Apple TV+
Apple TV’s addition for February is the new coming-of-age film “The Sky is Everywhere,” based on a beloved novel by Jandy Nelson. In it, music-loving Lennon (Gracie Kaufman) is best friends with her sister, Bailey (Havana Rose Liu). “The older sister always walked in front of the younger one, so the younger one always knew where to go,” says Lennon in voice-over in the film’s trailer.
When Bailey dies, Lennon has to cope with the loss as her father (Jason Segel), tries his best to help. As she’s grieving, she’s caught between a love triangle of Bailey’s boyfriend Toby (Pico Alexander), who would understand her grief more than anyone; as well as new kid at school, Joe (Jacques Colimon), who’s in her band class.
This romance-drama is the type of film I enjoy, and the trailer makes the film’s style look magical at times. Given that it’s from “Shirley” and “Madeline’s Madeline” director Josephine Decker, that shouldn’t be a surprise; but it will be interesting to see how her style adapts to something that seems much more mainstream. The film peaks our interest, and releases on Friday, February 11th.
HBO Max
In HBO Max’s offering, February 10th sees the release of the thriller “Kimi,” Steven Soderbergh’s latest film; it stars Zoë Kravitz as an agoraphobic Seattle tech worker who uncovers evidence of a crime. ‘Kimi’ is a Siri/Alexa comp and the crime Angela Childs (Kravitz) hears is through a Kimi device. A high-tech version of “Rear Window” (to simplify it), “Kimi” definitely catches our attention. Further, its direction by Steven Soderbergh—who can thrive in any genre—makes this one even more exciting.
PARAMOUNT+
The original film for Paramount+ comes in the form of supernatural romance “The In Between,” where a couple Tessa (Joey King) and Skylar (Kyle Allen) get in a car crash, and she survives but he doesn’t. Now, she believes that he’s trying to communicate with her from the other side. It sounds like a YA version of “Ghost,” which is totally fine as a romance in time for Valentine’s Day. As long as it’s better than “The Kissing Booth 3,” we’re happy. The film releases Feb. 11th.
DISNEY+
Since Disney + doesn’t have original films on its February slate, we’ll highlight one that’s come out this past Friday with “The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild,” an extension of the “Ice Age” universe and the franchise’s first spin-off film. Streaming since Jan. 28th, the character of Buck Wild is a weasel voiced by Simon Pegg, first introduced in 2009’s “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” as an English weasel who lived in the Lost World amongst the dinosaurs. Buck’s journey starts in this film when possum brothers Crash and Eddie are looking for a new place to live and are trapped in a cave. Buck rescues them, and they have to face the dinosaurs in the Lost World.
AMAZON
The first release from Amazon comes with the Charlie Day/Jenny Slate comedy “I Want You Back,” releasing Feb. 11th. When Peter (Day) and Emma (Slate) meet each other in a staircase as they’re both crying over their respective breakups, they make a pact to be “sadness sisters” and hang out when they need each other. When they see that their exes are in new relationships, they attempt to ruin their relationships to win them back. Emma decides to seduce the new boyfriend (Manny Jacinto) of Peter’s ex Anne (Gina Rodriguez); and Peter’s enlisted to friendship seduce Slate’s ex, Noah (Scott Eastwood). We all know how this will end; so if we get a bit of the sweetness of “Friends with Benefits” and some good laughs, this is what we’ll sit down to for Valentine’s Day.
Also releasing on Feb. 11th, Amazon features an offering from India with “Gehraiyaan,” a comedy/drama/romance film from director Shakun Batra and starring Deepika Padukone. It’s a film reportedly taking us on a journey into the intricacies of human relationships. This caught our eye for how great the trailer looks, and also as something that seems the most different than what the rest of the streaming services have to offer this February.
HULU
Hulu’s offering for February is a whodunnit thriller called “No Exit,” based on the novel of the same name. It features a college student, Darby (Havana Rose Liu in her first lead role) who finds herself caught at a highway rest stop in Colorado during a vicious winter storm. As she’s looking for cell phone reception, Darby finds a small girl kidnapped in a van beside her car. At least, that’s how it happens in the novel according to Goodreads; where she has to learn who amongst this group of four strangers is the kidnapper.
I love these small-scale kinds of films; and as much as I love horror films, I’m an absolute sucker for a true thriller like this one. The premise sounds like “The Thing” and “Identity” put together, so I’ll be streaming this for sure when it releases on Feb. 25th.
SHUDDER
Well, let’s get to my bread and butter with what the horror streaming platform Shudder has to offer in February, with a new original or ‘Shudder Exclusive’ each week. The first is “Slapface,” about a boy (August Maturo) who deals with the loss of his mother and his grief by creating a relationship with a monster living in the woods. This is the more horror route akin to “Come Play,” though we love stories like this one, about getting over the grief of losing a loved one. This title releases on Feb. 3rd.
The Thursday after that, Feb. 10th, sees the release of “All The Moons,” which premiered at last year’s Fantasia Film Festival, and is set in the North of Spain at the end of the 19th Century, where a young orphan is rescued by a woman when the orphanage is destroyed by a bomb during the war. To saver her life, the woman turns the girl into a vampire. You had at us at 19th Century and vampires.
“They Live in the Grey” releases on the platform on Feb. 17th, where a social worker (Michelle Krusiec) is doing her job, helping a family keep custody of their child, where things turn supernatural and she must stop the supernatural force from tormenting the family. I assume this is one of those deals where the entity wants the child, but we’re intrigued all the same.
Feb. 24th sees the release of “Hellbender,” another film that premiered at last year’s Fantasia Film Festival, a unique horror film where Izzy (Zelda Adams) is held at her home in the woods, her main source of entertainment being the band she plays in with her mother, Mother (Toby Poser). Then, she learns why she’s kept away from the world as she learns more about the family’s ties to witchcraft. The really interesting thing about this film is that it’s actually made by a filmmaking family, with a father (John Adams), wife (Toby Poser), and daughter (Zelda Adams) writing and directing team. John Adams also has an acting role in the film; and so does daughter Lulu Adams.
NETFLIX
We’ve saved the streaming titan for last, and one of the releases this month that we have to highlight (but might not be looking forward to) is “A Madea Homecoming,” for the first Madea film since 2019—and this time on the small screen. And this time, it centers around the college graduation of her great-great grandson. We won’t say much more than this other than Madea fans, enjoy; everyone else, just pick something else to stream when this comes Feb. 25th.
For the next release… I’ll be honest, life was a lot better five minutes ago before I knew they made “Tall Girl 2.” I will be practicing self-care and not streaming this on Feb. 11th. It’s completely within the realm of possibility that this improves on its 2019 predecessor, in a film about a high schooler whose problem is being absurdly tall, but we won’t bank on it. Still, find out for yourselves on Feb. 11th if you’re so inclined.
One film that definitely caught our attention is the ninth addition to the long-running “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchise, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” pitched as a spiritual sequel to the original film when a group of friends disrupt his existence after Leatherface has been hiding out for the past 47 years. As long as this one improves on 2017’s “Leatherface”—also streaming on Netflix—we’re happy. This one drops on Feb. 25.
There you have it—12 of the best streaming options we could find this coming month… Which ones are you looking forward to? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below!
