What’s streaming now: Bradley Cooper conducts, Lidia Bastianich cooks and Percy Jackson quests
A new Percy Jackson series and a PBS special hosted by cookbook author and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich are some of the new television, movies and music headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are a heartwarming CBS holiday special about adoption, a thriller starring John David Washington about artificial intelligence and the return of Marvel’s mind-bending “What If…” series.
— “Maestro,” Bradley Cooper’s follow-up to “A Star Is Born” takes a loving look at the life of Leonard Bernstein and wife Felicia Montealegre. Cooper co-writes, directs and stars opposite Carey Mulligan in a portrait of the public and private side of the legendary composer and conductor. AP Film Writer Jake Coyle called it a “high wire act of a biopic” in his review, favoring the experimental black-and-white beginning over the later years, which focuses more on the increasingly complex family dynamics. The first hour, he wrote, is “like a dream of 1950s New York modernism.” The film, now streaming on Netflix, is expected to be a big contender through awards season, especially for Mulligan’s lived-in, decades-spanning portrayal of an artist living in the shadow of a genius and a wife grappling with the compromises she’s made to support him.
— Artificial intelligence is at the heart of “The Creator,” Gareth Edwards’ visually dazzling sci-fi epic which is now on Hulu. John David Washington plays a retired special forces operative enlisted to help find the creator of advanced AIs after a nuclear bomb destroys downtown Los Angeles. In my review, I wrote that “even if it is a somewhat convoluted and silly mishmash of familiar tropes and sci-fi cliches, it still evokes the feeling of something fresh, something novel, something exciting to experience and behold — which is so much more than you can say about the vast majority of big budget movies these days.”
— If “The Creator” didn’t have enough “Star Wars” vibes for you, Netflix has another ode to that ever-influential film from Zack Snyder with his long-in-the-works “Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire.” Sofia Boutella leads a starry cast (including Djimon Hounsou, Charlie Hunnam and the voice of Anthony Hopkins) in this space opera about a small colony that must rise up against a tyrannical threat to the galaxy. It begins streaming on Friday and the second part will follow in April.
