A year ago, when the cinemas closed, this column turned from a weekly film review into more of a weekly streaming review and recommendation list.
Streaming, begun by Netflix in 2012, has changed massively in the last decade and it is genuinely hard to keep up.
The dawning of the age of streaming was supposed to be good for the consumer, and at first streaming was great. Netflix was cheap and had great shows, but other companies have since come for a slice of the streaming pie and Netflix prices have risen, its library diminished, and several new streamers require subscriptions.
To access the best new TV it comes at quite a punchy price. Netflix's top price is now €17.99. Disney+ is €9 euros a month. Some of the best TV is currently on Apple TV+ which is €5 a month (but a minuscule library compared to the others ). Amazon is €6 a month and has some great shows too. along with Nowtv which has all the HBO shows.
We are now back to paying more than what we were paying a decade ago for Sky. The one advantage the consumer has is there are no long term contracts. So my advice is cancel all but one and work your way through what interests you, then drop the service the following month and pick another one. It also removes the paralysis of choice. No longer am I scrolling for hours trying to decide what to watch.
Cinemas are (thank God ) weeks away from opening but here are a few picks from Disney+ worth watching.
Unstoppable : Quentin Tarantino listed this as one of his Top 10 movies of the last decade, and I can see why. This is an absolutely brilliant thriller about a runaway train. A throwback to the great disaster movies of the 1970s, it features a cracking cast led by Denzel Washington and Chris Pine.
25th hour : One of Spike Lee’s most interesting movies, based on a novel by David Benioff, one of the men behind Game of Thrones. Ed Norton plays an upmarket drug dealer about to head to jail. On his last day of freedom he wants to make things right with his father and friends, and maybe find out who snitched him out.
Theall star supporting cast features Brian Cox, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Rosario Dawson. Cox in particular delivers an incredible monologue towards the end that is worth the monthly sub alone.
OJ Made In America : An incredible look at America in the 1990s through the prism of the OJ Simpson trial. This is 10 hours but not a moment too long, if Reeling In The Years is your thing, this is an excellent look at a fascinating time in history.
