Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.
This week, A Quiet Place: Day One, starring Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn, arrives on VOD along with Maxxxine, the third installment in Ti West’s horror series starring Mia Goth. That’s not all there is to watch this weekend. The long-awaited director’s cut of Zack Snyder’s sci-fi epic Rebel Moon finally come to Netflix alongside the “Minus Color” version of Godzilla Minus One, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes struts onto Hulu, and Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers makes its streaming debut on MGM Plus.
Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!
New on Netflix
Rebel Moon director’s cut
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Sci-fi epicRun time: 3h 21m (Chapter 1); 2h 53m (Chapter 2)Director: Zack SnyderCast: Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein
Zack Snyder is back, this time with the “true” version of his critically-panned sci-fi epic Rebel Moon. Set in a galaxy ruled by a tyrannical empire known as the Motherworld Imperium, the film follows Kora (Sofia Boutella), a former Imperium soldier who recruits a band of warriors to defend a small lunar farming colony from an oncoming invasion.
The question is: Will these versions be it any better than the ones released last year? Only one way to find out!
Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Kaiju dramaRun time: 2h 4mDirector: Takashi YamazakiCast: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada
Godzilla Minus One, the Oscar-winning kaiju drama from director Takashi Yamazaki, was surprise added to Netflix back in June. Now, the “Minus Color” version of the film, which screened for a limited time in theaters early this year, is now available to stream on Netflix starting this weekend. Having seen both in theaters, I can confidently say that no matter which version you happen to choose, the film itself is phenomenal.
Tarot
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: HorrorRun time: 1h 32mDirectors: Spenser Cohen, Anna HalbergCast: Harriet Slater, Adain Bradley, Avantika, Jacob Batalon
From the screenwriter of Moonfall, Tarot follows a group of friends who find a mysterious cursed tarot deck… and after using it, the figures from the cards that they drew all start to manifest and brutally murder them. They must race to figure out the secret of the tarot deck before they all get picked off one by one. All to say — maybe don’t use creepy tarot decks while in a strange mansion.
Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Adventure comedyRun time: 1h 22mDirector: Liza JohnsonCast: Carolyn Lawrence, Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown
Sandy, the Texan squirrel, takes the lead in the new SpongeBob movie. And this time, the underwater denizens venture to the surface — Sandy finally gets to visit home and see her whole family! But they all have to join forces to save Bikini Bottom from an evil CEO.
New on Hulu
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Post-apocalyptic sci-fiRun time: 2h 25mDirector: Wes BallCast: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand
Picking up 300 years after the events of Matt Reeves’ War of the Planet of the Apes, this new installment in the franchise follows Noa (Owen Teague), a young ape who embarks on a journey to rescue his tribe from Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), a maniacal ape who has twisted Caesar’s legacy to create an empire built on conquest and slavery.
From our review:
As a story, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes rarely reaches above narrative competence. But because of its almost single-minded focus on the apes, its technical prowess in their rendering is always front and center. It is frankly incredible what the team at Wētā FX has done in conjunction with all of the film’s other effects artists to bring the apes to life, to give them all distinct body language, and to faithfully transpose actors’ every tic and subtle expression onto their faces. These are some of the most soulful digital creations ever seen in a blockbuster action movie, and it’s incredible to see them in a film that is so pedestrian.
New on MGM Plus
Challengers
Where to watch: Available to stream on MGM Plus
Genre: Sports dramaRun time: 2h 11mDirector: Luca GuadagninoCast: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist
Luca Guadagnino’s sensual sports drama, about a love triangle in professional tennis, has set certain circles of the world on fire since its release in late April and is one of the best movies of the year. Now, you can enjoy it at home.
From our review:
That script is a terrific three-course meal for Faist and O’Connor. They get to trade off face and heel roles from scene to scene and era to era, as Art and Patrick help and hurt each other in equal measure. But it’s an absolute smorgasbord for Zendaya, who even in starring roles has never been given this much room to stretch. Tashi is a gratifyingly rich character, both righteously angry over the thwarting of her ambitions and cruelly angry at all the men who have the nerve to keep on playing the game that was taken away from her. She’s hungry for affection and withholding it at the same time, by turns sensually curious and coldly dispassionate, ambitious and exhausted, conflicted and confident. She’s the kind of character that media master’s theses are made of, and unpicking Tashi’s conflicting motives and how she integrates them is likely to become a pop culture obsession in the months to come.
New on Metrograph
New Strains
Where to watch: Available to stream on Metrograph
Genre: RomcomRun time: 1h 18mDirectors: Prashanth Kamalakanthan, Artemis ShawCast: Artemis Shaw, Prashanth Kamalakanthan
This quirky independent romcom follows a bickering couple as they attempt to navigate their relationship, and retain their sanity, in the midst of a global pandemic. Shot on a Hi8 camcorder, New Strains is an authentic slice-of-life story from the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
New to rent
Maxxxine
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: HorrorRun time: 1h 41mDirector: Ti WestCast: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney
The third installment in Ti West’s trilogy of period-specific horror films stars Mia Goth, this time reprising her role as Maxine Minx from 2022’s X. Set six years after surviving the terrifying ordeal that transpired in rural Texas, Maxine now lives and works in Los Angeles as an adult film star and erotic performer on the verge of her first big break in an upcoming horror film. But when a mysterious stalker and an unscrupulous private investigator begin to hound her around town, and harm those closest to her, Maxine will have to summon every ounce of her cunning in order to come out on top.
From our review:
Maxxxine is sharper, slicker, faster-paced, and more direct than the other two films in the series, and it’s certainly entertaining, for those who can stomach its purposefully challenging, envelope-pushing gore. But this time around, it feels like West has, as Kurt Vonnegut would put it, become what he was formerly just pretending to be. That isn’t just a matter of taxonomy, irrelevant to everyone but nitpickers and librarians trying to figure out which shelf Maxxxine goes on. It winds up affecting the story in some frustrating ways.
A Quiet Place: Day One
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: HorrorRun time: 1h 39mDirector: Michael SarnoskiCast: Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff
Lupita Nyong’o stars in the prequel to 2018’s A Quiet Place as Samira, a cancer patient living in New York who witnesses first-hand the arrival of the blind extraterrestrial creatures who overtake the planet. With the help of Eric (Joseph Quinn), a law student, and Henri (Djimon Hounsou), a fellow survivor, Samira must find a way to escape the city alive.
From our review:
A Quiet Place: Day One isn’t so much a spinoff and prequel of John Krasinski’s 2018 horror movie as it is a riveting drama that plays in the series’ sandbox. You can spot the odd bit of new world-building here or there, about just how and why there are so many damn echolocating aliens, but these tidbits are just background noise (shh, not so loud!) to a much more interesting human story. A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II are rural sci-fi horror, but Day One — from Pig director Michael Sarnoski — moves the setting to New York City and crafts its story in the vein of large-scale disaster cinema. It’s likely the best Manhattan mayhem film since Cloverfield, and it’s also a downright excellent Hollywood blockbuster, if an entirely unexpected one.
The People’s Joker
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Parody comedyRun time: 1h 32mDirector: Vera DrewCast: Vera Drew, Nathan Faustyn, Kane Distler
This DC Comics parody follows the story of Vera, a trans woman from Smallville who moves to Gotham City to break into stand-up comedy under the name “Joker the Harlequin.” Together with her friend The Penguin (Nathan Faustyn), Vera forms an anti-comedy troupe and goes head to head with her abusive partner Mr. J (Kane Distler) and a tyrannical vigilante known as the Batman (Phil Braun).
From our review:
The film isn’t entirely a comedy in-joke, however — which is good, because the story of Vera/Joker’s “anti-comedy” career is the most straightforward and least memorable aspect of the film. Lengthy discussions about the role of comedians as truth-tellers between Joker and the Penguin are standard stuff for podcasts and documentaries about the art form. Comedic first-person trans coming-of-age narratives, particularly ones where the transition is accomplished by falling into a vat of feminizing hormones, are more rare. Dedicated “to mom and Joel Schumacher,” The People’s Joker is also a sincere exploration of Vera’s journey toward self-realization, beginning with her childhood as a “miserable little girl” trapped in a boy’s body in Smallville.
Daddio
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: DramaRun time: 1h 40mDirector: Christy HallCast: Sean Penn, Dakota Johnson
Remember Locke, that 2013 chamber piece starring Tom Hardy as a construction foreman who talks to himself and several off-screen characters while driving on the freeway? Well, Daddio is kinda like that, but there’s a crucial difference: Instead of one, there are two on-screen characters talking to each other! Dakota Johnson stars as a woman who has a frank conversation with Clark (Sean Pean), a cab driver who gives her a ride to her apartment in Manhattan from JFK International Airport. What do they talk about? Oh y’know, life and love and vulnerability and stuff like that.
The Vourdalak
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Horror fantasyRun time: 1h 31mDirector: Adrien BeauCast: Kacey Mottet Klein, Ariane Labed, Grégoire Colin
If you, like me, are chomping at the bit to see Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu when it premieres later this year, you might consider sinking your teeth into this new supernatural horror movie from director Adrien Beau.
Kacey Mottet Klein stars as the Marquis Jacques Antoine Saturnin d’Urfe, an emissary of the King of France in 18th-century Europe, who is welcomed to stay at the home of a man named Gorcha, who has left to fight against the Turks. When Gorcha fails to return after six days, his family fears that he has been transformed into a Vourdalak — a breed of vampire that feeds on the blood of their family members.
The post Netflix’s Rebel Moon director’s cut, A Quiet Place: Day One, and every movie new to streaming this week appeared first on Polygon.
