Happy Friday, Polygon Readers!
Each week, we round up the hottest new releases from streaming and VOD, bringing you the biggest and best new movies to watch at home. This week has some highly anticipated releases on Netflix, as well as one of the best superhero movies of the year on VOD.
65the prehistoric sci-fi action thriller starring Adam Driver, is available to stream on Netflix this weekend alongside the action comedy The outer laws with Pierce Brosnan and more. The coming-of-age drama The silent girl sneaks his way to Hulu, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — James Gunn’s swan song to the MCU before heading to DC Studios — is finally coming to VOD. There are plenty of other new, under-the-radar releases to check out this week, including the post-apocalyptic comedy biosphere with Sterling K. Brown (Hotel Artemis) and Mark Duplass (Crawl) and the new horror comedy The blackening.
Let’s dive in!
New on Netflix
65
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Sony Pictures
Genre: Sci-fi action thriller
Duration: 1h 33m
Drivers: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods
Form: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt
Adam Driver stars in this sci-fi action thriller as an alien astronaut who crash lands on a prehistoric Earth and must battle the planet’s hostile creatures to escape with the only other survivor of the crash (Ariana Greenblatt). If you want to see a bearded, sad man shoot dinosaurs with a laser gun, this is that movie.
The outer laws
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Photo: Scott Yamano/Netflix
Genre: Action comedy
Duration: 1h 35m
Director: Tyler Spindle
Form: Adam DeVine, Pierce Brosnan, Ellen Barkin
When a “tight bank manager” (Adam DeVine, according to Netflix’s description of the character) finally meets his soon-to-be in-laws (Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin), he quickly believes they are a notorious bank robbery duo. Lil Rel Howery, Richard Kind, Michael Rooker and DeVine’s Workaholics co-star Blake Anderson are among the supporting cast.
The tutor
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Vertical
Genre: Psychological thriller
Duration: 1h 32m
Director: Jordan Ross
Form: Garrett Hedlund, Victoria Justice, Noah Schnapp
This mysterious film follows a young man (Garrett Hedlund) who is assigned to rescue the strange son (Stranger things‘ Noah Schnapp) of a billionaire. When the boy becomes increasingly obsessed with his tutor’s life, things take a turn for the worse.
Wham!
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Netflix
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 1h 32m
Director: Chris Smith
Form: George Michael, Andrew Ridgeley
Using archive footage and interviews, this documentary tells the story of the pop duo Wham through the eyes of its two members, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.
New to Hulu
The silent girl
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Image: superb
Genre: Coming-of-age drama
Duration: 1h 36m
Director: Colm Bairead
Form: Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett, Catherine Clinch
Cáit (Catherine Clinch), a 9-year-old girl, is sent to rural Ireland to escape the dysfunction of her immediate family. Cáit finds comfort in the care of two middle-aged farmers until the revelation of a secret threatens to unravel the fragile peace of her adopted home.
New on VOD
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Where to watch: Available to purchase for $19.99 on Amazon, Appleand Vudu
Photo: Jessica Miglio/Marvel Studios
Genre: Superhero action
Duration: 2h 29m
Director: James Gunn
Form: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista
The third and final installment of James Gunn’s MCU trilogy is one of the better received superhero movies of the year and is finally available to watch at home.
From our review:
This is a movie that features a planet-sized laboratory made of flesh and held together by bones, where data is stored in capsules covered in pus, and a private security force led by Nathan Fillion wearing hideous Power Rangers-esque body armor that looks like hard muscles. It’s a movie where a Russian cosmonaut golden retriever has telekinesis and a family of humanoid vampire bats serve the heroes blue soda in an otherwise picturesque Norman Rockwell-ass house. In other words, it’s a movie full of genuine imagination, with real and strange sets and costumes and make-up, with crude visual humor and more than a little horror.
The blackening
Where to watch: Available to rent for $19.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Photo: Glenn Wilson/Lionsgate
Genre: Horror comedy
Duration: 1h 36m
Director: Tim Story
Form: Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg
This horror comedy follows a group of black friends who become entangled in the villainous clutches of a homicidal killer. Forced to play a dangerous board game where “proving” their blackness is the key to survival, the friends must use all their wits to overcome their captor and make their way safely to freedom. To remind Scary movie 2? Yes, it’s like that a lot.
biosphere
Where to watch: On rent for $6.99 Amazon, Appleand Vudu
Image: IFC Films
Genre: Sci fi comedy
Duration: 1h 46m
Director: Mel Eslyn
Form: Sterling K Brown, Mark Duplass
This sci-fi comedy follows two men who find the last living humans on Earth trapped in a self-sustaining biosphere. Afraid of their predicament, they must find a way forward and invent a new way to ensure the survival of the human race.