New movies to stream this week: 'Accepted' and more

The documentary “Accepted” centers on the T.M. Landry College Preparatory School, a small Louisiana school — with mostly Black and low-income students — that first became famous for its viral videos of students learning they had been accepted to college (many to Ivy League schools). Its second claim to (unwanted) fame was being the subject of a New York Times exposé that revealed the falsification of transcripts and accusations of physical and emotional abuse against Michael Landry, a businessman who founded the school in 2005 with his wife (and five students) in their kitchen. But Dan Chen’s film, which was already underway when the 2018 article came out, is not just about Landry’s initial success or the subsequent scandal. It also goes deeper, looking at issues of systemic racism that handicap minority students in the first place, highlighted by the Operation Varsity Blues scandal, in which some wealthy parents of college applicants, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, schemed and paid cash to get their kids into college. (One of the film’s subjects notes an irony: The deck must be really stacked against poor students of color when the very applicants to whom some prestigious colleges already seem to cater — White kids with money — can bribe their way in.) It might sound like a simple story, but it’s not. The title of “Accepted” has a double meaning, referring to both the college application process and the process of learning to accept yourself by finding a path to success that does not follow the head. Unrated. 91 minutes.

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Written by Lena Waithe (“Queen & Slim”) and directed by Andrew Dosunmu (“Mother of George”), “Beauty” tells the story of a gifted young singer (Gracie Marie Bradley) who struggles to hold onto her sense of identity and the woman she loves after she’s offered a lucrative recording contract. R. Available on Netflix. Contains strong language and drug use. 95 minutes.

“Code Name Banshee” is a thriller starring Antonio Banderas as a former government assassin who comes out of retirement (and out of hiding) when his protegee, known as Banshee (Jaime King), informs him that a bounty has been placed on his head. Unrated. Available on demand. 93 minutes.

Produced by Chris Pine (who also has a small part as an OB/GYN), “Doula” is a comedy about an expectant couple (Troian Bellisario of “Pretty Little Liars” and Arron Shiver) whose midwife suddenly dies, leading them to hire her quirky adult son (Will Greenberg), who works as a doula, or pregnancy and delivery guide. R. Available on demand. Contains sexual scenes, drug use, strong language throughout and brief nudity. 105 minutes.

Grammy-nominated rapper and songwriter Freddie Gibbs makes his feature film debut in “Down With the King,” playing a rapper whose manager (David Krumholtz) sends him to a rural house in the Berkshires to work on his next album. Once there, he finds himself suddenly unable to make music, and far more interested in helping with the daily chores of his farmer neighbor (real-life farmer Bob Tarasuk). “There’s an improvised feel, much of it due to the fact that neither Gibbs nor Tarasuk are seasoned actors,” according to the Austin Chronicle. “Instead, they freely inhabit their characters.” R. Available on demand. Contains pervasive coarse language, drug use and some sexual material. 100 minutes.

In the cyberthriller “Hot Seat,” Mel Gibson plays a bomb-squad expert called to help when an IT worker named Friar (Kevin Dillon) finds a hair-trigger explosive device strapped to his desk chair and an unseen hacker demands that Friar use his skills to steal digital funds online. Shannen Doherty and Sam Asghari also star. R. Available on demand. Contains coarse language throughout and some violence. 104 minutes.