Welcome to the busiest movie season of the year, where movies in theaters are actually worth seeing and everything VOD and streaming has to offer… the movies that came out a few months ago that are also super worth seeing to view. Ak!
Work at your own pace. But hey, this weekend at home has it all Leaving the world behinda new Netflix film from the creator of Mr. Robotto an animated Batman Christmas special and Martin Scorsese's latest three-hour epic, Killers of the Flower Moonthat reaches digital rentals before finally landing at Apple at an unspecified date in 2024.
Or you and the family can just watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie again: it's now on Netflix. But if you need alternatives, there are many more. Let's dig in.
New on Netflix
Leaving the world behind
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Photo: Jojo Whilden/Netflix
Genre: Psychological thriller
Duration: 2h 21m
Director: Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot)
Form: Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke
Sam Esmail's directorial debut, based on Rumaan Alam's 2020 novel, is an Airbnb story from hell. Midway through their vacation on Long Island, a Manhattan couple hears a knock at the door. It is the owners of their rental house who escape the apocalypse. What follows promises to be a cerebral, spiky thriller that may not quite work, but gives the star cast plenty to chew on. From our review:
Racial, sexual, generational and class fault lines are drawn, but then quickly erased, almost with embarrassment, as the characters reflexively sink into a shared worldview that they can't seem to let go of (…but the) film is at least brilliant cast. Hawke embodies the blind carelessness of progressive intellectuals, Ali has the polish and confidence that money breeds, and Roberts, like a secretly insecure striver caught between these two worlds, flashes a brittle testiness.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Nintendo, Enlightenment/Universal Images
Genre: Animated adventure
Duration: 1h 32m
Director: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (Teen Titans go! To the movies)
Form: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black
While the combined power of Barbie And Oppenheimer may have overshadowed Nintendo's foray into animated films, but let's not forget that Mario made a mega impact at the global box office earlier this year, gave its parent company the confidence to announce a live-action Zelda movie, and could very easily be nominated up for an Oscar in the year 2024. The Mario movie is, if not good, still important – and now it's streaming on Netflix so kids and their nostalgic parents can watch it countless times.
New on Hulu
The mission
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 1h 44m
Directors: Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (Boys stands)
Billed as one of the big documentaries of 2023, The mission describes the repeated attempts of John Allen Chau, an American missionary, to bring Christianity to the indigenous peoples of remote North Sentinel Island. The law forbade outsiders from setting foot on the island, but that did not deter Chau, who was eventually killed by arrows during his final attempt to make landfall. From documentary makers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (who previously directed the thrilling political documentary). Boys stands), the National Geographic film promises to get the blood pumping and ask some big questions as Chau's life unravels.
New on Prime Video
Cheerful little Batman
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Image: Primevideo
Genre: Animated comedy
Duration: 1h 36m
Director: Mike Roth (Regular performance)
Form: 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 escaped. But Batman's first animated Christmas movie offers a whole new perspective. When Bruce Wayne's son Damian is left behind home alone on On Christmas Eve, Gotham's supervillains come out to play and a new hero of the holiday must emerge. David Hornsby from It is always sunny as the Joker? How can 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
Duration: 1h 34m
Director: Jim O'Hanlon (Your Christmas or mine?)
Form: Asa Butterfield, Cora Kirk, Alex Jennings, Jane Krakowski
Oh, new couple James (Asa Butterfield) and Hayley (Cora Kirk) were hoping to meet each other's families during a Christmas break in the Alps, but someone has thrown the accommodation into disarray! Now James' wealthy family are staying in a 'rustic' lodge and Hayley's money-grabbing father is holed up in a five-star hotel! Oops!
New on Paramount Plus
To show up
Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus
Photo: Allyson Riggs/A24
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 1h 48m
Director: Kelly Reichardt (First cow)
Form: Michelle Williams, Hong Chau, John Magaro
Drama or comedy, the unmissable filmmaker Kelly Reichardt aims for the intimate. That means she may never make a movie that makes enough waves for the Oscars or the major top 10 lists. But this is no surprise to anyone familiar with her work: To show up, in which she once again collaborates with regular collaborator Michelle Williams, goes deep into the core of the artist's art and life, and confirms that Reichardt is in a class of his own. From our recent list of the top 50 movies of 2023, where To show up is in 10th place:
Reichardt's genius makes audiences giggle at the performers, but never at the art. For example, it's funny to think that an artist dedicated a year of her life to crocheting a jumpsuit. Except, inside To show up, you see the outfit and it is beautiful – a deliberate subversion of the point. A teacher is smug in his opinion about ceramics, but each piece he holds up is so lovingly made that they confidently speak for themselves.
This decision (rib artists, celebrating art) sets the tone. We humans are an artifice, a set of contradictory masks that we put on to suit the situation and the crowd. But our creations – when we commit ourselves to a craft, whatever medium that may be – are an expression of our most vulnerable selves.
New at Shudder
The sacrificial game
Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder and AMC Plus
Image: Shudder
Genre: Horror
Duration: 1h 30m
Director: Jenn Wexler (The Ranger)
Form: 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 captured this one at the party, so I'm passing the word. Here's her micro-recording (look for more on this soon):
Jenn Wexler's horror movie with Christmas scene The sacrificial game It takes most of the running time to reveal what it's really about, and that reveal is a doozy. But the wait to get there is never boring: along the way there's a 'sad Christmas with the stragglers at a boarding school' story that ties in perfectly with The survivorsand a story about “dangerous cultists on the move” that fits in just as 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 how and why they collide.
New for rent
Killers of the Flower Moon
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple and Vudu
Image: Apple
Genre: Drama
Duration: 3h 26m
Director: Martin Scorsese (Cab driver)
Form: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons
Some call it Martin Scorsese's magnum opus. Others wonder whether adapting David Grann's critically acclaimed nonfiction book was an impossible task, even for a legend. But everyone seems to agree: you have to spend a lot of time finding and watching Killers of the Flower Moon, one of the most ambitious dramatic undertakings of the year. And Scorsese completely threw himself into it. From our review:
As Scorsese gets deeper into his old master phase, it feels like he's running out of patience with the Catholic torments and fire-and-brimstone filmmaking he's known for. Killers of the Flower Moon is usually open-hearted, sorrowful and wise. At the very end, Scorsese intervenes personally 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 sees clearly what needs to be said.