Roses are red, violets are dreamy. The weekend is here, why not make it streamy? Established by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month comes back around every April, like a particularly haunting bit of verse. So, yes, we’re back in it! And that means there’s no time like the present (which so often reminds us of the past, doesn’t it?) to watch something that honors the poetic art in its many incarnations.  

So go ahead and stream two very particular cinematic expressions of a poet-lyricist’s work, the vividly imagined origin story of a poetic form, or a trio of documentaries that let prose writers have their moment, too (because poetry is generous that way). Now add these to your queue before the weekend is through, and by Sunday nighttime, you’ll be speaking in rhyme! 

But first, what’s new on Netflix?

An emergency (or a few). The new medical drama Pulse, created by Zoe Robyn and starring Willa Fitzgerald, follows a group of residents in a Miami hospital as they navigate medical crises and personal intrigues. Not getting your heart racing? Put on Banger, a new French comedy directed by the artist So Me, in which Vincent Cassel stars as a washed-up DJ who gets a second chance in an unexpected way. Not your tune? Fall for a new round of Love on the Spectrum — Season 3 of the tender reality series is now here. 

If you have just a night … 

Make something. A pair of very different films honoring two unforgettable artists is sure to inspire your weekend. First, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s adaptation of the stage musical Tick, Tick…Boom!, a semi-autobiographical work by Jonathan Larson, depicts the late writer-composer (an Oscar-nominated Andrew Garfield) struggling to write a musical. Pair it with Martin Scorsese’s sly semi-documentary Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, which mixes real archival footage covering Dylan’s 1975 concert tour of the same name with entirely fictional interview footage. It makes for a twist on the concert doc that befits its subversive hero (himself a Nobel Prize winner for his poetic lyricism). 

If you have a whole day… 

Go for prose. If your verse is vile, your rhymes repellent, and your lines have no life in them, turn to other literary inspiration this weekend, by going straight to the source for your next stream. There’s no better place to start than with Joan Didion, that famously cool and careful practitioner of the written word, who is the subject of the 2017 documentary Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, directed by her nephew, Griffin Dunne. Honor another late legend with a spin of Richard Dewey’s 2023 doc Radical Wolfe, which remembers the dynamic and stylish Tom Wolfe and examines the legacy of the writer who helped create the hybrid known as New Journalism. Finally, for a totally different angle, indulge in Laura Fairrie’s Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story (2021), which puts the spotlight on the prolific and best-selling romance novelist. Her work may not be considered poetry, but she understood the true power of writing. And that’s what it’s all about, right? 

If you have the entire weekend … 

Get down. A pivotal era in music history is spectacularly imagined in The Get Down, the two-season musical drama created by Baz Luhrmann and Stephen Adly Guirgis. Set in the Bronx in the ’70s, the series dazzlingly dramatizes the last days of disco and the birth of hip-hop through the perspectives of a group of teenagers who find themselves in the midst of the music. Rap icons Nas and Grandmaster Flash produced the series and taught the young cast about their medium (with the former also narrating, and the latter featured as a character in the show, played by Mamoudou Athie).  

Don’t forget, you have one last chance… 

… if you like scary movies. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Scream, the 2022 slasher film that marks the fifth entry in the horror series, pairs stars from the 1996 original with young up-and-comers, reviving the classic franchise for a new era. In another week, the film becomes a ghost(face).

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