Streaming networks have been taking some extra weight this year, and Hulu has been on the front lines in delivering fresh excitement to the homes and screens in subscribers far and large. If you want to go back a month and see what you may have missed in October 2020, we’re going to give you your lineup at the conclusion of this adventure.
For now, get excited to see what’s coming to Hulu’s digital library in November 2020!
1. Up In The Air
George Clooney performs one of his most complex performances in this sharp and poignant comedy-drama by writer and director Jason Reitman (“Juno”). Clooney uses his film-star good looks and charm to serve the supremely charismatic Ryan Bingham, a man who specializes in playing a corporate bad guy (he’s called in to help with the layoffs), but whose confidence is steadily deteriorating; Anna Kendrick is ideal as a young woman who tries to streamline her career and, as a result, to get him out of work.
2. The Assistant
This film shows the abuse of domination in the field of jobs. The corporate climate of terror and violence, which also circles around a strongly suspected abuser, is thrown under a microscope in the New York Study Workplace Thriller, inspired by Harvey Weinstein’s acts while deliberately blurring some of the details. It’s the best movie of this year to the year. Julia Garner shines like Jane with her one of the best acting roles. The film depicts a day in the life of Jane, a newly-entered assistant to a film production corporation. She makes copies, schedules plane trips, receives lunch orders, returns phone calls, and cleans mysterious stains from the sofa. At one point, a young woman from Idaho arrives at the front desk, claims to have flown in to start her job as a new assistant, and is taken to a lavish hotel suite.
3. American Ultra
American Ultra is one of the geek genre mishmashes that is really smart about being ignorant. The film, written by Max Landis, has a one-time premiss—”What if Jason Bourne couldn’t remember his history because he’d been baking all the time? Nima Nourizadeh ‘s direction is eclectic: aerial shots, intense telephoto close-ups, quasi-ironic slow-mo scenes, digitally composite long shots. Crime is amplified into fiery blood spurts and doors blown open by gunfire — the stuff of scrappier horror fare, in which the audience gets hooked on the pleasure the filmmakers would have had in making it. It’s demented, often inspired, and always really funny.
4. Ingrid Goes West
Parks & Rec’s Aubrey Plaza has gained serious praise as Ingrid Thorburn, an insecure young woman who finds herself traveling west to pursue (literally) the social media influencer Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen). Lying between her teeth to become friends with Sloane, who has the life Ingrid wants, Ingrid makes a whole new life for herself. In the meantime, she makes acquainted with her new owner, Dan (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), who is fascinated with Batman, and soon speaks to him to pretend to be her boyfriend. Dark and clever, Ingrid Goes West is one of the best Hulu movies if your sense of humor will roll with an unpredictable protagonist
5. Heathers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAAz8AuFkgw
The 1980s were full of teen comedies and dramas with a feeling-good ending. Heathers is not one of those movies. This 1988 film by director Daniel Waters was the complete opposite of the films made by John Hughes and others during that decade. Winona Ryder’s Veronica seeks to take on a popular group of female students called Heathers. Things get out of hand quite easily, due in part to the efforts of J.D., a psychotic pupil with a Jack Nicholson impersonation, played brilliantly by Christian Slater. This grim spoof of high school and teenage life is still important even today in the culture of social networking, not to mention one of Hulu’s best films.
6. Tangerine
Shot on a smartphone, Tangerine tracks Sin-Dee ‘s working girl (Kitana KiKi Rodriguez) as she returns to Tinseltown on Christmas Eve. Hearing that her pimp lover (James Ransone) wasn’t trustworthy during the 28 days she was locked up, she and her best friend Alexandra set out on a mission to get to the bottom of the scandalous rumor. Their odyssey takes them through the different subcultures and communities of Los Angeles in the kind of rich, intimate imagery that you don’t really see in movies. It’s about the wackiest Christmas movie you’ll ever see.
7. Wounds
Centered on a novel called The Visible Filth by the acclaimed horror writer Nathan Ballingrud, this Hulu original stars Armie Hammer as Will, a New Orleans bartender whose finding of a discarded cell phone at his place of business is a symbol of an unspeakable evil. British-Iranian director Babek Anvari, who produced 2016’s supremely creepy Under the Shadow, creates an atmosphere of intense fear and rot here, from the cockroaches that Will continuously kills behind the bar to the disturbing images and sounds that keep showing on the phone he discovers. Much remains mysterious, but that’s a kind of the point: horror is always most powerful when it can’t be rationalized.
8. Any Given Sunday
Oliver Stone uses his hyper-styled visuals for a titanic, all-embracing portrait of professional football on Every Given Sunday, an all-star 1999 film that brazenly aims for Shakespeare’s grandeur, thanks in part to the script of the playwright-turned-screenwriter John Logan. At the heart of this gladiatorial gridiron, epic is Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino), the exhausted championship coach of the Miami Sharks, who are struggling with various dilemmas, from the disloyalty of owner Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz) to his lovelorn depression too — most of all — a serious injury to his seasoned quarterback, Cap5-007 (Dennis Quaid). The last of these issues manifest itself in the opening series, which sets the scene for the appearance of the third-string QB “Steamin'” Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx), an arrogant bad boy who soon becomes a league which media phenomenon, even though he slowly alienates his coach and teammates—including Lawrence Taylor’s linebacker and LL Cool J’s back.
9. Mud
This 2013 coming-of-age drama by writer and director Jeff Nichols (‘a distinctive and welcome presence in American film’) is an evocative twist, conjuring up the dizzying independence of ‘Huck Finn’-style boys’ adventure story while combining it with a modern tale of crime and retribution. Matthew McConaughey is the title character, a criminal on a remote island who is found and later helped by two young boys (Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland). The rhythms of these small southern towns in Nichols are very well-tuned. This makes his work quietly and urgent. His movies are sneaking on you, and this one ambles for two hours until he lands with the force of a gut punch.
10. Grave of the Fireflies
This film will rip your heart apart with the dramatic and heart-warming scenes directed by Isao Takahata, as well as a live-action adaptation in 2005. It’s passing down the finest work of Isao Takahata, who is also the co-founder of the studio. The film tells the story of two young siblings who were orphaned during the Second World War. They try to live a normal life and childhood innocence, even when all hope dies around them. It’s the most unsettling film in the Studio. It’s the film that’s going to get you sad, and one or two tears will probably fall out of your eyes. It remains a heart-breaking film that will prevent you from leaving your seats and will have a significant effect on the spoils of war.
11. Clemency
Clemency starts not with an act of grace, but with a state-sanctioned execution. The specifics are agonizing: a crying mother carrying a rosary; squeaking leather belts on a lethal injection table; a pool of blood emerging around a needle spreading the first sedative, then poison. The horrifying introduction is in line with other prison movies, which almost entirely concentrate on the dehumanizing experience of incarceration, from classics like Papillon and Cool Hand Luke to more recent Starred Up and A Prayer Before Dawn. Yet Clemency subverts assumptions by discussing how its own process of degradation is to act as a state-approved executioner of the death penalty. Alfre Woodard captures with incredible nuances the moral and physical toll that might be taken on anyone, spending years overseeing executions; she advocates for a film that otherwise strikes a balance between universal sympathy and a clear call for a restructuring of the criminal justice system.
12. The Peanut Butter Falcon
Identified as “the modern-day Mark Twain fable that will melt your heart,” the Peanut Butter Falcon is just as innocent and adorable as they are coming. The plot follows Zak (, a young man with Down syndrome who runs away from his home nursing home to fulfill his goal of being a pro wrestler. Along the way, he has an unexpected relationship with the outlaw (Shia LaBeouf) who is eager to help Zak achieve his target. When the nurse assigned to get Zak back to the nursing home turns up, she joins the couple reluctantly, recognizing how much the journey means to Zak. They become, along the way, an unconventional, unlikely family as they confront their pasts and their future together.
13. Judy
In her second and unexpectedly final act, Renée Zellweger won the Best Actress Oscar for her depiction of seminal actress and singer Judy Garland. Thirty years after coming to world-renown from The Wizard of Oz, Judy appears in London to stage a sold-out performance at the Talk of the Town nightclub. Reveling in her new in-person stardom in the gritty ’50s, Judy reminisces with friends and fans and starts a whirlwind affair with her soon-to-be-fifth partner, Mickey Deans.
14. A View to a Kill
Largely vilified by Bond fandom, A View to a Kill may be a mess, but — not unlike its predecessor, Octopussy — it’s a fun mess. The plot — Walken’s mad-as-hatter villain wants to sink Silicon Valley to secure a monopoly on silicon — is visible, but things are going too fast, there’s no time to focus on how stupid everything is. The breakneck pace could be attributed to John Glen’s direction, but it’s also largely due to John Barry’s brilliant musical score, which includes the kickass theme song performed by Duran Duran.
15. Bombshell
Theron stars in the role of Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, who, whatever you might think of her, definitely did not deserve to be sexually assaulted by the liver-spotted paws of Roger Ailes (John Lithgow). Theron is playing Kelly like a lone wolf. When Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) openly charges Ailes, a lot of female employees at Fox News rush to his aid, but Kelly doesn’t make a comment, leaving both Ailes and Carlson to turn in the wind, even though she was sexually assaulted when she started on the network. The actual Megyn Kelly got into trouble for a few items in Bombshell, including a scene where Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie) accuses Kelly of not standing up, labeling it as her fault.
16. The Nice Guys
Ryan Gosling and Russel Crowe gazed as two turbulent private investigators investigating the death of a porn star in this sleek and dazzling black set in the 1970s. Writer-director Shane Black is at his A-game as the film sees its intensity in ideally balanced lead actors as well as the young Angourie Rice who stars as the daughter of Gosling’s character. Gosling himself appears to be a long way from his quiet Push and Blade Runner 2049 people when he gets a lot of scenes to prove his comic timing. Nice Guys also sounds like a sincere homage to the music and pop culture of the period.
17. The Prestige
When it came out, “The Prestige” was spoken about in reference to another magician’s movie that came out the same year, “The Illusionist” starring Edward Norton. But over time, Nolan’s film, featuring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as opposing magicians, has gradually begun to attract some respect. The Prestige, man It is an adaptation of a novel about dueling magicians in London by Christopher Priest of the same name at the start of the 1900s. but its themes of obsession, desire, and sacrifice for work/art are timeless and ever-present in all of Nolan’s films. The Prestige Ensemble is awesome, but Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale shine better than the above-mentioned Dueling Magicians. This is a film that has to operate on several levels, and Jackman and Bale are rising to the challenge and utterly nailing the complex performances that are expected of them. There are twists and turns to spare in The Prestige, but provided that this is a magician movie.
