Tag: service

Netflix’s The Kitchen, The Marvels, and every new movie to watch at home this weekend

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, The Marvels, the latest movie installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is finally available to purchase on VOD. That’s not all, though, as Taika Waititi’s sports comedy Next Goal Wins is also available to purchase, along with several other new releases available to rent. The Kitchen, Daniel Kaluuya’s directorial debut set in a dystopian London, is streaming on Netflix along with Dumb Money, the comedy-drama based on the GameStop short squeeze of 2021. That’s not even mentioning all the other streaming releases on Hulu, Mubi, and AMC Plus this week!

Here’s everything new to watch this weekend!

New on Netflix

Dumb Money

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Photo: Claire Folger/Sony Pictures

Genre: Biographical comedy-drama
Run time: 1h 45m
Director: Craig Gillespie
Cast: Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Vincent D’Onofrio

Remember the GameStop short squeeze of 2021? No? That’s OK — admittedly, it was a very hectic and wild time, what with the whole… everything going on. In case you’re looking for a refresher, this movie about a middle-class financial analyst who struck big during the squeeze might be just what you’re looking for.

From our review:

Where The Big Short was patronizing but still hugely entertaining and legitimately informative, Dumb Money’s creators seem uninterested in explaining what the hell happened with the GameStop scenario, or how the hell it happened. The script assumes that the audience is either already familiar with the story, or doesn’t much care about the financial specifics and just wants to see the news reenacted by people they know. Most of the jargon goes unexplained, and the series of events that facilitated the saga is just shrugged off in favor of a simplistic “isn’t this crazy?!” tone.

The Kitchen

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Photo: Chris Harris/Netflix

Genre: Sci-fi drama
Run time: 1h 47m
Directors: Daniel Kaluuya, Kibwe Tavares
Cast: Kano, Jedaiah Bannerman, Hope Ikpoku Jr

Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Black Panther) teams up with filmmaker Kibwe Tavares for his directorial debut: a sci-fi drama set in a dystopian London where social housing has been eliminated. The film follows the story of Izi and Benji, a father and son who fight to survive as an impoverished community is besieged by state-sponsored violence.

New on Hulu

Invisible Beauty

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Photo: Magnolia Pictures

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 55m
Directors: Bethann Hardison, Frédéric Tcheng
Cast: Tyson Beckford, Stephen Burrows, Naomi Campbell

This documentary chronicles the life and impact of Bethann Hardison, a pioneering model and activist who fought for racial diversity in the fashion industry.

New on AMC Plus

The Origin of Evil

Where to watch: Available to stream on AMC Plus

Photo: Laurent Champoussin/IFC Films

Genre: Drama
Run time: 2h 3m
Director: Sébastien Marnier
Cast: Laure Calamy, Doria Tillier, Dominique Blanc

A twisty French thriller about a woman trying to reconnect with a rich family she claims she’s a part of, The Origin of Evil was a late addition to our list of the best movies of 2023.

As my colleague Tasha Robinson put it in her write-up there:

Unpacking every lie and scheme in this movie takes every minute of its run time, and it’s guaranteed that audience sympathies will shift half a dozen times in the process. As a crime story, it’s a gem; as a character story, it’s even better.

New on Mubi

Fallen Leaves

Where to watch: Available to stream on Mubi

Image: MUBI

Genre: Romantic comedy-drama
Run time: 1h 21m
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Cast: Alma Pöysti, Jussi Vatanen, Janne Hyytiäinen

This romantic drama follows the story of Ansa (Alma Pöysti) and Holappa (Jussi Vatanen), two lonely single people who meet by chance in a karaoke bar in Helsinki. Overcoming multiple mishaps and their own insular idiosyncrasies, the two strike up an awkward yet endearing courtship.

New to rent or purchase

The Marvels

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

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.

The Boys in the Boat

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

Genre: Sports biopic
Run time: 2h 3m
Director: George Clooney
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Callum Turner, Jack Mulhern

When I think of the 1936 Summer Olympics, I think of Jesse Owens and the incredible things he accomplished in the sprint and long jump events in front of a German crowd passionately rooting against him. But another group of Americans also made history while vying for Olympic glory — the University of Washington rowing team, a group of working-class athletes whose story is told in George Clooney’s latest directorial effort.

The Color Purple

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

Image: Warner Bros Pictures

Genre: Coming-of-age musical
Run time: 2h 21m
Director: Blitz Bazawule
Cast: Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo

Based on Alice Walker’s 1982 novel, this musical adaptation follows the story of Celie (Fantasia Barrino), a woman in an abusive marriage torn from her sister and children, who finds strength through her friendship with Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson), a singer with an indomitable spirit.

Next Goal Wins

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

Image: Searchlight Pictures

Genre: Sports comedy-drama
Run time: 1h 44m
Director: Taika Waititi
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Oscar Kightley, Kaimana

Michael Fassbender (The Killer) stars in Taika Waititi’s sports movie based on the real-life American Samoa national football team and their qualification attempt for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Fassbender portrays Thomas Rongen, the Dutch American coach who agrees to help shape the once notoriously bad team into a competitive qualifier.

From our review:

Next Goal Wins fails to properly capture what made the story of the American Samoa national football team so compelling, by attempting to make a film so universal that it discards the sport itself as unimportant. Which it might be in terms of letting the audience relate to the team as individuals. But it’s such a cookie-cutter underdog story that it rarely moves past the most superficial “Care because this movie says you need to care” level.

Toussaint Egan

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January 19, 2024
Hazbin Hotel, Found, Reacher, and more new TV this week

Often we come to you with these TV dispatches with a focus on the biggest premieres of the week — which we are now doing again. But this week also sees a whole host of finales, all of big shows that started in the tail end of 2023. While none of these three shows made our top 50 of the year, they’re all pretty big in their own way.

Noah Hawley’s Fargo is ending its fifth season this week, concluding yet another chapter of exploring American greed and the violence it spawns. There’s also Reacher, TV’s biggest guy, with what’s sure to be an action-packed finale for the second season (and hopefully teeing up the already greenlit season 3). And then there’s Found, the new splashy procedural following a woman who locates missing people (and with a few dark secrets of her own).

There’s more new and premiering TV to watch, of course — in addition to whatever ongoing shows you might be following, like True Detective: Night Country — but it’s a good reminder that there’s plenty of television worth catching up on, even without the urgency of the new episode.

Here’s the best of those new finales and premieres to watch on TV this week.

New shows on Netflix

Love on the Spectrum season 2

Genre: Finding romance reality show
Release date: Jan. 19
Relationship coach: Jodi Rodgers
Cast: A group of people on the spectrum looking for love

Netflix is back with another reality dating show, this time a second season of Love on the Spectrum, a show about exactly what it sounds like: people on the autism spectrum navigating the dating world. Season 2 of the show features some new cast members, alongside some folks from season 1.

New shows on Hulu

Death and Other Details

Genre: Murder mystery
Release date: Jan. 16, with two episodes
Showrunner/creator: Mike Weiss and Heidi Cole McAdams
Cast: Mandy Patinkin, Violett Beane, and more

A locked-room murder mystery on a cruise ship, filled with plenty of staggeringly rich people who all have a motive. Also on board, conveniently: Rufus Cotesworth (Mandy Patinkin), a washed-up detective, who leaps into action — with the help of his also conveniently present former protege Imogene (Violett Beane). Very quickly, though, they learn there’s more to this murder — and its victim — than meets the eye.

Fargo season 5 finale

Photo: Michelle Faye/FX

Genre: Crime drama
Release date: Jan. 16
Showrunner/creator: Noah Hawley
Cast: Juno Temple, Jon Hamm, and more

It’s all coming to a close, as Dot (Juno Temple) hopes to reassert control over her life and rid herself of her megalomaniac ex-husband, Sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm). The body count has been rising, and the penultimate episode saw government forces gear up to raid Tillman Ranch, setting up what should be an action-packed, violent finale.

New shows on Prime Video

Hazbin Hotel

Genre: Animated goth theater kid musical
Release date: Jan. 19, with four episodes
Showrunner/creator: Vivienne Medrano
Cast: Stephanie Beatriz, Kimiko Glenn, Keith David, and more

Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen) is the princess of hell, and has her heart set on doing the impossible: rehabilitating sinners in her hotel so well that they’ll be accepted into heaven. It isn’t long before she finds this task is harder than she thinks — luckily, she has a cast of characters who are there to help her (if not fully believe in her mission). Also: It’s a musical!

Reacher season 2 finale

Photo: Brooke Palmer/Prime Video

Genre: Big guy spy action
Release date: Jan. 19
Showrunner/creator: Nick Santora
Cast: Alan Ritchson, Serinda Swan, Shaun Sipos, and more

The Big Man’s back for his final episode of the second season. The penultimate episode ended in quite the cliffhanger, with multiple team members held hostage by Robert Patrick’s Shane Langston. No big deal, though — Reacher is still Reacher, and last we saw him, he was sauntering through the front gate ready to dole out some punishment.

New shows on Paramount Plus

The Woman in the Wall

Genre: Broody detective story
Release date: Jan. 19, with one episode
Showrunner/creator: Joe Murtagh
Cast: Ruth Wilson, Daryl McCormick, and more

When a woman wakes up to find a dead body in her house, she’s got two problems: The first — well, obviously, she has a dead body that is in her house. But the second is more important: She has no idea how it got there.

The Woman in the Wall picks up from there for what Showtime calls a “psychologically and emotionally compelling detective story shot through with dark humor,” using six episodes to reexamine one of Ireland’s biggest scandals, the Magdalene Laundries.

New shows on Peacock

Found season 1 finale

Photo: Steve Swisher/NBC

Genre: Dramatic procedural
Release date: Jan. 16
Showrunner/creator: Nkechi Okoro Carroll
Cast: Shanola Hampton, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Kelli Williams, and more

Gabi (Shanola Hampton) has been finding people — and hiding the secret of having her own kidnapper in her basement — all season. And it’s been a pretty wild ride, with plenty of flair for the dramatic. So I’m guessing the season finale of Found will deliver a helluva cliffhanger, particularly since it’s already been greenlit for season 2.

Zosha Millman

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January 15, 2024
How to get into reading as an adult

It’s no secret that the Polygon staff loves to read. We’re genre agnostic, with tastes spanning categories such as mystery, science fiction and fantasy, literary fiction, romance, and even nonfiction, and we love manga and comics, too. But we’re also sympathetic to how hard it is to find time to do it. By the time the workday is over, you might be too exhausted to consume words on the page — or maybe you’re a parent, working hard to take care of yourself and your family. It also can be difficult to focus, with endless emails, texts, and social media notifications taking up brain space or needing immediate attention.

But there are so many different ways to add reading into your life. There’s this perception of reading as an activity that you need to dedicate discrete time and space to — that it’s uninterrupted and relaxing. Maybe that’s an accessible option for you, which is wonderful, but maybe it’s simply become difficult to focus for long stretches. Maybe you try to read before bed but keep falling asleep. Or maybe you’re busy as hell and wonder, How could I even find time to start a book, much less finish it?

We’re here to help. Some of the regular readers on the Polygon staff have shared our stories of how we’ve found time to read in the past year. We all had wildly different answers, which is to say, there are many different ways to add it to your life. We hope these ideas can serve you in your reading journey.

Start your day with a good book

Working from home is the best thing that’s happened to my reading habits. When I stopped going into the office in 2020, I suddenly had an extra hour in the morning where my commute used to be. Instead of taking this as an opportunity to sleep in, I kept the time of my morning alarm the same, giving myself a bonus hour each morning to fill however I wanted. I tried a variety of things, including yoga and long walks with my dog, but nothing set a better tone for my day than using that time to read.

Starting my mornings this way helps me relax and feel more grounded before signing on to work

To this day, once I finish getting ready for work, I make myself a cup of coffee, curl up with my cats and a cozy blanket, and read for anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. Starting my mornings this way helps me relax and feel more grounded before signing on to work, and the joy I still get from this routine nearly four years later is more than worth losing that bonus hour of sleep. —Sadie Gennis

Try a dedicated reading device

Photo: Ana Diaz/Polygon

I’ve probably written about this enough already, but I got back into reading by reading manga on my tablet using the Shonen Jump app.

I think it’s really easy to get all high and mighty about what is and isn’t worth reading, but comics are great. Reading manga before bed has become a treasured part of my evening routine, and genuinely feels like me time. My tablet doesn’t have any messaging or social media apps, so I’m not interrupted while reading and I get a nice break from the internet. It’s like a little oasis of my own every night.

All you need is a shitty tablet, or even a phone if you’re OK with squinting, and you can read acclaimed stories with stunning art. Besides, reading a novel seems a lot more doable after breezing through a thousand chapters of One Piece. —Ana Diaz

Try something that was once forbidden

Other folks have already shared variations of the golden rule for finding pleasure in reading: “Stop assigning yourself homework.” Now let’s go a step further. Try stuff that you explicitly weren’t allowed to read in school. Books are sick, and I don’t mean cool; I mean depraved.

In high school, I, like so many millennial teenagers, had my Chuck Palahniuk period. Giggle all you want, but reading novels like Survivor and Choke felt like gaining access behind the beaded curtain. You can go highbrow with Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, the tale of a pier-loitering teenage sociopath. Or you can opt for a legend of the airport bookstore, like Anne Rice. You’ve heard of Interview with the Vampire, but if you haven’t read it, trust me, you’re in for some grade-A filth. —Chris Plante

‘Having fun isn’t hard when you have a library card’

In 2023, I read more books than I had in the previous three years combined. My favorite animated aardvark knew what he was about. Moving to a place with a library less than a 10-minute walk away has been a game changer. I’d previously used apps like Libby and Overdrive, but there’s just something about waltzing into a library without knowing exactly what you’re looking for and letting the stacks whisper to you. Last year, I discovered a bunch of new favorites and also became a certified romance reader, all because I took a chance on a library book.

But while the library definitely solved my “access to books without committing to buying something that you may not like and it will take up space on your bookshelf and haunt you for years to come” problem, there’s also another hurdle to address. Even with library access, you still have to find the time to read — which can be hard, with a million shows and movies on streaming, a ton of games in my backlog to play, and other hobbies that I could be spending time on.

Last year, though, I made it a point to get off social media. It actually wasn’t that hard, considering that Twitter kinda set itself on fire and TikTok was making me so enraged that I just deleted the app. I started to use that time to read instead. It especially works for in-between moments — waiting for my pasta water to boil, or grabbing a snack and not wanting to commit to watching a television show. As much as I love to just spend hours poring over a book, that’s not the only way to read. I can get the same fix in bite-sized chunks, the same quick hit I used to get from Twitter or TikTok. It’s just as entertaining (dare I say… even more so?), without the negative side effects of doomscrolling! —Petrana Radulovic

Mix it up with an old classic or a new co-reader

A lot of things have helped me pull out of periodic reading slumps — taking recommendations from friends, tracking down old favorite authors to see what they’ve been up to, getting into ebooks and instant downloads from libraries via Libby and Hoopla, reading a lot of Book Riot for sales and recommendations. But two comparatively offbeat things spiced up my reading more than usual last year, and I’d recommend giving both of them a try.

Go back to some old favorites — I mean really old favorites. Susana Polo’s 2023 piece on Disney’s animated movie One Hundred and One Dalmatians reminded me of a writer I haven’t thought about in decades: Bill Peet, the movie’s writer and storyboarder, and the author of a huge pile of weird, wild picture books I read in childhood. Armed with nostalgia, I hit the library and reread a bunch of those picture books — none of them were challenging or enlightening reading, obviously, but the memories they called up were a lot of fun, and they reconnected me with a different era of my connection to books. And then I got to recommend them to, and buy some of them for, my friends with young kids.

Touching base with things I read and loved in childhood let me think more about what I like to read today

Similarly, a stray memory late last year took me back to Island of the Blue Dolphins, a favorite classic from my early reading years. It only took an hour or so to reread, and it brought back a lot of memories — and sent me off looking for more contemporary books about Native islanders, ones up to today’s standards instead of the standards of when it was written. Touching base with things I read and loved in childhood let me think more about what I like to read today, and why — and helped me think about some of the messages I internalized from books as a kid, which has been worth thinking and talking about with friends.

Read to someone else, or have someone read to you. Revisiting childhood picture books reminded me of the times I’ve read books to kids, and made me want to spend more time doing that. But we don’t put enough value on adults reading to each other. Inspired by a friend of mine who says he and his wife take turns reading A Christmas Carol to each other every holiday season, I started asking my husband to read out loud to me on long car trips. It’s a surprisingly pleasant social activity, with all the enjoyment of a good audiobook combined with the connection factor of focusing us both on the same story and making it an active process instead of a passive one.

This is a good one to try for evenings at home with a significant other or family member. Most of us who don’t have kids in the immediate family have probably gotten out of the habit of reading out loud, but it can be a really satisfying way to enjoy and engage with a story — and with someone else who’s interested in reading more, too! —Tasha Robinson

Listening is also reading

Photo illustration: James Bareham/Polygon | Source image: Netflix

Reading has always been one of my favorite pastimes, to the extent that it’s a hobby I identify with on the level of who I am as a person. But as I’ve balanced more and more responsibilities in my life, I’ve had to get more creative with how I keep reading. For the past few years, I’ve found it harder to find uninterrupted reading time — which has atrophied the muscle of being able to focus, even, with a book. I kept assuming that I’d ease back into it, but I never did. I’d sit with a book and find myself hopelessly distracted just a few pages in.

Instead, I’ve gotten really into audiobooks, which I can listen to while going on a daily walk, doing the laundry, or washing the dishes. It motivates me to actually get the chores done — I want to know what’s happening next — but it helps settle my fidgety nature, too. I’ve also started reading essay collections while my partner plays single-player video games. We both love gaming and reading, so if either of us hits an exhaustion point, we’ll simply trade: I’ll play the section he’s stuck in, and he’ll make his way through an essay in the collection. It’s a fun way of sharing media together that’s typically consumed individually. And it’s made the whole thing way more social. —Nicole Clark

Don’t forget — there are other kinds of reading out there

You want to read more books? Sorry, can’t help you there; I start way more of them than I finish, and haven’t read them regularly since college.

Would it be nice if I read more books? Sure, and maybe I’ll check out some of the suggestions from my co-workers above. But my wife and I are about to have our first child, so I don’t know that I’ll have the time or the inclination to make it through book-length works anytime soon.

What I do read a ton of, though, is journalism. I was a news junkie long before I started working in the media, but I’d say that it comprises something like 90% of what I read these days — and that’s everything from bullet-point news bites to magazine-length features. I’m not just talking about reporting here; I also mean analysis, explainers, movie/TV/game criticism, personal essays, interviews, and data journalism. I’ve always been a fundamentally curious person, and reading journalism is the main way that I learn and stay informed about the world and what’s happening in it.

Twitter used to be my primary curation tool here — I currently have nearly 180 tabs open across three Chrome windows, and the vast majority of them function as bookmarks: They’re tweets of stories that I intended to read at some point. It’s not the best strategy for actually reading more journalism, as you can see, but I do make attempts to chip away at that backlog every so often.

Something that facilitates this is that I maintain subscriptions to the New York Times (including The Athletic), the Washington Post, and The New Yorker. If you want to read more journalism, and in particular, great journalism, it helps if you can afford to pay for it! —Samit Sarkar

Nicole Clark

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January 15, 2024
All the Echo season 2 news we’ve heard so far

Echo season 1 ends with a bang, with Echo (Alaqua Cox) going up against Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) again after confronting him in Hawkeye. Along the way, she reconnected with her roots, her family, and her sense of self, putting her on the track to becoming a hero.

It’s enough to make you wonder where Echo might show up next. So far, Echo has only appeared in Hawkeye and Echo, but with the MCU branching farther than ever, it seems like there are a lot of places a hothead superhero could pop up — including, potentially, a second season of her own show?

Here’s everything we know about Marvel’s future plans for Echo and Echo:

Is there going to be an Echo season 2?

As of this writing, Disney hasn’t confirmed if there will be a season 2 of Echo. For now, the show is being billed as a miniseries, just like Hawkeye before it. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the show won’t be coming back.

When will Echo show up next in the MCU?

So far, neither Alaqua Cox nor Echo have been confirmed to show up anywhere else in the MCU. But there is a Daredevil show in the works (and in the reworks) that seems like an opportunity for her; after all, they had a pretty great fight in Echo.

And if Hawkeye is any indication, this doesn’t have to be the end for Cox’s Maya Lopez. Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop showed up in a teaser scene at the end of The Marvels as Hawkeye’s heir apparent, meaning Echo could find an analogous slot somewhere in the MCU. (Even if, for now, it’s still unclear what Kate will be doing as part of Kamala’s team.)

When might Echo season 2 debut on Disney Plus (or Hulu)?

If there is an Echo season 2, it might be a while before it actually comes out. Echo was first announced in November 2021, right after Cox showed up as Echo in Hawkeye. With the show only getting released some two years later, the earliest we’re likely to see Echo season 2 would be 2026.

What does this mean for the Marvel Spotlight?

Photo: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Echo was a unique release for Marvel, not just because it was the first one to drop on Hulu (and in full) instead of Disney Plus. It was also the first entry in the new Marvel Spotlight umbrella, something Echo producer Richie Palmer says Echo was the right show at the right time to be.

“I think it was us saying, You know what? Echo wants to be its own thing. So let’s allow it to be,” Palmer tells Polygon. “We wanted to figure out, when we were bringing Maya Lopez to life, how do we honor that aspect of the comics? How do we keep it dark and gritty and separated from everything else that was going on?”

“And then Kevin [Feige] came in, as we were editing the show, and we were seeing how dark we were pushing it. And he was saying, Don’t hold back on the violence, don’t hold back on the grit and this grounded tone, it’s what’s making this show so unique and special. So Marvel Spotlight kind of came from Kevin.”

With Spotlight offerings being framed as an opportunity for more casual viewing, even sans any other MCU knowledge, it’s unclear if shows like Echo are being designed (or promised, or even considered for) a second season.

Zosha Millman

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January 9, 2024
Netflix’s The Brothers Sun, the Golden Globes, and more new TV this week

Brand-new year, brand-new TV! We’re not totally done with last year’s television, though: This Sunday will be the Golden Globe Awards, honoring a lot of the best films and TV shows of 2023 (along with some duds — award shows, what’re you gonna do?). That will be airing at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST, and will be streaming at the same time it’s on CBS.

But that’s not the only big offering in television this week — Michelle Yeoh is back on TV! This time, she’s the mom in Netflix’s The Brothers Sun, a charming action comedy about how little you know your family (sorta).

Here are all the best new TV premieres this week to start off 2024:

New shows on Netflix

The Brothers Sun

Genre: Action comedy family drama
Release date: Jan. 4 with all episodes
Showrunner/creator: Byron Wu and Brad Falchuk
Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Justin Chien, Sam Li, Highdee Kuan, Alice Hewkin, Jon Xue Zhang, and more

After somebody takes out a hit on his dad, Charles (Justin Chien) flees to make sure that his mom (Michelle Yeoh) and brother Bruce (Sam Li) in America are safe. Only, Bruce didn’t know his family was rich… let alone the head of a Taipei gang.

Gyeongseong Creature

Photo: Lim Hyo Sun/Netflix

Genre: Horror
Release date: Dec. 22
Writer: Kang Eun-kyung
Cast: Park Seo-joon, Han So-hee, Soo Hyun, Kim Hae-sook, Jo Han-chul, Wi Ha-joon, and more

Part 2 of this show arrives, and not a moment too soon — the final three episodes are here to conclude the mystery of the strange creature haunting Gyeongseong in 1945, as Jang Tae-sang (Park Seo-joon) and Yoon Chae-ok (Han So-hee) try to untangle the mystery around its existence.

New shows on Hulu

The Great North season 4

Image: Fox

Genre: Animated comedy
Release date: Jan. 7 on Fox; on Hulu Jan. 8
Showrunner/creator: Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin, Wendy Molyneux, and Minty Lewis
Cast: Nick Offerman, Jenny Slate, Will Forte, Dulcé Sloan, Paul Rust, Aparna Nancherla, and more

Beef Tobin (Nick Offerman) is just trying to look after his four kids in the remote, fictional town of Lone Moose, Alaska. He loves his family and tries his best — which is the perfect premise for a good ol’-fashioned family sitcom.

New shows on Paramount Plus

The 2024 Golden Globes

Photo: Michael Buckner/Penske Media via Getty Images

Genre: Awards show
Release date: Jan. 7 at 8 p.m EST/5 p.m. PST
Host: Jo Koy

The 2024 Golden Globes will be airing live on CBS. But they’ll also be streaming on Paramount Plus and in the CBS app. Comedian Jo Koy will be making his hosting debut for the program.

Zosha Millman

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January 1, 2024
The Holdovers, It Lives Inside, and every new movie to watch at home this weekend

Season’s greetings, Polygon readers. We’re smack-dab in the sleepy, liminal interzone between the Christmas holiday and New Year’s Eve. Be that as it may, that doesn’t mean there aren’t a couple new movies on streaming to watch this weekend as we barrell into 2024.

This week, The Holdovers, the new Christmas comedy-drama starring Paul Giamatti, is finally available to stream on Peacock. That’s not all: The supernatural horror-thriller It Lives Inside arrives on Hulu this week alongside the new Ray Romano-directed comedy Somewhere in Queens. Finally, a controversial crime thriller starring Jim Caviezel is now streaming on Prime Video. And… that’s it for this week!

Here’s everything new to watch this weekend.

New on Hulu

It Lives Inside

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Genre: Supernatural horror
Run time: 1h 39m
Director: Bishal Dutta
Cast: Megan Suri, Neeru Bajwa, Mohana Krishnan

This horror movie follows two young girls at an American high school who each relate to their Indian heritage in a different way: One embraces it, and one rejects it. When a Pishach, a vengeful spirit imprisoned in a strange glass jar, latches onto one of them, the other must reconnect with her past in order to stop it. It Lives Inside is the feature debut from Bishal Dutta, known previously for his work as a writer on the 2017 drama series Triads.

Somewhere in Queens

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Image: Roadside Attractions/ICM Partners

Genre: Comedy
Run time: 1h 46m
Director: Ray Romano
Cast: Ray Romano, Laurie Metcalf, Jacob Ward

Ray Romano directs and stars in this new coming-of-age comedy about Leo, a father trying desperately to help his son apply for college and win a basketball scholarship. After going to extreme lengths, from alienating the rest of his family to cajoling his son’s ex (Sadie Stanley) to get back together with him, Leo must learn to allow his son to make his own decisions. From the trailer, it comes across as an earnest comedy about learning to embrace the peculiarities of one’s own family and accepting the uncertainty of what life has to offer.

New on Prime Video

Sound of Freedom

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

Image: Angel Studios/VidAngel Studios

Genre: Crime thriller
Run time: 2h 11m
Director: Alejandro Gómez Monteverde
Cast: Jim Caviezel, Mira Sorvino, Bill Camp

One of the most surprising box-office hits of the year, Sound of Freedom purports to be a true story about a mission to stopping child trafficking. The truth is much more complicated than that.

New on Peacock

The Holdovers

Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock

Image: Focus Features

Genre: Comedy drama
Run time: 2h 13m
Director: Alexander Payne
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa

A strong late awards-season contender, The Holdovers is a holiday-themed comedy about three people left at a New England boarding school for Christmas in 1970, all pushing through their own personal drama to survive the holiday. It’s also one half of this season’s best double feature.

From our list of the best movies of the year:

The Holdovers is full of sudden twists, mostly backstory reveals suitable for a particularly startling stage play. But the real surprise is how personal and specific it becomes, and excellent writing and acting help it dodge the expected parameters for this kind of story. Eventually, it settles into a three-hander between Professor Hunham (Giamatti), his troubled adolescent student Angus (Dominic Sessa, in an intense star-making performance), and Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the school’s head cook, an older Black woman mourning her son’s recent death in the military.

Toussaint Egan

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December 29, 2023
Opinion: The open-air camps outside San Diego are a healthcare crisis for migrants

An hour and a half east of San Diego in late October, surrounded by haphazard makeshift tents, an asylum seeker lies in the desert with his leg propped up. Our team of volunteer physicians and medical students learned that he sustained a serious foot injury on his perilous journey to the United States. By the look of his swollen and seeping wound, the antibiotics he has been taking for the last 10 days are not warding off infection. He’s been taking half the prescribed dose of antibiotics because he’s not sure how long he’ll be traveling and doesn’t want to run out.

While we dress his wound, a doctor on our team steps away, motioning for the rest of us to follow. We find ourselves conflicted over the limited options, not knowing when this patient will next access medical care. Moreover, once he is transferred from this site to an official detention facility, his medications, including antibiotics, may be confiscated. After considering these factors, we all come to the same conclusion: If he does not receive proper care, this injury could cause permanent damage, or worse, a fatal blood infection. So what happens next?

For the last two months, we have mobilized local healthcare providers to help asylum seekers in rural San Diego County. A handful of uninhabitable places around the small town of Jacumba Hot Springs have become open-air detention sites for hundreds of asylum seekers. Migrants wait in the desert to be transferred to an official detention facility for processing. While some are transported within a few hours, many spend days without consistent access to food, water or medical care, with no shelter from increasingly harsh environmental conditions.

Migrants have been told by Border Patrol agents that if they leave the sites to seek medical care, their asylum process may be significantly delayed or endangered. Yet since Jacumba is not an official detention center, these asylum seekers are denied the basic resources and services required by Border Patrol policy for those in custody.

We see a medical crisis unfolding. People are suffering from deep tissue infections and ulcers, acute appendicitis, seizures, heart attack symptoms and pregnancies with complications. We provide services with whatever donated supplies we can get our hands on. We wash dust-filled eyes with saline, hand out Vaseline for cracked skin and provide face masks to limit the spread of upper respiratory infections that overwhelm the sites. Plastic spoons serve as splints for broken fingers, children are examined in makeshift tents and cough drops are handed out by the hundreds.

On any given day, volunteers in different fields are providing critical services for hundreds of migrants in Jacumba, supported by donations, mutual aid groups and nonprofit teams including Border Kindness and Al Otro Lado.

As temperatures approach freezing and winter rains fall, we are increasingly concerned about frostbite, hypothermia and exacerbations of chronic health conditions such as asthma and diabetes. At least one preventable death has been reported at an open air site along the border. We fear that the next one could occur in Jacumba.

International and U.S. laws recognize seeking asylum as a human right. We have a responsibility to provide safe conditions for migrants when they exercise that right.

To ensure that no further harm is done, local, state and federal authorities need to stop utilizing loopholes, or sidestepping legal responsibility, to detain migrants in “unofficial” camps where they are experiencing dehumanizing, preventable suffering. If hundreds of people are being kept by our country at a site, that location should be acknowledged as a detention center with the obligation to meet detainees’ basic needs.

As our day at the site comes to a close, we rejoin the migrant with the leg infection and our colleagues who have finished changing his dressing. We share our concerns and coach him through communicating with medical staff at his next destination, most likely an official detention center. A minute in, we pause — this is too much information to remember. Someone produces a marker, and one physician begins writing on the waterproof tape. She scrawls out a note to Border Patrol and instructions for the next medical team, signing her name at the bottom as she would a prescription. Right now, this is the best we can do out here.

Sadie Munter and Karyssa Domingo are second-year medical students in San Diego, where Weena Joshi is a practicing pediatrician.

Sadie Munter, Karyssa Domingo and Weena Joshi

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December 29, 2023
Money Heist’s Berlin spinoff, Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor, and more new TV this week

It’s finally time: the last new TV of 2023. Whether you’re at work or not, this week tends to be a pretty sleepy one, ideally with plenty of time to catch up on new TV.

That’s not to say there’s a ton of new stuff during this period, but there’s certainly something to get excited about. There’s a new Doctor, with the Christmas day Doctor Who special introducing us to the Fifteenth Doctor. And the world of Money Heist is back — at least, partially, with the Berlin spinoff taking us back in time on Berlin himself.

Here’s the best TV premieres and finales this week:

New shows on Netflix

Berlin season 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD_MLvGrGCY

Genre: Money Heist spinoff
Release date: Dec. 29, with all episodes
Showrunner/creator: Álex Pina
Cast: Pedro Alonso, Michelle Jenner, Tristán Ulloa, Begoña Vargas, Julio Peña, Joel Sánchez, and more

Money Heist fan favorite Berlin (Pedro Alonso) is back, with a look at the big heist from before his Money Heist days: disappearing $44 million in jewels. Touched upon in flashbacks during the later seasons of the show, Berlin will give us a better glimpse at the Professor’s second-in-command (and his savvy cohort).

Letterkenny season 12

Genre: Dirtbag comedy
Release date: Dec. 26, with all episodes
Showrunner/creator: Jacob Tierney
Cast: Jared Keeso, Michelle Mylett, Nathan Dales, Jacob Tierney, Tyler Johnston, Dylan Playfair, and more

The six-episode farewell run of Letterkenny is going out on a high note — possibly literally, with a country music hit being one of the many things teased by Hulu’s news release, which also notes that the small town “contends” with a comedy night at Modean’s, the Degens’ bad influence, a new nightclub, and an encore at the Ag Hall.

New shows on Disney Plus

Doctor Who Holiday Special: The Church on Ruby Road

Image: BBC/Disney Plus

Genre: Timey-wimey sci-fi
Release date: Dec. 25
Showrunner/creator: Russell T. Davies
Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, and more

After three specials that indulged some nostalgia and brought back an old (well, new) Doctor, we’re finally getting a new new Doctor, with Ncuti Gatwa, whose long-awaited arrival is finally here — it’s gonna feel like it’s Christmas Day! (I know it is on Christmas Day.)

New shows on Apple TV Plus

Slow Horses season 3 finale

Image: Apple TV Plus

Genre: Spy thriller comedy
Release date: Dec. 27
Based on books by: Mick Herron
Cast: Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, and more

It’s all coming to a head in the fantastic third season of Slow Horses. The team has been trying to rescue Standish (Saskia Reeves) while also uncovering the large-scale conspiracy her captors are involved in. Who will make it out alive? Will anyone in the British government face actual consequences for their actions? Will we make it until season 4 without just playing Mick Jagger’s theme song on repeat? The answers to these questions, and more, in the finale.

Zosha Millman

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December 25, 2023
How to watch the Doctor Who holiday special

The Fifteenth Doctor is finally here — at least, for a one-off Christmas special.

After making an appearance in the third anniversary special through a bit of “bigeneration,” Ncuti Gatwa is at last stepping up to the plate as The Doctor. He’ll be joined by new companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), who lives a quiet life with her grandma and mom until The Doctor shows up. In “The Church on Ruby Road,” they’ll both come face to face with mysterious goblins, and have to riddle their way out of a Christmas adventure.

Though it’ll be a bit before the new season of Doctor Who premieres, we’ve been waiting an awfully long time to see Gatwa as The Doctor. So it’s understandable if we’re all excited to watch the Christmas special as soon as we possibly can — and here’s how.

How to watch the Doctor Who Christmas special on Disney Plus

As with the anniversary specials (and all Doctor Who seasons moving forward), Doctor Who will be streaming its Christmas episode on Disney Plus. That means we can probably expect the same sort of release schedule: Disney will be releasing the special concurrently with its broadcast in the U.K., meaning if you’re watching it on Disney Plus, the new specials will drop on Christmas at 9:55 a.m. PST/12:55 p.m. EST.

Can I watch the Christmas Doctor Who special on BBC?

Yup! You’ll be able to watch Doctor Who’s 2023 Christmas special on BBC One and the BBC iPlayer in the U.K. starting at 5:55 p.m. on December 25 (that’s Christmas).

What do I need to have watched beforehand?

As with the Doctor Who anniversary specials: Technically nothing — the franchise has been going for 60 years and counting, so there’s a lot of Who you could catch up on, but how could you even pick where to start?

But it’s probably helpful to have at least watched the anniversary specials, particularly the last one, “The Giggle,” which features the handoff between David Tennant’s Tenth/Fourteenth Doctor and Gatwa’s Fifteenth. Suffice it to say, Gatwa’s Doctor gets introduced in an unorthodox (and, frankly, less than stellar) way, which will no doubt be a bit of backstory for the special. Plus it’s just fun to get a sense of what Gatwa is bringing to the role already — he’s a star!

If you do want to revisit any older Doctor Who, you’ll want to check out the Russell T. Davies section, as he’s the new (returning) showrunner; so you’re looking for series 1 through series 5. Those won’t be viewable on Disney Plus, though, only Max.

Is there a trailer so I can watch Ncuti Gatwa already?

There is! Here’s an early Christmas present, ya rascal:

And here’s a special look at his new Sonic Screwdriver:

Zosha Millman

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December 24, 2023
What to know about Lego Fortnite if you’re just getting started

The people behind Fortnite, the popular build-and-battle-royale game, have released a new, kid-friendly take on the game: Lego Fortnite. The game uses Lego bricks and characters to give players a different kind of experience that focuses on long-term survival, crafting, building, and online cooperation with friends. It’s a lot like another survival/crafting game, Minecraft, but powered by Lego bricks and familiar characters.

Lego Fortnite was a hit from day one; Millions of players are building and battling monsters together in online worlds full of characters to meet, creatures to slay, and mysteries to discover. It’s also free (unlike Minecraft), and co-developers Epic Games and The Lego Group have gone to great lengths to make it safe for kids to enjoy.

Here’s a quick rundown of what Lego Fortnite is, where to download it, and everything else you should need to know about Fortnite’s popular new spinoff.

What is Lego Fortnite?

While the popular version of Fortnite is a battle royale game where players fight each other to be the last player standing, Lego Fortnite isn’t a shooter or a battle royale at all. It’s a game of exploration, building with Lego bricks, and crafting items (like pickaxes and torches).

In Survival mode, players take on the role of a little Lego hero character. They’ll gather resources, build structures, tools, and weapons, and explore a huge open world. They’ll also interact with other Lego characters who will join their group and help them out with missions. There’s some combat too, but it’s mainly against Lego versions of skeletons, wolves, spiders, and other beasts. This mode is called Survival because players have to gather and craft what they need: food to stave off hunger, wood to build structures and craft tools, and other elements to create more complex items.

There’s also a non-violent Sandbox mode, where players can simply build whatever they want with Lego bricks to get creative and explore the world freely.

How to download Lego Fortnite

Playing and downloading Lego Fortnite is free. You’ll need an Epic Games account to play, which is also free. All you have to do is download the main Fortnite game client, and you’ll find Lego Fortnite on the main screen of a menu that looks like a Netflix library screen.

On game consoles like Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X, you can download Fortnite by searching each platform’s store, or by using the links below from a web browser:

Note that if you find and download Lego Fortnite from one of the above online stores, you’re actually downloading the full Fortnite game client, through which you can play Lego Fortnite. Confusing, yes, but at least everything’s centralized.

How to get and activate an Epic Games account

To play Lego Fortnite (or any Fortnite game), you’ll need an Epic Games account. You can sign up for one using an email address at the Epic Games website, use an existing login from Apple, Facebook, Lego.com, or Google, or log in with an existing account from Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, or Steam.

You can also create a version of that account called a Cabined Account, which is intended for children 13 years old or younger. Players with Cabined Accounts can play Lego Fortnite, but they won’t be able to access features like voice chat or make in-game purchases with money until their parent or guardian provides consent. You can read more about parental controls in Fortnite games at Epic’s website.

How V-Bucks work with Lego Fortnite (and how to redeem them)

Epic Games’ virtual currency for Fortnite, known as V-Bucks, works in the core version of Fortnite and new experiences like Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival. V-Bucks can be spent on in-game items, like outfits and other virtual items.

V-Bucks can be purchased within Fortnite and via gift cards. You can redeem V-Bucks gift cards at the official Fortnite website.

If you (or your child) have spent V-Bucks in Fortnite battle royale, most of the cosmetics in that game carry over to Lego Fortnite. There are some exceptions, like characters in Fortnite who have guns as part of their design, but many cosmetics tied to a core Fortnite account can be used across games.

Lego Fortnite multiplayer and playing with friends

You can play Lego Fortnite with friends online. Up to eight players can play together cooperatively in the same game world.

But you can’t play Lego Fortnite (yet) in split-screen mode on the same platform. If you have multiple kids playing Lego Fortnite, they’ll all need their own console, tablet, or PC to play. Lego Fortnite supports cross-play across all platforms, so players on Switch, for example, can play with their friends on PlayStation 5, Android, PC, and anywhere else Fortnite is available.

Do you need a separate online subscription to play Lego Fortnite?

Lego Fortnite, like other Fortnite games, does not require an online subscription like Nintendo Switch Online, PlayStation Plus, or Xbox Live Gold/Xbox Game Pass to play.

Guides for Lego Fortnite

Lego Fortnite is new, but already pretty big. Here’s how to get started, with some answers to a few tricky questions:

Michael McWhertor

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December 23, 2023
Netflix’s Rebel Moon, the Hunger Games prequel, and every new movie to watch at home this weekend

Happy December, Polygon readers! It’s the last weekend before the Christmas holiday, and we’ve got a whole sack full of exciting new releases on streaming and VOD for you!

This week, Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire, the first installment of Zack Snyder’s epic space opera starring Sofia Boutella (Kingsman: The Secret Service) finally comes to Netflix along with Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro. Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi action thriller The Creator finally comes to Hulu, and the black comedy thriller Saltburn arrives on Prime Video. There’s plenty of new movies available to rent this week as well, including The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving, and much more.

Here’s everything new to watch this weekend!

New on Netflix

Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

Genre: Epic space opera
Run time: 2h 15m
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Michiel Huisman

Zack Snyder returns to Netflix with an all-new, Star Wars- and Seven Samurai-inspired space opera in the form of Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire. Set in a far-off galaxy besieged by a brutal interplanetary empire, the film follows the story of a soldier-turned-farmer who must recruit a band of warriors to fight alongside her against the regime she once served. Also, Anthony Hopkins shows up as a robot and Doona Bae (Cloud Atlas) has cool definitely-not-lightsaber butcher swords. Neat!

From our review,

The best that can be said about Snyder is that he’s at least capable of a kind of manic brouhaha that’s not unbecoming in this kind of genre filmmaking. Despite the lack of character or emotion in his films, he certainly can be one of the best filmmakers at capturing the pure excess of a piece of lurid fantasy art, or the distinct flair of a Frank Miller drawing. But in Child of Fire, the results couldn’t even be called stylish. The CGI seems to degenerate as the running time goes on. The production and costume design had this Dune agnostic bumping that film up half a star on Letterboxd. And Tom Holkenborg’s score sounds like Space Enya.

Maestro

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Photo: Jason McDonald/Netflix

Genre: Biographical drama
Run time: 2h 9m
Director: Bradley Cooper
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper directs and stars in this biographical drama about the life of the acclaimed American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein and his complicated relationship with his wife, Felicia Montealegre.

From our review,

Maestro takes on new shades when compared with Cooper’s directorial debut, that Star Is Born remake. It’s the inverse of Maestro in a lot of ways. In A Star Is Born, singer Jackson Maine (Cooper) sees something magical in Ally (Lady Gaga), and struggles to cope as they fall in love and her career eclipses his. Conversely, Maestro is built around Leonard Bernstein’s marriage to Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), who Bernstein is captivated by and devoted to — at least, part of him is. Felicia, who first appears on camera in a black-and-white sequence, illuminates the screen with her talents and ambitions, then is ironically suffocated as Cooper widens Maestro’s aspect ratio and fills it with color. Leonard’s ambition, his dueling appetites, and his affairs with men like David Oppenheim (Matt Bomer) edge her out and dim her world.

Operation Napoleon

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Magnet Releasing/Magnolia

Genre: Historical thriller
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: Óskar Þór Axelsson
Cast: Vivian Ólafsdóttir, Jack Fox, Iain Glen

An Icelandic lawyer (Vivian Ólafsdóttir) finds herself drawn into a deadly international conspiracy after her brother accidentally stumbles upon a German World War II plane buried beneath the snow. Hunted by ruthless criminals and a unrelenting CIA director (Iain Glen), she’ll have to get to the heart of the mystery if she has any hope of surviving.

New on Hulu

The Creator

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Image: 20th Century Studios

Genre: Sci-fi action
Run time: 2h 15m
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe

John David Washington (Tenet) stars in Rogue One director Gareth Edwards’ latest sci-fi adventure as an undercover operative in the far-future searching for the mysterious creator of a rogue-artificial intelligence. After being entrusted with the care of a human-like robot named “Alphie” (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), the pair embark on a journey in search of answers and salvation.

From our review,

The Creator would be a wonderful video game. I mean that earnestly — video games are terrific for interacting with lore, with the bits and bobs of world-building that all storytellers spend years developing, but leave as subtext in the story proper. That can also be true of video games, but games of larger scope often flesh out their virtual worlds with said lore, which players are often free to roam and engage with. There are all sorts of ways that lore can become text — optional conversations with characters, diary and book excerpts to read, video or audio ephemera, all ambient and non-compulsory, a substrate where the player can find meaning whether the main narrative is fulfilling or not. The Creator is a fully realized future in the service of a rote story and flat characters that only gesture in compelling directions; I’d rather not bother with that story at all.

New on Prime Video

Saltburn

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

Image: Prime Video

Genre: Psychological thriller
Run time: 2h 11m
Director: Emerald Fennell
Cast: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Archie Madekwe

‘What if The Talented Mr. Ripley, but set in a palatial Oxford-family estate with young adults in the mid-2000s?”

That’s essentially the premise of this black comedy about class and privilege starring Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Jacob Elordi (Euphoria), from Promising Young Woman filmmaker Emerald Fennell.

New on Paramount Plus

Beau is Afraid

Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

Image: A24

Genre: Surrealist tragicomedy horror
Run time: 2h 59m
Director: Ari Aster
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan

A24 horror maestro Ari Aster returns with a different kind of project in this horror-comedy about a man confronting his fears after the death of his mother.

Golda

Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

Image: Bleecker Street Media

Genre: Biographical drama
Run time: 1h 40m
Director: Guy Nattiv
Cast: Helen Mirren, Camille Cottin, Liev Schreiber

Helen Mirren stars in this biographical drama about Golda Meir, the 4th Prime Minister of Israel, and her role during the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

New to rent

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

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

Photo: Murray Close/Lionsgate

Genre: Dystopian action
Run time: 2h 37m
Director: Francis Lawrence
Cast: Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Peter Dinklage

Francis Lawrence returns to the world of The Hunger Games to tell the story of the early years of Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), who would go on to become the president of Panem and the nemesis of Katniss Everdeen.

Set 60 years before the events of the first film, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes recalls the fateful meeting between Coriolanus and Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from District 12 who would leave a profound impact on his life and worldview.

From our review,

Collins’ book and Lawrence’s movie don’t redo the action of the Hunger Games events; they dissect them, then force us to sit on the Capitol side of the equation. They demand to know why we were even drawn to the love triangle, the pretty dresses, and the themed arenas in the first place. We’ve always been the spectators, after all, watching Katniss’ story from a safe distance. The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes shows us what happens if we get too carried away by propaganda, luxury, and the promise of safety. In that way, it’s a fitting end to the franchise — and a fitting end to the way the genre evolved into a beast of its own.

Trolls: Band Together

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

Image: DreamWorks/Universal

Genre: Adventure comedy
Run time: 1h 31m
Directors: Walt Dohrn, Tim Heitz
Cast: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Kenan Thompson

The Trolls have returned, and they’re getting the band back together! After Branch’s brother Floyd is kidnapped, he’ll have to team up with Poppy to reunite with his other brothers in order to find the culprit and save the day.

Thanksgiving

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

Photo: Pief Weyman/Sony Pictures

Genre: Slasher horror
Run time: 1h 46m
Director: Eli Roth
Cast: Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Gina Gershon

Just in time for Christmas, Eli Roth is back with a brand new holiday-themed slasher! After a tragic Black Friday riot, the quiet town of Plymouth, Massachusetts is terrorized by a Thanksgiving-inspired killer wearing a ghoulish John Carver mask.

From our review,

Comedic slashers where both halves complement each other are rare, even among the genre’s most entertaining offerings. Movies like Totally Killer or Happy Death Day are too funny and lighthearted to ever really earn a genuine scare, while a movie like House of 1000 Corpses is so dark and gross that the humor isn’t likely to land on a first viewing. Few movies have ever struck that balance quite as well as Craven’s four Scream movies. Thanksgiving doesn’t quite reach that series’ meteoric heights, but it comes far closer than anything else in recent years — including the Scream franchise itself.

Silent Night

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

Photo: Carlos Latapi/Lionsgate

Genre: Action thriller
Run time: 1h 44m
Director: John Woo
Cast: Joel Kinnaman, Scott Mescudi, Harold Torres

After nearly 20 years, action movie legend John Woo has returned with a Christmas-themed revenge thriller starring Joel Kinnaman as a vigilante who embarks on a mission to exact vengeance on the gang who murdered his son in a Christmas Eve drive-by. Polygon spoke to Woo about the process that went into this film and why he was first attracted to the unique project.

Anatomy of a Fall

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

Image: Neon

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

This Palme d’Or-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.

Dream Scenario

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

Image: A24

Genre: Horror comedy
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: Kristoffer Borgli
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera

Nicolas Cage (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent) continues his streak of meta self-referential projects in this horror-comedy about a mild-mannered biology professor who inexplicably becomes famous overnight after appearing in the dreams of people around the world.

From our review,

Dream Scenario’s vague, nebulous type of fame gives Borgli an avenue to comment on celebrity and its price without taking a specific stand. He’s just exploring the cost of being highly visible, being up for endless interpretation by total strangers, and being disconnected in the public eye from any actual real-world intentions or actions. Once Paul starts deliberately taking a more active role in people’s dreams, the script takes a Charlie Kaufman-esque approach, playing with the ideas around so-called cancel culture as part of the world of instant fame. He also keeps the visuals refreshing and interesting, fully veering into dream-sequence horror, with enjoyably weird results.

Toussaint Egan

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December 22, 2023
The final scene in the DCEU dares you to think of it as a metaphor for the whole franchise

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom flows into theaters this weekend with the dubious honor of being the final film in the DC Extended Universe. And that means its final scene — its credits scene — is the final shot of Warner Bros. great attempt to equal the Marvel Cinematic Universe with its own pet superhero setting.

But it also means that the typical use of a superhero movie credits scene doesn’t apply here. There aren’t any future franchise events for Lost Kingdom to point to. What’s a blockbuster to do?

If you’ve seen Lost Kingdom, you know, and if you haven’t, maybe you’re just here to rubberneck. But here’s what it did.

[Ed. Note: This piece contains spoilers for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.]

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Comics

Lost Kingdom’s credits scene isn’t about anything weighty, it’s just a call back to a gross-out gag from earlier in the film. Orm (Patrick Wilson), the redeemed bad guy from the first Aquaman, is enjoying his first surface-world hamburger when he spies a cockroach scurrying across the dock-side picnic table.

Earlier in the movie, his brother Aquaman (Jason Momoa) tricked him into thinking that live cockroaches are an every day surface-world snack. So Orm grabs the roach, slaps it between the layers of his sandwich, and takes a big, happy bite. Good night, sweet DCEU, may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

But here I must implore my fellow human beings: We absolutely musn’t make this a metaphor. No matter how resonant, absurd, or funny the credits scene on Lost Kingdom, we must resist.

Orm’s burger is, inevitably, a roachy Rorschach test. The insect can be whatever you didn’t like about the DCEU, and Orm happily eating it is the fans you don’t like lapping it up. Or, Orm is the executives whose meddling ruined the franchise happily choosing their comeuppance (the roach), which is the collapse of the whole thing (an honestly very appetizing burger). Or maybe, the burger is the Snyder Cut, somehow, and Orm is Joss Whedon? I’m sure somebody could flesh out that video essay.

But we have to draw a line in the sand, like Topo the octopus scurrying away from the blood-drinking Deserters and back to the safety of deep water. We have to restrain ourselves, like Orm touching the Black Trident. We have to escape, like the fish in the sea, able to say that in the end, at the end of an era, we didn’t take the bait.

Susana Polo

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December 21, 2023
Blue Eye Samurai is getting a second season at Netflix

Blue Eye Samurai is coming back for a second season at Netflix. The series debuted on Nov. 3, and got renewed a few weeks later. Netflix announced the second season on Monday with a short video.

The show’s renewal comes as no surprise considering it’s popularity. It spent several weeks in Netflix’s top 10, and made several best-of-the-year lists, including the number two spot on Polygon’s own list. On top of that, the show’s first season ends with clear intention for another season. But Netflix didn’t announce much more about what we can expect from season 2, other than that it’s on the way. So, here’s everything we know about the next season of Blue Eye Samurai:

[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for Blue Eye Samurai season 1.]

Is Blue Eye Samurai getting more seasons?

We know for sure that a second season is on the way, but Netflix’s announcement didn’t come with the promise of more than that. While some animated series often get picked up for at least a season or two, it seems we’ll have to wait a while until we find out just how long Mizu’s journey may stretch on for.

When will Blue Eye Samurai season 2 release?

There’s no good way to tell, but the first season was greenlit back in 2020. With pandemic conditions making production harder, and the general difficulty of starting up an animated project, it’s likely we won’t have to wait a full three years before the next season, but turning around another batch of episodes next year would be pretty daunting too. With that in mind, it seems like 2025 is the most likely date for new episodes of the show to arrive.

What will season 2 of Blue Eye Samurai be about?

This one the show is very clear about: We know that Mizu is heading off of London, ready to make her way through a foreign land, which is likely to come with quite a bit of culture shock, in hopes of killing her last two targets. Meanwhile, Akemi is heading to the palace to find whatever influence she can over the future of Japan, while Ringo seems to have found a new master.

All of this should make for a much bigger, more expansive second season, but also one that broadens the show in exciting new ways.

Who will be in the cast for Blue Eye Samurai season 2

Along with the main cast of the first season, who all seem likely to return, Netflix hasn’t made any announcement of additions for season 2. Although, considering the talent that’s involved in the show already, it’s possible some pretty big names could get onboard as the show heads to London.

Is there anything similar to Blue Eye Samurai I can watch while I wait for season 2?

Weirdly enough there is, though we can’t promise it will be good just yet. FX’s new series Shogun is about an Australian who journeys to Japan and becomes a samurai, and its first trailer looks pretty good. The series is set to debut in February and will probably scratch a similar itch to Blue Eye.

If even waiting a few months feels like too much for you, there’s also Vinland Saga, an anime about a Viking seeking revenge for his slain father until he finds out that revenge is much more complicated than he thought.

Austen Goslin

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December 11, 2023
A Batman Christmas movie and every other new thing to watch this weekend

Welcome to the busiest moviegoing season of the year, when films in theaters are actually worth trekking out to see and everything hitting VOD and streaming is… the movies that came out a few months ago that are also super worth checking out. Ack!

Work at your own pace. But yeah, this weekend at home has everything from Leave the World Behind, a new Netflix film from the creator of Mr. Robot, to an animated Batman Christmas special and Martin Scorsese’s latest three-hour epic, Killers of the Flower Moon, which is hitting digital rental before eventually landing on Apple at an unspecified date in 2024.

Or you and the family could just watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie again — it’s on Netflix now. But if you need alternatives, there are many, many more. Let’s dig in.

New on Netflix

Leave the World Behind

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Photo: Jojo Whilden/Netflix

Genre: Psychological thriller
Run time: 2h 21m
Director: Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot)
Cast: Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke

Adapted from Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel, Sam Esmail’s directorial feature debut is an Airbnb story from hell. Mid-vacation in Long Island, a Manhattan couple hears a knock at the door. It’s the owners of their rented home, who are escaping the apocalypse. What follows promises to be a cerebral, prickly thriller that may not entirely work, but gives its all-star cast plenty to chew on. From our review:

Racial, sexual, generational, and class fault-lines are drawn but then rapidly scuffed over, almost in embarrassment, as the characters sink reflexively into a shared worldview that they can’t seem to let go of […but the] movie is brilliantly cast, at least. Hawke embodies the blinkered insouciance of progressive intellectuals, Ali has the polish and confidence that money breeds, and Roberts, as a secretly insecure striver trapped between these two worlds, flashes with a brittle testiness.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Nintendo, Illumination/Universal Pictures

Genre: Animated adventure
Run time: 1h 32m
Director: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (Teen Titans Go! To the Movies)
Cast: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black

While the combined power of Barbie and Oppenheimer may have eclipsed Nintendo’s foray into animated film, let’s not forget that Mario made a mega impact earlier this year at the worldwide box office, gave its parent company the confidence to announce a live-action Zelda movie, and could very easily get nominated for an Oscar in the year 2024. The Mario movie is, if not good, important — and now it’s streaming on Netflix, ready for kids and their nostalgic parents to watch a zillion times.

New on Hulu

The Mission

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 44m
Directors: Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (Boys State)

Heralded as one of the great documentaries of 2023, The Mission chronicles the repeated attempts by John Allen Chau, an American missionary, to bring Christianity to the Indigenous peoples of the remote North Sentinel Island. Law forbade outsiders from setting foot on the island, but that didn’t stop Chau, who was ultimately killed by arrows during his final attempt to sail ashore. From documentarians Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (who previously directed the searing political doc Boys State), the National Geographic film promises to get the blood pumping and ask a few big questions as it unravels Chau’s life.

New on Prime Video

Merry Little Batman

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

Image: Prime Video

Genre: Animated comedy
Run time: 1h 36m
Director: Mike Roth (Regular Show)
Cast: Luke Wilson, Yonas Kibreab, James Cromwell, David Hornsby

You think you know the story: Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin lays an egg, Batmobile lost a wheel, and Joker got away. But Batman’s first animated Christmas movie presents an entirely new perspective. When Bruce Wayne’s son Damian is left home alone on Christmas Eve, Gotham’s supervillains come out to play and a new hero of the holiday season must rise up. David Hornsby from It’s Always Sunny as the Joker? How could this be anything less than good?

Your Christmas or Mine 2

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

Photo: Colin Hutton/Prime Video

Genre: Romantic comedy
Run time: 1h 34m
Director: Jim O’Hanlon (Your Christmas or Mine?)
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Cora Kirk, Alex Jennings, Jane Krakowski

Uh oh, new couple James (Asa Butterfield) and Hayley (Cora Kirk) hoped to meet each other’s families during a Christmas vacation in the Alps, but someone messed up the lodging arrangements! Now James’ rich family is staying in a “rustic” lodge and Hayley’s penny-pinching dad is holed up in a five-star hotel! Whoops!

New on Paramount Plus

Showing Up

Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

Photo: Allyson Riggs/A24

Genre: Comedy
Run time: 1h 48m
Director: Kelly Reichardt (First Cow)
Cast: Michelle Williams, Hong Chau, John Magaro

Drama or comedy, never-miss filmmaker Kelly Reichardt aims for the intimate. Which means she may never make a film that causes enough splash for the Oscars or big-time top 10 lists. But here’s no surprise to anyone familiar with her work: Showing Up, which reteams her with regular collaborator Michelle Williams, cuts deep to the heart of art and the artist’s life, affirming Reichardt to being in league of her own. From our recent list of the top 50 movies of 2023, where Showing Up ranks 10th:

Reichardt’s genius is getting the audience giggling at the artists but never the art. For example, it’s funny to think that an artist dedicated a year of her life to crocheting a jumpsuit. Except then, in Showing Up, you see the outfit and it’s beautiful — an intentional undermining of the punchline. A teacher smugly opines on ceramics, but each piece he holds up is so lovingly crafted that they confidently speak for themselves.

This decision (rib artists, celebrate art) sets the tone. We humans are artifice, a bunch of contradictory masks that we put on to match the situation and the crowd. But our creations — when we commit to a craft, whatever medium it may be — are an expression of our most vulnerable selves.

New on Shudder

The Sacrifice Game

Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder and AMC Plus

Image: Shudder

Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 30m
Director: Jenn Wexler (The Ranger)
Cast: Mena Massoud, Olivia Scott Welch, Gus Kenworthy, Madison Baines

After premiering at the weirdo-approved Fantastic Fest earlier this year, Jenn Wexler’s latest horror joint lands on Shudder in time for the holidays. Our editor Tasha Robinson caught this one at the fest, so I am ceding the floor. Here’s her micro-take (watch out for more on this one soon):

Jenn Wexler’s Christmas-set horror movie The Sacrifice Game takes most of its runtime to reveal what it’s really about, and that reveal is a doozy. But the wait to get there is never dull: Along the way, there’s a “sad Christmas with the left-behinds at a boarding school” story that meshes perfectly with The Holdovers, and a “dangerous cultists on the road” story that meshes equally well with Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It’s no surprise that these two stories collide, it’s just a surprise exactly how and why they collide.

New to rent

Killers of the Flower Moon

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

Image: Apple

Genre: Drama
Run time: 3h 26m
Director: Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver)
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons

Some call it Martin Scorsese’s magnum opus. Others wonder if adapting David Grann’s acclaimed nonfiction book was an impossible task, even for a legend. But everyone seems to agree: You have to find a big chunk of time and watch Killers of the Flower Moon, one of the year’s most ambitious dramatic ventures. And Scorsese threw his entire self into it. From our review:

As Scorsese gets deeper into his old-master phase, it feels as though he’s running out of patience with the Catholic agonies and fire-and-brimstone filmmaking he’s known for. Killers of the Flower Moon is mostly plainspoken, sorrowful, and wise. At the very end, Scorsese makes a personal intervention on behalf of what really matters in this story. It’s a moving gesture from an artist who knows he only has time to say so much more, and who can see clearly what needs to be said.

Matt Patches

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December 8, 2023
Candy Cane Lane, Netflix’s May December, and every new movie to watch this weekend

Happy December, Polygon readers. Christmas movie season is here, and there are tons of new Christmas movies slated to come out over the next month.

This week, there are four in that category: the critically acclaimed The Holdovers, Eddie Murphy’s Candy Cane Lane, Netflix’s Family Switch, and the horror movie It’s a Wonderful Knife. But that’s not all that’s new this week: Carol director Todd Haynes has a buzzy new movie out on Netflix, there’s a second movie with musical numbers named Leo dropping on Netflix in as many weeks, and big franchise reboots Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Exorcist: Believer make their streaming platform debuts.

That’s only touching the surface — December is usually a busy time for new movies to watch at home, and this year is no different. Let’s dig into it.

New on Netflix

May December

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Photo: Francois Duhamel/Netflix

Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 57m
Director: Todd Haynes
Cast: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton

One of our great modern filmmakers is back with another thorny story — this about an actor (Natalie Portman) studying a woman (Julianne Moore) she is going to play in a film. The woman (based loosely on convicted sex offender Mary Kay Letourneau) is known for her scandalous relationship with her husband (Charles Melton), who she first met when he was a minor. Melton has already won multiple awards for his portrayal of the husband, and as it’s a Todd Haynes movie, you can expect a sumptuous, at times uncomfortable watch led by fantastic performances.

Leo

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Seven Screen Studios

Genre: Thriller
Run time: 2h 39m
Director: Lokesh Kanagaraj
Cast: Vijay

No, you are not seeing double. Yes, last week, Netflix premiered its “Adam Sandler as a talking lizard” animated musical Leo. This week, the Tamil box-office hit Leo, a remake of David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, lands on the platform.

Both Leos on Netflix prominently feature musical numbers, but they couldn’t be more different movies. In this one, a coffee shop owner and family man (Vijay) dispatches a group of killers at his business, making him an overnight sensation. This raises the interest of a gangster, who believes the man is his long-lost son.

Leo is the third movie in director Lokesh Kanagaraj’s LCU, after Kaithi and Vikram. There are a few repeat characters in this one, but neither of the previous movies are necessary to understand it (but they are both better, so I’d say they’re worth checking out).

Family Switch

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Photo: Elizabeth Morris/Netflix

Genre: Sci-fi family comedy
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: McG
Cast: Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms, Emma Myers

It’s Freaky Friday, squared! From McG (Charlie’s Angels), this spin on the body-swap trope adds a dash of Christmas to the formula and has all four members of the principal family swap bodies.

American Symphony

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 44m
Director: Matthew Heineman
Cast: Jon Batiste, Suleika Jaouad

This documentary follows two artists in love facing a difficult situation: One, award-winning musician Jon Batiste, is writing a symphony, while his partner, bestselling author Suleika Jaouad, is being treated for cancer.

New on Disney Plus

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Where to watch: Available to stream on Disney Plus

Image: Lucasfilm

Genre: Action-adventure
Run time: 2h 34m
Director: James Mangold
Cast: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen

Harrison Ford’s final outing as Indiana Jones sees the whip-wielding archaeologist adventurer embark on one last intrepid expedition with his estranged goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) as they race across the world in search of an ancient artifact before a Nazi rocket scientist (Mads Mikkelsen) gets his nefarious hands on it.

From our review:

Mangold is a very fine director capable of helming solid crowd-pleasers (Ford v Ferrari, Walk the Line) and even breathing new life into the dying X-Men franchise with Logan. But Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny looks anonymous. Its visual style is drab in a way that drains the film of any personality. When Indiana Jones makes his way through boobytrapped caves in torchlight in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the contrast between the outside world and this creepy tomb evokes a singular wonder. But virtually every scene in darkness here is scantily lit and hard to see. And like many a modern blockbuster, Dial of Destiny leans on rapid cuts that heighten the pace of Indiana’s brawls with the Nazis, but the choreography is barely discernible.

New on Hulu

A Compassionate Spy

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Image: Magnolia Pictures

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Steve James
Cast: Tom Goodwin, Mickey O’Sullivan

Legendary documentarian Steve James (Hoop Dreams) turns his camera toward the story of Theodore Hall, a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project and gave information to the Soviets about the development of The Bomb. The documentary uses interview footage with Hall and his wife, as well as reenactments and archival footage.

New on Prime Video

Candy Cane Lane

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

Image: Prime Video

Genre: Christmas
Run time: 1h 57m
Director: Reginald Hudlin
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jillian Bell

It’s a very Eddie Murphy Christmas on Prime Video. He’s a man determined to win a Christmas home decoration contest, and he makes a deal with an elf (Jillian Bell) that has unforeseen consequences on his town.

New on Paramount Plus

The Lesson

Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

Image: Bleecker Street

Genre: Thriller
Run time: 1h 43m
Director: Alice Troughton
Cast: Daryl McCormack, Richard E. Grant, Julie Delpy

A young writer (Daryl McCormack) agrees to tutor the son of his idol (Richard E. Grant). But all is not as it seems, as dark secrets threaten to tangle the writer in this family’s web.

Earth Mama

Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

Image: A24

Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 37m
Director: Savanah Leaf
Cast: Tia Nomore, Erika Alexander, Doechii

A pregnant single mother in the Bay Area hopes to reclaim her two children from foster care in this moving drama from first-time feature director Savanah Leaf. It’s one of the best movies of the year.

New on Peacock

The Exorcist: Believer

Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock

Image: Universal Studios

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

After a short theatrical run, David Gordon Green’s new entry in the Exorcist franchise arrives at home. 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 Shudder

It’s a Wonderful Knife

Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder

Image: RLJE Films

Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 27m
Director: Tyler MacIntyre
Cast: Jane Widdop, Justin Long, Joel McHale

It’s a Wonderful Life meets the slasher genre in this Christmas movie about a girl who wishes she’d never been born, only to discover how many lives that would truly cost.

New on Starz

Joy Ride

Where to watch: Available to stream on Starz

Image: Araquel/Lionsgate

Genre: Comedy
Run time: 1h 35m
Director: Adele Lim
Cast: Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu

What if someone took the 2017 comedy Girls Trip and combined it with the soul-searching drama of Return to Seoul? You might get something like Joy Ride, the new comedy about a four Chinese American friends who bond through their shared adventure to track down their birth mothers.

New on MGM Plus

Bottoms

Where to watch: Available to stream on MGM Plus

Image: Orion Pictures

Genre: Comedy
Run time: 1h 31m
Director: Emma Seligman
Cast: Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Marshawn Lynch

Teen girl comedies are back in a big way, and Bottoms is a standout of this year’s crop. A trio of comedic powerhouses star in this movie about high school girls who start a fight club to try and impress the popular girls at school they have crushes on. Chaos ensues.

From our review:

Bottoms is strongest when it fully indulges that satire. Part of the high school’s hype strategy for the big football game involves plastering the halls with heavily sexualized shirtless posters of the star quarterback. A classroom scene inexplicably involves one of the students standing in a cage. After a particularly climatic moment, a sad montage plays out, set to none other than Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated,” a needle drop so ridiculously 2000s that it transcends time and space.

Marlowe

Where to watch: Available to stream on MGM Plus

Image: Quim Vives/Briarcliff Entertainment

Genre: Neo-noir crime thriller
Run time: 1h 49m
Director: Neil Jordan
Cast: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange

Liam Neeson (Taken) plays Raymond Chandler’s iconic down-on-his-luck detective in a feature length adaptation of the 2014 Philip Marlowe novel The Black-Eyed Blonde by John Banville. Hired by a glamorous heiress (Diane Kruger) to ascertain the whereabouts of her ex-lover and bring them back, Marlowe quickly finds himself entrenched in an investigation that goes far deeper (and potentially far deadlier) than a lover’s quarrel.

New to rent

The Holdovers

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

Image: Focus Features

Genre: Comedy drama
Run time: 2h 13m
Director: Alexander Payne
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa

A strong late awards-season contender, The Holdovers has been beloved by every single person I’ve seen watch it. It’s about three people left at a New England boarding school for Christmas in 1970 — an uptight teacher (Paul Giamatti), the school’s head cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), and a sulking student (Dominic Sessa).

Freelance

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

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 here, 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.

Five Nights at Freddy’s

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

Photo: Patti Perret/Universal Pictures

Genre: Supernatural horror thriller
Run time: 1h 50m
Director: Emma Tammi
Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio

The massive hit video game series finally gets a horror movie adaptation, and Universal is going with the 2021 release model of simultaneous home and theatrical releases. Will it work for them? Only time will tell, but what it means for you is that you can watch a movie about the infamous, creepy pizza restaurant and its cursed animatronic animals either at home or in theaters.

From our review:

The movie’s funniest line is unintentional, when Mike earnestly explains, “I’m having a hard time just processing everything that’s happened,” as if he’s working through a tough breakup rather than a series of increasingly bizarre animatronic attacks. He’s right, though. For a movie with such a simple, appealing premise, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a lot to process.

Pete Volk

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December 1, 2023
Grand Theft Auto 6: All the news we’ve heard about Rockstar’s next game

After more than a decade, Rockstar Games will finally deliver a sequel to Grand Theft Auto 5, the multi-generational open-world crime spree that has sold more than 190 million copies. In December, GTA fans will get their first official look at the next Grand Theft Auto in trailer form, Rockstar has confirmed.

While Rockstar hasn’t given the next GTA game a proper name yet, it’s almost assuredly going to be titled Grand Theft Auto 6 (or Grand Theft Auto VI). And we know some details about GTA 6, after an unprecedented leak of the game in 2022. But thanks to Rockstar’s secrecy and the enormous task of following up one of the biggest games of all time, much about GTA 6 is still shrouded in mystery.

Here’s everything we do know about Grand Theft Auto 6 so far.

When does GTA 6 come out?

Rockstar hasn’t announced a release date yet for GTA 6, but parent company Take-Two Interactive might have revealed a release window for the next Grand Theft Auto game. In August, Take-Two told investors the company plans to see a “significant inflection point” during its 2025 fiscal year, which has been interpreted by analysts to mean that GTA 6 will be released sometime between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025. Obviously, that’s a pretty big window, but it could point to a 2024 release for GTA 6.

While GTA 6 may be targeting a 2024 launch, Rockstar is famous for delaying its biggest games in the name of polish. Its last major release, Red Dead Redemption 2, was publicly delayed three times. And back in 2013, Grand Theft Auto 5 saw a significant delay, slipping from its original spring release date to its ultimate September 2013 launch.

In other words, even if Rockstar gives us a release date or window by the end of 2023, history tells us that nothing is set in stone.

When does the GTA 6 trailer come out?

Rockstar co-founder and president Sam Houser has only confirmed an “early December” release for the first GTA 6 trailer. It may or may not coincide with The Game Awards 2023, which streams live on Dec. 7. It’s more likely that Rockstar will release the trailer on its own schedule, without competing with a bunch of other game announcements.

Where does GTA 6 take place?

According to a massive leak of early gameplay videos and early reporting on the game, Grand Theft Auto 6 will be set in Vice City, the GTA version of Miami. That location was previously explored in 2002’s Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and that game’s 2006 prequel Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. Those entries were set during the mid-1980s, but GTA 6 will reportedly tell a modern-day, Bonnie and Clyde-inspired story featuring two leads named Jason and Lucia, based on early gameplay videos. Lucia would be the GTA series’ first female lead playable protagonist in a mainline game.

Wait, what GTA 6 leak?

In 2022, more than 90 videos of the in-development version of Grand Theft Auto 6 were published online at the message board GTAForums. The hacker responsible claimed to have accessed the videos — some 50 minutes in total footage — directly from Rockstar Games’ internal Slack.

The videos show robberies, gunplay, open-world driving, a police chase, a crowded nightclub scene, and conversations with full voice acting. The game footage was clearly not intended to be shown publicly, with debug programming elements visible on-screen at the time.

One of the longer videos showed the female player character robbing a diner, as well as threatening staff and customers, who react in fear to having a gun pulled on them. Then she and her male accomplice get in a shootout with police before jumping in the police patrol car and driving off. The game’s graphical treatment is quite realistic, but still consistent with GTA games’ style.

How long has GTA 6 been in development?

Reportedly since 2014, though Rockstar did not officially acknowledge the game’s existence until February 2022.

What platforms will GTA 6 be released on?

TBD, but PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X are a safe bet. Unlike previous Grand Theft Auto games, which saw staggered releases on consoles versus PC, it seems more likely than ever that Rockstar would release all versions of the game on the same day. But given Rockstar’s track record, the PC version could lag behind PlayStation and Xbox releases.

There’s also another platform coming that could be home to Grand Theft Auto 6: Nintendo’s Switch successor. Rockstar has embraced the Switch with releases like L.A. Noire, Red Dead Redemption, and Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition, so don’t rule out an eventual release of GTA 6 on Switch 2.

How much will GTA 6 cost?

Rockstar and publisher Take-Two haven’t announced a price point, but it seems likely that Grand Theft Auto 6 will carry a $69.99 price point, increasingly the standard for AAA video games with big budgets.

Don’t worry about those unfounded rumors that GTA 6 will cost $150, or will be priced per hour, based on misinterpreted comments from Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick. There may be higher-priced premium or collector’s edition versions of GTA 6 that cost more than the industry-standard $69.99, but hold your horses (and your pre-orders) until Rockstar makes it official.

What happens to Grand Theft Auto Online when GTA 6 comes out?

Rockstar hasn’t said, but given the massive popularity of GTA Online, which is also sold as a stand-alone experience, it will likely continue. Rockstar may have more grand ambitions for an online mode for GTA 6, and it may run two versions of the online experience for each game. The future of GTA Online is one of the biggest open questions — not to mention Rockstar’s trickiest needle to thread — when it comes to discussing GTA 6. Rockstar may very well keep those plans under wraps for the foreseeable future.

Michael McWhertor

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November 29, 2023
Macy’s new Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons: Adam Sandler, Luffy, and an NFT

Thanksgiving in the United States comes with a number of traditional televised events, but maybe none as seamless and low-key entertaining as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

This year marks the department store’s 97th parade down the streets of New York City, and the event once again promises floats, musical numbers, and big cartoon balloons, albeit with an extremely 2023 touch. Here’s what to know — and a few things you may never think about while watching.

How to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade stream

The official telecast of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will air on NBC and be simulcast on Peacock. Today’s Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and Al Roker will be back per usual to yap about the floats. A Spanish language simulcast will air on Telemundo, hosted by Carlos Adyan and Andrea Meza.

What time does the Thanksgiving Day Parade start

This year’s parade starts a little earlier than usual: the simulcast runs from 8:30 a.m. ET to 12 p.m. ET., but will also begin at 8:30 a.m. in all time zones, so no need to wake up at the crack of dawn. NBC will also air an encore of the parade at 2 p.m. ET.

The new parade balloons and how they got here

Photo: Macy’s, Inc/Getty Images

This year’s balloon lineup sees a number of returning Giant and Novelty favorites, including Spongebob, Grogu, Bluey, and Smokey the Bear. The commerce of it all means a number of unfamiliar faces will join the lineup, too, including Leo, Adam Sandler’s 74-year-old lizard from the upcoming Netflix animated film; Uncle Dan, the mallard main character of Illumination’s new movie Migration; and Blue Cat & Chugs, the mascots of the Web3 company Cool Cats Group and the winner of a Macy’s contest to decide which NFT brand should earn a coveted character in the parade. 2023, baby! Anime continues its mainstream takeover as well, with legacy balloons Goku and Pikachu joined for the first time by One Piece’s Monkey D. Luffy.

Time has not just modernized the balloon characters, but the process itself. Kathleen Wright, Macy’s director of production operations, tells Polygon that the journey of devising a balloon, rendering it in inflatable form, then parading it along Central Park has taken on the quality of a Seal Team 6 operation. Computers allow designers to test balloon concepts in various weather conditions to determine the appropriate center of gravity and lift, all while minding the dimension requirements that allow it to float through New York.

In the week leading up to the parade, Wright and her team walk through the route with various city departments to size up potential hindrances for the buoyant stars, including any protruding lamp posts, which are manually swung in the opposite direction by city workers on the eve of the parade. On the day-of, the balloons — once made of rubber, but now built as modular polyurethane pieces that are heat sealed together and painted — are inflated with a combination of helium and regular air, based on required lift. Ninety handlers are assigned to each balloon, with 40-50 people securing the handling lines at any given time (and you thought pop stars were needy). By the time you watch the parade at home, a balloon’s “flight envelope” has been completely broken down and considered. There is no room for error, and based on Wright’s description, they don’t leave any.

The rest of the parade lineup

Along with the balloons and fleet of floats (including a sadly inedible Wonka one), the Thanksgiving Day Parade will once again tout a ton of talent shivering in their knickers while performing on the street. The show kicks off with a performance by Jon Batiste, with expected performances by Bell Biv DeVoe; Brandy; Chicago; En Vogue; David Foster and Katharine McPhee; Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors; Jessie James Decker; Ashley Park and the monsters of Sesame Street; Pentatonix; Paul Russell; Amanda Shaw and Alex Smith; and Manuel Turizo. Oh, and ENHYPEN will be there — so if you hear an inordinate amount of screaming from the crowd, it’s because the parade has gone full K-Pop, bless.

Matt Patches

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November 22, 2023
Five things to know before watching Disney’s Wish

At Polygon, a lot of us are fans of sitting down to a movie with as little up-front 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-credit scenes to wait for. Here are five things we think you should know about Walt Disney Animation Studios’ new animated feature Wish before watching.

Does Wish have a post-credits scene?

It does! It’s a brief, wordless sequence that doesn’t have any plot relevance, so you can decide for yourself whether it’s worth staying to watch. Like a lot of other elements in Wish, it’s mostly intended as a visual celebration of Disney’s 100-year anniversary. In the scene, a character with a lute plucks out a simple acoustic version of Disney’s signature ballad “When You Wish Upon a Star,” which segues into Disney’s updated CG animated anniversary logo. There isn’t a lot to it, except as another way the movie taps into Disney history. But if you’re sitting there at the end of the movie feeling the kind of nostalgia Disney intended you to feel, it might bring on the warm fuzzies.

Why does Wish’s animation look different from other Disney movies?

Wish is expressly intended as a salute to Disney history, which is why it’s packed full of visual references to past Disney movies. Part of that project had the directors, Chris Buck (Frozen) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (Raya and the Last Dragon story head), trying to digitally approximate Walt Disney Animation’s classic 2D hand-painted look. For this film, they used a digital approach previously tested on the experimental Disney short Paperman.

You can read more about the animation development process and the software used to render it in our behind-the-scenes look at Wish’s animation.

Where can I hear the songs from Wish?

Image: Walt Disney Animation Studios

Possibly anticipating piracy and deciding to just get all the video-play payout for themselves, Disney has released the Wish soundtrack in an official playlist on YouTube. There are quite a few songs, so if these were all actual clips from the movies, you’d be able to watch a significant chunk of Disney’s Wish free online. Instead, these are lyric videos. If you’re the kind of person who likes to listen to a musical’s songs ahead of time (we don’t understand you, but we know you’re out there), or you’re previewing the movie for younger viewers, or you come out of Wish with a particular song you want to revisit, that’s the easiest way to do it.

As of press time, a few of the songs were also on Spotify on Disney’s channel, but the whole album hadn’t been uploaded yet.

Who wrote the songs in Wish?

Disney fans may notice that Wish’s songs don’t have that Broadway-number, singalong quality common to so many Disney musicals, and that they’re more like radio-ready modern pop. That’s because the lyrics were written by Grammy-nominated pop artist Julia Michaels, who’s previously written songs for Justin Bieber (“Sorry”), Ed Sheeran (“Dive”), Gwen Stefani (“Used To Love You”), and Britney Spears (“Slumber Party”), among others. The music is by Michaels and indie-rock producer Benjamin Rice. They gave Wish a much glossier pop sound than most Disney movies, somewhat akin to the radio remixes of Disney soundtrack songs that have been common since the Disney Renaissance.

Why do some of Wish’s characters look so familiar?

Oof. So you may wind up wondering why the protagonist, Asha (Ariana DeBose), has a squad of seven pals backing her up — characters who mostly don’t have a lot to do, but are almost always together throughout the movie. Those characters are an extended gag from Disney history: They’re modeled after the dwarfs from Disney’s first animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Not only are their outfits color-coded after the dwarfs, they each have characteristics specific to the Snow White characters.

Image: Walt Disney Animation Studios

Image: Walt Disney Animation Studios

How to tell which Wish character is which dwarf? The fastest way is to check the first letters of their names. Dahlia (Jennifer Kumiyama), Asha’s best friend with the little round glasses and a tendency to lead the group, is Doc. The paranoid, constantly complaining Gabo (Harvey Guillén) is Grumpy. Smiley but not very assertive Hal (Niko Vargas) is Happy. Simon (Evan Peters), the big guy who’s dazed and half-conscious for much of the movie, is Sleepy. Safi (Ramy Youssef), whose only characteristic is that can’t stop sneezing, is Sneezy. Dario (Jon Rudnitsky), the big-eared guy whose job is saying clueless things, is Dopey. And Bazeema (Della Saba), the introvert who keeps disappearing early in the movie, is Bashful. None of this is spelled out in the movie, but once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

Tasha Robinson

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November 22, 2023
The Killer on Netflix, Dumb Money, and every new movie to watch at home this weekend

Happy Friday, Polygon readers!

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

This week, The Killer, David Fincher’s latest psychological thriller, finally arrives on Netflix following its brief theatrical run. Charlie Day’s satirical comedy Fool’s Paradise comes to Hulu, while a new documentary on actor-director-comedian Albert Brooks premieres on Max. There’s a ton of other new releases to choose from on VOD, including the biographical comedy-drama Dumb Money starring Paul Dano, A24’s Dicks: The Musical, and more.

Here’s everything new to watch this weekend!

New on Netflix

The Killer

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

Genre: Action thriller
Run time: 1h 58m
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell

Based on the 1998 French graphic novel, David Fincher’s latest stars Michael Fassbender as a professional assassin who becomes the center of an international manhunt after his latest assignment goes wrong.

From our review:

In theory, The Killer could be seen as a film about the ruthlessness of the gig economy, disguised as a crime thriller. It sends the Killer through a Russian nesting doll of missions until there’s little delineation between his personal life and his profession. But Fincher and Walker have little to say about anything they present on screen, or the fleeting thematic subtext they introduce. The film is airtight in its construction, but slight in its artistic objectives. Beyond Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ nerve-wracking score, there really isn’t that much to it.

Squaring the Circle

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Genre: Art documentary
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Anton Corbijn
Cast: Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, Jimmy Page

Dutch photographer and director Anton Corbijn (The American, A Most Wanted Man) makes his second straight doc about the music industry here after 2019’s Depeche Mode concert movie Spirits in the Forest. This time, he turns his eye on the album art design studio Hipgnosis, with the help of some rock ’n’ roll luminaries.

New on Hulu

Fool’s Paradise

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Image: Lionsgate

Genre: Satirical comedy
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Charlie Day
Cast: Charlie Day, Ken Jeong, Kate Beckinsale

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Charlie Day makes his feature directorial debut in this satirical comedy about a mute amnesiac (Day) who is abducted by a desperate publicist (Ken Jeong) to impersonate his client — a method actor who refuses to leave his trailer to film a biopic about Billy the Kid. It gets even weirder than that, trust me.

New on Max

Albert Brooks: Defending My Life

Where to watch: Available to stream on Max

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 28m
Director: Rob Reiner
Cast: Albert Brooks, Judd Apatow, James L. Brooks

Framed as a dinner conversation between actor-director Albert Brooks and director Rob Reiner, this documentary charts Brooks’ career from his early work on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and his mainstream acting debut in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver to his meteoric rise to fame starring in such films as Private Benjamin and Broadcast News. Guests include Larry David, Conan O’Brien, Sarah Silverman, and Jonah Hill.

New on Shudder

Birth/Rebirth

Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder

Image: IFC Films/Shudder

Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Laura Moss
Cast: Marin Ireland, Judy Reyes, Breeda Wool

This horror-thriller follows a morgue technician who performs a miracle by successfully bringing the body of a dead girl back to life. Unfortunately, this miracle comes at a price, forcing the technician to hunt down pregnant women in order to harvest their biological material to keep the girl alive.

New to rent

Dumb Money

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

Photo: Claire Folger/Sony Pictures

Genre: Biographical comedy-drama
Run time: 1h 45m
Director: Craig Gillespie
Cast: Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Vincent D’Onofrio

Remember the GameStop short squeeze of 2021? No? That’s OK — admittedly, it was a very hectic and wild time, what with the whole… everything going on. In case you’re looking for a refresher, this biographical comedy-drama about a middle-class financial analyst who struck big during squeeze might be just what you’re looking for.

From our review:

Where The Big Short was patronizing but still hugely entertaining and legitimately informative, Dumb Money’s creators seem uninterested in explaining what the hell happened with the GameStop scenario, or how the hell it happened. The script assumes that the audience is either already familiar with the story, or doesn’t much care about the financial specifics and just wants to see the news reenacted by people they know. Most of the jargon goes unexplained, and the series of events that facilitated the saga is just shrugged off in favor of a simplistic “isn’t this crazy?!” tone.

Dicks: The Musical

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

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.

Rebel

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

Genre: Drama
Run time: 2h 15m
Directors: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Cast: Aboubakr Bensaihi, Lubna Azabal, Tara Abboud

Rebel follows the story of Kamal (Aboubakr Bensaihi), a Moroccan-born Belgian rapper who chooses to travel to Syria to aid victims of a war. After being abducted by the Islamic State, Kamal is forced to work as a cameraman filming the group’s skirmishes against the military. While trying to find a way to escape, Kamal must find a way to save his impressionable younger brother, Nassim, who is being groomed as an Islamic State recruit.

Foe

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

Image: Amazon Studios

Genre: Sci-fi drama
Run time: 1h 50m
Director: Garth Davis
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal, Aaron Pierre

Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal star in this sci-fi psychological thriller about Henrietta and Junior, a married couple whose love is put to the test when Junior is called to work on a large space station orbiting Earth. In his stead, Henrietta will be left in the company of a robotic replica of her husband. Remember that one episode from the sixth season of Black Mirror that starred Aaron Paul and Josh Hartnett? This sounds kind of like that.

Toussaint Egan

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November 10, 2023
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on Netflix, A Haunting in Venice, and every new movie to watch this weekend

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

This week’s biggest debut is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which is now streaming on Netflix. That’s not all, as Insidious: The Red Door — the fifth installment in the Insidious horror franchise — also arrives on the platform this week alongside Jawan, one of the biggest Indian action movies of the year. There’s plenty more exciting releases this week too, with A Haunting in Venice now streaming on Hulu, the Italian superhero movie Freaks vs. the Reich on Prime Video, plus the premiere of The Kill Room and Outlaw Johnny Black from director-star Michael Jai White on VOD.

Here’s everything new to watch this weekend!

New on Netflix

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Sony Pictures Animation

Genre: Superhero action
Run time: 2h 20m
Director: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
Cast: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac

The highly anticipated follow-up to 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sees Miles Morales facing off not only against a dimension-hopping nemesis in the form of the Spot, but a whole multiverse of Spider-Mans, Spider-People, and even a Spider-Dinosaur as he attempts to save the day once again.

From our multiversal review:

Not every theme and plot and moment in Across the Spider-Verse lands, particularly with the other part of this story still most of a year away. But in the end, the theme of the Spider-Verse movies is shaping up to be a story about people trying to be bigger and bolder themselves, trying to reach beyond what they’re told they’re capable of, and do more. It’s no wonder that every part of Across the Spider-Verse is an attempt to outdo the first movie. The idea of growing, of surpassing and ignoring everyone else’s limits, is the heart of this series’ heroes and their individual journeys. It looks like the movies themselves are designed to follow suit.

Jawan

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Red Chillies Entertainment

Genre: Action thriller
Run time: 2h 50m
Director: Atlee
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Nayanthara, Vijay Sethupathi

The biggest Indian movie of the year has landed on Netflix. Directed by Atlee (Mersal), Jawan features megastar Shah Rukh Khan (between this and Pathaan, he is truly back) and is basically “Robin Hood meets Charlie’s Angels.”

Insidious: The Red Door

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix Saturday

Image: Sony Pictures Entertainment

Genre: Supernatural horror
Run time: 1h 47m
Director: Patrick Wilson
Cast: Ty Simpkins, Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne

The fifth movie in the Insidious franchise is the directorial debut for star Patrick Wilson. It’s also a sequel to Insidious: Chapter 2, as the last two movies in the franchise were prequels.

From our review:

As a director, Wilson isn’t as effortless a horror ringmaster as Wan or Whannell: He favors more actor-centric scares than wild imagery. But he makes great use of expressive close-ups (often of himself) and shallow focus, with a few creepy It Follows-like shots of blurry figures approaching from the distance, and a terrifically claustrophobic scene inside an MRI machine. Dalton’s college story, meanwhile, occasionally borders on campus-prank zaniness: It includes what can only be described as a puke ghost, and there’s one amusing use of the horror movie cliche about the haunted little kid who makes terrifying drawings of the ghouls only he can see. (Naturally, that kid grows up to become a star pupil in an insufferable freshman art class.)

Sly

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 35m
Director: Thom Zimny
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Quentin Tarantino

This documentary takes a close look at the life of one of the great American movie stars and film writers: Sylvester Stallone.

Nyad

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Photo: Liz Parkinson/Netflix

Genre: Biographical sports drama
Run time: 2h 1m
Directors: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Cast: Jodie Foster, Annette Bening, Rhys Ifans

Nyad tells the (questionably) true story of swimmer Diana Nyad, who swam from Cuba to Florida at 64 years old, among many other swimming accomplishments.

Wingwomen

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Photo: Gael Turpo/Netflix

Genre: Action
Run time: 1h 56m
Director: Mélanie Laurent
Cast: Mélanie Laurent, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Isabelle Adjani

Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) is both behind and in front of the camera in this action comedy about women thieves on the run looking to pull off one last job.

New on Hulu

A Haunting in Venice

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Image: 20th Century Studios

Genre: Horror mystery
Run time: 1h 43m
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan

Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot adaptations have generally been a fun time, even when they have problems (looking at you, Death on the Nile). A Haunting in Venice is his best yet, as Branagh’s confidence as director and performer in this mode only continues to grow. It’s perfect fall viewing.

Quiz Lady

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Image: Hulu

Genre: Comedy
Run time: 1h 39m
Director: Jessica Yu
Cast: Awkwafina, Sandra Oh, Will Ferrell

Sandra Oh and Awkwafina play a pair of estranged sisters who try to win big on a game show to pay off their mom’s debts. The supporting cast includes Will Ferrell, Jason Schwartzman, Tony Hale, and the late Paul Reubens.

New on Prime Video

Freaks vs. the Reich

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

Image: VMI Releasing

Genre: Superhero/circus war movie
Run time: 2h 21m
Director: Gabriele Mainetti
Cast: Claudio Santamaria, Aurora Giovinazzo, Pietro Castellitto

This offbeat Italian superhero movie follows a group of circus performers in World War II who are sought after by the Nazis and team up to stop them. I have heard it’s funny, sweet, and has strong action — definitely on my weekend watchlist.

New on Peacock

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3

Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock

Photo: Yannis Drakoulidis/Focus Features

Genre: Romantic comedy
Run time: 1h 32m
Director: Nia Vardalos
Cast: Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Louis Mandylor

One of cinema’s most endearingly goofy families is back, in the most family-centric franchise this side of the Fast and Furious movies. It’s the first Greek Wedding movie since 2016, which came nearly 15 years after the original smash hit. This time, star-writer Nia Vardalos takes over directorial duties, following up her 2009 directorial debut I Hate Valentine’s Day.

New on AMC Plus

Sympathy for the Devil

Where to watch: Available to stream on AMC Plus

Image: RLJE Films

Genre: Psychological thriller
Run time: 1h 30m
Director: Yuval Adler
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Joel Kinnaman

A largely two-person movie that sounds a bit like Collateral, Sympathy for the Devil stars Nicolas Cage as a passenger who holds a driver (Joel Kinnaman) hostage on a long car trip.

New to rent

Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie

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

Image: Paramount Pictures

Genre: Action adventure
Run time: 1h 35m
Director: Cal Brunker
Cast: Mckenna Grace, Taraji P. Henson, Marsai Martin

The Paw Patrol is back — this sequel to the first movie sees the pup get superpowers in their quest to stop Mayor Humdinger from destroying Adventure City.

The Kill Room

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

Image: Shout! Studios

Genre: Dark comedy thriller
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Nicol Paone
Cast: Joe Manganiello, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman

Joe Manganiello stars as a hitman turned artist in this funny comedy about how the worlds of fine art and high crime aren’t so separated after all. When he turns to art as a method of laundering money, the hitman becomes an unexpected overnight sensation in the high-art scene.

Outlaw Johnny Black

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

Image: Samuel Goldwyn Films

Genre: Satirical Western
Run time: 2h 10m
Director: Michael Jai White
Cast: Michael Jai White, Anika Noni Rose, Erica Ash

Michael Jai White’s long-awaited follow-up to Black Dynamite is finally here: a “West-ploitation” movie about an outlaw who pretends to be a preacher and settles in a new troubled town. The star and director spoke to us at length about the movie and the long road it took to get here.

Sound of Freedom

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

Image: Angel Studios/VidAngel Studios

Genre: Crime thriller
Run time: 2h 11m
Director: Alejandro Gómez Monteverde
Cast: Jim Caviezel, Mira Sorvino, Bill Camp

One of the most surprising (and controversial) box-office hits of the year, Sound of Freedom purports to be a true story about stopping child trafficking. The truth is much more complicated than that.

Pete Volk

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November 3, 2023