Now Streaming: ‘Solo,’ ‘Annihilation,’ ‘Sex Ed’ top new streams

Here’s what’s new for home viewing on video on demand, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and other streaming services.

TOP STREAMS 
FOR THE WEEK

• Alden Ehrenreich is a young Han Solo in “Solo: A Star Wars Story” (2018, PG-13), a prequel from a galaxy far, far away. As much galactic heist adventure as space opera, it co-stars Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Emilia Clarke and Donald Glover as young Lando Calrissian, and it shows how Han met Chewbacca and won his pride and joy: The Millennium Falcon. Starting Friday on Netflix.

• The trippy and often unnerving science fiction thriller “Annihilation” (2018, R), starring Natalie Portman as a Special Forces soldier investigating an alien force field on Earth, favors science and mystery over action. Filmmaker Alex Garland (“Ex Machina”) adapts the novel by Jeff VanderMeer, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez and Tessa Thompson co-star. On Amazon Prime Video and Hulu.

• The Netflix Original comedy “Sex Education: Season 1” stars Asa Butterfield as a socially awkward teen who becomes his high school’s underground sex-ed counselor, thanks to expertise provided by his sex therapist mother (Gillian Anderson) and a business plan by an enterprising student (Emma Mackey). Eight episodes starting Friday on Netflix.

• Liam Neeson once again uses his particular set of skills in “The Commuter” (2018, PG-13), a conspiracy thriller set on a runaway train. It’s the unlikely action star’s fourth film with director Jaume Collet-Serra (“Non-Stop”). Prime Video and Hulu.

More from this section

Jessica Chastain shares first picture of daughter

Christian Bale congratulated by Church of Satan

Michael Douglas 'growing' love for Catherine Zeta-Jones

• A Pakistani-British civilian is pressured into becoming an informant by a counter-terrorist officer (Paddy Considine) in “Informer: Season 1,” a BBC thriller set in the murky world of the war on terror. It debuts stateside on Amazon Prime Video.

• Classic pick: James Dean became a star playing the anxious, inarticulate black sheep son competing with his brother for his father’s love in “East of Eden” (1955, not rated), Elia Kazan’s dynamic adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel. On Netflix.

PAY PER VIEW/
VIDEO ON DEMAND

• Actor/writer Jonah Hill makes his directorial debut with “Mid90s” (2018, R), a semi-autobiographical comedy-drama young teens in the skateboarding culture of the 1990s. Also on DVD and at Redbox.

• Available the same day as select theaters nationwide is “The Aspern Papers” (2019, R) with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Vanessa Redgrave.

NETFLIX

• Chevy Chase and Richard Dreyfuss star in the Netflix Original comedy “The Last Laugh” (2019, not rated).

• Also newly arrived are the documentary “Pope Francis: A Man of His Word” (2018, PG); “Enter the Dragon” (1973, R) with Bruce Lee; “The Graduate” (1967, PG) with Dustin Hoffman; “Cool Hand Luke” (1967, PG) with Paul Newman; and David Lean’s Oscar-winning epic “Doctor Zhivago” (1965, not rated).

AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

• Gregory Peck is Captain Ahab in John Huston’s “Moby Dick” (1956) and Stanley Baker and Michael Caine star in the British colonial frontier classic “Zulu” (1964).

• True stories: “McKellen: Playing the Part” (2018, TV-PG) profiles the career and the activism of actor Ian McKellen.

HULU

• The Dude abides, sort of, in a surf bum burnout named Dud (Wyatt Russell) who finds his tribe in “Lodge 49,” the offbeat comedy series from AMC.

HBO NOW

• Brian Cox and the Broken Lizard comedy troupe return in “Super Troopers 2” (2018, R), the sequel to the sleeper comedy hit.

NEW ON DISC

• “The Rider,” “mid90s,” “What They Had,” “The Oath,” “Castle Rock: Season 1.”

NOW AT REDBOX

• “mid90s,” “The Oath.”

• Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and TV can be found at streamondemandathome.com.