J. EDGAR ★★½

(HBO on Comcast) Clint Eastwood’s Hoover biopic has a flawed historical figure played by a top-tier Hollywood star (Leonardo DiCaprio), impassioned monologues, lots of old-age makeup. That it never convinces — that at times it’s quite entertainingly bad — can be blamed on an unfocused script and the project’s very bigness. Somewhere in this epic is a small love story struggling to get out. With Armie Hammer as Clyde Tolson. (R; runs through Oct. 29)

THE DEAL ★★

(Showtime on Comcast) A political thriller seriously lacking in intrigue. Christian Slater plays a Wall Street investment banker whose latest client has enlisted him to help engineer the acquisition of an oil company for $20 billion. There are murders. There are lies. There is Angie Harmon with a watery Russian accent. Why, oh, why is this not more fun? With Selma Blair, Colm

Feore, and Robert Loggia. (R; runs through Oct. 30)

DAD ★★★

(Comcast Free Movies) Moving down-in-the-trenches film about family ties, with Jack Lemmon quietly stunning in a career-capping performance as a dying octogenarian, Olympia Dukakis terrific as his domineering and frightened wife, and Ted Danson surpassing anything he’s done as a son with lots of bonding to do. (PG; runs through Sept. 30)