5 must-watch movies & TV shows streaming right now

Welcome to Boston.com’s weekly streaming guide. Each week, we recommend five must-watch movies and TV shows available on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount+, and more.

Many recommendations are for new shows, while others are for under-the-radar releases you might have missed or classics that are about to depart a streaming service at the end of the month.

Have a new favorite movie or show you think we should know about? Let us know in the comments, or email [email protected]. Looking for even more great streaming options? Check out previous editions of our must-watch list here.

New Movies Streaming

“Beetlejuice”

Before going to see the incredibly fun sequel “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” in theaters this weekend, revisit the 1988 original, which put director Tim Burton on the map and began a fruitful collaboration with Michael Keaton (who also starred in Burton’s “Batman” the following year). Married couple Barbara and Adam Maitland (Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin) struggle to come to terms with the fact that they are ghosts trapped in their Connecticut River home. When a new family moves in, the couple hires Betelgeuse (Keaton), a “bio-exorcist,” to scare off the snooty couple and their gothy daughter (Winona Ryder), who can see the Maitlands.

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is almost as rip-roaringly fun as the original, and features another vintage performance from Keaton as the ghost with the most. Though the plot verges on incoherent, Burton has rediscovered a visual panache and daffy energy that has been missing for more than a decade. I’m honestly not sure which of the two films Catherine O’Hara (“Home Alone”) is better in, so you’re probably better off watching both.

How to watch: “Beetlejuice” is streaming on Max.

“The Boy and the Heron”

Hayao Miyazaki (“Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro”) has made a “final” film before, with 2013’s “The Wind Rises.” But retirement didn’t suit the Japanese director, who has said that he picked up a camera again “in order to live” and that he would work until he dies. It’s our good fortune that the most influential feature-length animator of the last 50 years hasn’t lost a step with “The Boy and the Heron,” which follows a Japanese boy in post-World War II Japan who is reeling from the death of his mother.

After moving to the countryside with his father and his new wife, Mahito follows a bothersome gray heron, first into an abandoned ruin and then into a fantasy world filled with spirits. Watching the subtitled version is recommended, though hearing Robert Pattinson (“Twilight”) voice the guttural heron on the English dub is worth checking out as well.

How to watch: “The Boy and the Heron” is streaming on Max.

“Rebel Ridge”

Director Jeremy Saulnier’s films (“Blue Ruin”, “Green Room”) share a lot of hallmarks, including small budgets, rural locations, and edge-of-your-seat tension. His newest, “Rebel Ridge,” is another tale of revenge, about a man named Terry (Aaron Pierre) who has his assets seized by corrupt local police on his way to post bail for his cousin. (If you haven’t read about civil asset forfeiture before, prepare to be outraged.)

Unbowed and unbroken, Terry tries to handle things the right way, but Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson, “Miami Vice”) won’t let him. Pierre is a magnetic leading man with action star written all over him, and you’ll be rooting for him to burn the whole force down by the time “Rebel Ridge” barrels toward its conclusion.

How to watch: “Rebel Ridge” is streaming on Netflix.

New TV streaming

“The Perfect Couple”

If you’re an appreciator of beach reads and snarkily tearing into the 1 percent while obsessively following their lives, then you’ll likely enjoy “The Perfect Couple,” the Nantucket high society murder mystery based on best-selling author Elin Hilderbrand’s 2018 novel of the same name. (If your tastes run more high-brow, look elsewhere.)

The six-episode limited series follows the Winbury family, whose matriarch, best-selling author Greer (Nicole Kidman), is planning the social event of the season: The marriage of her son, Benji (Billy Howle) to middle-class zookeeper Amelia (Eve Hewson, “Bad Sisters”). When a body turns up on the beach, the whole family is put under a microscope. There’s nothing particular novel about “The Perfect Couple,” but it packs just enough “eat the rich” barbs and genuinely surprising twists to make it worth watching, if only because it’s merely six episodes.

How to watch: “The Perfect Couple” is streaming on Netflix.

“Slow Horses”

Watching Gary Oldman (“The Dark Knight,” “Darkest Hour”) in any role is a treat. So it’s not surprising that Oldman’s turn as a surly intelligence officer in the Apple TV+ series “Slow Horses” has remained an underrated delight, even in its fourth season, which premiered on Apple TV+ this week. Based on the “Slough House” series of novels by Mick Herron, Oldman plays Jackson Lamb, the head and heart of an MI5 department full of rejects and problem agents known as Slough House.

Lamb, who appears to be bathing in canola oil, is initially more preoccupied with his personal demons than either of the two major plots for the new season: A suicide bombing and a murder tied to fellow spy River (Jack Lowden) and his ex-spy grandfather David (Jonathan Pryce). The dialogue is darkly funny, the spycraft is thrilling, and Kristin Scott Thomas, who largely disappeared from American cinema around 20 years ago, is a delight as the MI5 higher-up who barely tolerates Slough House’s antics.

How to watch: “Slow Horses” Season 4 is streaming on Apple TV+.