Sean Axmaker
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Film guy, home video columnist, love silent films and noir
Articles by Sean Axmaker
What to stream in October 2026: ‘East of Eden,’ ‘VisionQuest,’ ‘Carrie’
Here’s what’s coming to Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+ and other streaming services in October. Florence Pugh takes the lead in “East of Eden” (Netflix, Oct. 1), the limited series adaptation of the John Steinbeck epic novel about generations of two families in California’s Salinas Valley. Mike Faist, Christopher Abbott and Ciarán Hinds co-star. Two powerful British legal firms clash in “War” (HBO Max, Oct.
What to stream in August 2026: ‘Ted Lasso,’ ‘Lanterns,’ ‘Michael’ Original
Here’s what’s coming to Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+ and other streaming services in August. Three years after its finale, beloved comedy “Ted Lasso” (Apple TV, Aug. 5) returns for a fourth season with Jason Sudeikis as the underdog American football coach in England, this time to coach a second division women’s football (that’s soccer to us) team. Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple and Brett Goldstein return with Tanya Reynolds among the new supporting cast.
What to stream in July 2026: ‘Elle,’ ‘Lucky,’ ‘The Westies,’ ‘Ride or Die’ Original
Here’s what’s coming to Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, Peacock and other streaming services in July. “Elle” (Prime Video, July 1), the prequel series to “Legally Blonde,” is a coming-of-age story that follows Elle Woods (Lexi Minetree) as a high school student. June Diane Raphael and Tom Everett Scott co-star, and James Van Der Beek, who died in February, appears in one of his final screen appearances.
Matthew McConaughey is ‘Killer Joe’ on Netflix and Prime Video
Matthew McConaughey is in prime form as Killer Joe (2012), William Friedkin‘s southern fried trailer park noir with an undercurrent of black comedy. Killer Joe Cooper is a Dallas homicide cop with a sideline as a killer for hire, and he’s hired by Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch), a small-time drug-dealer, to knock off his mother. It’s not like she doesn’t deserve it, mind you.
‘The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond’ – a gangster robbing gangsters on HBO Max
Ray Danton stars as the real-life dancer turned urban thug and mob killer Jack “Legs” Diamond, who made his name terrorizing other criminals in New York City, in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960).
What to stream in June 2026: ‘Cape Fear,’ ‘Every Year After’ Original
Here’s what’s coming to Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+ and other streaming services in June. The new Mindy Kaling comedy “Not Suitable for Work” (Hulu, June 2) follows a group of friends chasing professional success in Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood. Ella Hunt, Avantika and Nicholas DuVernay star. Amy Adams, Patrick Wilson and Javier Bardem star in the thriller “Cape Fear” (Apple TV, June 5), based on the novel by John D.
What to stream in June 2026: ‘Cape Fear,’ ‘Every Year After’
3 hours ago Disney Ride Tech Upgrades Explained Disney’s newest animatronic was created by motion-capturing a Muppet, and a classic Tomorrowland ride is now packed with 200 Unreal Engine machines. CNET’s Bridget Carey learns about the unexpected high-tech upgrades at Walt Disney World in Florida, which include …
The original ‘D.O.A.’ – Edmond O’Brien solves his own murder on Criterion Channel and MGM+
D.O.A. (1949) has one of the great opening hooks in the annals for film noir. A faceless figure marches down an endless hallway as Dimitri Tiomkin’s driving, dark music underscores his doom. It’s stocky, stalwart Edmond O’Brien and he plows through a police detectives office like he’s got nothing to lose. “I want to report a murder,” he demands, grim and sleepy-eyed. “Who was murdered?” asks the dubious homicide detective. “I was.” It’s a brilliant opening to a memorable film noir classic.
Maggie Gyllenhaal makes ‘The Bride!’ star of the Frankenstein story on HBO Max
Wildly ambitious, explosively energetic, and exuberantly feminist, Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s The Bride! (2026) reinvents and reinvigorates the story of the bride of Frankenstein, barely a footnote in Mary Shelley‘s novel and a mere supporting character in the 1933 film that immortalized the character.
‘The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice’ – Love, marriage, and Japan in transition on HBO Max and Criterion Channel
One of the most sublime films from Yasujiro Ozu, a master of quiet domestic dramas and comedies, The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (Japan, 1951) is a portrait of a marriage on the verge of falling apart. Mokichi (Shin Saburi) is a man whose tastes are, in his own words, “simple, primitive, familiar.” His headstrong wife, class-conscious wife Taeko (Michiyo Kogure) routinely lies to her easy-going, unexciting husband to get out of the house with her friends. Is he fooled or just humoring him?
‘Dragon Inn’ – deceit, double-crosses, and martial art magic on Criterion Channel
King Hu‘s Dragon Inn (Taiwan, 1967), also known as Dragon Gate Inn, pits a group of enigmatic strangers against soldiers sent by a power-hungry Eunuch in the court of the Chinese Emperor to murder the children of a popular government official.
‘The Only Son’ – A mother and son reunion in 1936 Japan on HBO Max and Criterion Channel
The Only Son (Japan, 1936) is on the tragic end of the spectrum of Yasujiro Ozu‘s cinema, a drama of disappointment in an era of economic hard times, where the only thing worse that professional failure is failing to live up to parental expectations. Disappointment seems inevitable from the quote that opens the film: “Life’s tragedy begins with the bonding of child and parent.
‘There Was a Father’ – the cost of duty on HBO Max and Criterion Channel
Yasujiro Ozu‘s There Was a Father (Japan, 1942) is an indisputable masterpiece. Though made while Japan was gripped in the nationalist fervor of World War II and the government demanded messages of national duty in every film, the result is a work of grace and simplicity that feels as timeless now as it was timely then.
‘Lancelot du lac’ – Robert Bresson takes on King Arthur on Criterion Channel
Lancelot du lac (France,1974), Robert Bresson’s Arthurian drama, is anything but romantic. It opens in the midst of battle, presented in a straightforward, matter-of-fact manner that is nonetheless moody and startlingly graphic: limbs are hacked off and blood spurts freely (the Black Knight scene in Monty Python and The Holy Grail is surely a direct parody).
‘Battlestar Galactica’ 2.0 – SyFy’s modern science fiction classic on Paramount+
Forget the original clunky, kitschy 1980s sci-fi series. The 21st century Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009), developed for the SyFy cable channel by Ronald D. Moore, is more than a revival. It’s a creative, clever, and compelling rethinking of the show.
Watch This! ‘Star Wars’ – The Musical with Donny and Marie!
Most Stars Wars fans know about the infamous 1978 TV Christmas special that George Lucas has kept under lock and key since its debut. But do you know about this musical tribute to the original Star Wars from Donny and Marie, the seventies variety show starring Donny and Marie Osmond and produced by Sid and Marty Krofft?
What to stream in May 2026: ‘Lord of the Flies,’ ‘Off Campus,’ ‘Dutton Ranch’
Here’s what’s coming to Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+ and other streaming services in May. “Lord of the Flies” (Netflix, May 4), William Golding’s classic dystopian novel of schoolboys gone savage on a deserted island, is adapted into a limited series by “His Dark Materials” showrunner Jack Thorne.
What to stream in May 2026: ‘Lord of the Flies,’ ‘Off Campus,’ ‘Dutton Ranch’
9 hours ago What’s new on Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and more? We've got you covered. Looking for something great to watch at home? Streaming subscribers are spoiled for choice between Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, Apple TV, Prime Video, Shudder, Paramount+, Peacock, and more. And that's before you even …
‘The Shield’ – the best and the worst of cops on the L.A. streets on Hulu
The Shield (2002-2008) debuted on the FX cable channel early in 2002. Creator Shawn Ryan based the show on the real-life Rampart scandal, a notorious case of a small group of Los Angeles cops who took out drug dealers and took over their business for their own enrichment. Almost immediately it shook up television by pushing the boundaries of violence and sexual content on commercial cable and blurring the line between good cop and bad cop with the most morally spellbinding character on TV.
‘Dust Bunny’ – an assassin walks into a child’s nightmare on HBO Max
There’s a monster under Aurora’s bed. It comes out every night when someone steps on the floor. Only no one believes her, which is too bad for her new foster parents. With no one else to help, Aurora (Sophie Sloan) puts her hopes in her mysterious neighbor (Mads Mikkelsen), an enigmatic figure she watches kill a dragon in Chinatown.
‘Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa’ – the New York Zoo buddies find a new home on Netflix
The urban animals that washed ashore the island of Madagascar make their big break to return to the Big Apple. As the title Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) suggests, they don’t quite make it. Show-biz lion Alex (Ben Stiller), the King of the New York Zoo, lands in a game preserve in Africa, where the reunion with his parents turns into a generational culture clash in the midst of a comic Lion King struggle of pride position.
‘Nightfall’ – Aldo Ray on the run on Criterion Channel
James Vanning (Aldo Ray) is an innocent man on the run in Jacques Tourneur‘s classic film noir nightmare Nightfall (1956). An artist by trade, this gentle soul is pursued not just by the police, who think he’s guilty of robbery and murder, but also the brutal bank robbers who framed him. Only one person believes him: Marie Gardner (Anne Bancroft), an emotionally bruised model with whom he shares a not-so-innocent (but far from guilty) drink.
‘Mouchette’ – life is cruel for an adolescent schoolgirl on Criterion Channel
A fourteen-year-old schoolgirl endures a cruel world in Robert Bresson‘s Mouchette (France, 1967). Mouchette (Nadine Nortier) is an angry adolescent in the French provinces, the daughter of a drunkard bootlegger (Paul Hébert) and a dying, bedridden mother (Marie Cardinal). She’s a pariah in school and a figure of village gossip and she rebels in typically adolescent ways, lobbing mud at teasing classmates and defying wagging tongues with a willful stare.
‘Prison Break’ – five seasons of breaking out of lockup on Hulu
Prison Break (2005-2017), the break-out hit (so to speak) of the 2005 TV season, charts the planning and execution of a daring jail break from a maximum-security prison over an entire season. Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) is an intense young structural engineer who gets himself incarcerated to save his brother Lincoln (Dominic Purcell), who has been sentenced for execution for a crime he did not commit.
‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ – this time it’s personal on Paramount+ and Peacock
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), the sequel to Transformers (2007), is the bigger, louder, more furiously edited and animated, and far less fun second entry in the heavy metal action franchise of giant alien robots that transform into cars and trucks while causing epic amounts of property damage. These robots are full of it.
Vincent Price is ‘The Last Man on Earth’ on Prime Video and MGM+
The Last Man on Earth (1964), an American-Italian co-production, is the first screen version of Richard Matheson’s brilliant novel I Am Legend (which was subsequently remade as The Omega Man and the 2007 I Am Legend with Will Smith). It’s hardly a masterpiece but at its best, this low-budget production casts a spell unlike anything you’ve seen in sixties horror cinema.
‘Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne’ – Revenge in Paris high society on Criterion Channel
Robert Bresson spent his career stripping away the affectations and method from his actors in his search for “pure cinema.” If he had not quite mastered his approach in his second film, Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (France, 1945), you can see it brewing in this melodrama of love, jealousy, revenge and redemption among the spoiled dilettantes of Parisian high society.
Charlton Heston in the battle of ‘Khartoum’ on Amazon Prime and MGM+
Khartoum (1966) is the sweeping story of the 1880 battle between British General Charles ‘Chinese’ Gordon (post Ben-Hur and El Cid Charlton Heston) and the Madhi (Laurence Olivier behind a thick beard and unfortunate brownface make-up) in the Sudan. It opens with a spectacular desert battle, bringing back echoes of Lawrence of Arabia, but soon shifts to the battle of wits and wiles between two fierce leaders.
‘Crime 101’ – L.A. Noir with Chris Hemsworth on Prime Video
Crime 101 (2026) is a refreshing return to the kind of crisp, smart crime thrillers that Michael Mann made to perfection. If Bart Layton isn’t quite in the same league as Mann, he knows his terrain and navigates the streets of Los Angeles with confidence, precision, and an eye for defining detail. Chris Hemsworth runs with the best role he’s had since becoming Thor for the Marvel Comic movies. Davis is a jewel thief who researches, engineers, and executes his heists with an OCD attention to detail.
‘Liz and the Blue Bird’ – friendship at a crossroads on Prime Video and HBO Max
The title of Liz and the Blue Bird (Japan, 2018) ostensibly refers to a children’s picture book about a lonely girl befriended a bird that transforms into a blue-haired girl but the title resonates through the film as it explores friendship of two high school girls. Mizore (voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki) is a shy, retiring girl who plays oboe in the student orchestra. The confident, outgoing Nozomi (Nao Tôyama), her best (and as far as we know only) friend, plays flute.
‘Gomorrah’ – The real Italian mob on Prime Video and Criterion Channel
The signature image of Gomorrah (Italy, 2008), Matteo Garrone‘s adaptation of Robert Saviano’s book about the dominance of organized crime in Naples and Caserta, is a pair of teenage boys running around a deserted beach in their underwear while shooting off automatic weapons. That’s as much glamour as you can expect from this portrait of the mob: emotionally immature boys playing at gangster, oblivious of the reality behind their Tony Montana fantasy.
‘The Dead Zone’ – Stephen King on the small screen on Prime Video
Anthony Michael Hall is Johnny Smith, a man who awakens from a six-year coma with the power to see the future and the past with a touch, in The Dead Zone (2002-2007). Johnny is still in love with his former fiancée Sarah (Nicole de Boer), who married local Sheriff Walt Bannerman (Chris Bruno), a thoroughly decent man with whom Johnny becomes close friends despite himself, and they are raising his biological son, now a six-year-old boy spooked by Johnny.
Coming Attractions: Streaming in April 2026
The dystopian world of Gilead gets a coming-of-age story in “The Testaments” (Hulu, 4/8), a spin-off from “The Handmaid’s Tale” based on the novel by Margaret Atwood and starring Chase Infinity and Lacy Halliday with Ann Dowd returning as Aunt Lydia. Elizabeth Banks plays a woman who is shrunk to the size of a Barbie doll in “The Miniature Wife” (Peacock, 4/9). Matthew Macfadyen costars in the satirical dramedy, based on the short story by Manuel Gonzales.
‘Nip/Tuck’ – Ryan Murphy’s plastic surgery melodrama on Hulu
“Tell me what you don’t like about yourself.” Before he tapped the pop culture zeitgeist with Glee, American Horror Story, and the 9-1-1 TV universe, Ryan Murphy concocted Nip/Tuck (2003-2010), a gloriously and glamorously overheated melodrama set in the unconventional medical world of plastic surgery amidst the sun and skin of Miami, for FX.
‘No Such Thing’ – Hal Hartley’s hipster ‘Beauty and the Beast’ on Prime Video
American indie hipster Hal Hartley takes on Beauty and the Beast in No Such Thing (2001), a sardonic fairy tale with metaphysical dimension, set in the modern world of global media and instant celebrity. Sarah Polley is the beauty Beatrice, a young cub reporter who miraculously survives a catastrophic plane crash, tracks “the monster” (Robert John Burke under a demonic mask) down in his remote Iceland castle, and takes him back to the Big Apple.
‘Zero For Conduct’ – adolescent rebellion on Criterion Channel
From the opening scene of Zero For Conduct (France, 1933), as two boys compare their toys and treasures and newly-acquired tricks from the summer breaks while on the train to boarding school, Jean Vigo captures the rebellious and creative spirit of adolescent boys. Set in a strict boy’s school, it’s a strange and wonderful film full of unbridled imagination, flights of fantasy, and lovely images.
What to stream in April 2026: ‘The Testaments,’ ‘Big Mistakes’ Original
Here’s what’s coming to Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+ and other streaming services in April. The dystopian world of Gilead gets a coming-of-age story in “The Testaments” (Hulu, April 8), a spinoff from “The Handmaid’s Tale” starring Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday with Ann Dowd returning as Aunt Lydia. Elizabeth Banks plays a woman who is shrunk to the size of a Barbie doll in “The Miniature Wife” (Peacock, April 9).
‘Not Fade Away’ – coming of age in the sixties on Criterion Channel
Not Fade Away (2012), the autobiographical feature debut by The Sopranos creator David Chase, is not the usual rise-and-fall story of the rock and roll band. There is a band at the center of the film and Douglas (John Magaro), a Jersey kid who graduates from high school as an overlooked schlub looking for something of his own, joins in on the drums and, eventually, vocals and songwriting. It makes him cool and even attracts the attention of local golden girl Grace (Bella Heathcote).
‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ – supernatural high school drama on Hulu
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) was TV’s most unlikely pop-culture phenomenon since The X-Files. It is a series with humble beginnings (the movie, starring Kristy Swanson, was a minor cult hit and a critical failure), a tongue-in-cheek title, and a premise that reads like a comic book. So how did a snappy fantasy about vampires, demons, and a high school cheerleader born to dispatch them between homework assignments evolve?
‘The Score’ – Robert DeNiro undertakes on one last heist on Paramount+ and Peacock
Robert De Niro is the old pro of professional safecracker who clashes with ambitious young hotshot Edward Norton, a would-be mastermind with an attitude problem, in The Score (2001).
‘The Way of the Dragon’ – Bruce Lee takes on Italy, free on Kanopy
Bruce Lee was a new kind of action hero when his first martial arts movies hit the U.S. in the 1970s. Small and wiry, with a quiet demeanor and a genial smile that hardens into intense concentration when he tenses to fight, his screen charisma brought sex appeal to the martial arts genre and his quicksilver moves and deadly blows made him the most ruthlessly driven hero American audiences had ever seen.
‘Pork Chop Hill’ – Gregory Peck in Korea on Prime Video
Pork Chop Hill (1959), Lewis Milestone‘s gritty, grim Korean War drama, adds another anti-war classic to a resume that includes the original All Quiet on the Western Front and the World War II classic A Walk in the Sun. Gregory Peck stars as tough but compassionate commander ordered to take a hill of no military value during the final days of the war.
‘Soul Kitchen’ – cooking up a community on MUBI
The films of Fatih Akin, a German filmmaker of Turkish ancestry, are often provocative, volatile, and confrontational, taking on issues of identity, sexuality, and race in a culture that isn’t always accepting of difference. Which makes Soul Kitchen (Germany, 2010) all the more delightful as it drops those themes in a communal portrait of various eccentrics and individuals who find a place in a small Hamburg restaurant.
‘Burn Notice’ – DIY spycraft in Miami on Hulu
CIA agent Michael Weston (Jeffrey Donovan) has been burned. The agency has revoked his status, frozen his assets, erased his identity, and dumped him back in his home town: Miami, where he’s stuck until he finds out who burned him and why.
‘Thunder Road’ – Robert Mitchum, moonshine runner on Prime Video
Thunder Road (1958) was a labor of love Robert Mitchum. He produced the film, wrote the original story, and even cowrote the theme song, “Ballad of Thunder Road.” And of course he drives the film, quite literally, as Lucas Doolin, a Korean war vet who delivers the illegal moonshine distilled by his daddy in the wilds of North Carolina.
‘Perfect Blue’ – Satoshi Kon’s animated psycho-thriller on HBO Max
Satoshi Kon was one of the most accomplished filmmakers of animated features of the 21st century, and he showed his potential in his feature debut Perfect Blue (Japan, 1999), an adult psycho-thriller that uses the freedom of the animated image to blur the lines between objective and subjective perspectives. Mima Kirigoe (voiced by Junko Iwao) is a singer who leaves her squeaky-clean pop idol image to become an actress in a violent television series, a career move that outrages her fans.
‘Gold Diggers of 1933’ – dancing through the Depression on Criterion Channel
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) opens on Ginger Rogers wearing an enormous silver dollar like a breastplate over her a skimpy costume and singing “We’re in the Money” (with one verse in Pig Latin, no less!). The set is lavish, the costumes sparkle like gold in the spotlights, and the vision of opulence is punctured when the sheriff department swarms and shuts down the show the day before it opens. Barney Hopkins (Ned Sparks), the show’s ambitious, frog-voiced producer, hasn’t paid his debts.
’12:08 East of Bucharest’ – rewriting the revolution on Criterion Channel
Deceivingly modest and insidiously shrewd, Corneliu Porumboiu’s crafty satire of the national myth of revolutionary heroism 12:08 East of Bucharest (Romania, 2006) is another dryly hilarious and painfully biting entry in the flowering of New Romanian Cinema.
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