The best family films try to offer more than just a way to keep the kids occupied for a couple of hours combined with some references that parents will get and laugh at. They tell stories that have relevant themes that enrich the story and expand the way viewers think, regardless of age. “The Mitchells […]
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Though the song is nearly 30 years old, Bruce Springsteen’s “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)” encapsulates the struggle viewers face today. With hundreds of cable channels, dozens of streaming services, and countless on-demand titles, trying to decide what to watch can feel like an endless ordeal.
That’s where we come in. Each month, Boston.com recommends 10 must-watch movies and TV shows available on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO Max, and more.
Many recommendations are for new shows, while others are for under-the-radar releases you might have missed, or classics that are about to depart a streaming service at the end of the month.
Robots have fascinated cinema-goers ever since Fritz Lang’s 1927 expressionist silent film Metropolis. The German dystopia film portrays a near future where a female robot (a “gynoid”) is built as an evil twin of Maria, a woman trying to unionise the workforce. The robot Maria wreaks havoc, turning the workers against each other, inciting murder and the destruction of the machines powering the city.
The portrayal of robots in popular culture has always captured the technological hopes and fears of the day, veering between hyperbolic promises and dystopian nightmares. The original evil robot from Metropolis. IMDB
This millennium, Pixar’s animated WALL-E (2008) gave us warm fuzzies for a friendly and lonely garbage-cleaning robot. Comedy-drama Robot & Frank (2012) showed a close relationship developing between an older man and his care robot.
Mitchells v Machines (7+, 114mins) Directed by Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe ½ Having been accepted into the California College of Film, Katie Mitchell (Abbi Jacobson) believes she’s finally going to meet “my people”. Sure her dinosaur-loving little brother Aaron (Mike Rianda) has always been supportive of her crazy
Dog Cop series of movies (featuring their beloved cross-eyed pug Monchi) and mom Linda (Maya Rudolph) sympathetic to her passion, but there’s always been a reticence in dad Rick’s (Danny McBride) eyes and words. Constantly encouraging her to “have a Plan B”, he’s never even watched one of her creations the whole way through. However, when their latest argument leads to a broken laptop, Rick is forced to reassess his stance. Unfortunately, his attempt to fix things only leads to more heartache for Katie. Cancelling her airline ticket, he’s decided that they will personally deliver her from Kentwood, Michigan to California by road. Sure she’l