Every month, all the major streaming services add a host of newly acquired (or just plain new) shows, movies, and documentaries into their ever-rotating libraries. So what’s a dedicated reader to watch? Well, whatever you want, of course, but the name of this website is Literary Hub, so we sort of have an angle. To that end, here’s a selection of the best (and most enjoyably bad) literary film and TV coming to streaming services this month. Have fun.
Netflix, April 4 based on Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley novels Usually, once there’s a perfect adaptation of a novel, there’s really no reason to retread. But you can never have enough Tom Ripley. Netflix’s new series stars Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley, Johnny Flynn as Dickie Greenleaf, and Dakota Fanning as Marge Sherwood, and was written and directed by Oscar winner Steven Zaillian. Will the monochrome pay off? Will Andrew Scott continue to take over my brain? Only time will tell. Max, April 5 based on by Martin Amis (2014) A24’s latest Oscar-winning film (for Best International Feature and Best Sound) is a terrifying, difficult film about an Auschwitz commandant, Rudolf Höss, and his wife, who live with their family just on the other side of the wall from the concentration camp. Steven Spielberg called it the best
Holocaust movie since . It is a film about people accepting the banality of evil, which makes it topical in addition to being historical, and its director Jonathan Glazer —another reason to watch.
Apple TV+, April 12 based on by Stacy Schiff (2005) Michael Douglas’s Michael Douglas vehicle stars Michael Douglas as an apparently irreverent Ben Franklin—who heads across the ocean on a secret mission to try to convince the French to lend their guns and men to the cause of nascent America. Threats, negotiations, and wigs abound. Max, April 14 based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s (2016) I have sky-high hopes for this series adaptation of Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, created by Park Chan-wook ( , ) and Don McKellar ( , ). Hoa Xuande stars as the Captain, along with Robert Downey Jr., as the “ .” Add Sandra Oh, and I’m beyond sold. Hulu, April 17 based on Rebecca Godfrey’s (2005) Brand new Lily Gladstone superfans take heart: the Oscar-nominated
Actress stars in this adaptation of the late Godfrey’s true crime account of the murder of 14-year-old Reena Virk in her hometown of Victoria,
British Columbia. Gladstone plays a
police officer investigating the murder, while Riley Keough costars as Godfrey herself in what is sure to be a terrifying portrayal of violence and young girlhood. Netflix, April 17 based on the classic tales published by the Brothers Grimm The latest fairy tale remix is an anime take on six classic stories (“Cinderella,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “The Elves and the Shoemaker,” “The Town Musicians of Bremen,” and “Pied Paper of Hamelin”)—as imagined by the Brothers Grimm’s little sister, Charlotte, who “sees the stories quite differently from her brothers.” Read: they were already darker than the sanitized
Disney versions, but they’re about to get darker. With character concepts by CLAMP, a screenplay by Michiko Yokote,
music by Akira Miyagawa, and animation by WIT Studio. Prime Video, April 1 based on by Ira Levin (1967) A classic horror film based on an equally classic horror novel (the best-selling horror novel of the 1960s), both of them verging on perfect. Netflix, April 1 Nora Ephron’s romantic
comedy about bookstore owners and AOL or be a terrible film, and this may or may not depend on when you first come to it. But either way, those looking for 90s escapism will not be disappointed. Max, April 1 based on by Ben Mezrich (2009) From to and who knew it was only yet another brief stop on the track that has lead us here (wherever here is)? Pretty good movie, though. Hulu, April 23 based on by Steve Alten (1997) That’s right, is a literary movie. Technically. I will now proceed to enjoy the craggy dramatic stylings (and hot bald head) of Jason Statham while feeling superior about it…though to be fair, I don’t really need any particular excuse to do to this.