What to Watch: 11 Movies and Shows to Stream This Week

New Release: ‘Funny Boy’

(Netflix)

Roughly 25 years after Deepa Mehta first tried to option Shyam Selvadurai’s novel, “Funny Boy,” about love, resilience and a Tamil family from Sri Lanka on the eve of the country’s civil war, her film based on the novel was released this week on Netflix.

“Funny Boy,” which was selected as Canada’s entry for the 2021 Academy Award for best international feature, is about characters who push back against the idea of who they are supposed to be: they wear lipstick when dad says they should play sports; they fall in love with one person when their family and tradition say they should love another.

The movie was shot on location in Sri Lanka using wide lenses, Ms. Mehta said, to portray the country’s unique light and environment, and to capture the idea of space, which she says is a major theme of the film.

“‘Funny Boy’ is about space,” she says. “How do we find the space to be who we want to be, whether it’s who we want to love, or we don’t? Why do we fight about space? What defines space for a Sinhalese? What defines space for a Tamil? Is there a bridge that we can build?”

An Expert Recommends: ‘Lovers Rock’

(Amazon Prime Video)

Tabitha Jackson is the director of the Sundance Film Festival. Here, she recommends the second installment of Steve McQueen’s new five-film series, “Small Axe.” Installments are being released on Fridays through Dec. 18.

“I’ve been so busy watching films for next year’s festival, I’ve been feeling a bit guilty watching ‘Small Axe’ on the weekends. But everyone in my little bubble is buzzed by the five films about London’s West Indian community in the ’60s,’ ’70s and ’80s—particularly ‘Lovers Rock.’ It takes place over the course of one evening. And yet within that, there is an absolutely transcendent set of moments around the dance floor, which are completely immersive. Steve McQueen has talked about how one of the things that this collection of work does is illuminate Black joy—so dance and music, reggae and blues, it just gets you in the soul. The music is incredible and the cinematography is just extraordinary. So, within this very seemingly simple, elegant structure, there’s this huge moment. And it’s the colors of it, the textures of it—this is what I think of as cinematic, and yet I am able to access it on a streaming platform at the click of a button. That’s why it has leaped out for me.”

Family Hour: ‘Safety’

(Disney+)

“Safety,” a new family sports drama on Disney+, tells the story of a Clemson University football player whose season is upended when his mother goes to rehab and his 11-year-old brother moves into his dorm room. The movie is based on the true story of Ray McElrathbey (Jay Reeves), who graduated from Clemson in 2008, and his brother, Fahmarr (Thaddeus J. Mixson).

The movie was directed by Reginald Hudlin, known for directing movies like “House Party,” producing “Django Unchained,” and producing TV specials such as 2020’s remote Emmy Awards. He was also an executive at BET at roughly the same time Mr. McElrathbey was at Clemson. The script for “Safety” stuck out to him, he says, because the story was so resonant with where he grew up in East St. Louis, Ill., “two doors down from where Ike met Tina.”

“It’s a rough town,” he says. “I’m grateful to be from there because it helped shape who I am. I read [the script] and I went: these are the stories that need to be told because these kinds of stories of persistence and grit and moral character are really what we need right now as a nation.”

New Release: ‘The Stand In’

(Amazon, Apple TV, and others)

Drew Barrymore holds down the roles of both hot mess and manipulative smiling face in the new comedy, “The Stand In,” available to buy and rent now.

The plot revolves around actress Candy Black, who mounts an epic on-set meltdown that sends her career in flames. The result: Candy spends the next five years in seclusion, turning to woodworking and, apparently, not paying her taxes. And, Paula, who was Candy’s look-alike stand-in, ends up living in her car. When a judge orders Candy to do a stint in rehab, she calls her former colleague to do the job for her.

“Think of it like a stand-in job for a rehab movie,” she says, “except there’s no cameras and no movie.”

In time, of course, Paula gets to play more of Candy than just a role in rehab. Both roles are played by Ms. Barrymore, and the cast includes Michael Zegen (Mr. Maisel in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), T.J. Miller (“Silicon Valley”) and Holland Taylor.

Streaming Notes:

—“Your Honor,” a drama starring Bryan Cranston, that’s based on an Israeli series, is airing on Showtime. Read our interview with an executive producer of ”Your Honor” on why Israeli shows are so compelling to American audiences.

—Meryl Streep has two movies hitting streaming services this week. The Steven Soderbergh-directed “Let Them All Talk,” is now streaming on HBO Max. “The Prom,” Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of the Broadway musical, is on Netflix.

—“Wolfwalkers,” a new animated series based on Irish mythology debuted today on Apple TV+. The animation has a rawer look than the Pixar-style computer animation that’s dominated the genre in recent decades. “It imbues this energy and wildness and freeness that a perfect line doesn’t have,” co-director Ross Stewart told the Journal about the style.

—For more about the big movies streaming this month, here’s our list of what to watch during the holidays.