Unwind with Hulu: Catch These 3 Must-Stream Movies This Weekend

It’s June, which means it’s totally reasonable to presume that Hulu has taken the week off, and will be at least a few days before it launches something new. But that simply isn’t true. Sure, nothing big has been added this week. However, the Broadway of the mid-‘80s With a mix of new movies, including an oddly evocative documentary, a lovely biographical drama and a loving, funny tribute that has held up for almost a quarter of a century since it was first released, the new titles available on Hulu this weekend are ready for you.

The Echoes of Yesteryears: Brats (2024)

The story of the Brat Pack – a term they themselves never used, though everyone has come to know it as such – is at the heart of Brats. Creatively mined from a feature story about Emilio Estevez and his brother Charlie, and the Hollywood ‘Kids of the ’80s’ that revolved around them (specifically, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Demi Moore, among others), the Brat Pack defined an era. Brats retraces their intertwined careers with new interviews from the principal figures. It’s almost a mournful look at their stardom and how it ultimately haunted their professional lives.

Unraveling the Roots: Exploring Origin (2023)

Isabel Wilkerson searching for the root of racism in Origin. Courtesy Underground ProductionsI can’t think of another work that better dramatises the scholar’s lifelong quest for knowledge, illustrated by the losses as well as the thrill of discovery, than Origin. Ava DuVernay’s film follows Wilkerson’s scholarly odyssey, alongside the tragedies in her personal life, which she crafted into a book about how racism is rooted not in individuals, but in the system. The places she travels to in her quest for answers becomes a literal journey for personal insight and healing. Origin should be seen by anyone who cares about the way we live and why.

A Nostalgic Revisit: High Fidelity (2000)

With its 25th anniversary in sight, High Fidelity features romance, drama and comedy in a narrative that’s as worth reading now as it was at the turn of the millennium. Rob Gordon (John Cusack) is a music nerd with personal problems. Under the guise of debriefing the ex-girlfriends who created them, he reflects on why his love life isn’t going as well as his record collection. As well as a riveting story, High Fidelity contains a classic examination of the role of music in our lives, and what it means to lose someone we love.

Editor's Recommendations:

• Discover hidden treasures on Amazon Prime Video (June 14-16)
• Dive into compelling Netflix shows worth your time (June 14-16)
• Indulgage in captivating BritBox shows in June 2024
• Uncover the must-watch shows on Netflix for June 2024
• Enjoy the top pick on Peacock this June

Understanding Origin

Fundamentally, then, Origin speaks less to the intellectual origin of something, and much more to its deep – and often snarled – origins. All of the examples I’ve used in this article of meanings of ‘origin’ – the beginning of a term or an idea, a race-theory, a relationship – all speak to the value for us of being able to uncover that origin story, and in doing so pull back the curtain on what’s often a lot more complicated than we realise. The Brat Pack; the racial theories of Origin; the start of a relationship, of two people coming together, traced in High Fidelity: to pinpoint the origin is to see more clearly how things came to pass.

The Takeaway

Over the weekend, travel by genre as we move from Hollywood of the mid-20th-century through to racial heritage and back again in Origin, to the romantic entanglements of High Fidelity. Although we’re all drawn to a single question about origins and identity, we travel many different roads. Enjoy the ride! Brats is available to watch on 2 November 2019. Origin will be available to watch from 5 November 2019. High Fidelity is available to watch from 14 February 2020.