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, I Saw the TV Glow, the new psychological horror drama from We’re All Going to the World’s Fair director Jane Schoenbrun starring Justice Smith (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) and Brigette Lundy-Paine (Bill & Ted Face the Music), is finally available to watch on VOD. There’s tons of other exciting new releases on streaming this week as well, like new animated feature Ultraman: Rising on Netflix, the Ava DuVernay-directed drama Origin on Hulu, Dev Patel’s blistering action brawler Monkey Man on Peacock, and much more.
Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!
New on Netflix
Ultraman: Rising
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Superhero dramaRun time: 1h 57mDirectors: Shannon Tindle, John AoshimaCast: Christopher Sean, Gedde Watanabe, Tamlyn Tomita
Ultraman is back, this time in an all-new animated feature from directors Shannon Tindle (Lost Ollie) and John Aoshima! Ultraman: Rising centers on Ken Sato, a braggadocious baseball player who returns to his home of Tokyo to inherit his father’s role as the superhero Ultraman. After inadvertently adopting a baby kaiju, Ken must raise the newborn while balancing his personal and heroic responsibilities.
From our review:
Ultraman: Rising doesn’t spend a whole lot of time on the decades-spanning mythos and world-building around the character. Instead, Tindle and company hone the film’s focus down to Ken’s family dynamic, and his subsequent arc from an obnoxiously selfish braggart to a humbler, more mature hero. That decision absolutely works to the movie’s benefit, allowing audiences who might otherwise be unfamiliar with the character to grasp the broader stakes and particularities of his universe.
Remembering Gene Wilder
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: DocumentaryRun time: 1h 32mDirector: Ron Frank
This documentary covers the life and career of actor and comedian Gene Wilder, best known for his starring roles in such films as Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Young Frankenstein, and Blazing Saddles. Consisting of never-before-seen footage and interviews with collaborators and friends who knew him best, Remembering Gene Wilder is a tribute to the legacy of one of most beloved actors of the 20th century.
New on Hulu
Brats
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: DocumentaryRun time: 1h 32mDirector: Andrew McCarthy
In the ’80s, the young stars of John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club and Joel Schumacher’s St. Elmo’s Fire were dubbed the “Brat Pack” — much to their chagrin. Anthony Michael Hall reunites his former co-stars and colleagues to recount what it was like to come to fame in ’80s, how the intense media attention and “Brat Pack” label dogged them throughout their careers, and how they either overcame or succumbed to the pressure of their breakout.
Origin
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Biographical dramaRun time: 2h 21mDirector: Ava DuVernayCast: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga
Ava DuVernay’s latest film is a drama based on the life of Isabel Wilkerson, the author of the 2020 book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The film follows Wilkerson’s (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) journey through Germany, India, and the United States as she researches material for her book.
From our review:
These stories, and the context Wilkerson places them in, are powerful. The almost comical footage of Ellis-Taylor organizing piles of books, writing on a whiteboard, and tapping on a laptop while she ties her case together in voice-over adds nothing but cringe value. It’s easy to imagine a documentary version of Origin that’s more like 13th, with the historical reconstructions stitched together by archive footage, talking-head interviews, and biographical information about Wilkerson. It might have been just as compelling, and much more satisfying and coherent. But the takeaway is just the same, and one I intend to act on myself: Go buy a copy of Caste and read it.
New on Peacock
Monkey Man
Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock
Genre: Action thrillerRun time: 2h 1mDirector: Dev PatelCast: Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash
Dev Patel stars in his directorial debut as an unnamed street kid who, years after his village was burned to the ground, earns a living as a monkey-masked fighter in an underground boxing club. He embarks on a campaign of brutal violence to exact revenge on the men responsible.
From our review:
When Monkey Man finally shifts into gear for its action scenes, there’s a clearer vision at work — though perhaps “clear” isn’t the word for it. Patel, working with fight choreographer Brahim Chab and cinematographer Sharone Meir (Whiplash), shoots the fights up close and personal with a frenetic handheld camera that judders and whip-pans with the force of every blow, and deftly stitches these shots together into head-spinning, unbroken runs of movement. Influenced by Korean, Indonesian, and Bollywood action movies, what the style sometimes lacks in clarity it makes up in ferocity and impact. The desperation of Kid’s first bathroom battle with Rana is brilliantly conveyed (Kher is fantastic in an old-school heavy role), and the extended climax is intermittently stunning, although the editing sometimes struggles to maintain focus when things get busy.
New on Shudder
Exhuma
Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder
Genre: Supernatural horrorRun time: 2h 14mDirector: Jang Jae-hyunCast: Choi Min-sik, Kim Go-eun, Yoo Hae-jin
This Korean horror thriller follows a shaman (Kim Go-eun) and her apprentice (Lee Do-hyun), who are hired to cure the newborn son of a wealthy family of his mysterious supernatural affliction. Tracing the source of the illness to a long-hidden grave on a sacred plot, the two must work together to exorcise the curse there without putting their own lives in peril.
New to rent
I Saw the TV Glow
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Psychological horror dramaRun time: 1h 40mDirector: Jane SchoenbrunCast: Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Ian Foreman
Jane Schoenbrun returns with a follow-up to their 2021 breakout We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Justice Smith (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) stars in I Saw the TV Glow as Owen, a shy student who befriends Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), an older classmate who loves a TV show called The Pink Opaque. As the two grow older, their relationship to one another — as well as the show itself — transforms in ways that neither could have predicted, unearthing uncomfortable truths and revelations that call into question their entire sense of identity.
The film’s themes and conclusion have opened up a lot of room for thoughtful discussion and speculation, and Polygon got to speak to Schoenbrun about the origins of I Saw the TV Glow’s production, as well as how Buffy the Vampire Slayer inspired the film’s in-universe TV series.
The post Netflix’s Ultraman: Rising, I Saw the TV Glow, and every movie new to streaming this week appeared first on Polygon.
