star David Thewlis (2.5 stars; 14A; 105 minutes)
- Random Acts of Violence cements Jay Baruchel’s reputation as Canadian cinema’s sickest little puppy (2.5 stars; 18A; 81 minutes)
- The slight but well-meaning Sweetness in the Belly is easy enough to stomach (2.5 stars; PG; 110 minutes)
- The Outpost is a gripping portrait of modern war, even if it enlists Nepotism Inc. as its casting agency (2.5 stars; R; 123 minutes)
- Mel Gibson’s Puerto Rico hurricane thriller Force of Nature is actually worse than it sounds (1 star; R; 91 minutes)
