It may be August, but Hulu isn’t stopping from streaming some of the best movies around. The Disney-owned platform is home to dozens of hidden gems just waiting to be seen.
Watch With Us has assembled a brief list of three underrated Hulu movies you should watch this weekend. Leonardo DiCaprio fans should check out The Beach, an adventure thriller about the ugly side of paradise.
If you’re in the mood for a sweet comedy, walk down the aisle with Father of the Bride. Finally, the coming-of-age drama The Diary of a Teenage Girl is a little-seen film that’s begging to be rediscovered.
‘The Beach’ (2000)
When it was released in February 2000, The Beach was dismissed by some as a disappointment. It was star Leonardo DiCaprio’s first solo lead role after Titanic, and he let down a lot of his female fan base by playing a character who was kind of a scoundrel. But seen today, the movie is a flawed but absorbing adventure of drifters looking for a home in paradise, and finding out there’s a price to pay for such pleasures.
DiCaprio plays Richard, an American backpacker who befriends a married French couple, Francoise (Virginie Ledoyen) and Etienne (Guillaume Canet). They find a map to an island near Thailand that’s supposedly perfect, and have little trouble finding it. But the people who are already there are suspicious of newcomers, and all three of them will have to prove their loyalty. They quickly discover that even paradise has its drawbacks, and the crystal clear ocean waters they swim in are tainted with blood being spilled.
The Beach’s chief flaw is that it boils down to a simplistic “be careful what you wish for” message that’s pretty obvious from the beginning. But director Danny Boyle infuses the traditional narrative with his trademark kinetic filmmaking style that keeps things lively, even when the plot takes the expected turns.
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Young and still with the baby face that made him an idol to teen girls everywhere in the late ‘90s, DiCaprio already showcases a willingness to play an anti-hero who isn’t all that likable. Richard has no problem coming between Francoise and Etienne, and it’s to Leo’s credit that he doesn’t soften his character’s edges too much.
The Beach is streaming on Hulu.
‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl’ (2015)
Minnie (Bel Powley) is a 15-year-old girl living with her bohemian mom, Charlotte (Kristen Wiig), in 1976 San Francisco. Curious about sex, she’s determined to lose her virginity — and thinks her mother’s hunky boyfriend, Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård), is the perfect person to do it. It doesn’t take much to convince him, and soon they’re having an affair. But Minnie’s sexual appetite, combined with her burgeoning talent as a cartoonist, complicates their illicit relationship. Minnie wants to grow up fast, but is she prepared to deal with all the responsibilities of a messy adult affair while still remaining an inexperienced teenager?
Messy and complicated, The Diary of a Teenage Girl embraces all the flaws of its lead characters without judging them too harshly. Like most girls her age, Minnie is somewhat unbearable — she wants what she wants now, and heaven help you if you get in her way. But Minnie isn’t a monster — she just wants to be seen as a mature adult by grown-ups who are often more immature than she is. The movie tells a great coming-of-age tale, but it’s also a great period piece that faithfully recreates the post-hippie hangover that was Frisco in the mid-’70s.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl is streaming on Hulu.
‘Father of the Bride’ (1995)
Remakes of classics are hit or miss; sometimes they work wonders, like 1978’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, while most times, they stink, like 2005’s Guess Who. The 1995 version of Father of the Bride falls into the former camp; vastly superior to the 1950 original, it gave Steve Martin a role to really utilize all of his physical comedy talents and showcase his terrific romantic chemistry with costar Diane Keaton.
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They star as George and Nina Banks, a long-married couple with two kids and a ridiculously gorgeous house in Pasadena, California. When their college graduate daughter, Annie (Kimberly Williams), announced she’s engaged, Nina is over-the-moon happy — but George dreads the idea of letting his baby girl go. As he begrudgingly prepares for her wedding, he struggles to accept her eventual nuptials while still trying to arrange the perfect ceremony for her.
Father of the Bride is streaming on Hulu.
