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  • Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire on Netflix, and every movie new to streaming this week

    Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire on Netflix, and every movie new to streaming this week

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    Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

    This week, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, the new buddy cop movie starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, comes to VOD this week along with the Hindi action thriller Kill. There’s plenty of other exciting releases to choose from that are new to streaming this week too, like Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire on Netflix, the Michael Keaton-directed crime thriller Knox Goes Away on Max, the sci-fi drama The Beast on Criterion Channel, and more.

    Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!

    New on Netflix

    Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    Photo: Sony Pictures

    Genre: Supernatural comedy
    Run time: 1h 56m
    Director: Gil Kenan
    Cast: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard

    The Ghostbusters have returned with an all-new movie, and this time Bill Murray is here! Three years after the events of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the Spengler family must join forces with the veteran Ghostbusters to stop a wrathful demonic entity from freezing all of New York City. Oh, and Slimer is here too, because of course.

    From our review:

    The Ghostbusters franchise doesn’t really seem to be aimed at anyone anymore. It isn’t funny. It isn’t scary. It’s mostly abandoned its new younger characters, and its older actors barely seem to care. Frozen Empire’s unintentional answer to the question seems to be that Ghostbusters is now corporate nostalgia-farming given cinematic form. Sure, it’s missing all the charm and goofiness that earned the original Ghostbusters so many fans — but if you stick around long enough, they filmmakers will show off the proton packs again, and there’s always a new person to slime. It’s a franchise reduced to nothing more than a parade of hollow, familiar images, lightly repackaged in hopes that we’ll buy another ticket and try to revisit the emotions we felt when we encountered this world for the first time.

    New on Hulu

    Femme

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    A man with prominent neck tattoos pressed against a wall by another person in Femme.

    Image: Anton/Utopia

    Genre: Thriller
    Run time: 1h 39m
    Directors: Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping
    Cast: Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, George MacKay, Aaron Heffernan

    After being viciously attacked by an unknown man and their group of friends, a drag queen named Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) confronts their assaulter — a closeted young man named Preston (George MacKay) in a gay sauna. Striking up an affair, Jules plots his revenge against Preston, who is oblivious to Jules’ true identity and intentions.

    Sleeping Dogs

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    A man wearing a hairnet holding a puzzle piece while staring at a glass table of puzzle pieces.

    Image: Nickel City Productions/The Avenue

    Genre: Crime thriller
    Run time: 1h 50m
    Director: Adam Cooper
    Cast: Russell Crowe, Karen Gillan, Marton Csokas

    After being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, retired homicide detective Roy Freeman (Russell Crowe) is motivated to reopen an investigation into the murder of a college professor when a mysterious new witness comes forward with a compelling piece of evidence. As he works to track down the true culprit, he’ll have to fight to convince those around him to trust his intuition and theories.

    New on Max

    Knox Goes Away

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Max

    A man wearing sunglasses stands in a darkened doorway.

    Image: FilmNation Entertainment/Saban Films

    Genre: Crime thriller
    Run time: 1h 54m
    Director: Michael Keaton
    Cast: Michael Keaton, Al Pacino, James Marsden

    Sixteen years ago, Michael Keaton made his directorial debut with The Merry Gentleman, about a hitman going through some hard times. Now he’s back with his second directed feature, also about a hitman going through some hard times. This time, the hitman is John Knox, a contract killer separated from his family who takes on one last job after he’s diagnosed with dementia.

    New on Criterion Channel

    The Beast

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Criterion Channel on July 28

    Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) and Louis (George MacKay), a pale man and woman in pale blue-grey sweaters, stand opposite each other and look into each others’ eyes in an abstract neon-blue space in a scene from The Beast

    Image: Kinology

    Genre: Sci-fi romance
    Run time: 2h 26m
    Director: Bertrand Bonello
    Cast: Léa Seydoux, George MacKay, Guslagie Malanda

    Imagine Cloud Atlas meets The Age of Innocence meets Mulholland Drive. That’s about the simplest way of describing The Beast, Bertrand Bonello’s sci-fi romance drama. Léa Seydoux (Spectre) stars as Gabrielle, a woman living in the near-future who undergoes a process to “purify” her DNA of strong emotions by reliving her past lives. Her procedure becomes more complicated after crossing paths with Louis (George MacKay), a man whom — in a past life — she may or may not have loved.

    From our review:

    The Beast’s three timelines play with seemingly unmixable genres: a classic period romance, a gripping horror-thriller, and dystopian sci-fi. That places them at a logistical disconnect, but Bonello binds them aesthetically and emotionally. Through his lengthy, thought-provoking close-ups of Gabrielle and Louis in each section, he creates a sense of longing and isolation across time, binding together human experiences of the past, present, and future, and putting them into sharp and chilling context.

    New on Shudder

    Humane

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder

    A group of concerned-looking men and women seated at the far end of a kitchen island.

    Image: IFC Films

    Genre: Horror
    Run time: 1h 33m
    Director: Caitlin Cronenberg
    Cast: Jay Baruchel, Emily Hampshire, Peter Gallagher

    The feature debut from Caitlin Cronenberg is a horror thriller worthy of the family name. Set during a worldwide ecological collapse, Humane follows estranged siblings who learn that their father and mother have chosen to take part in a nationwide euthanasia program as a form of public service. When things go awry, the family will have to choose one of their own to offer up as a substitute participant. Naturally, things get personal.

    New to rent

    Bad Boys: Ride or Die

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Will Smith sits in the passenger seat as Martin Lawrence drives as the two laugh in a scene from Bad Boys: Ride or Die.

    Photo: Frank Masi/Columbia Pictures

    Genre: Buddy cop action
    Run time: 1h 55m
    Directors: Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah
    Cast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens

    The Bad Boys are back for another spin around the block! Bad Boys for Life directors Adil & Bilall return for the latest entry in the franchise, this time following partners and best friends Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) as they work to clear the name of their late boss Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) when he’s posthumously implicated in a criminal conspiracy.

    From our review:

    El Arbi and Fallah’s direction is the brightest aspect of Ride or Die. The pair has leveled up since Bad Boys for Life, showing themselves as eager students of Bayhem, happy to deploy camera work as exciting as the shootouts it captures. Frenetic drone shots zoom through gunfire, cameras pivot over the barrel of a gun, and nothing ever, ever stays still. It’s a bit overwhelming: Restrained compared to Bay in their previous effort, they overreach a bit here. Their action shines brightest when it features someone capable of believably kicking ass on screen, like Jacob Scipio, returning as Mike Lowrey’s long-lost son from Bad Boys for Life.

    Kill

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    In the movie Kill, Lakshya has a knife held to his throat by an unseen person wearing camo

    Image: Lionsgate

    Genre: Action thriller
    Run time: 1h 45m
    Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
    Cast: Lakshya, Raghav Juyal, Ashish Vidyarthi

    In this thriller, an army commando leads a mission to rescue his girlfriend from an arranged marriage — and then ends up also rescuing a train from a gang of bandits. Kill premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was the first runner-up for the People’s Choice Award: Midnight Madness.

    Here’s what Polygon’s curation editor Pete Volk had to say about it:

    Kill makes the most of the close-quarters setting and the many different weapons on display — knives, limbs, fire extinguishers, and the architecture/layout of the train itself all play into the combat. It’s a real treat for action fans, especially when things take a turn 45 minutes in and the violence amps up significantly. Kill doesn’t go from 0 to 60; it starts at 60 and goes to 200. The movie’s action design is basically broken into two halves, allowing the team (and Lakshya as a lead) to show a variety of approaches to the fight scenes. I won’t say too much, to avoid spoilers, but the action design becomes much more lethal in response to the events of the story, which allows Kill to start with a more classic nonlethal martial arts approach to action before transitioning into something closer to what you might find in a horror movie.

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    Toussaint Egan

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  • Pedestrian fatally struck by Metrolink train in Northridge

    Pedestrian fatally struck by Metrolink train in Northridge

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    A pedestrian was fatally struck early Monday by a Metrolink commuter train in Northridge, according to officials.

    The person was hit in a “non-pedestrian area” on the tracks just before 5:30 a.m., according to Scott Johnson, a spokesperson for Metrolink. No one else was injured, but the southbound train on the Ventura County line was halted and removed from service.

    The 60 passengers on board were assisted off and provided alternative transportation through ride-sharing apps, Johnson said.

    The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the incident, which occurred on the tracks near Corbin Avenue and Bahama Street, according to Officer Norma Eisenman, an LAPD spokesperson. The person who was killed had not yet been publicly identified.

    “The tracks are still closed as officials respond,” Johnson said. That section of the railway between Chatsworth and Northridge remains closed, causing delays to Metrolink’s Ventura County line and the Pacific Surfliner, he said. Rail service will resume once the LAPD and the coroner’s office clear the scene.

    “We want to remind everyone in the community to stay off the tracks,” Johnson said.

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    Grace Toohey

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  • The Bikeriders, The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and every movie new to streaming this week

    The Bikeriders, The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and every movie new to streaming this week

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    Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

    This week, The Bikeriders, the new crime drama starring Jodie Comer (The Last Duel) and Austin Butler (Dune: Part Two), comes to VOD alongside The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and several other exciting new releases. That’s not all — there’s tons of other movies new to streaming to watch this weekend, like the hybrid animated period drama The Peasants on Netflix, the sci-fi drama The Animal Kingdom on Hulu, a documentary on the life and career of actress Faye Dunaway on Max, and much more.

    Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!

    New on Netflix

    The Peasants

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    Image: Breakthru Films/Sony Pictures Classics

    Genre: Animated historical drama
    Run time: 1h 54m
    Directors: DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman
    Cast: Kamila Urzędowska, Robert Gulaczyk, Mirosław Baka

    Loving Vincent directing duo DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman return with yet another period drama composed of thousands of hand-painted images. Set in a 19th-century Polish village rife with feuding and gossip, a young woman named Jagna strives desperately to forge a life for herself beyond the expectations of those around her.

    New on Hulu

    The Animal Kingdom

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    A bearded man with his arm around the shoulders of a teenage boy in The Animal Kingdom.

    Image: Magnet Releasing

    Genre: Sci-fi
    Run time: 2h 10m
    Director: Thomas Cailley
    Cast: Romain Duris, Paul Kircher, Adèle Exarchopoulos

    In a world where humans have been stricken with a genetic mutation that transforms them into animal hybrids, a desperate father (Romain Duris) takes his son (Paul Kircher) to search for his wife, who has disappeared into a nearby forest along with other similarly affected hybrids. Think Sweet Tooth meets The Lobster. Polygon had the opportunity to speak with Cailey about the origins and creature design of the film.

    New on Max

    Faye

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Max

    Genre: Documentary
    Run time: 1h 31m
    Director: Laurent Bouzereau

    This documentary looks back on the life and career of Faye Dunaway, the Academy Award-winning actress known for her iconic performances in such films as Bonnie and Clyde, Network, and Chinatown. Bouzereau’s film collects testimonies from Dunaway’s peers and admirers, as well as extensive interviews with Dunaway herself.

    New on Prime Video

    Divorce in the Black

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

    Two people sit at a tense dinner

    Image: Prime Video

    Genre: Drama
    Run time: 2h 23m
    Director: Tyler Perry
    Cast: Meagan Good, Cory Hardrict, Joseph Lee Anderson

    Tyler Perry’s newest movie follows a young bank professional whose husband leaves her. At first she’s determined to fight for their marriage, but she soon realizes that her husband once sabotaged her chance at true love.

    New on Shudder

    Arcadian

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder

    A man and two boys seated behind the wheel of a dilapidated vehicle in Arcadia.

    Photo: Patrick Redmond/RLJE Films

    Genre: Action horror
    Run time: 1h 31m
    Director: Benjamin Brewer
    Cast: Nicolas Cage, Jaeden Martell, Maxwell Jenkins

    If you already caught Nicolas Cage in Longlegs, here’s another Cageian drama for you. The actor stars as a father of two sons desperate to protect and raise his family in a near future Earth decimated by the arrival of a ferocious nocturnal creatures. When their father is wounded by one of these creatures, his sons must band together and call upon every lesson of their training in order to survive.

    From our review:

    Once the action really gets underway, though, Cage is largely absent, and muddy spatial relationships and confusing, hard-to-see action take a significant percentage of the power out of what should be an explosive final act. And once the film settles into a fairly standard chase-and-fight movie, its lack of more character depth or nuance, or more compelling relationships between the protagonists, limits what the filmmakers can do to make this story stand out from all the past projects it echoes. Arcadian does a few things remarkably well for a sci-fi/horror movie, but it needed a lot more to really spark: more commitment to its vaguely realized setting, more energy between the two very different brothers at its center, and above all, more Nicolas Cage — either version of him.

    New to rent

    Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    A gorilla from Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes snarls at the camera

    Image: 20th Century Studios

    Genre: Post-apocalyptic sci-fi
    Run time: 2h 25m
    Director: Wes Ball
    Cast: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand

    Picking up 300 years after the events of Matt Reeves’ War of the Planet of the Apes, this new installment in the franchise follows Noa (Owen Teague), a young ape who embarks on a journey to rescue his tribe from Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), a maniacal ape who has twisted Caesar’s legacy to create an empire built on conquest and slavery.

    From our review:

    As a story, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes rarely reaches above narrative competence. But because of its almost single-minded focus on the apes, its technical prowess in their rendering is always front and center. It is frankly incredible what the team at Wētā FX has done in conjunction with all of the film’s other effects artists to bring the apes to life, to give them all distinct body language, and to faithfully transpose actors’ every tic and subtle expression onto their faces. These are some of the most soulful digital creations ever seen in a blockbuster action movie, and it’s incredible to see them in a film that is so pedestrian.

    The Bikeriders

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Austin Butler, with mussed-up hair, wearing a black sleeveless top, leans forward in a moody way in The Bikeriders

    Image: 20th Century Studios

    Genre: Crime drama
    Run time: 1h 56m
    Director: Jeff Nichols
    Cast: Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy

    The Bikeriders follows a motorcycle club over the course of a decade, as they go from a simple gathering of enthusiasts to a hardened gang. Jodie Comer plays Kathy, a young woman who gets swept up in the biker gang world after meeting hotheaded Benny (Austin Butler).

    From our review:

    The Bikeriders is a film of old-fashioned, simple pleasures: great tunes, perfect costumes, myth-making shots, and a cast of great character actors really going for it. (Including, but not limited to, Michael Shannon, West Side Story’s Mike Faist, Justified’s Damon Herriman, and a completely unrecognizable Norman Reedus as a shaggy Californian wildman biker.) It’s a film about looking at the gorgeous, unknowable people on the screen — and that one gorgeous, unknowable person in particular — just as Hardy’s character does at one point with Marlon Brando in The Wild One, and thinking: What would it be like to be them?

    The Exorcism

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Russell Crowe dressed as a priest with dried bile and blood covering his beard in The Exorcism.

    Image: Vertical Entertainment

    Genre: Horror thriller
    Run time: 1h 35m
    Director: Joshua John Miller
    Cast: Russell Crowe, Ryan Simpkins, Sam Worthington

    Russell Crowe plays an actor on the set of a supernatural horror film that resembles the original Exorcist movie. His mental state is in slow decline, and as his behavior becomes more erratic, his daughter begins to suspect that there might be a more sinister cause behind it than his previous substance addictions.

    The Garfield Movie

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Jon Arbuckle shaves parmesan cheese over Garfield’s lasagna while Odie watches in a still from The Garfield Movie

    Image: Sony Pictures

    Genre: Adventure comedy
    Run time: 1h 41m
    Director: Mark Dindal
    Cast: Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham

    It’s Chris Pratt! As Garfield! The lazy orange cat reunites with his long lost father Vic (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, of all people). Along with Odie, Vic and Garfield plan a heist to a farm so that they can steal a lot of milk in order to appease the Persian cat crime boss that Vic works for. The movie comes by way of director Mark Dindal, best known for The Emperor’s New Groove.

    The Convert

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    A stern looking beared man with bruises on his face staring off at something in the distance with a large wooden totem behind him in The Convert.

    Image: MBK Productions/Magnolia Pictures

    Genre: Historical drama
    Run time: 1h 59m
    Director: Lee Tamahori
    Cast: Guy Pearce, Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne, Antonio Te Maioha

    In this historical drama, a preacher comes to a remote outpost in New Zealand — only to get caught in the middle of a war between Māori tribes. It’s based on the 2011 novel Wulf by New Zealand author Hamish Clayton.

    Wildcat

    Maya Hawke as Flannery O’Connor reading a letter while standing next to her open mailbox in Wildcat.

    Image: Renovo Media Group/Oscilloscope Laboratories

    Genre: Biographical drama
    Run time: 1h 43m
    Director: Ethan Hawke
    Cast: Maya Hawke, Rafael Casal, Philip Ettinger

    Maya Hawke (Stranger Things) stars in her father Ethan Hawke’s latest film: a biographical drama centering on the life and struggles of the inimitable Southern Gothic author Flannery O’Connor. Wildcat follows O’Connor’s efforts to publish her first novel, interspersed with episodes reenacting characters and scenes inspired by the author’s own short stories.

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    Toussaint Egan

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  • AT&T resolves outage that left some customers without service across the US

    AT&T resolves outage that left some customers without service across the US

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    TO EXPLAIN TED JESSICA A LOT OF AT&T CUSTOMERS HERE IN BOSTON AND AROUND THE COUNTRY WOKE UP WITH SOMETHING ON THEIR PHONE THEY MAY HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE. LET’S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK. YOU MAY HAVE WOKEN UP WITH YOUR S.O.S. MODE ON YOUR PHONE, WHICH IS SIMPLY A WAY FOR YOUR CELL PHONE TELLING YOU YOU DON’T HAVE CELL CONNECTION, MEANING YOU’RE ONLY ABLE TO CALL OR TEXT EMERGENCY SERVICES THROUGH THE CELLULAR NETWORK. NOW, A LOT OF PEOPLE USE AT&T AS THEIR CELL NETWORK AND DIALED 911 TO SEE IF THEY COULD CONNECT TO FIRST RESPONDERS AND MATT STATE POLICE GOT FLOODED WITH CALLS SO MUCH SO THEY HAD TO PUT OUT ON TWITTER SAYING, IF YOU NEED TO CALL 911 AND CANNOT DO SO, USE A LANDLINE IF POSSIBLE UNTIL THE SITUATION IS RESOLVED. NOW NEWTON POLICE DISPATCH ALSO TOOK CALLS WHEN AT&T SERVICE WENT DOWN. WE’RE ASKING THAT PEOPLE NOT CALL 911 JUST TO TEST THEIR SERVICE. IF YOUR PHONE SERVICE IS UP AND WORKING, YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE ANY ISSUES CALLING IN TO 911. NOW

    AT&T resolves outage that left some customers without service across the US


    Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN

    AT&T says it has resolved an outage that left some customers in the dark on Tuesday.Video above: AT&T restores cellular service after widespread outage in FebruaryEarlier, the company said a problem prevented many AT&T customers from completing calls between carriers.“The interoperability issue between carriers has been resolved,” an AT&T spokesperson said. “We collaborated with the other carrier to find a solution and appreciate our customers patience during this period.”In a previous statement sent to CNN, the company said a problem prevented many AT&T customers from completing calls between carriers. That also means customers from a rival service could not place calls to an AT&T customer.Although AT&T did not share the number of impacted customers, website Down Detector shows a spike in reports of issues using the service starting around 1 p.m. ET. Those numbers climbed in the hours that followed. By 6 p.m. ET, however, the number of reported incidents started to decline, according to Down Detector.The site listed New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis as among the cities with the most reports of issues.Because of the interoperability problem, thousands of Verizon customers also reported a service outage on Down Detector Tuesday.AT&T told CNN that 911 calls went through, despite a few locations, including Camden County, Georgia, and Scranton, Pennsylvania, issuing alerts on social media that the outage was disrupting calls to 911. AT&T told CNN the alerts were received accidentally after a template for such a notification was triggered and sent. AT&T said it is investigating why that happened.The outage comes less than four months after a massive disruption that knocked out service for AT&T’s network for nearly 12 hours. In February, tens of thousands of AT&T customers in America were unable to make phone calls, send texts, reach emergency services or access the internet because of an AT&T network outage.In March, the telecommunications company said it had been hacked in a separate incident, and the stolen data contained information such as account holders’ Social Security numbers.

    AT&T says it has resolved an outage that left some customers in the dark on Tuesday.

    Video above: AT&T restores cellular service after widespread outage in February

    Earlier, the company said a problem prevented many AT&T customers from completing calls between carriers.

    “The interoperability issue between carriers has been resolved,” an AT&T spokesperson said. “We collaborated with the other carrier to find a solution and appreciate our customers patience during this period.”

    In a previous statement sent to CNN, the company said a problem prevented many AT&T customers from completing calls between carriers. That also means customers from a rival service could not place calls to an AT&T customer.

    Although AT&T did not share the number of impacted customers, website Down Detector shows a spike in reports of issues using the service starting around 1 p.m. ET. Those numbers climbed in the hours that followed. By 6 p.m. ET, however, the number of reported incidents started to decline, according to Down Detector.

    The site listed New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis as among the cities with the most reports of issues.

    Because of the interoperability problem, thousands of Verizon customers also reported a service outage on Down Detector Tuesday.

    AT&T told CNN that 911 calls went through, despite a few locations, including Camden County, Georgia, and Scranton, Pennsylvania, issuing alerts on social media that the outage was disrupting calls to 911. AT&T told CNN the alerts were received accidentally after a template for such a notification was triggered and sent. AT&T said it is investigating why that happened.

    The outage comes less than four months after a massive disruption that knocked out service for AT&T’s network for nearly 12 hours. In February, tens of thousands of AT&T customers in America were unable to make phone calls, send texts, reach emergency services or access the internet because of an AT&T network outage.

    In March, the telecommunications company said it had been hacked in a separate incident, and the stolen data contained information such as account holders’ Social Security numbers.

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  • Crowds gather for 2024 Albany Memorial Day Parade

    Crowds gather for 2024 Albany Memorial Day Parade

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    ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — From every corner and chasm of the Capital Region, people came to Downtown Albany to commemorate the true meaning of Memorial Day. Honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

    Marchers or onlookers, young or old, carrying balloons or flags — someway, somehow, the people of Albany showed up for Veterans. George LaMora served in Vietnam and stepped up to lead the festivities. 

    “Between my brother and sister (veterans), and my family, they encouraged me to do it because of all we do, and I do, for veterans,” said LaMora.

    The Grand Marshall is also a grandfather to proud 9-year-old cousins Amelia and Luna.

    “I never thought that this would ever happen,” said Amelia. “And he does everything for Veterans,” Luna added.

    On the hot holiday morning, Vietnam-era Marine Michael Townsend remembers a time of cold reception.

    “We have a lot more support now than we used to years ago” Townsend recalled. “I walked down the street a lot of times now, people say thank you for your service, appreciate you — and that makes us feel good,” Townsend told NEWS10.

    Colonie’s Stephen Garry served in the Marines during Lebanon and Grenada. He issued a call to younger service members.

    “Veterans from the…war on terrorism [need] to step in to fill our ranks. VFW, the American Legion Post, Marine Corps League, they’re all suffering for membership” Garry implored.

    The pulse of marchers and the beat of drums were alive on Washington Avenue.

    “It felt pretty good that we were playing for people who served for us,” said Trustin Toliver,15, of the Christian Brothers Academy Marching Band.

    Another marching band, The Albany Marching Falcons, will be taking a special trip to Normandy on June 4th, for what may be the last commemoration of D-Day with World War II veterans in attendance. 

    “If we forget to listen to history taught us then we are destined to repeat them,” said Band Director Brian Cady. “So, you know it’s my hope, that they take what they’ve learned from this trip and this event and pass it on to maybe their own kids” Mr.Cady continued.

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    Zion Decoteau

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  • Abigail, The Book of Clarence on Netflix, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and every new movie to watch at home this weekend

    Abigail, The Book of Clarence on Netflix, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and every new movie to watch at home this weekend

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    Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

    This week, Abigail, the horror comedy from Scream directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, gnaws its way onto VOD. There’s plenty more than that to choose from, as a plethora of exciting releases make their way onto streaming this weekend. Jeymes Samuel’s The Book of Clarence is now streaming on Netflix, the psychological thriller Eileen is available to watch on Hulu, and The Iron Claw is on Max, not to mention all the other new releases available to rent and purchase on VOD.

    Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!

    New on Netflix

    The Book of Clarence

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    Image: Legendary Entertainment/Moris Puccio

    Genre: Historical comedy
    Run time: 2h 9m
    Director: Jeymes Samuel
    Cast: LaKeith Stanfield, Omar Sy, RJ Cyler, Anna Diop

    Jeymes Samuel (The Harder They Fall) returns with a new film, this time a biblical comedy drama starring LaKeith Stanfield. The Book of Clarence follows the story of a down-on-his-luck man living in A.D. 33 Jerusalem who aspires to free himself from debt.

    His plan? Take a page out of the book of a local preacher claiming to be the son of God and proclaim himself as the Messiah, performing “miracles” in a bid for fame and glory. When Clarence’s schemes run afoul of the Romans, he’ll be faced with not only the consequences of his deception, but a choice that will shape his life and the course of history.

    Mother of the Bride

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    A young woman staring at a man in front of a picturesque view of a tropical landscape in Mother of the Bride.

    Photo: Sasidis Sasisakulporn/Netflix

    Genre: Rom-com
    Run time: 1h 28m
    Director: Mark Waters
    Cast: Brooke Shields, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove

    Brooke Shields stars in this new rom-com as Lan, the mother of a woman who is about to marry the man of her dreams. After traveling to Thailand for the wedding, Lana learns that her college ex Will (Benjamin Bratt) is in fact the father of her daughter’s husband-to-be. Can these two figure out how to make it through the wedding without being painfully awkward, and is there still a chance for them to fall in love again?

    New on Hulu

    Eileen

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    Anne Hathaway, in a blond wig and shearling coat, smokes leaning against a neon-drenched wall as Rebecca while Thomasin McKenzie looks on in the movie Eileen.

    Photo: Jeong Park/Neon

    Genre: Psychological thriller
    Run time: 1h 38m
    Director: William Oldroyd
    Cast: Thomasin McKenzie, Anne Hathaway, Shea Whigham

    Based on Ottessa Moshfegh’s 2015 novel, this psychological thriller stars Thomasin McKenzie (Last Night in Soho) as a young secretary who becomes infatuated with Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), the charismatic new psychologist at the juvenile detention facility where she works. As their friendship grows, Eileen finds herself exploring new aspects of her personality — to equally sinister and deadly effect.

    From our review:

    In making Eileen’s character flesh, Thomasin McKenzie walks a dramatic tightrope: effortlessly showing how much effort her character puts into performing for others, while also not tipping her hand about what, if anything, resides in Eileen’s soul. Both Eileen’s script and McKenzie’s choices depict her character as someone who wants to be human, even a certain kind of human, but doesn’t know how, or even to what end. So she settles on voyeurism — the film’s opening scene depicts her sitting in her car on a lovers’ lane, surreptitiously watching a couple of strangers make out in a second car. She flirts with the idea of masturbation, only to abruptly stop and stuff filthy snow down her skirt instead.

    New on Max

    The Iron Claw

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Max

    A wrestler diving at another wrestler in a ring.

    Photo: Brian Roedel/A24

    Genre: Biographical sports drama
    Run time: 2h 12m
    Director: Sean Durkin
    Cast: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson

    Zac Efron (Hairspray), Jeremy Allen White (The Bear), and Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness) star in this thrilling dramatization of the lives of the Von Erich brothers, a trio of professional wrestlers whose larger-than-life careers and success during the 1980s were marred by tragedy and struggle.

    From our review:

    The biopicification of such a horrendous, personal series of tragedies will sound crass to some. But Durkin doesn’t dilute the Von Erich story into direct-to-cable fluff. He’s performing a balancing act, aware that a sad story is only useful if people have the desire (and fortitude) to stay until the credits.

    New on AMC Plus

    The Taste of Things

    Where to watch: Available to stream on AMC Plus

    Benoît Magimel as “Dodin”, taste testing something

    Photo: Carole Bethuel/IFC Films

    Genre: Romance drama
    Run time: 2h 16m
    Director: Tran Anh Hung
    Cast: Juliette Binoche, Benoît Magimel, Emmanuel Salinger

    This historical romance follows the story of Eugenie (Juliette Binoche) and Dodin (Benoît Magimel), a cook and a gourmand who live in a French country estate in 1889. Though the two are in love, Eugenie refuses to marry Dodin, and wishes to keep their relationship as it is. Desperate to woo her, Dodin takes up cooking in order to prepare a meal that will sweep her off her feet. The film is as terrific as the food looks scrumptious.

    New to rent

    Abigail

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Alisha Weir in a blood-stained tutu with sharpened teeth in Abigail

    Image: Universal Pictures

    Genre: Horror comedy
    Run time: 1h 49m
    Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
    Cast: Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton

    The directors behind 2019’s Ready or Not and 2022’s Scream are back with another horror comedy, this time centered around a group of kidnappers who are tasked with abducting the daughter of a wealthy businessman in exchange for ransom money. Unfortunately, the kidnappers have bit off more than they can chew, as this the little girl in question harbors a deadly secret of her own.

    From our review:

    Once Abigail reveals herself as a deadly supernatural creature, the movie transforms into more of an action slasher, rather than going for scares. In that way, Abigail feels more like Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s earlier movie Ready or Not than like any other vampire movie. Both movies are mostly set in heavily locked-down mansions where someone is viciously, comedically hunted down. And both feature a deep love for explosions of blood and guts. After Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s brief detour for two messy, chaotic, clumsy entries in the Scream franchise, Abigail proves they’re still excellent at creating tension in the hallways of massive houses, and flipping their horror into action at a moment’s notice.

    Founders Day

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    A masked figure in a black cloak and white wig holding a gavel in a dark gymnasium in Founders Day.

    Photo: David Apuzzo/Mainframe Pictures

    Genre: Slasher horror
    Run time: 1h 46m
    Director: Erik Bloomquist
    Cast: Naomi Grace, Devin Druid, William Russ

    If you enjoyed Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving and are looking for more holiday-themed slashers, director-screenwriter duo Erik and Carson Bloomquist are here to oblige. Set in a small town on the eve of a major mayoral election, Founders Day follows a group of teens who are stalked by a vicious masked killer. It’s supposed to be a political satire, but even if you’re not in for that element, it sure to be a gorey good time.

    Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Finn Wolfhard in a Ghostbusters uniform looking at slime coming from the ceiling while Kamail Nanjiani, Logan Kim, Paul Rudd, and Celeste O’Connor stand behind him in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

    Image: Sony Pictures

    Genre: Supernatural comedy
    Run time: 1h 56m
    Director: Gil Kenan
    Cast: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard

    The Ghostbusters have returned with an all-new movie, and this time Bill Murray is here! Three years after the events of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the Spengler family must join forces with the veteran Ghostbusters to stop a wrathful demonic entity from freezing all of New York City. Oh, and Slimer is here too, because of course.

    From our review:

    The Ghostbusters franchise doesn’t really seem to be aimed at anyone anymore. It isn’t funny. It isn’t scary. It’s mostly abandoned its new younger characters, and its older actors barely seem to care. Frozen Empire’s unintentional answer to the question seems to be that Ghostbusters is now corporate nostalgia-farming given cinematic form. Sure, it’s missing all the charm and goofiness that earned the original Ghostbusters so many fans — but if you stick around long enough, they filmmakers will show off the proton packs again, and there’s always a new person to slime. It’s a franchise reduced to nothing more than a parade of hollow, familiar images, lightly repackaged in hopes that we’ll buy another ticket and try to revisit the emotions we felt when we encountered this world for the first time.

    La Chimera

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    A man in a white, wrinkled suit with an open collar button shirt surrounded by a group of people looking at something off-screen with fascination.

    Image: Neon

    Genre: Period comedy-drama
    Run time: 2h 13m
    Director: Alice Rohrwacher
    Cast: Josh O’Connor, Carol Duarte, Vincenzo Nemolato

    The latest from masterful Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro, Le Pupille) stars one of the Challengers boys as a British archaeologist in a story of stolen historical artifacts. La Chimera was a Palme d’Or nominee at Cannes 2023.

    Kim’s Video

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Genre: Documentary
    Run time: 1h 25m
    Directors: David Redmon, Ashley Sabin
    Cast: Isabel Gillies Robert Greene, Eric Hynes

    Fans of unconventional mystery documentaries like 2018’s Shirkers will likely dig this new film chronicling the rise, fall, and legacy of one of New York City’s most infamous video stores. Featuring interviews with notable former employees like Alex Ross Perrry, Ashley Sabin and David Redmon’s documentary is filled with surprises and revelations aplenty.

    The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Two bearded men holding WWI-era machine guns in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

    Image: Black Bear Pictures/Jerry Bruckheimer Films

    Genre: Spy action-comedy
    Run time: 2h
    Director: Guy Ritchie
    Cast: Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson

    Guy Ritchie’s been on a hot run as of late, with some of the best work of his career in Wrath of Man and The Covenant. This time, he turns his eye to historical action, with this larger-than-life true story about a British special ops team in World War II. The movie features a big cast and lots of big guns.

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    Toussaint Egan

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  • Christopher Lloyd returns to The Addams Family in Wednesday season 2

    Christopher Lloyd returns to The Addams Family in Wednesday season 2

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    Wednesday, Tim Burton’s take on The Addams Family naturally became hugely popular on Netflix. Both are staples of spooky goth teens everywhere, so it was a match made in heaven (or hell?) and the series spent 20 weeks on Netflix’s Global Top 10. Jenna Ortega’s sharp, sardonic take on the character bewitched many — as did her firm stance against love triangles.

    “Nobody wants to see her in the middle of a love triangle,” Ortega said to W Magazine back in 2022. “They want to see her torturing people.”

    Netflix officially renewed the YA supernatural romp in January 2023, though news has been scant (likely due to the ongoing strikes last year). But with filming beginning this week and some exciting casting announcements, here’s everything we know about Wednesday season 2.

    Photo: Netflix

    What’s Wednesday season 2 about?

    We’re not entirely sure of the plot, but it’ll likely pick up during Wednesday’s next school year at Nevermore Academy. According to the showrunners, the entire Addams family will be coming to the school in some capacity. There were a lot of loose ends last season, including the identity of Wednesday’s stalker and the weird cult that mean girl Bianca’s mom is part of.

    Who’s in Wednesday season 2?

    Jenna Ortega returns as Wednesday, and this season she’ll also serve as a producer. Other returning cast members include Emma Myers as Wednesday’s perky werewolf roommate Enid; Joy Sunday as school queen bee Bianca; and Hunter Doohan as Tyler, the cute barista who is actually the bloodthirsty monster that killed a lot of people last season.

    The other cast members of the Addams family, namely Catherine Zeta-Jones (Morticia), Luiz Guzmán (Gomez), and Isaac Ordonez (Pugsley), have been promoted to series regulars.

    “We are thrilled that the entire Addams family will be enrolling in Nevermore Academy this season along with a dream cast of icons and new faces,” showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar said in a statement to Netflix. For Pugsley, this makes sense, but will Morticia and Gomez be teachers or students? Are they going for graduate degrees, perhaps?

    wednesday, a surly and pale dark-haired girl looks uncomfortable as she stands next to enid, a blonde smiling girl with pink and blue dyed ends of her hair

    Image: Netflix

    Who’s not coming back?

    Even though Tyler was carted off the jail at the end of season 1, Doohan is still a series regular — clearly there’s some unfinished business! But Jamie McShane, who played his father, will only appear in a few episodes. In addition, Percy Hynes White who played the other bland cute boy Xavier, won’t be returning. This coincides with sexual assault allegations that led to a campaign to remove him from the show.

    Anyone new in the Wednesday season 2 cast?

    You know it! Some big names are joining the new season of Wednesday as series regulars. According to Netflix Steve Buscemi (Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams) will play a character named Barry Dort and Billie Piper (Doctor Who) will play someone named Capri. Other actors joining as series regulars include Evie Templeton (Return to Silent Hill), Owen Painter (The Handmaid’s Tale), and Noah Taylor (Park Avenue), though their roles are still undisclosed.

    Additionally, we’ve got some interesting guest stars, including Christopher Lloyd, who played Uncle Fester in the 1990s Addams Family movies. Last season Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in those movies, was the show’s big bad villain, so it’ll be interesting to see what Lloyd’s involvement is. Thandiwe Newton (Westworld) will play someone named Dr. Fairburn and Joanna Lumley will play the Addams family Grandma. Other guest stars include , Frances O’Connor (The Missing), Haley Joel Osment (The Kominsky Method), Heather Matarazzo (The Princess Diaries) and Joonas Suotamo.

    When is season 2 coming out?

    Filming began in May 2024, so at the very earliest, Wednesday season 2 wouldn’t come out till late this year. But early 2025 is more likely.

    Where can I watch more Wednesday in the interim?

    The first season is on Netflix, but if that’s not enough, you can also check out Christina Ricci’s Wednesday in the 1990s movies, which are both currently streaming on Pluto TV. This will especially prime you for whatever role it is that Christopher Lloyd has in the new season. The 1964 sitcom is also streaming on Pluto TV. Oh, and there’s the 2019 animated movie, but we don’t really talk about that here.

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    Petrana Radulovic

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  • New Doctor Who, Netflix’s Bodkin, and more new TV this week

    New Doctor Who, Netflix’s Bodkin, and more new TV this week

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    The barrage of TV — and great TV — continues apace in 2024, with plenty of intriguing new and returning shows launching their seasons this week.

    The headline item: Ncuti Gatwa’s tenure as the Fifteenth Doctor starts in earnest this week, with two new episodes following up on the winter specials from late 2023. But that’s not all — Netflix has a new murder mystery set in Ireland starring Will Forte, Interview with a Vampire returns for its long-awaited second season on AMC, and Apple TV has their seemingly contractually required new sci-fi series of the month.

    Here are the best new TV premieres and finales coming to TV this week.

    New shows on Netflix

    Bodkin

    Genre: Murder journalism investigation mystery
    Release date: May 9, with all episodes
    Showrunner/creator: Jez Scharf
    Cast: Will Forte, Siobhán Cullen, Robyn Cara, and more

    An American podcaster (Will Forte) hoping to reconnect with his Irish ancestry heads to a coastal town in Ireland, where he works with an investigative journalist (Siobhán Cullen) to dig into the sudden disappearance of three residents.

    New shows on Disney Plus

    Doctor Who

    Genre: Time-tested time travel sci-fi
    Release date: May 11, with two episodes
    Showrunner/creator: Russell T. Davies
    Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson, and more

    Doctor Who is back! After a trio of 60th anniversary specials (and a Christmas special) teed up showrunner Russell T. Davies’ return to the show and Ncuti Gatwa’s introduction as the Fifteenth Doctor, their time together starts in earnest with two new episodes.

    New shows on Hulu

    Black Twitter: A People’s History

    Genre: Docuseries
    Release date: May 9

    This three-part docuseries based on a WIRED article tells the story of how Black users on Twitter helped make the platform the powerhouse it was.

    New shows on Max

    Pretty Little Liars: Summer School

    Genre: Teenage mischief (and murder)
    Release date: May 9 with two episodes
    Showrunner/creator: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa & Lindsay Calhoon Bring
    Cast: Bailee Madison, Chandler Kinney, Zaria, Malia Pyles, Maia Reficco, and Mallory Bechtel

    The second season of the fourth series in the Pretty Little Liars franchise is here. After the tragic events of the first season led to understandably poor grades, the girls have to go to summer school to advance to junior year. But another mystery — and potentially another killer — lurk around the corner.

    New shows on Prime Video

    The GOAT

    Genre: Reality stars reality show competition
    Release date: May 9
    Host: Daniel Tosh
    Cast: Reality show stars

    14 reality stars compete in a variety of challenges in what looks like Prime Video’s answer to The Traitors.

    New shows on AMC Plus

    Interview with a Vampire season 2

    Genre: Horror romance (ish)
    Release date: May 12, with one episode
    Showrunner/creator: Rolin Jones
    Cast: Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, Bailey Bass, and more

    The long wait is over. AMC’s excellent Interview with the Vampire adaptation finally returns for a delicious second season.

    New shows on Apple TV Plus

    Dark Matter

    Genre: Sci-fi
    Release date: May 8 with two episodes
    Created and based on the book by: Blake Crouch
    Cast: Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Connelly, and more

    Apple TV Plus’s latest sci-fi series has a few things going for it: Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly as leads; alternate dimension hijinks; Jimmi Simpson. But perhaps most intriguing is the fact that Dark Matter author Blake Crouch is writing the television adaptation as well, and serving as an executive producer on the project.

    New shows on Crunchyroll

    Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc

    Genre: Demon Slayer
    Release date: May 12
    Based on the manga by: Koyoharu Gotouge
    Cast: Natsuki Hanae, Akari Kitō, and more

    Demon Slayer is back! Per the official synopsis: To the Hashira Training… The members of the Demon Slayer Corps and their highest-ranking swordsmen, the Hashira. In preparation for the forthcoming final battle against Muzan Kibutsuji, the Hashira Training commences. While each carry faith and determination within their hearts, Tanjiro and the Hashira enter a new story.

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    Pete Volk

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  • What to know before watching Zendaya’s new sports movie Challengers

    What to know before watching Zendaya’s new sports movie Challengers

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    At Polygon, a lot of us are fans of sitting down to a movie with as little upfront information as possible, for the feeling of discovery. But sometimes, it helps to know a few things going in, whether it’s an interesting fact about the movie’s history or just knowing how many end-credits scenes to wait for. Here are four things we think you should know about Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers before watching.

    What is Challengers about?

    Photo: Niko Tavernise/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures

    The simple title doesn’t offer much clarity. But broadly, and without spoilers: Challengers follows a complicated relationship between three people. Zendaya, who also produced the movie, plays Tashi, a former teenage tennis superstar. In a story that jumps back and forth in time, she meets best friends and tennis partners Art (West Side Story’s Mike Faist) and Patrick (The Crown’s Josh O’Connor), dates both of them, marries one of them and becomes his tennis coach, then pits them against each other in an epic tennis match for complicated personal reasons that take most of the movie to unpack.

    The movie starts at that match, when all three of them are in their 30s. Then it loops back to their teen years, and jumps around in time to explore what happened between the threesome’s first meeting and the present, more than a decade later.

    Does Challengers have a post-credits scene?

    No, there’s nothing after the credits — meaning no further information about the aftermath of that final match. Director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name, Bones and All) and writer Justin Kuritzkes leave that up to fanfiction writers. We like to think that aftermath resembles the climactic scene in one of Kuritzkes’ favorite movies, Y Tu Mamá También, which… well, if you know, you know.

    What do I need to know about tennis before watching Challengers?

    Tennis player Tashi (Zendaya) sits in the stands at a match in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers. The fans around her are applauding something going on on the court, but she’s smiling and shrugging, with her eyes closed.

    Image: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures/Everett Collection

    The scoring rules for tennis are a little complicated, and it’s worth boning up on them before the movie if you want to fully understand the action and the specific setbacks and triumphs Art and Patrick face. (Video gamers who’ve played a lot of Wii Sports tennis or any of the many other tennis sims may be way ahead of the game here.)

    The two men are competing in a Challengers match, one of the qualifier events the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) uses to determine who goes on to professional-level competition. When the movie starts, Art is already a pro-level player, qualified for the biggest events in the sport, like Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Patrick is trying to qualify to play at that level.

    The key terms to understand: The two men are pitted against each other in a match, which typically means three or five sets. A set is a series of games, played until one player has won at least six cumulative games and has won at least two more games than their opponent has. The winner of a game is whichever player scores four points first, except when the game is tied at three points each. We’ll get into that below.

    Points have their own designations in tennis: love (zero points), 15 (one point), 30 (two points), and 40 (three points). Tennis has multiple officiants, but the one seated above the match, known as the chair umpire, serves as a referee, calling the score and any faults or penalties that would change the score. For instance, if the chair umpire calls a score of “love-30,” that means one player has zero points and the other has two. When both players have the same number of points, the score is called as “all,” as in “15-all,” meaning each player has one point.

    A game that hits a tied score of 40-all has its own special word, “deuce.” In a deuce situation, a player needs to score two points in a row to win. That means a four-point game might go on for a dozen points. Whoever scored the most recent point in a deuce game after the score was tied is said to have “advantage,” since they’re halfway to winning — so if player A scores one point in a deuce game, they have advantage, but if player B then scores a point, the score goes back to 40-all, with player B now having advantage. There are several ways to score points in tennis apart from successfully getting a ball past the other player. An opponent might surrender points via a fault. Or the chair umpire might assess penalty points for an opponent’s unsportsmanlike conduct, including swearing, throwing things, delaying a match, and more.

    Yes, all this is relevant in Challengers, especially for understanding why Art and Patrick play so many games against each other, and why some of those games go on so long.

    Can you enjoy Challengers without knowing anything about tennis?

    Sure. It’s pretty clear when one of the players is on the upswing and the other is losing, just from their responses. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ aggressive, driving score for the film spikes up the excitement and makes it clear when big, important things are happening. But being able to read the on-screen match scoring and follow what’s going on in individual games will give you a lot more nuance about the status of a given game and the overall match.

    Are the actors really playing tennis in Challengers?

    They’re often hitting real balls on real courts, but plenty of effects and editing trickery were involved in making the games look seamless. Zendaya, Faist, and O’Connor all went through extensive training to make sure their forms on the court were convincing. But as Zendaya has pointed out in interviews, she’d never played tennis before, and she faced a steep learning curve, giving a credible performance as a world-class tennis prodigy.

    Is Challengers a good movie?

    Polygon sure recommends it! It’s a playful, sexy, tense story, part romance and part compelling sports drama. From our review:

    Luca Guadagnino’s sweaty, panting sports-and-sex romantic drama Challengers feel[s] like a thumbed nose (or a raised middle finger) aimed at American Puritanism and an increasingly sex-negative culture. Challengers is a sharp and snappy movie, full of big emotions expressed through fast-paced dialogue in some scenes and through silent, sensual physicality in others, all shot with creative verve and aggressive in-your-face energy. Everyone in this movie is chasing sex and success, and conflating those things with each other in unashamedly provocative ways.

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    Tasha Robinson

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  • Kung Fu Panda 4, Argylle, Netflix’s The Bricklayer, and every new movie to watch this weekend

    Kung Fu Panda 4, Argylle, Netflix’s The Bricklayer, and every new movie to watch this weekend

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    Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

    This week, Kung Fu Panda 4, the new animated action comedy starring Jack Black, arrives on VOD following its theatrical run last month. There’s tons of other exciting releases this week, too, like the satirical spy thriller Argylle on Apple TV Plus, a new action thriller starring Aaron Eckhart as a former CIA agent landing on Netflix, the new romantic fantasy film The Greatest Hits on Hulu, and much more. And then there’s Mayhem!, one of the best action movies of the year so far, now streaming on AMC Plus.

    Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!

    New on Netflix

    Strange Way of Life

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    Image: El Deseo/Saint Laurent Productions

    Genre: Western drama
    Run time: 31m
    Director: Pedro Almodóvar
    Cast: Ethan Hawke, Pedro Pascal

    This Western short from legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar (Volver, Pain and Glory) follows the story of two gunslingers (and former lovers) who reunite after 25 years apart.

    The Bricklayer

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    Image: Millennium Media/Vertical Entertainment

    Genre: Action thriller
    Run time: 1h 50m
    Director: Renny Harlin
    Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Nina Dobrev, Tim Blake Nelson

    The latest in a long tradition of “action movies with odd profession titles,” The Bricklayer follows a former CIA agent (Aaron Eckhart) needed by his former agency when journalists start dying. The movie has a bit of pedigree behind it, as Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2) directs.

    New on Hulu

    The Greatest Hits

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    A man staring across at a woman in front of a shelf of vinyl records.

    Image: Groundswell Productions/Searchlight Pictures

    Genre: Musical romance
    Run time: 1h 34m
    Director: Ned Benson
    Cast: Lucy Boynton, Justin H. Min, David Corenswet

    After suffering the loss of her boyfriend in a car accident, a young woman named Harriet (Lucy Boynton) inadvertently discovers that she has the power to go back in time to various points in their relationship by listening to his old record collection. When Harriet meets a new love interest named David (Justin H. Min), she struggles between her desire to correct the past to resurrect her boyfriend or pursue the possibility of newfound love in the present.

    New on Prime Video

    The Exorcist: Believer

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

    Two possessed, scarred and bruised children sit back to back on the floor and glare at the camera above them in The Exorcist: Believer

    Image: Universal Studios

    Genre: Horror
    Run time: 1h 51m
    Director: David Gordon Green
    Cast: Leslie Odom Jr., Ellen Burstyn, Ann Dowd

    David Gordon Green’s new entry in the Exorcist franchise arrives this week on streaming. It’s a bizarre twist on the franchise, per our review:

    Up until this most recent movie, the title The Exorcist carried some weight. While its role as a representation of quality was up for debate, its mark as a sign of ambition was not. Since the original Exorcist, the series has provided some of American cinema’s best and most interesting artists with space to ruminate on faith and evil. Believer lacks the ambition that’s meant to define an Exorcist movie. This is the most profound statement the movie has to offer, seemingly by accident: If the result of moving past God is that everything in the world will feel as empty and pointless as The Exorcist: Believer, we should cling to faith forever.

    New on Apple TV Plus

    Argylle

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Apple TV Plus

    A man with a buzzcut dressed in a emerald suit lifts a woman with short blonde hair in a gold dress and heels on a dance floor.

    Photo: Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures/Apple Original Films/Marv

    Genre: Action comedy
    Run time: 2h 19m
    Director: Matthew Vaughn
    Cast: Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell

    What happens when you take the meta-fictional irreverence of Stranger than Fiction and smash it together with a premise similar to Matthew Vaughn’s 2014 movie Kingsman: The Secret Service?

    You get Argylle, an action satire of spy novels à la 1984’s Romancing the Stone that follows Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), an introverted novelist who is dragged kicking and screaming into a world of international espionage when it turns out that her popular spy novels are predicting the future. Who is the real agent Argylle? You’ll have to watch in order to find out.

    From our review:

    Argylle is too winking, too keen to show that it’s in on its own joke, to admit any real romantic feeling or any excitement that runs deeper than the surface level of its flashy choreography. Vaughn, the impish ringmaster, delights in challenging the audience to figure out what’s real and what’s fictional within his stylized, nested worlds. It’s just that he never really answers the question: Why should we care? With Argylle, he mounts a playful, rollicking thriller with an all-star cast and some dazzling action — but then holds the audience at arm’s length from it, just to show how clever he’s been in putting it together. The truly clever thing would have been to let the dumb film be joyously dumb, and invite the audience to lose themselves in it instead.

    New on Peacock

    Drive-Away Dolls

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock

    Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan looking into a trunk in Drive-Away Dolls

    Image: Focus Features

    Genre: Road comedy
    Run time: 1h 24m
    Director: Ethan Coen
    Cast: Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein

    Ethan Coen’s first narrative feature without his brother Joel is an offbeat crime comedy about a pair of young women who embark on an impromptu road trip. Things get dicey after the two cross paths with a group of incompetent criminals sent to retrieve a mysterious briefcase on behalf of their shady employer.

    From our review:

    Drive-Away Dolls’ well-worn beats are buttressed by tremendous style, a deep care taken with the film’s production and costume design. All that attention to the era that isn’t fully present in the script comes out in the visuals instead. There isn’t much narrative texture to Marian and Jamie’s various stopovers — in particular, there isn’t much for Jamie or Marian to connect with. While the pair have frequent and funny interactions on their trip, the people they meet are more or less cartoon characters setting up a gag.

    New on Paramount Plus

    Bob Marley: One Love

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus, MGM Plus

    A smiling man with dreadlocks standing next to a band of musicians playing.

    Image: Paramount Pictures

    Genre: Biographical musical
    Run time: 1h 47m
    Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
    Cast: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, James Norton

    This biopic follows the story of cultural icon Bob Marley, portrayed by Kingsley Ben-Adir (One Night in Miami…). The film follows Marley from his rise to fame in the ’70s up until his death in 1981.

    New on AMC Plus

    Mayhem!

    Where to watch: Available to stream on AMC Plus

    Nassim Lyes as Sam, an ex-con and former martial artist, fighting against two men in Mayhem.

    Image: IFC Films

    Genre: Action thriller
    Run time: 1h 49m
    Director: Xavier Gens
    Cast: Nassim Lyes, Loryn Nounay, Olivier Gourmet

    An early contender for one of this year’s best action films, Mayhem follows Samir (Nassim Lyes), an ex-con and martial artist, who flees from France to Thailand to escape his former gang. Struggling to build a new life, Samir finds himself once again dragged into a world of deceit and violence when a powerful real estate tycoon kidnaps a member of his family.

    From our review:

    Mayhem’s action is brutal and kinetic, with inventive kills, strong location work, and realistic choreography that makes the most of Lyes’ kickboxing pedigree. It’s a true star-making performance for him, as he juggles the role’s demanding physical requirements with a deep well of sorrow that permeates the entire affair, even as he dispatches foe after foe.

    New to rent

    Ennio

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Ennio Morricone standing in his office surrounded by notes.

    Image: Music Box Films

    Genre: Documentary
    Run time: 2h 36m
    Director: Giuseppe Tornatore

    Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore made a documentary on renowned film composer Ennio Morricone, one of the most accomplished people in that stacked field. The documentary includes Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Bruce Springsteen, and many more luminaries from the entertainment world.

    Glitter & Doom

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Two men embracing on a stage surrounded by dancers.

    Image: SPEAK Productions/Music Box Films

    Genre: Musical romance
    Run time: 1h 55m
    Director: Tom Gustafson
    Cast: Alex Diaz, Alan Cammish, Ming-Na Wen

    A musical set to the songs of the Indigo Girls, Glitter & Doom follows a summer romance between a musician committed to this craft (Alan Cammish) and a “free-spirited circus kid” (Alex Diaz).

    Io Capitano

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Apple and Vudu

    A boy in a soccer jersey holding the hand of a floating woman dressed in an emerald shroud through the desert.

    Image: Archimede/Cohen Media Group

    Genre: Fantasy
    Run time: 2h 1m
    Director: Matteo Garrone
    Cast: Seydou Sarr, Moustapha Fall, Issaka Sawadogo

    Desperate for an escape out of poverty, two cousins leave their hometown of Dakar, Senegal, to journey to Italy in search of a better life. Trekking across the hazards of the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Ocean, the pair are met with sights and wonders beyond their wildest imaginations.

    Kung Fu Panda 4

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Po the panda watches in awe as a svelte silver fox leaps over him, holding some stolen treasures

    Image: DreamWorks Animation

    Genre: Martial arts comedy
    Run time: 1h 34m
    Director: Mike Mitchell
    Cast: Jack Black, Awkwafina, Bryan Cranston

    The fourth entry in the Kung Fu Panda saga sees Po taking on a new apprentice to succeed him as the Dragon Warrior. When a mysterious sorceress plots to resurrect Po’s past adversaries, he’ll need to call upon all his strength and allies to save the day.

    From our review:

    While the individual scenes and moments in Kung Fu Panda 4 are entertaining (and sometimes even great), it never quite gels as an enjoyable movie on its own. The message of change tying it together is flimsy, and the plot feels strung along, trying to get the characters in the right place to launch a few seconds of cool action. After four movies, it isn’t really a surprise that the Kung Fu Panda machine is running out of steam — thankfully, though, it has just enough power left to churn out some genuine laughs at the end.

    One Life

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Photo: Peter Mountain/Bleecker Street

    Genre: Biographical drama
    Run time: 1h 50m
    Director: James Hawes
    Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Flynn

    Anthony Hopkins stars in a dramatization of the life of Sir Nicholas “Nicky” Winton, a London broker and humanitarian who rescued the lives of 669 Jewish children in the months leading up to World War II. Hopkins portrays Winton in his late ’70s, while actor-musician Johnny Flynn portrays him during his youth in the late 1930s.

    Sleeping Dogs

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    A man wearing a hairnet holding a puzzle piece while staring at a glass table of puzzle pieces.

    Image: Nickel City Productions/The Avenue

    Genre: Crime thriller
    Run time: 1h 50m
    Director: Adam Cooper
    Cast: Russell Crowe, Karen Gillan, Marton Csokas

    After being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, retired homicide detective Roy Freeman (Russell Crowe) is motivated to reopen an investigation into the murder of a college professor when a mysterious new witness comes forward with a compelling piece of evidence. As he works to track down the true culprit, he’ll have to fight to convince those around him to trust his intuition and theories.

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    Toussaint Egan

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  • A West Town Pasta Maker Launches Lunch Service

    A West Town Pasta Maker Launches Lunch Service

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    The pandemic transformed restaurants in several ways including a spike in the popularity in comfort foods like pizza and pasta. The owners of Gemma Foods in West Town are hoping that the charge for carbs will continue. For two years, Gemma has sold fresh pasta to customers who take home their noodles to boil in their own kitchens. But home cooks don’t have to stress. Next week, Gemma is expanding operations by offering a full ready-to-eat lunches — no cooking required.

    Tony Quartaro says Gemma has always been about sharing their passion for pasta in new and different ways. Gemma did tours of duties at Revival Food Hall in the Loop and Time Out Market Chicago in Fulton Market. That helped grow the brand and better showcase Gemma. Quartaro says it’s sometimes a challenge to explain their mission as a pasta maker to passersby on Grand Avenue, across from D’Amato’s Bakery and Bari Foods.

    Gemma Food will now serve hot meals at this counter.
    Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago

    Lunch service is a prelude to eventually offering dinner, as Gemma will offer a rotating batch of pasta specials, focaccia, and entree salads like a kale Caesar. Seasonality is essential. Quartaro already has a pair of specials with ramps (carrot gnocchi with ramp, lemon, and mascarpone; plus radiatori alla ramp carbonara).

    Another specialty is the meatballs, which the chef admits he “thinks deeply” about — he’s been perfecting the ratio for years. They’ll also offer a Sunday special — pork neck ragu. Look for other treats like lasagna — a meaty red sauce version and vegetarian options like a mushroom ragu or a light one with layered eggplant. Vodka sauce is another item that Quartaro makes with pride. Other options include cacio e pepe, canestrini, and paccheri. Most of the pasta is hand-cut, though a few are extruded.

    The pandemic transformed habits as the work-from-home culture grew out of necessity. Quartaro says that wasn’t the sole driver behind offering cooked meals at Gemma, but knowing that potential customers are held captive in their nearby homes by work provided a little motivation to naked use of their counter. Those poor souls need quality afternoon meals. Quartaro has worked at pasta palaces like the dearly departed restaurants Balena in Lincoln Park and the Bristol in Bucktown, plus Formento’s in West Loop. He’s also worked at San Francisco’s celebrated A16. When Gemma opened in March 2022, it was part of a pasta revolution in the area, a push that included the debuts of Tortello in Wicker Park and Flour Power in West Town. Each brings a different spin to the game.

    “There’s no shortage of amazing pasta makers in our city,” Quartaro says. “There’s no reason each neighborhood can’t have their own.”

    Gemma Foods, 1117 W. Grand Avenue, lunch debuts Wednesday, April 17.

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    Ashok Selvam

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  • Wish, Netflix’s Scoop, The Zone of Interest, and every new movie to watch this weekend

    Wish, Netflix’s Scoop, The Zone of Interest, and every new movie to watch this weekend

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    Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

    This week, Wish, the latest musical fantasy from Walt Disney Animation Studios and starring Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine, finally comes to Disney Plus. There’s a lot of other exciting new releases on streaming, including the biographical drama Scoop on Netflix, Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning film The Zone of Interest on Max, the supernatural horror film Talk to Me on Paramount Plus, and more. There’s also plenty of other new movies available on VOD, like Baby Assassins 2 and The American Society of Magical Negroes.

    Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!

    New on Netflix

    Scoop

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    Image: Peter Mountain/Netflix

    Genre: Biographical drama
    Run time: 1h 43m
    Director: Philip Martin
    Cast: Gillian Anderson, Rufus Sewell, Billie Piper

    The latest film from director Philip Martin (The Crown) dramatizes the downfall of Prince Andrew in the wake of the infamous Newsnight interview following allegations of sexual assault. Things go from bad to worse when the prince’s connections to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein are brought to light.

    New on Disney Plus

    Wish

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Disney Plus

    Asha giggles as she looks at the bright golden star

    Image: Disney

    Genre: Musical fantasy
    Run time: 1h 35m
    Directors: Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn
    Cast: Chris Pine, Ariana DeBose, Alan Tudyk

    This fantasy adventure film created to celebrate the Walt Disney Company’s 100th anniversary follows Asha (Ariana DeBose), a young girl living in an island kingdom ruled by a powerful sorcerer named Magnifico (Chris Pine). After making a wish one night, Asha befriends a living magical star that falls from the sky and agrees to help her achieve her heart’s greatest desire.

    From our review:

    The main problem with Wish is that the filmmakers lean so hard on Disney’s legacy and the nostalgic elements that they fail to actually add much new. Every single detail in Wish is a deliberate reminder of another movie that came before it — usually something better and more unique. That’s particularly true for all the characters, some of whom are literally just walking nods to previous Disney movies. They’re all vague ideas of what a Disney Character™ should be, from snarky talking goat Valentino (voiced by Wreck-It Ralph’s Alan Tudyk) to the heroine herself, without much to make them memorable.

    New on Hulu

    Lord of Misrule

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    A man in a clown mask stands in front of a group of actors in elaborate costumes.

    Image: Riverstone Pictures/Bankside Films

    Genre: Horror
    Run time: 1h 44m
    Director: William Brent Ball
    Cast: Ralph Ineson, Tuppence Middleton, Alexa Goodall

    The director of the delightfully fun Orphan: First Kill is back with another movie, this time starring the inimitable Ralph Ineson (The Witch, The Green Knight). After a minister (Tuppence Middleton) moves to a village in the English countryside, her daughter goes missing ahead of the annual harvest festival. I have a feeling those villagers are up to something sinister!

    New on Max

    The Zone of Interest

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Max

    Several people stand in a walled garden with the towers of Auschwitz behind them in The Zone of Interest

    Image: A24

    Genre: Historical drama
    Run time: 1h 46m
    Director: Jonathan Glazer
    Cast: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Johann Karthaus

    Based on the novel by Martin Amis, Jonathan Glazer’s latest film follows the story of Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp who chose to build his family home just outside the camp’s walls.

    From our review:

    The Zone of Interest may be the most powerful movie about complicity that’s ever been made, particularly about the Holocaust. The movie’s true warning isn’t that regular life can go on even amid atrocity, it’s that people are capable of pretending that atrocity isn’t happening. Glazer seems to suggest that people aren’t unaware of destructive historical events going on around them, but rather that they actively close their ears to it. The Höss family doesn’t drown out the camp, or begrudgingly ignore the roar of its furnaces or the gunshots from over the wall. They just keep going like it isn’t there at all. The effect of all their silence is one of the loudest and most unique views a film has ever taken on one of history’s most horrific atrocities.

    Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Max on April 6

    (L-R) Nathan Explosion, Skwisgaar Skwigelf, Toki Wartooth, Pickles, and William Murderface in Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar.

    Image: Warner Bros. Discovery/Adult Swim

    Genre: Apocalyptic musical comedy
    Run time: 1h 23m
    Director: Brendon Small
    Cast: Brendon Small, Tommy Blacha, Malcolm McDowell

    Metalocalypse creator Brendon Small returns with a feature-length finale to his satirical Adult Swim original series. With the evil Tribunal preparing to instigate the Metalocalypse, the members of Dethklok must work together to compose the song of salvation and save the day.

    From our review:

    “Epic” as a descriptor is thrown around too often as a hyperbolic compliment, but Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar rightfully warrants that description and then some. It’s a fitting final chapter in the long and outrageous saga of one of Adult Swim’s most surprising cult classics, and a rapturous encore dedicated to a passionate fan base who refused to let the series go quietly. The Metalocalypse may be over, but the music never dies.

    New on Prime Video

    Música

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

    A man sit next to a woman, point his finger at something off-screen.

    Image: Amazon MGM Studios

    Genre: Coming-of-age rom-com
    Run time: 1h 31m
    Director: Rudy Mancuso
    Cast: Rudy Mancuso, Camila Mendes, J.B. Smoove

    Internet personality turned writer-director Rudy Mancuso stars in his directorial debut as a fictionalized version of himself. Plagued by constant music in his head, Rudy struggles to navigate the challenges of life and love as he attempts to pursue a future marching to the beat of his own drum.

    New on Paramount Plus

    Talk to Me

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus w/ Showtime

    A teenage boy in a grey T-shirt and open flannel button-down shirt, his eyes entirely black and his face turned up to the ceiling sits at a table in front of a lit candle, gripping a plaster cast of a hand in A24’s Talk to Me

    Image: A24

    Genre: Supernatural horror
    Run time: 1h 35m
    Directors: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
    Cast: Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird

    Talk to Me follows a group of Australian teenagers who discover how to conjure the spirits of the dead using an embalmed hand. Naturally, they start filming themselves messing around with it, but when one of them holds on to the hand for too long in order to communicate with a lost loved one, they open a door to a world of horrors. Praised as one of the scariest movies of 2023, Talk to Me is the directorial debut of YouTubers Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou and already has a sequel in production.

    New on Peacock

    Night Swim

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock

    A kid looks toward a pool skimmer, which we see from the skimmer’s perspective in Night Swim

    Image: Blumhouse/Universal

    Genre: Horror thriller
    Run time: 1h 38m
    Director: Bryce McGuire
    Cast: Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amélie Hoeferle

    Wyatt Russell (Monarch: Legacy of Monsters) stars in this supernatural horror film as a professional baseball player who, after being forced into retirement, moves into a luxurious new home with his wife and children. When a malevolent force emerges from the waters of the house’s backyard pool, the family is forced to face a horror beyond their deepest fears.

    From our review:

    All the strengths of its family story aside, it’s probably fair to want a little more horror out of a movie about a killer swimming pool. There are a few fun bits of pool horror in Night Swim, like seeing another world behind the flap of the skimmer or the spring of an empty diving board playing like a warning sign to run. Outside of its opening scene, though, Night Swim isn’t the scariest movie about hungry spirits and ancient gods. But hey, it’s January. Horror fans will take what we can get. Sometimes that just means a few good scares in an otherwise fascinating family movie about magic pools and baseball — which is more than enough to make Night Swim a worthy addition to the list of interesting, watchable January horror.

    New on Apple TV Plus

    Girls State

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Apple TV Plus

    Two girls seated on a couch and smiling.

    Image: Apple TV Plus

    Genre: Documentary
    Run time: 1h 35m
    Director: Jesse Moss

    Who runs the world? That was a rhetorical question, but what if the answer was girls? This documentary follows 500 adolescent girls from Missouri who come together to take part in an immersive weeklong experiment: creating a Supreme Court designed to take on the nation’s most contentious issues.

    New on Mubi

    How to Have Sex

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Mubi

    Mia McKenna-Bruce and Shaun Thomas, wearing skimpy white clothes, stand close and clink drinks in plastic tumblers in How to Have Sex

    Image: Mubi

    Genre: Coming-of-age drama
    Run time: 1h 31m
    Director: Molly Manning Walker
    Cast: Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake, Samuel Bottomley

    One of the best movies of 2024 so far, How to Have Sex isn’t quite what its title suggests. Rather than a rowdy teen comedy, it’s a tender coming-of-age story. As Oli Welsh puts it in his write-up in our list of the best 2024 movies, “It’s a quietly devastating movie about bad formative experiences, but also beautiful in its empathy and kindness, and funny, too.”

    New to rent

    Baby Assassins 2

    Where to watch: Available to rent on YouTube, Apple, and Vudu

    Akari Takaishi and Saori Izawa hold pistols and take cover behind a pile of trashed car parts in Baby Assassins 2

    Image: Well Go USA Entertainment

    Genre: Action comedy
    Run time: 1h 41m
    Director: Yugo Sakamoto
    Cast: Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa, Oto Abe

    The sequel to one of 2022’s most delightful movies, Baby Assassins 2 sees the two teenage assassin protagonists return with a new problem: They’re overdue on their gym payments, and there are two contractors gunning for their jobs and their lives.

    From our review:

    That action is designed by Kensuke Sonomura, one of the best action directors and fight choreographers working today. He also happens to have a long history designing action for video games, like Devil May Cry 4, Vanquish, 2020’s Resident Evil 3, and multiple Metal Gear Solid games. His style of choreography nimbly shifts to meet the needs of each project, but it always excels in its fluidity of motion, use of environments, and legibility of action. You will never be lost watching a Kensuke Sonomura fight scene.

    The American Society of Magical Negroes

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    A man holding a pocket watch surrounded by men and women clapping and smiling.

    Photo: Tobin Yelland/Focus Features

    Genre: Fantasy rom-com
    Run time: 1h 45m
    Director: Kobi Libii
    Cast: Justice Smith, David Alan Grier, An-Li Bogan

    Kobi Libii’s directorial debut stars Justice Smith (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) as Aren, a young biracial artist who is recruited to join a clandestine group of magical Black people who secretly help white people in their mission to solve racism. You can probably guess about how well that goes.

    Snack Shack

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Two young men seated at a table eating a meal.

    Image: MRC Film/Republic Pictures

    Genre: Coming-of-age comedy
    Run time: 1h 52m
    Director: Adam Carter Rehmeier
    Cast: Conor Sherry, Gabriel LaBelle, Mika Abdalla

    Travel back to 1991 in this comedy that follows a pair of teenage boys who work at the snack shack of a local pool in Nebraska. When a new lifeguard shows up, both boys instantly fall for her, putting their friendship in question.

    Knox Goes Away

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    A man wearing sunglasses stands in a darkened doorway.

    Image: FilmNation Entertainment/Saban Films

    Genre: Crime thriller
    Run time: 1h 54m
    Director: Michael Keaton
    Cast: Michael Keaton, Al Pacino, James Marsden

    Sixteen years ago, Michael Keaton made his directorial debut with The Merry Gentleman, about a hitman going through some hard times. Now he’s back with his second directed feature, also about a hitman going through some hard times. This time, the hitman is John Knox, a contract killer separated from his family who takes on one last job after a dementia diagnosis.

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    Toussaint Egan

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  • Road House, Anatomy of a Fall, Netflix’s Shirley, and every new movie to watch at home this weekend

    Road House, Anatomy of a Fall, Netflix’s Shirley, and every new movie to watch at home this weekend

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    Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

    This week, Doug Liman’s Road House reboot starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Conor McGregor finally premieres on Prime Video. Not looking for a suave drifter turned bouncer slapping the mess out of surly bar patrons? That’s all right, there’s plenty new releases to watch on streaming this weekend. Anatomy of a Fall finally comes to Hulu after winning Best Original Screenplay at this year’s Oscars. Shirley, the new historical biopic starring Regina King, arrives on Netflix along with several other new releases on Criterion Channel and Starz. That’s not even mentioning the new movies on VOD this week, like the irreverent DIY comedy Dad & Step-Dad or the satirical historical film The Monk and the Gun.

    Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!

    New on Netflix

    Shirley

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    Photo: Glen Wilson/Netflix

    Genre: Biographical drama
    Run time: 1h 56m
    Director: John Ridley
    Cast: Regina King, Lance Reddick, Lucas Hedges

    Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk) stars in this biopic following the life of Shirley Chisholm, the American politician who became the first Black candidate for a major party nomination and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Notably, Shirley features one of Lance Reddick’s final performances as Wesley “Mac” Holder, Chisholm’s campaign manager and chief aide.

    Fighter

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    A pilot resting his hand on the outer hull of a fighter jet in Fighter.

    Image: Viacom18 Studios/Marflix Pictures

    Genre: Action
    Run time: 2h 40m
    Director: Siddharth Anand
    Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, Anil Kapoor

    Not to be confused with the 2010 boxing drama starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, the latest movie from Pathaan director Siddharth Anand is like the Hindi equivalent of Top Gun: Maverick. Modern heartthrob Hrithik Roshan stars as the pilot of an elite Indian Air Force response team tasked with responding to a series of terror attacks.

    New on Hulu

    Anatomy of a Fall

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    A dead, bloody body in the snow in Anatomy of a Fall, as someone near talks on the phone

    Image: Neon

    Genre: Crime thriller
    Run time: 2h 31m
    Director: Justine Triet
    Cast: Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Graner

    This Palme d’Or- and Oscar-winning French courtroom drama follows the story of a writer trying to prove her innocence following the mysterious death of her husband outside of their home. Was it murder or was it suicide? Beyond a simple interrogation of guilt, the film is a psychological thriller that delves deep into the complicated circumstances behind the couple’s relationship.

    New on Prime Video

    Road House

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

    A man in a button-up shirt standing in a street at night.

    Photo: Laura Radford/Prime Video

    Genre: Action
    Run time: 1h 54m
    Director: Doug Liman
    Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen

    This reboot of the classic 1989 action film sees Jake Gyllenhaal step into the role of Dalton, a former UFC middleweight fighter who becomes a drifter after his career unceremoniously ends. Finding work at a roadhouse in the Florida Keys as a bouncer, Dalton must contend with a vicious landowner and his enforcer Knox (Conor McGregor) when they attempt to seize the property the roadhouse is built on.

    New on Criterion Channel

    Anselm

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Criterion Channel

    A man standing in a darkened studio surrounded by art supplies and large paintings.

    Image: Janus Films

    Genre: Documentary
    Run time: 1h 33m
    Director: Wim Wenders

    This documentary follows the life and career of painter-sculptor Anselm Kiefer. Shot in 6K resolution in a 3D format, the film attempts to blur the boundary between Anselm’s work and the movie itself.

    New on Starz

    Expend4bles

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Starz

    A midshot of Sylvester Stallone wearing a black beret and vest in the film Expend4bles.

    Photo: Yana Blajeva/Lionsgate

    Genre: Action comedy
    Run time: 1h 43m
    Director: Scott Waugh
    Cast: Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson

    The fourth entry in the brash franchise has its best action scenes yet, hands the reins over to Jason Statham, and brings in Tony Jaa and Iko Uwais for some extra martial arts bona fides.

    From our review:

    Expend4bles stretches the franchise to its limits, and those limits frankly don’t reach very far. There’s a level of self-awareness to Expendables films that can make their paper-thin plotting and characterization excusable — in the end, they’re just a reason to see certain action legends interact with each other. But in a decade-plus of homage, the series hasn’t developed any stylistic flourishes of its own. Mission: Impossible movies have their signature stunts, Fast and Furious movies have their improbable applications of cars, but the Expendables lacks a comparable calling card. There’s nothing for fans to look forward to beyond Jason Statham’s resilient charm and Sylvester Stallone’s braggadocio. And frankly, there are plenty of other places for people who want those things to get them.

    New to rent

    The Monk and the Gun

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    A group of villagers and monks admiring an antique rifle.

    Image: Roadside Attractions

    Genre: Comedy drama
    Run time: 1h 47m
    Director: Pawo Choyning Dorji
    Cast: Tandin Wangchuk, Deki Lhamo, Pema Zangmo Sherpa

    Set in Bhutan during the mid-2000s in the wake of the king’s abdication, this satirical comedy follows the story of a young monk and an American gun collector who vie for possession of a rare antique rifle. Meanwhile, the people of Bhutan hold mock elections in their hesitant transition from living in a monarchy to a democracy.

    Bob Marley: One Love

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    A smiling man with dreadlocks standing next to a band of musicians playing.

    Image: Paramount Pictures

    Genre: Biographical musical
    Run time: 1h 47m
    Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
    Cast: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, James Norton

    This biopic follows the story of Bob Marley, portrayed by Kingsley Ben-Adir (High Fidelity), the acclaimed reggae singer and songwriter. The film follows Marley from his rise to fame in the ’70s up until his death in 1981.

    Dad & Step-Dad

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Three men sitting on the bed of a rusted truck in the middle of a field.

    Image: NoBudge

    Genre: Comedy
    Run time: 1h 18m
    Director: Tynan DeLong
    Cast: Colin Burgess, Anthony Oberbeck, Clare O’Kane

    This slow-burn character comedy follows a dad (Colin Burgess), a stepdad (Anthony Oberbeck), and a mom (Clare O’Kane) who agree to spend time with one another over a long weekend trip in the woods for the sake of their son Branson (Brian Fiddyment). Sounds awkward? You have no idea.

    Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    A man standing at the entrance of a church with a wide field of trees and grass in the distance.

    Image: Kino Lorber

    Genre: Drama
    Run time: 2h 58m
    Director: Pham Thien An
    Cast: Le Phong Vu, Nguyen Thi Truc Quynh, Nguyen Thinh

    After his sister-in-law dies in a motorcycle accident, a man takes on the responsibility of shepherding both her remains and his 5-year-old nephew to the rural village where he grew up. A three-hour meditation on the fragility of life, the pain of grief, and the importance of being present, every frame of Pham Thien An’s Caméra d’Or-winning film is as gorgeous as it is melancholic.

    Land of Bad

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Two men in army camouflage holding rifles in a tropical forest.

    Image: R.U. Robot Studios/Highland Film Group

    Genre: Action thriller
    Run time: 1h 50m
    Director: William Eubank
    Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Russell Crowe, Luke Hemsworth

    Liam Hemsworth and Russell Crowe star in this military thriller about a rookie Delta Force officer who is lost in enemy territory when his team is ambushed. Refusing to leave without his comrades and with time running out, he’ll have to rely on a seasoned Air Force drone pilot to be his eyes in the sky in their desperate mission to escape alive.

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    Toussaint Egan

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Hays County P.A.S.S. 101: Your Questions Answered

    Austin Pets Alive! | Hays County P.A.S.S. 101: Your Questions Answered

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    In January 2024, we launched a new virtual pet resource center as a part of the Hays County Pet Resource Center, expanding the Positive Alternatives to Shelter Surrender (P.A.S.S.) program to further support people and pets in Hays County. The virtual resource center provides a centralized place where pet owners and concerned residents can go for help to keep more pets in homes and out of the local shelter through information, assistance accessing resources, and case management.

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  • Realtor rules just changed dramatically. Here’s what buyers and sellers can expect

    Realtor rules just changed dramatically. Here’s what buyers and sellers can expect

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    So long, 6% commission.

    For decades, real estate commissions have been somewhat standardized, with most home sellers paying 5% to 6% commission to cover both the listing agent and the buyer’s agent.

    On Friday, everything changed.

    A landmark agreement from the National Assn. of Realtors paved the way for a new set of rules that will likely shake up the entire industry, affecting sellers, buyers and the agents tasked with pushing deals across the finish line.

    The most pivotal rule change pertains to how buyers’ agents are paid. Traditionally, home sellers have paid for the commission of both their agent and the buyer’s agent, which critics argue stifled competition and drove up home prices.

    The new rule prohibits most listings from saying how much buyers’ agents are paid, removing the assumption that sellers are on the hook for paying both agents.

    The other new rule requires buyers’ agents to enter into written agreements with their clients, known as buyer brokerage agreements. These agreements outline exactly what services will be provided — and for how much.

    The changes will take effect this July, pending court approval, and will have major implications on how real estate deals are done. Here’s how buyers, sellers and brokers will likely be affected.

    Lower fees for sellers

    The most obvious takeaway is that if buyers end up paying for their real estate agents instead of sellers, sellers are set to save a lot of money.

    In February, the average Southern California home sold for $842,997. Under the old system, where sellers pay both agents 3% commission, they’d shell out $50,580. But if they only have to pay one agent 3%, they’d save $25,290.

    Buyers, then, would be the ones footing the bill for their agent. The added expense might seem pricy, but Michael Copeland, a real estate agent in Palm Springs, said the final numbers might ultimately shake out the same under the new rules.

    “Buyers were often told by their agents that they didn’t have to pay anything and that services were free,” Copeland said. “But that’s not necessarily true.”

    Copeland said when sellers pay 6% commission to split between both agents, they pad that number into the purchase price, so buyers actually end up paying more for the home, and thus, pay for their own agent.

    So under the new system, buyers may end up paying their broker 3% commission, but the price of the home might be cheaper since the seller is only paying for their own agent.

    More flexibility for buyers

    One of the biggest complaints about the previous system was that it left buyers out of the negotiation process. Sellers paid each agent’s brokerage 3% or so, and that was that.

    Lawsuits filed against the National Assn. of Realtors alleged that the practice kept commissions artificially high and incentivized buyers’ agents to “steer” them toward properties that offered them higher commission rates.

    But under the new system, more buyers will be negotiating directly with their own agents — not just how much they’ll pay them, but what services they want the agent to provide. And those expectations will be specifically outlined in the buyer brokerage agreements, which are now required.

    “Some buyers may just hire an attorney and pay a fee to handle the transaction,” Copeland said. “Or they’ll want to hire an agent as a consultant. Someone they can ask questions.”

    In the age of the internet, access to real estate information is at an all-time high. Buyers can know virtually anything about a home on the market: not just bedrooms, bathrooms and square footage, but how much the home previously sold for, and how much similar homes in the area are selling for.

    Buyers can also receive alerts to know exactly when a house in their price range hits the market, so some savvy shoppers might opt for an agent who leaves the touring process to them, but can help them look over an inspection report and file the right paperwork in the closing stages of the deal.

    If a buyer wants a robust, hands-on agent that’s available 24/7, they can offer 3% or even more. If they want an agent who can just handle the more technical elements of the deal, they could offer 1% or 2%.

    Some buyers might try to handle the process themselves and not pay an agent at all.

    “Good agents will be able to show their value,” said Compass agent Michael Khorshidi. “Agents who aren’t able to show their value won’t benefit from this.”

    New dynamics — and roles — for agents

    For many agents, representing buyers can be rewarding since they get to help someone find their dream home, but the process is often more time-intensive. Agents might spend weeks or months setting up tours for clients, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll even buy a property in the end.

    For that reason, many veteran agents prefer to represent sellers. The work is often more efficient — especially in a hot market, where deals can close in days.

    So if the new rules leave less guaranteed money on the table for buyers’ agents, those agents might try to switch sides and only represent sellers. Or if they’re not able to make enough money representing buyers, they might exit the industry altogether — a trend that’s already taking place in Southern California’s cold post-pandemic real estate market.

    Brent Chang, a luxury agent active in San Marino and Pasadena, said the new rules could lead to agents who specialize in specific types of sales.

    “Just as there are agents like me who specialize in selling landmark properties, a new group of agents will emerge who specialize in helping buyers with highly competitive properties,” Chang said.

    He said agents who have a proven track record of winning properties for their clients will be able to demand higher commissions.

    Or their deals can be performance based. For example, an agent could represent you for 3%, and if they get the property for you, it’s another 3%.

    “Ultimately, if the ruling leads to buyers receiving better service from their agents, then it has merit,” he said. “But I suspect it’ll be a while until we understand the consequences of these changes.”

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    Jack Flemming

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  • New IRS Direct File program now available in California

    New IRS Direct File program now available in California

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    If you’re a California resident and haven’t done your federal tax return for 2023, you now have another, more user-friendly option online: the free Direct File service from the IRS.

    It’s not for everyone, however. Instead, it’s aimed mainly at people with very simple annual tax returns, which the Treasury Department said amounts to about 1 of every 3 taxpayers.

    The tax agency launched the Direct File service in January on an extremely limited basis to make sure its online systems were up to the task. That changed Monday, when the IRS announced that Direct File was available to all taxpayers in California, Arizona, Nevada and nine other states.

    Think of Direct File as the IRS’ alternative to the free online tax-filing programs from TurboTax and H&R Block. It provides step-by-step guidance for filling out your tax forms, filing them and either paying any amount you might owe or collecting your refund.

    The program’s question-and-answer approach means you won’t have to know which forms to fill out or where on the forms to enter your information. Instead, the program will handle those details for you.

    The IRS already works with several tax-prep companies to offer lower-income taxpayers a free online tax return service called Free File. What makes Direct File different is that there’s no middleman and no income limit for participants — anyone can use it, provided that their tax returns use only the most basic forms.

    Specifically, the program will work only for taxpayers whose income is limited to wages reported on a W-2, retirement benefits from Social Security or the Railroad Retirement Board, unemployment benefits or interest income of $1,500 or less. That means if you’re a self-employed person, a business owner, a contractor or a gig worker, or if you have income from a partnership or trust, Direct File isn’t for you.

    The Treasury Department estimates that 19 million people in the 12 participating states are eligible to use Direct File this year and that several hundred thousand people will do so.

    Direct File also allows you to claim only a truncated list of credits and deductions: the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income workers, the credits for children and other dependents, the standard deduction and deductions for student loan interest payments and educators’ classroom and professional development expenses. If you’re able to claim other credits and deductions, such as those for foreign taxes paid, child care or retirement savings, or if you cut your tax bill by itemizing deductions (for example, if you have sizable medical expenses), Direct File would not be a good choice for you.

    One other caution: The IRS says Direct File will be available only until April 15, when most Californians’ 2023 returns are due. The agency pushed the deadline for taxpayers in San Diego County back to June 17 in response to the federal disaster declaration in that county.

    Direct File runs online only; you’ll need a smartphone, tablet or computer to access it. And to get started, you’ll need to prove to the IRS that you are who you say you are.

    The only way to do that this year will be to use the identity verification service ID.me, which takes a scan of your government-issued picture ID, such as your driver’s license or passport, then uses facial-recognition software to match your image from a live chat session or a new selfie against the stored photo. ID.me has raised concerns among some critics, who say it poses too great a threat to privacy and security.

    Once you’ve established your identity, the program will check your eligibility, then guide you as you enter information about your income, credits and deductions. You don’t need to download any software, the IRS said; instead, your entries will be saved online, and you’ll be able to pause and resume later without having to start over.

    Direct File has a live chat feature to help taxpayers with questions, but it’s not a source of free tax advice.

    “IRS customer service representatives can provide technical support and provide basic clarification of tax law related to the tax scope of Direct File,” the agency said in a release. “Questions related to issues other than Direct File will be routed to other IRS customer support, as appropriate.”

    The Direct File service hasn’t been integrated into California’s tax filing system yet, so you won’t be able to transfer your federal information seamlessly to your state return. The state Franchise Tax Board offers a free online return filing system called CalFile whose restrictions are similar to those in Direct File, so if you’re eligible for the latter, you’re probably able to use the former.

    If you’re entitled to a refund, tax experts say, you should file your return as soon as possible. Otherwise, you’re just making an interest-free loan to the federal government.

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    Jon Healey

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  • American Fiction, The Marvels, and every new movie to watch at home this weekend

    American Fiction, The Marvels, and every new movie to watch at home this weekend

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    Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

    This week, American Fiction, the Oscar-nominated comedy drama starring Westworld’s Jeffrey Wright, is available to purchase on VOD. That’s not all, as Jeymes Samuel’s The Book of Clarence starring LaKeith Stanfield and the ecological drama The End We Start From starring Jodie Comer (The Last Duel) also arrive on VOD this week, along with a few other exciting releases. There’s plenty of streaming premieres as well, with Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels finally arriving on Disney Plus following its VOD release last month. Down Low, a new comedy starring Zachary Quinto and Lukas Gage, is now streaming on Netflix, while the supernatural “Dracula on a boat” horror thriller The Last Voyage of the Demeter finally docks on Paramount Plus.

    New on Netflix

    Down Low

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    Image: FilmNation Entertainment

    Genre: Comedy
    Run time: 1h 30m
    Director: Rightor Doyle
    Cast: Zachary Quinto, Lukas Gage, Judith Light

    In this dark comedy, Zachary Quinto (Star Trek) stars as Gary, a recently divorced and deeply closeted father who forms an unlikely friendship with young masseur (Lukas Gage). Determined to help him come out of his shell and embrace his sexuality openly, the masseur sets Gary up with a date on a hookup app, but things quickly take a turn when the two must work together to avoid going to jail for murder.

    New on Disney Plus

    The Marvels

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Disney Plus

    Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, and Teyonah Parris as Captain Monica Rambeau stand together in costume, all looking up, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie The Marvels

    Photo: Laura Radford/Marvel Studios

    Genre: Superhero action
    Run time: 1h 45m
    Director: Nia DaCosta
    Cast: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani

    The 33rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe sees the return of Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), also known as Captain Marvel. This time around, she’s teaming up with the superpowered Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) to save the universe from the threat of a vengeful Kree leader bent on restoring her home world.

    From our review:

    In its best moments, The Marvels just throws wonderful ideas at the screen. There’s a planet of people who only sing, a space station full of cats that blithely devour furniture and humans alike, an animated depiction of Kamala’s internal monologue — the movie can feel like a mood board assembled by an overcaffeinated Star Trek fan, with a sense of imagination suitable for reminding the audience that comic books can be cool in the moment that you’re reading them, as opposed to for what they promise in the future.

    New on Hulu

    Cat Person

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    Cat Person actors Nicholas Braun and Emilia Jones gazing into each others eyes under the yellow glow of a streetlight

    Image: Sundance Institute

    Genre: Psychological thriller
    Run time: 1h 58m
    Director: Susanna Fogel
    Cast: Emilia Jones, Nicholas Braun, Geraldine Viswanathan

    Based on Kristen Roupenian’s viral 2017 short story for The New Yorker, Cat Person follows the story of Margot, a college sophomore who enters into a brief relationship with an older man named Robert (Nicholas Braun). Things seem okay at first, until Margot begins to question whether or not Robert is telling the whole truth about his life.

    From our review,

    Cat Person gets it wrong so consistently, makes its points so inelegantly, and pads out the short story in such an ill-conceived way that it ends up invalidating the same concerns on which it’s built. When a cop tells the protagonist that she should stop watching murder shows, it’s not institutional indifference toward violence against women. It’s a voice of reason, as the protagonist’s own actions later prove. This is a film that includes both a therapist who appears to state the subtext as text, then vanishes, and a one-dimensional best friend of color who exists solely to drop feminist buzzwords from five years ago (Geraldine Viswanathan, who deserves better). It’s confident in its cluelessness, and not in a way that underlines that same quality in its 20-year-old heroine.

    Suncoast

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    Genre: Coming-of-age drama
    Run time: 1h 49m
    Director: Laura Chinn
    Cast: Laura Linney, Nico Parker, Woody Harrelson

    This semi-autobiographical drama follows Doris (Nico Parker), a self-conscious teenager who strikes up an unlikely friendship with an older activist (Woody Harrelson) while caring for her dying brother and navigating the pitfalls of high school.

    New on Prime Video

    Upgraded

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

    Genre: Romantic comedy
    Run time: 1h 44m
    Director: Carlson Young
    Cast: Camila Mendes, Archie Renaux, Lena Olin

    I know what you’re thinking and no, this is not the sequel to Leigh Whannell’s cyberpunk action thriller starring Logan Marshall-Green. This is a romantic comedy starring Camila Mendes (Riverdale) and Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone) as Ana and Will; two strangers who meet during a first class flight to London who strike up a romance after Will mistakes Ana for his new boss. I think these wacky kids are gonna make it!

    New on Paramount Plus

    The Last Voyage of the Demeter

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus w/ Showtime

    Dracula, looking like a hairless humanoid bat, stands atop a ship’s crows nest in a dark rainstorm, hoisting a poor man up above him.

    Image: Universal Pictures

    Genre: Period horror
    Run time: 1h 58m
    Director: André Øvredal
    Cast: Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, David Dastmalchian

    Dracula’s on a boat, and guess what? He’s PISSED. This supernatural horror thriller adapts a chapter from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel and centers on the unfortunate crew of a transatlantic merchant ship who discover an unearthly threat among their cargo. As time dwindles away, and with it their chances of survival, the crew must make a last-ditch effort to kill the creature before they reach England.

    From our review,

    The Last Voyage of the Demeter makes very little of most of its potential assets. It’s a film with no vision, a puzzling adaptation that’s so straightforward, viewers might believe every beat comes from Stoker’s novel and not a screenplay imagining what happened between the pages. Maybe the two decades the film spent in development, being rewritten and recast, are to blame; every colorful choice seems to have been wrung out of the script. At every moment, there’s potential for Demeter to become something distinct and interesting, but the screenplay and Øvredal’s direction choose otherwise, embracing straightforward competence over any style or flair. It’s dry historical fiction, Horatio Hornblower’s Dracula.

    New to rent

    American Fiction

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Jeffrey Wright in a blue shirt sits in his library giggling in the movie American Fiction

    Image: MGM/Amazon Studios

    Genre: Comedy-drama
    Run time: 1h 57m
    Director: Cord Jefferson
    Cast: Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Sterling K. Brown

    The Oscar-nominated debut from Cord Jefferson stars Jeffrey Wright (The Batman) as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a frustrated novelist living in Los Angeles who writes a scathing satire of stereotypical “Black” books, only for it to be sky-rocketed to the prestigious heights of literary acclaim. Feels like a shoe-in for fans of such movies as Putney Swope and Bamboozled.

    The Book of Clarence

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Image: Legendary Entertainment/Moris Puccio

    Genre: Historical comedy
    Run time: 2h 9m
    Director: Jeymes Samuel
    Cast: LaKeith Stanfield, Omar Sy, RJ Cyler, Anna Diop

    Jeymes Samuel (The Harder They Fall) returns with a new film, this time a biblical comedy drama starring LaKeith Stanfield. The Book of Clarence follows the story of a down-on-his-luck man living in A.D. 33 Jerusalem who aspires to free himself from debt. His plan? Take a page out of the book of a local preacher claiming to be the son of God and proclaim himself as the Messiah, performing “miracles” in a bid for fame and glory. When Clarence’s schemes run afoul of the Romans, he’ll be faced with not only the consequences of his deception, but a choice that will shape his life and the course of history.

    The End We Start From

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    A woman holding a child in a bear-themed hoodie in her arms.

    Image: Sunny/March Hera Pictures

    Genre: Post-apocalyptic thriller
    Run time: 1h 42m
    Director: Mahalia Belo
    Cast: Ramanique Ahluwalia, Elena Bielova, Shiona Brown

    Jodie Comer (The Last Duel) stars in this new thriller as a woman attempting to protect her infant child after London is submerged by flood waters. With nowhere else to turn, she will have to embark on a search for a way to raise her child and build a new home.

    Cobweb

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    A man wearing glasses in a trench coat gestures with his hands and stands next to a young man holding a camera

    Image: Anthology Studios/Samuel Goldwyn Films

    Genre: Black comedy drama
    Run time: 2h 15m
    Director: Kim Jee-woon
    Cast: Song Kang-ho, Im Soo-jung, Oh Jung-se

    Song Kang-ho (Parasite) stars in this period black comedy as Kim Ki-yeol, an obsessive director in the 1970s on the verge of completing his latest film, Cobweb. There’s just one problem: Kim’s suddenly has a change of heart and wants to completely reshoot the ending of his film in two days. He’ll have to get his confused and uncooperative cast and crew to cooperate, as well as escape the ire of Seoul’s censorship authorities.

    I.S.S.

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    A group of astronauts gaze at the earth from a cockpit in the international space station.

    Image: LD Entertainment

    Genre: Sci-fi thriller
    Run time: 1h 35m
    Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite
    Cast: Ariana DeBose, Chris Messina, John Gallagher Jr.

    Imagine if you were an astronaut aboard the International Space Station during an apocalyptic event where the world is consumed in nuclear hellfire — what would you do? That’s what the characters in this bracing sci-fi thriller have to figure out, as a crew of American and Russian astronauts must decide whether to cooperate in the face of extinction or surrender to their nationalistic anxieties and resentment.

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    Toussaint Egan

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  • Wonka, The Beekeeper, and every new movie to watch at home this weekend

    Wonka, The Beekeeper, and every new movie to watch at home this weekend

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    Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home. So quiet up and listen down; no, scratch that, reverse it!

    This week, Wonka, the musical fantasy starring Timothée Chalamet as the irrepressibly whimsical chocolatier, is finally available to stream on VOD. There’s other exciting new releases available to rent as well, like David Ayer’s latest action thriller The Beekeeper starring Jason Statham and Makoto Shinkai’s fantasy romance anime Suzume. There are a ton of other new movies on streaming to watch as well, like Orion and the Dark on Netflix, Freelance on Hulu, Past Lives on Paramount Plus with Showtime, and more!

    Here’s everything new to watch this weekend!

    New on Netflix

    Orion and the Dark

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    Image: DreamWorks Animation

    Genre: Fantasy comedy
    Run time: 1h 30m
    Director: Sean Charmatz
    Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Paul Walter Hauser, Angela Bassett

    Written by cerebral screenwriter-director Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich) and based on the children’s book by Emma Yarlett, this animated fantasy adventure follows the story of a child with an overactive imagination and a constant fear of the future who is befriended by the anthropomorphic personification of darkness. Together, the pair embark on an adventure to conquer Orion’s fear of the unknown and embrace the many wonders the world has to offer.

    From our review,

    By the end, Orion and the Dark has boldly transformed into a delightfully eccentric story, taking on even more metatextual layers. But it never loses its heart: It’s still a bedtime story, a parent and child working together to assemble an ending that satisfies the both of them. Their voices combine in a convincing way, with zany, kid-fueled ideas on one hand, and the careful guiding hand of an adult on the other. But child and parent both learn something from the other, and that turns Orion and the Dark from a simple fairy tale into a beautifully bizarre ride, and finally into a movie with a message that hits deeply for both adults and kids.

    The Greatest Night in Pop

    Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones looking at sheet for music for “We Are the World” in The Greatest Night in Pop documentary

    Image: Netflix

    Genre: Music documentary
    Run time: 1h 36m
    Director: Bao Nguyen
    Cast: The biggest music stars of the 1980s

    A behind-the-scenes doc of the making of one of the most popular singles of all-time, The Greatest Night in Pop takes you behind the scenes of the star-studded lineup that recorded “We Are the World.”

    From our review out of Sundance:

    It doesn’t quite reach the heights of documentary classics, falling short of the insight into the tortured circumstances and frustrated production of Original Cast Album: Company, or the pure musical excellence of Monterey Pop. But there’s something special about seeing these stars mingle that makes this movie a fascinating document on fame and the people behind it.

    Shortcomings

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    A man and a woman with glasses lean against a railing opposite a sidewalk with a visible look of concern on their faces.

    Image: Sony Picture Classics

    Genre: Romance comedy
    Run time: 1h 32m
    Director: Randall Park
    Cast: Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola, Ally Maki

    Justin H. Min (The Umbrella Academy) stars in this new comedy from actor-director Randall Park (WandaVision). Shortcomings follows the misadventures of Ben, a struggling filmmaker living in Los Angeles. When his girlfriend, Miko, moves to New York for an internship, Ben is forced to assess his lifestyle choices up to this point in order to learn to grow as both a romantic partner and a person.

    New on Prime Video

    Fist of the Condor

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

    Marko Zaror looks cool as hell on a motorcycle, wearing a leather jacket and with goggles on top of his head, in Fist of the Condor, with the ocean behind him.

    Image: Well Go USA Entertainment

    Genre: Martial arts drama
    Run time: 1h 20m
    Director: Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
    Cast: Marko Zaror, Eyal Meyer, Gina Aguad

    One of my (Ed. note: PV) very favorite action movies of a stacked 2023, Fist of the Condor is at once a throwback to the Shaw Brothers era of old school Hong Kong martial arts filmmaking, and a new exciting step for Chilean martial arts cinema.

    From our review:

    At the end of the day, Fist of the Condor is the Marko Zaror show. And boy, does he deliver. The movie is at its best when it is a series of jaw-dropping fights, one after another, leaning on his incredible star power. As an actor, Zaror brings life and deep pain to the star-crossed brothers, and as a fighter and acrobat, he is unmatched. He seems to be able to alternate from raw animalistic movements to robotic, hypnotic defense (he calls it an “electrical impulse” in the movie) and balletic, gravity-defying spinning kicks that are simply poetry in motion.

    New on Hulu

    Freelance

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    (L-R) John Cena, Juan Pablo Raba, and Alison Brie in Freelance.

    Image: Relativity Media

    Genre: Action comedy
    Run time: 1h 48m
    Director: Pierre Morel
    Cast: John Cena, Alison Brie, Juan Pablo Raba

    Taken director Pierre Morel moves to a more comedic mode in this movie about a former Special Forces officer (John Cena) and a journalist (Alison Brie) who travel to a fictional country together to interview the nation’s dictator.

    New on Max

    Dicks: The Musical

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Max

    (L-R) Josh Sharp, Bowen Yang, and Aaron Jackson in Dicks: The Musical.

    Image: A24

    Genre: Musical comedy
    Run time: 1h 26m
    Director: Larry Charles
    Cast: Josh Sharp, Aaron Jackson, Nathan Lane

    This musical comedy follows two longtime business rivals who inadvertently discover they are identical twin brothers separated at birth. Concocting a scheme to get their divorced parents back together, they switch places in order to orchestrate a reunion. Think The Parent Trap, but with more musical numbers, dick jokes, and Megan Thee Stallion.

    From our review:

    Dicks takes shots at different kinds of modern movies early on, starting with other A24 movies. A24’s logo is accompanied by grandiose music, and its signature elevated horror threatens to become a tongue-in-cheek thematic inspiration when Trevor and Craig wonder whether their predicament meets the qualifications for abuse and trauma. The film’s New York-set, American Psycho-esque corporate saga is clearly filmed in Los Angeles, with the seams of several sets and stages showing in the margins, while the stock footage it uses of NYC is all distinctly anachronistic.

    New on Paramount Plus

    Past Lives

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus w/ Showtime

    Nora and Hae Sung sit on a ferry, going to the Statue of Liberty.

    Photo: Jon Pack/A24

    Genre: Romantic drama
    Run time: 1h 46m
    Director: Celine Song
    Cast: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro

    Greta Lee (Sisters) and Teo Yoo (Decision to Leave) star in director Celine Song’s romantic drama debut as Nora and Hae-sung, two childhood friends who are seperated when the former emigrates from South Korea to Toronto with her family.

    Reunited 12 years later, the pair find themselves unmistakably drawn together. As their respective lives and obligations pull them further and farther apart, Nora and Hae-sung must confront their feelings about the life they might have shared together had their past choices been different, and what to do with those feelings now in the present.

    Song spoke with Polygon about how the film is all about “the way that life reflects upon itself,” as well as her brief foray into The Sims 4 theater production.

    Kokomo City

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus w/ Showtime

    A woman dressed in a headwrap and t-shirt with long nails stares up at a camera in Kokomo City.

    Image: Magnolia Pictures

    Genre: Documentary
    Run time: 1h 13m
    Director: D. Smith
    Cast: Daniella Carter, Koko Da Doll, Liyah Mitchell

    The first film from Grammy-nominated producer D. Smith follows the stories of four transgender sex workers living in New York and Georgia. Shot in black and white, the film offers insight into the embattled nature of not only their profession, but the cultural fault lines of gender and identity that intersect with their daily lives.

    The Tiger’s Apprentice

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

    An animated black-striped tiger, a monkey sitting on the head of a serpent-like dragon, and a young boy in a yellow hoodie talking to one another.

    Image: Paramount Pictures/Paramount Plus

    Genre: Action adventure
    Run time: 1h 24m
    Directors: Raman Hui, Yong Duk Jhun, Paul Watling
    Cast: Henry Golding, Brandon Soo Hoo, Lucy Liu

    Based on Laurence Yep’s 2003 novel, this action fantasy movie follows the story of Tom (Brandon Soo Hoo), a Chinese American boy living in Los Angeles who inherits the responsibility of acting as the guardian of an ancient phoenix after the passing of his grandmother. Aided by a talking tiger named Mr. Hu (Henry Golding), Tom must learn to harness his new powers in order to prevent the phoenix from falling into the wrong hands.

    New on Shudder

    Dario Argento: Panico

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder

    Dario Argento standing in a hallway with his hands pressed against the walls in Dario Argento: Panico

    Image: Shudder

    Genre: Documentary
    Run time: 1h 38m
    Director: Simone Scafidi
    Cast: Dario Argento, Fiore Argento, Vittorio Cecchi Gori

    This documentary unpacks the storied 58-plus-year career of Dario Argento, one of the most prolific directors behind Italian “giallo” horror and the acclaimed mind behind such films as Suspiria and Tenebrae. Featuring guest appearances from the likes of Guillermo del Toro, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Gaspar Noé, Panico also follows Argento as he writes the script for a new horror film.

    New on Tubi

    Sri Asih

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Tubi

    Sri Asih, a young woman in a superhero outfit, raises her fists up to fight in Sri Asih

    Image: Premiere Entertainment Group

    Genre: Superhero action
    Run time: 2h 15m
    Director: Upi Avianto
    Cast: Pevita Pearce, Ario Bayu, Christine Hakim

    The second entry in Indonesia’s Bumilangit Cinematic Universe, adapting comic book stories, is finally more widely available to watch in the US. The first, Gundala, was a very fun time, and director Joko Anwar returns as co-writer on this entry, which follows a young woman who learns she is the reincarnation of a goddess.

    New to rent

    The Beekeeper

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Jason Statham furrows his brow in The Beekeeper

    Image: Amazon MGM Studios

    Genre: Action thriller
    Run time: 1h 45m
    Director: David Ayer
    Cast: Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Bobby Naderi

    Jason Statham stars in David Ayer’s latest action film as Adam Clay, a retired “Beekeeper” (see: black ops secret agent) working as an actual beekeeper in Massachusetts. When Adam’s kindly employer loses her entire life savings to a nefarious phishing operation, he embarks on a one-man mission to avenge her and bring justice to those who wronged her.

    From our review:

    Statham is his reliable self, mixing his effortless gruff charm with his comedy chops to help sell the ridiculous lines he has to deliver. And the movie looks great — Ayer and cinematographer Gabriel Beristain cleverly infuse the visuals with a yellow/amber color palette to match the title and the vibe, often making you feel like you’re watching the movie from inside a honeycomb.

    Suzume

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Suzume, in a school uniform, eating fruit on the side of a rural road with Chika, in a gym uniform.

    Image: CoMix Wave Films/Crunchyroll

    Genre: Coming-of-age fantasy adventure
    Run time: 2h 2m
    Director: Makoto Shinkai
    Cast: Nanoka Hara, Hokuto Matsumura, Eri Fukatsu

    Makoto Shinkai (Your Name, Weathering with You) is back with another animated fantasy romance adventure about young people struggling with supernatural forces and the general ennui of youth. When high school student Suzume crosses paths with Souta Munakata, a mysterious wanderer on a quest to seal a series of magical doors around Japan to avert disaster, she joins him on his quest in an effort to save her home.

    Also, Souta is transformed into a sentient chair by a malevolent cat. It’s complicated.

    From our review:

    Suzume is about processing trauma and finally learning to live. Even after the movie’s turning point, Suzume is still recklessly throwing herself into danger to save others. Like Your Name and Weathering With You, Shinkai’s latest sees its young heroes racing against time to stop an impending disaster. But some key differences in Suzume make the final act cinch together in a way that soars above the previous two movies. Suzume has a personal connection to the looming catastrophe, one that snugly wraps around her entire character journey. The event itself feels vast and all-encompassing, but because the movie focuses on her instead of on the action, it gives the payoff more emotional impact. And when Suzume steps up to fight her battles, it’s less about making a dramatic choice or defying all odds. She simply reframes what she’s trying to do in a way that feels more personal than most action heroes’ journeys. She doesn’t want to give her life to save the world; she just wants to stay in it.

    Wonka

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Three evil candymakers regard Wonka’s chocolates with disdain in the movie Wonka.

    Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

    Genre: Musical fantasy
    Run time: 1h 56m
    Director: Paul King
    Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key

    Timothée Chalamet (Dune: Part One) stars in this new musical prequel to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory as everyone’s soon-to-be-favorite chocolatier, now simply an aspiring magician looking to break into the candy business. He’ll have to find a way to overcome the nefarious chocolate cartel and build a factory of his own if he’ll any hope of achieving his dream, though.

    From our review:

    Normally, I consider it unfair to compare two movies like this, but as I said, I’m a huge fan. Yet more importantly, Wonka directly invokes the previous film in ways big and small, going so far as to have Chalamet’s version of the character speak in the same diction as Wilder’s, complete with a “Scratch that, reverse it” line. As this is a story about a young Willy Wonka, the film must leave a little room to get from here to there, so Chalamet is granted the space to make the character his own. But this is a version of Willy that’s too sanded-down, too approachable to be truly memorable.

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    Toussaint Egan

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  • Yes, there is a post-credits scene for Percy Jackson

    Yes, there is a post-credits scene for Percy Jackson

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    The finale episode of the first season of Disney Plus’ Percy Jackson series finishes up the adaptation of The Lightning Thief with a fight on the beach, a traitor revealed, and a teary reunion.

    Previous episodes ended with a post-credits tease of what comes next, but is there a preview for season 2? No, but there is a little post-credits scene that shows the fate of one important character.

    [Ed. note: This post contains major spoilers for Percy Jackson and the Olympians (as well as the book and first movie).]

    Photo: David Bukach/Disney

    In the post-credits scene, Sally Jackson’s scumbag ex-husband Gabe (Timm Sharp) tries to get inside her apartment while on the phone with his lawyer. She wisely changed the locks, though, so he can’t get in. But he spots a package on the Jacksons’ doorstep and decides to open it. This happens to be a return-to-sender package, addressed to Percy — aka the one containing Medusa’s severed head.

    He opens it, looks directly inside, and immediately gets turned to stone. Get wrecked, Gabe.

    Gabe doesn’t appear in any of the books after the first one, and considering the only reason Sally married him is because his gross mortal-stink masked Percy’s scent from monsters, it’s no one’s loss. In fact, we’re all pretty glad to see him out of the way.

    Gabe leans in a doorway, leering at Sally and Percy in a screenshot of Percy Jackson and the Olympians

    Image: Disney

    This is actually similar to the infamous movie’s post-credits scene, where Gabe returns to the apartment to pack up his stuff. He goes to the kitchen to get a beer, only to find the fridge locked and a note from Percy saying that no one should open the fridge. Unperturbed, Gabe smashes open the lock — and then is frozen by Medusa’s head.

    Yet, somehow, neither of these versions is anywhere near as deliciously brutal as his fate in the book series. In the books, it’s actually Sally who uses the head to freeze Gabe and then sells his petrified corpse as a sculpture. It’s a big hit in the art world, and she uses the proceeds to put down a deposit for a new apartment and fund a semester of tuition at NYU, where she goes on to study writing. She reports Gabe as missing, but he never turns up! (“Goodbye Earl” by The Chicks plays in the background.)

    Word’s out on if Sally will find the frozen Gabe and profit off him in the show, but she definitely deserves to make a splash in the art world and finance her passion for writing.

    All episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians are available on Disney Plus now. Here’s everything we know about season 2.

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    Petrana Radulovic

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  • New year, new way to file your tax return for free: The IRS launches Direct File pilot program

    New year, new way to file your tax return for free: The IRS launches Direct File pilot program

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    It’s back to regular IRS deadlines for California taxpayers this year, but with a new tool for many low- and moderate-income households: a service that will prepare and file their tax returns online for free.

    Starting later this year, taxpayers in California, Arizona, Nevada and nine other states will have access to a new program from the IRS called Direct File. Unlike the free filing options the IRS provides through third parties or the free services from TurboTax and H&R Block, Direct File enables you to send sensitive financial information directly to the IRS — no middleman required.

    It’s also the first service from the agency itself that guides you through the process of filling out your return. And its chat feature can provide answers to basic tax questions in real time from IRS customer service representatives.

    There’s a catch, however. Although Direct File is available to California taxpayers regardless of how much they earn, it can be used only by people who earn income in limited types of ways. For example, Direct File is not for you if you have income from a business you own, subcontracting work or gig-economy jobs.

    Regardless of how you do your taxes, you won’t have an automatic extension of the deadline for filing your 2023 return — at least not yet.

    Because of the damage caused by winter storms last year, most taxpayers in California had until mid-November to complete their 2022 returns and pay what they owed. There have been no federal disaster declarations in California thus far, so the deadline for filing your federal and state returns for 2023 remains April 15.

    If you’re entitled to a refund, tax experts say, you should file your return as soon as possible. Otherwise, you’re just lending interest-free money to the federal government.

    Here’s what you need to know about Direct File.

    Who will have access to Direct File?

    The IRS is rolling out the program slowly to try to work out the kinks before releasing it to the general public. In addition to limiting access to taxpayers in 12 states — California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming — it will make Direct File available at its Monday launch only to people who’ve been invited to test the system.

    “Using a phased approach like this means that the pilot will not be available to all eligible taxpayers immediately when the IRS begins accepting federal tax returns” on Monday, the agency said on its website. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the agency expects to open the program to more taxpayers by mid-March.

    You’ll be able to sign up on the IRS’ Direct File site for an alert telling you when the program is available to you.

    Who can use Direct File?

    The program will work only for taxpayers whose income is limited to wages reported on a W-2, retirement benefits from Social Security or the Railroad Retirement Board, unemployment benefits or interest income of $1,500 or less. That means if you’re a self-employed person, a business owner or a contractor, or if you have income from a partnership or trust, Direct File isn’t for you.

    Direct File also allows you to claim only a truncated list of credits and deductions: the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income workers, the credits for children and other dependents, the standard deduction, and the deductions for student loan interest payments and educators’ classroom and professional development expenses. If you’re able to claim other credits and deductions, such as those for foreign taxes paid, child care or retirement savings, or if you cut your tax bill by itemizing deductions (for example, if you have sizable medical expenses), Direct File would not be a good choice.

    The forms and chat help are available in English and Spanish.

    How do you use Direct File?

    The program runs online only; you’ll need a smartphone, tablet or computer to access it. And to get started, you’ll need to prove to the IRS that you are who you say you are.

    The only way to do that this year will be to use the identify verification service ID.me. ID.me takes a scan of your government-issued picture ID, such as your driver’s license or passport, then uses facial-recognition software to match your image from a live chat session or a new selfie against the stored photo. ID.me has raised concerns among some critics, who say it poses too great a threat to privacy and security.

    Once you’ve established your identity, the program will check your eligibility, then guide you as you enter information about your income, credits and deductions. You don’t need to download any software, the IRS said; instead, your entries will be saved online, and you’ll be able to pause and resume later without having to start over.

    The program’s question-and-answer approach means you won’t have to know which forms to fill out or where on the forms to enter your information. Instead, the program will handle those details for you. That sort of virtual hand-holding is similar to what you’d get by using commercial tax preparation software.

    Can you fill out your California tax return through Direct File?

    No, the information you enter through Direct File will not flow automatically onto your state tax forms — California is not one of the handful of states that have enabled it. Instead, the state Franchise Tax Board offers CalFile, as a way for qualified taxpayers to file their returns for free online. The restrictions on participating in CalFile are similar to those in Direct File, so if you’re eligible for the latter, you’re probably able to use the former.

    What are the alternatives for filing your tax return for free?

    The IRS already offers its Free File service to taxpayers whose adjusted gross income — that is, income minus certain deductions, including retirement savings contributions and student loan interest payments — was $79,000 or less in 2023. Unlike Direct File, taxpayers with earnings from self-employment, their own businesses, investments or gig work are eligible, as long as they meet the income limits.

    There is a version of Free File that lets you fill out forms directly online, with no guidance from the IRS. The more accessible version, though, connects you to any of eight online tax-preparation services, which will help you prepare your return for free.

    In addition, the AARP Foundation Tax-Aide and the IRS-sponsored Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program can connect you to a volunteer tax preparer who will do your tax return for you or help you do it yourself, at no charge to you. These services provide tax preparation or guidance only to low- and moderate-income taxpayers who meet the income limits, or who have disabilities or limited English proficiency.

    Intuit’s TurboTax and H&R Block also make free versions of their tax preparation and filing software available online. There’s no income limit, but the services work only with basic returns that demand little more than a 1040 form. That would exclude anyone with income or losses from a small business, for example, or whose investments pay more than $1,500 in dividends.

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    Jon Healey

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