Everyone has been watching this week. There are still a few Oscar-winning films in the mix, along with some space rom-com energy and an awkward Agatha Christie adaptation.
Each week, the most popular streamed movies come down to a few things, including buzz, smart marketing and PR campaigns, star power, and a slow burn, word-of-mouth phenomenon that leads people to finally watch it out of spite. To get a sense of what everyone is watching, we used data from streaming aggregation Reelgood, which gathers those coveted viewership numbers from hundreds of streaming services in the U.S. and UK.
A lot of people are watching something. Here they are, the 10 most streamed films of the week, where to watch them and what critics thought.
Bon voyage. Credit: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Kenneth Branagh directed and starred in this adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel of the same name. The story is centred on a death on the Nile. This one has a big cast and lots of twists.
When Death on the Nile is not making amusingly bad choices, it is swimming in bloated sequences or repeating the same point enough to make you sick. I found that this whodunnit isn't hard to figure out. I had it solved before the end of act one, which left me little to do the rest of the movie.
Death on the Nile is now available to watch.
Emilia Jones in "CODA." Credit: Apple TV+
It was the film that took home Best Picture at the Oscars, and it was also the first film to feature a cast of people with deafness. CODA is a film written and directed by Si Heder, who is also the Best Supporting actor winner.
The plot is adapted from the French film La Famille B9lier, which stands for Child of Deaf Adults. Ruby helps her father and brother on their fishing boat in the setting of rural France that CODA trades for Gloucester, Massachusetts. Shannon Connellan is the UK Editor of the film.
Thanks to excellent performances and Heder's sharp writing and direction, CODA rises above any possibility of triteness to become a moving, heartwarming, and deeply satisfying film.
CODA is available on Apple TV+.
Lana Condor and Cole Sprouse are bound for Mars — and love? Credit: Warner Bros.
Cole Sprouse and To All the Boys I've Loved Before are in a rom-com set in space. And the actor,Zach Braff? Christopher Winterbauer's Moonshot, which tells the futuristic tale of two students sneaking onto a Mars-bound spacecraft on a quest for love, has proven popular this week. The reviews have been mixed.
The most futuristic thing about Moonshot is that it is a script generated by an artificial intelligence trained on romcoms. The script is fine, for a computer program, it checks almost every box on paper, but misses that most vital human touch.
Moonshot is currently available on the internet.
Walker Scobell and Ryan Reynolds in "The Adam Project." Credit: Netflix
Ryan Reynolds is on top of his game in Shawn Levy's The Adam Project, a time-travelling family adventure about a man who is forced to journey back in time, joining forces with his dad and his younger self in a chaotic attempt to avert future catastrophe. The real star of the show is 12-year-old Walker Scobell, who plays young Adam with a perfectly dry sarcasm that makes him an easy sparring partner for his older self.
What we thought: Plot holes and worldbuilding are not important in this neat 100 movie that is worth a watch.
The Adam Project is available on the internet.
Will Smith as Serena and Venus' dad, Richard Williams Credit: Chiabella James / Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Will Smith won the Best Actor award at the Oscars. Smith played the role of Richard Williams, the coach and father of tennis legends Venus and Serena, and his role in paving their road to sporting history against significant odds, including America's rife anti-Black racism.
King Richard is trying to be a feel-good movie that celebrates a Black father who overcame the odds to lift his family out of poverty and guide his daughters to their full potential. It proves a crowdpleaser with a sense of warmth, humor, and heart. With Will Smith in the lead, it's exactly the kind of movie that would do well on family movie night, where a focus on togetherness and platitudes plays better than controversy or complications. The glossy coating chafes at points because it papering over the more complicated parts of its real-life inspiration.
King Richard is available on the internet.
Not a healthy relationship by any means. Credit: Claire Folger / 20th Century Studios
There are many things to entice you into Deep Water, including Ben Affleck teaming up with Ana De Armas, Fatal Attraction director Adrian Lyne at the helm, and Euphoria creator Sam Levinson and Stranger Than Fiction'sZach Helm on the script. The film is based on a novel byPatricia Highsmith and follows a man who wants his wife to have affairs than go through divorce. But then her lovers disappear.
Deep Water should be a nerve-shredding, pulse-racing shock to the system that rattles you, head to toe. It can't pay off the promise of its people.
Deep Water is now available to watch on the internet.
Hidetoshi Nishijima and Tôko Miura hit the road. Credit: HBO Max
Did I drive my car for three hours? You could have fooled me, as the film had me completely hooked. The film was adapted from a short story by Haruki Murakami. The story is about a theatre director who has an intense creative relationship with his wife, but suddenly ends it. Heading out of town to work on a production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, Y&F;suke finds a bond with his new chauffeur, Misaki Watari. The comfort of his red car becomes a wagon of truth as he unpacks the themes of the play and his own relationship.
Drive My Car is now available to watch.
With the powers of Jason Segel, Lily Collins, and Jesse Clemons combined... Credit: Netflix
Windfall feels almost more like a play than a movie, as it follows a man who breaks into a billionaire's house, only to be caught red-handed when he shows up with his wife. This offbeat story has more to do with the slow-burn dialogue and less with high-octane tension.
Windfall's unhurried pacing and the couple's lack of escape attempts might not keep everyone's attention. You will be rewarded with a satisfyingly surprising ending if you stick around as long as that person.
Windfall is streaming on the internet.
If you want more Zendaya, you'll have to wait for part two. Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
The big blockbuster adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic 1965, sci-fi nove l, back in the most popular streamed movies of the week, may have cleaned up at the Oscars after winning six categories. Dune follows the adventures of Paul Atreides on the planet Arrakis. S.C. has worms.
Denis Villeneuve has made a big, rich, moody sci-fi tone poem in the style of his previous outing, Blade Runner 2049. If you liked that, and we did, you will love this, and its 150 minutes will fly by in a kind of pleasant hypnotic trance, with a few flashes of humor to relieve the ever-present tension.
Dune is now available on the internet.
Rosalie Chiang, Ava Morse, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, and Hyein Park play Mei, Miriam, Priya, and Abby. Credit: Disney
One of the best animated movies of the year so far, Turning Red channels some real PEN15 coming-of-age energy to ring uncomfortably true for anyone who had a hard time through puberty. A family curse that causes a Chinese-Canadian teen to turn into a red panda at the sign of strong emotion might cause her to miss her beloved boy band 4*Town. It is a tale of teenage angst and an homage to the mothers, aunties, and family members we would be lost in our own fur without.
Turning Red is a coming-of-age comedy that is as exciting as it is fun.
Disney+ is where you can watch Turning Red.
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