new on streaming

What’s New on Amazon Prime: February 2016

Chi-Raq
Photo: Parrish Lewis

At the beginning of (and during) every month, Amazon Prime and Amazon Video add new movies and TV shows to their libraries. We figure you might want to know about them. For more comprehensive coverage of the best titles available on Amazon and elsewhere, check out Vulture’s What to Stream Now hub, which is updated throughout the month.

Back to black: Amy (2015)

Pieced together in a large part from recordings of Amy Winehouse in concert, at work in the studio, and on and off the wagon, Asif Kapadia’s heartwrenching documentary is both tragic and, in some ways, simply gross. As Vulture’s David Edelstein wrote: “Amy raises a question that’s common to downward-spiral docs: Is it a profile or an autopsy?” Available February 1.

Bzzz: The Fifth Element (1997)

Luc Besson is hard at work on a sci-fi film with Rihanna, which means there’s no better time than the present to revisit the dizzying spectacle that is The Fifth Element. Bruce Willis is a disgruntled cab driver. Milla Jovovich is a supreme being. Chris Tucker is a manic talk-show host. Everyone bands together to save the universe — and also watch a blue alien sing opera. Available February 1.

Fab abs: Poldark (Season 1)

Haunted by his experiences in Revolutionary War, a British nobleman (Aidan Turner) returns to his country estate to discovery that the fortune he once had … blah, blah, blah. What you need to know about Poldark is that it’s full of all the gorgeous shots of the British countryside necessary for a period drama, also abs. Available February 2.

This is an emergency: Chi-Raq (2015)

Both a bitter, angry portrait of a city decimated by gun violence and a rhyming update of Aristophanes’s sex-strike comedy Lysistrata, Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq is one of 2015’s most ambitious films, if not its most well-received. Edelstein called it “perhaps the greatest antigun movie ever,” while others (including Chicago’s own Chance the Rapper) have criticized the idea that a sex strike could do anything at all. But Chi-Raq is worth it for Lysistrata alone, as well as Mad Men and Dear White People’s Teyonah Parris, who gives a star-making performance that awards shows have too predictably ignored. Available February 5.

The Russians love their children, too: The Americans (Season 3)

You might not have thought it possible, but FX’s Cold War drama got even darker in its third season, as undercover Russian agents Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) obsess over how well they can protect and keep their secrets from their daughter (Holly Taylor) and whether those two acts must be mutually exclusive. Available February 15.

AVAILABLE ON STREAMING

TELEVISION
Poldark (Season 1) (February 2)
Girls (Season 2) (February 11)
The Newsroom (Season 3) (February 15)
The Americans (Season 3) (February 15)
The New Yorker Presents (Season 1) (February 16)

MOVIES

February 1
A Better Life (2011)
Amy (2015)
Batman (1989)
Deliver Us From Evil (2014)
How to Steal a Million (1966)
The Kings of Summer (2013)
Like Sunday, Like Rain (2014)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Men in Black (1997)
Night Watch (2004)
Nintendo Quest (2015)
The Fifth Element (1997)
The Fury (1978)
The Karate Kid (1984)
The Truth About Emanuel (2013)
To Be or Not to Be (1983)
Twelve O’Clock High (1949)
Waking Ned Devine (1998)

Later in February
The Age of Adaline (2015) (February 2)
Myanmar: Bridges to Change (2014) (February 2)
The Identity Theft of Mitch Mustain (2013) (February 2)
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) (February 4)
Chi-Raq (2015) (February 5)
Fire City: End of Days (2015) (February 5)
The Ouija Exorcism (2015) (February 5)
Solomon Kane (2009) (February 15)
Digging for Fire (2015) (February 24)
Inequality for All (2013) (February 29)

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE

TELEVISION
Broad City (Season 2) (February 1)
American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson (February 3)
The Leftovers (Season 2) (February 9)
Togetherness (Season 1) (February 15)
The Walking Dead (Season 6, part 2) (February 15)
Better Call Saul (Season 2) (February 16)
Rizzoli & Isles (Season 7) (February 17)

MOVIES
Steve Jobs (2015) (February 2)
Truth (2015) (February 2)
Grandma (2015) (February 9) 
Thomas & Friends: Start Your Engines (2016) (February 16)

For more details on the best film and television available online, consult Vulture’s What to Stream Now hub.

What’s New on Amazon Prime: February 2016