Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.
This week, Wish, the latest musical fantasy from Walt Disney Animation Studios and starring Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine, finally comes to Disney Plus. There’s a lot of other exciting new releases on streaming, including the biographical drama Scoop on Netflix, Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning film The Zone of Interest on Max, the supernatural horror film Talk to Me on Paramount Plus, and more. There’s also plenty of other new movies available on VOD, like Baby Assassins 2 and The American Society of Magical Negroes.
Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!
New on Netflix
Scoop
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Biographical dramaRun time: 1h 43mDirector: Philip MartinCast: Gillian Anderson, Rufus Sewell, Billie Piper
The latest film from director Philip Martin (The Crown) dramatizes the downfall of Prince Andrew in the wake of the infamous Newsnight interview following allegations of sexual assault. Things go from bad to worse when the prince’s connections to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein are brought to light.
New on Disney Plus
Wish
Where to watch: Available to stream on Disney Plus
Genre: Musical fantasyRun time: 1h 35mDirectors: Chris Buck, Fawn VeerasunthornCast: Chris Pine, Ariana DeBose, Alan Tudyk
This fantasy adventure film created to celebrate the Walt Disney Company’s 100th anniversary follows Asha (Ariana DeBose), a young girl living in an island kingdom ruled by a powerful sorcerer named Magnifico (Chris Pine). After making a wish one night, Asha befriends a living magical star that falls from the sky and agrees to help her achieve her heart’s greatest desire.
From our review:
The main problem with Wish is that the filmmakers lean so hard on Disney’s legacy and the nostalgic elements that they fail to actually add much new. Every single detail in Wish is a deliberate reminder of another movie that came before it — usually something better and more unique. That’s particularly true for all the characters, some of whom are literally just walking nods to previous Disney movies. They’re all vague ideas of what a Disney Character should be, from snarky talking goat Valentino (voiced by Wreck-It Ralph’s Alan Tudyk) to the heroine herself, without much to make them memorable.
New on Hulu
Lord of Misrule
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: HorrorRun time: 1h 44mDirector: William Brent BallCast: Ralph Ineson, Tuppence Middleton, Alexa Goodall
The director of the delightfully fun Orphan: First Kill is back with another movie, this time starring the inimitable Ralph Ineson (The Witch, The Green Knight). After a minister (Tuppence Middleton) moves to a village in the English countryside, her daughter goes missing ahead of the annual harvest festival. I have a feeling those villagers are up to something sinister!
New on Max
The Zone of Interest
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max
Genre: Historical dramaRun time: 1h 46mDirector: Jonathan GlazerCast: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Johann Karthaus
Based on the novel by Martin Amis, Jonathan Glazer’s latest film follows the story of Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp who chose to build his family home just outside the camp’s walls.
From our review:
The Zone of Interest may be the most powerful movie about complicity that’s ever been made, particularly about the Holocaust. The movie’s true warning isn’t that regular life can go on even amid atrocity, it’s that people are capable of pretending that atrocity isn’t happening. Glazer seems to suggest that people aren’t unaware of destructive historical events going on around them, but rather that they actively close their ears to it. The Höss family doesn’t drown out the camp, or begrudgingly ignore the roar of its furnaces or the gunshots from over the wall. They just keep going like it isn’t there at all. The effect of all their silence is one of the loudest and most unique views a film has ever taken on one of history’s most horrific atrocities.
Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max on April 6
Genre: Apocalyptic musical comedyRun time: 1h 23mDirector: Brendon SmallCast: Brendon Small, Tommy Blacha, Malcolm McDowell
Metalocalypse creator Brendon Small returns with a feature-length finale to his satirical Adult Swim original series. With the evil Tribunal preparing to instigate the Metalocalypse, the members of Dethklok must work together to compose the song of salvation and save the day.
From our review:
“Epic” as a descriptor is thrown around too often as a hyperbolic compliment, but Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar rightfully warrants that description and then some. It’s a fitting final chapter in the long and outrageous saga of one of Adult Swim’s most surprising cult classics, and a rapturous encore dedicated to a passionate fan base who refused to let the series go quietly. The Metalocalypse may be over, but the music never dies.
New on Prime Video
Música
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Genre: Coming-of-age rom-comRun time: 1h 31mDirector: Rudy MancusoCast: Rudy Mancuso, Camila Mendes, J.B. Smoove
Internet personality turned writer-director Rudy Mancuso stars in his directorial debut as a fictionalized version of himself. Plagued by constant music in his head, Rudy struggles to navigate the challenges of life and love as he attempts to pursue a future marching to the beat of his own drum.
New on Paramount Plus
Talk to Me
Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus w/ Showtime
Genre: Supernatural horrorRun time: 1h 35mDirectors: Danny Philippou, Michael PhilippouCast: Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird
Talk to Me follows a group of Australian teenagers who discover how to conjure the spirits of the dead using an embalmed hand. Naturally, they start filming themselves messing around with it, but when one of them holds on to the hand for too long in order to communicate with a lost loved one, they open a door to a world of horrors. Praised as one of the scariest movies of 2023, Talk to Me is the directorial debut of YouTubers Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou and already has a sequel in production.
New on Peacock
Night Swim
Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock
Genre: Horror thrillerRun time: 1h 38mDirector: Bryce McGuireCast: Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amélie Hoeferle
Wyatt Russell (Monarch: Legacy of Monsters) stars in this supernatural horror film as a professional baseball player who, after being forced into retirement, moves into a luxurious new home with his wife and children. When a malevolent force emerges from the waters of the house’s backyard pool, the family is forced to face a horror beyond their deepest fears.
From our review:
All the strengths of its family story aside, it’s probably fair to want a little more horror out of a movie about a killer swimming pool. There are a few fun bits of pool horror in Night Swim, like seeing another world behind the flap of the skimmer or the spring of an empty diving board playing like a warning sign to run. Outside of its opening scene, though, Night Swim isn’t the scariest movie about hungry spirits and ancient gods. But hey, it’s January. Horror fans will take what we can get. Sometimes that just means a few good scares in an otherwise fascinating family movie about magic pools and baseball — which is more than enough to make Night Swim a worthy addition to the list of interesting, watchable January horror.
New on Apple TV Plus
Girls State
Where to watch: Available to stream on Apple TV Plus
Genre: DocumentaryRun time: 1h 35mDirector: Jesse Moss
Who runs the world? That was a rhetorical question, but what if the answer was girls? This documentary follows 500 adolescent girls from Missouri who come together to take part in an immersive weeklong experiment: creating a Supreme Court designed to take on the nation’s most contentious issues.
New on Mubi
How to Have Sex
Where to watch: Available to stream on Mubi
Genre: Coming-of-age dramaRun time: 1h 31mDirector: Molly Manning WalkerCast: Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake, Samuel Bottomley
One of the best movies of 2024 so far, How to Have Sex isn’t quite what its title suggests. Rather than a rowdy teen comedy, it’s a tender coming-of-age story. As Oli Welsh puts it in his write-up in our list of the best 2024 movies, “It’s a quietly devastating movie about bad formative experiences, but also beautiful in its empathy and kindness, and funny, too.”
New to rent
Baby Assassins 2
Where to watch: Available to rent on YouTube, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Action comedyRun time: 1h 41mDirector: Yugo SakamotoCast: Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa, Oto Abe
The sequel to one of 2022’s most delightful movies, Baby Assassins 2 sees the two teenage assassin protagonists return with a new problem: They’re overdue on their gym payments, and there are two contractors gunning for their jobs and their lives.
From our review:
That action is designed by Kensuke Sonomura, one of the best action directors and fight choreographers working today. He also happens to have a long history designing action for video games, like Devil May Cry 4, Vanquish, 2020’s Resident Evil 3, and multiple Metal Gear Solid games. His style of choreography nimbly shifts to meet the needs of each project, but it always excels in its fluidity of motion, use of environments, and legibility of action. You will never be lost watching a Kensuke Sonomura fight scene.
The American Society of Magical Negroes
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Fantasy rom-comRun time: 1h 45mDirector: Kobi LibiiCast: Justice Smith, David Alan Grier, An-Li Bogan
Kobi Libii’s directorial debut stars Justice Smith (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) as Aren, a young biracial artist who is recruited to join a clandestine group of magical Black people who secretly help white people in their mission to solve racism. You can probably guess about how well that goes.
Snack Shack
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Coming-of-age comedyRun time: 1h 52mDirector: Adam Carter RehmeierCast: Conor Sherry, Gabriel LaBelle, Mika Abdalla
Travel back to 1991 in this comedy that follows a pair of teenage boys who work at the snack shack of a local pool in Nebraska. When a new lifeguard shows up, both boys instantly fall for her, putting their friendship in question.
Knox Goes Away
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Crime thrillerRun time: 1h 54mDirector: Michael KeatonCast: Michael Keaton, Al Pacino, James Marsden
Sixteen years ago, Michael Keaton made his directorial debut with The Merry Gentleman, about a hitman going through some hard times. Now he’s back with his second directed feature, also about a hitman going through some hard times. This time, the hitman is John Knox, a contract killer separated from his family who takes on one last job after a dementia diagnosis.
The post Wish, Netflix’s Scoop, The Zone of Interest, and every new movie to watch this weekend appeared first on Polygon.
