Happy Friday, Polygon readers!
Each week we round up the hottest releases new to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.
This week, BarbieGreta Gerwig’s box office juggernaut about everyone’s favorite fashionista, every woman, is finally coming to streaming after its hugely profitable theatrical run. Spencer Director Pablo Larraín’s satirical dark comedy about a vampiric dictator arrives on Netflix, alongside a new romantic drama starring Haley Lu Richardson.The White Lotus). Pixar’s latest fantasy drama, Elementarycoming to Disney Plus, Quick races to Peacock, with many more arriving on streaming and VOD this weekend, including genre film sensations Talk to me And John Wick: Chapter 4.
Here’s everything you can watch this weekend!
New on Netflix
El Conde
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Photo: Pablo Larraín/Netflix
Genre: Black comedy horror
Duration: 1h 50m
Director: Pablo Larrain
Form: Jaime Vadell, Gloria Münchmeyer, Alfredo Castro
Spencer Director Pablo Larraín’s latest satire asks a simple question: what if Augusto Pinochet was not only an unrepentantly monstrous dictator responsible for the deaths of more than 3,000 Chileans and the embezzlement of nearly $28 million, but was also a blood-sucking vampire? After living as a creature of the night for almost 250 years, Pinochet decides to die, but not before resolving some loose ends regarding his family’s estate.
Love at first sight
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Netflix
Genre: Romance
Duration: 1h 30m
Director: Vanessa Caswill
Form: Haley Lu Richardson, Ben Hardy, Jameela Jamil
Haley Lu Richardson (The White Lotus) and Ben Hardy (X-Men: Apocalypse) are two complete strangers who unexpectedly fall in love during their shared seven-hour flight to London. After losing each other at customs, the chances of them meeting again seem slim… or do they?
New on Disney Plus
Elementary
Where to watch: Available to stream Disney Plus
Image: Pixar/Disney
Genre: Romantic comedy-drama
Duration: 1h 41m
Director: Peter Sohn
Form: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen
Set in a world inhabited by the anthropomorphic manifestations of the four elements, Pixar’s latest animated comedy centers on Ember (Nancy drew‘s Leah Lewis) and Wade (Archive 81‘s Mamoudou Athie), a fire and water element respectively, who unexpectedly meet and fall in love despite their cultural differences.
From our review:
The core of Elementary is about cross-cultural relationships and the pressures of being a second-generation immigrant and living up to your parents’ expectations while trying to figure out what you actually want out of life. The characters and their relationships are vivid and fully developed. Visual, Elementary is up there Inside out in how damn cool it looks. But in every tender, heartfelt moment Elementary immediately raises a million world-building questions. While fantasy films certainly don’t need to address every wrinkle of their setting, there comes a point where the cool aesthetic and silly elements erode the core of a story.
New on Hulu
Theater camp
Where to watch: Available to stream Hulu
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 1h 32m
Directors: Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman
Form: Ben Platt, Molly Gordon, Noah Galvin, Jimmy Tatro
The funniest movie of the year is finally making its way to streaming.
Theater camp is a delightful ode to Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries, following a troubled summer camp for theater nerds that falls into financial and organizational disarray after its founder falls ill. The founder’s well-meaning but incompetent YouTuber son (the reliably excellent Jimmy Tatro) takes over, balancing the outsized personalities of the campers and counselors as he tries to save the camp.
New on Prime Video
A million miles away
Where to watch: Available to stream Prime Video
Image: Primevideo
Genre: Biopic
Duration: 2h 1m
Director: Alejandra Marquez Abella
Form: Michael Peña, Rosa Salazar, Bobby Soto
A million miles away tells the incredible true story of José M. Hernández (Michael Peña), an engineer and astronaut, and the difficult path he took to get there. The film charts his journey, from working on a farm as a child in California to becoming a NASA astronaut.
New at Pauw
Quick
Where to watch: Available to stream Peacock
Image: Universal images
Genre: Action
Duration: 2h 21m
Director: Louis Letrier
Form: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson
The Fast and the Furious returns for its 10th numbered installment. Quick sees Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his found family of criminal cohorts become secret agents, threatened by a new threat in the form of Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa), a sociopathic villain with a flair for theatrics.
From our review:
Quick suffers from the same affliction as today’s MCU films, where it’s so laden with internal mythology that it feels more like homework than popcorn entertainment. “The time when one man behind the wheel of a car can make a difference is over,” Aimes informs Dom matter-of-factly in the run-up to the film’s fiery, physics-defying action climax, which of course features one man behind the wheel of a car . The idea is that Aimes is wrong in his prediction, and he’s wrong for even thinking that. But the days when such a crazy, over-the-top line is enough to keep audiences coming back to this franchise may also be on the wane.
New at Shudder
Elevator game
Where to watch: Available to stream Shudder and AMC Plus
Genre: Horror
Duration: 1h 34m
Director: Rebekah McKendry
Form: Gino Anania, Megan Best, Alec Carlos
Based on the online phenomenon of traveling to an alternate dimension via elevators, this film is about a group of young people who try to prove that urban legends are not true. Bad news for them: this is a horror movie, so anything goes when it comes to urban legends.
New at Starz
John Wick: Chapter 4
Where to watch: Available to stream Starz
Photo: Murray Close/Lionsgate
Genre: Action
Duration: 2h 49m
Director: Chad Stahelski
Form: Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård
Keanu Reeves returns in the fourth installment of the John Wick series as the legendary monosyllabic speaking assassin with a penchant for improvisational carnage. Hunted by the ruthless Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), John is forced to fight alongside and against old friends and former enemies to once again earn his freedom from the criminal underworld he fought so desperately to escape.
New for rent
Barbie
Where to watch: Available to rent Amazon, Appleand Vudu
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
Genre: Barbie
Duration: 1h 54m
Director: Greta Gerwig
Form: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera
Hey, it’s Barbie! You know, Barbie – everyone’s favorite renaissance woman with multiple hyphens and a penchant for all things pink. After suffering an inexplicable existential crisis, Barbie (Margot Robbie) embarks on a journey of self-discovery to find the root of the problem, and Ken (Ryan Gosling) decides to tag along! What can go wrong?
From our review:
Barbie starts out slow and does the work of establishing the cutesy realm of Barbieland, so there’s a clear, dark contrast when the film finally enters reality. But even in this opening act, Gosling sweeps away each scene from the sidelines, his face wracked by the near-constant heartbreak of Barbie’s lack of interest in him. As a viewer, I was much more drawn to his arc, even if I was concerned: Is it bad that the best thing about the Barbie movie is Ken?
Talk to me
Where to watch: Available to rent Amazon, Appleand Vudu
Image: A24
Genre: Supernatural horror
Duration: 1h 35m
Directors: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
Form: Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird
Talk to me follows a group of Australian teenagers who discover how to summon the spirits of the dead with an embalmed hand. Naturally, they film themselves messing around with it, but when one of them holds hands for too long to communicate with a lost loved one, they inadvertently open the door to a world of horrors beyond their greatest fears. Hailed as one of the scariest films of the year, Talk to me is the directorial debut of YouTubers Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou and has already done so a sequel in production.
Retaliation
Where to watch: Available to rent Amazon, Appleand Vudu
Photo: Stephan Rabold/Roadside attractions
Genre: Action thriller
Duration: 1h 30m
Director: Nimrod Antal
Form: Liam Neeson, Noma Dumezweni, Matthew Modine
To remind Phone booth, that 2002 film starring Colin Farrell about a publicist who gets trapped in a phone booth by a sniper who will shoot him if he gets out? Good, Retaliation looks a lot like it, but phone booths don’t really exist anymore, so it’s a car instead; and instead of a sniper, it’s a serial bomber with an ax to grind; and instead of Colin Farrell, it’s Liam Neeson who plays a banker driving his kids to work. Understood? Yes, you got it.