Every week on Polygon, we round up the hottest new releases in streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.
This week, Currentthe Golden Globe-winning animated film from director Gints Zilbalodis, washes up for purchase on VOD. There are also tons of other exciting releases on VOD this week, like the apocalyptic musical The end starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon, as well as two gripping documentaries in the form of Soundtrack of a coup And Black Box Diaries. As for this week’s new streaming options, we have a French action thriller on Netflix, a documentary about the supernatural on Max, and a horror comedy starring Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot down) on Shudder.
Here’s everything new to watch this weekend!
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Action thriller
Duration: 1h 35m
Director: Rodolphe Lauga
Form: Guillaume Canet, Nassim Lyes, Stéphane Caillard
After Franck Lazareff survives an attempt on his life, he is hunted by mysterious men from his past to work for them again in exchange for the safe return of his wife. Caught between his criminal past and his life as a police officer, Franck must make difficult choices and overcome incredible odds to protect his loved ones.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 1h 45m
Director: Lana Wilson
This documentary explores the psychology of psychics and documents a group of practitioners in New York City as they conduct intimate readings with their clients. Less a pointed examination of the veracity of their supernatural tendencies than a portrait of grief and the myriad ways it manifests, Look into my eyes is a gripping and moving film that is one of the best documentaries of the year.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 1h 42m
Director: Shiori Ito
In 2017, Japanese journalist Shiori Itō accused a media executive with prominent ties to the Japanese prime minister of raping her. Black Box Diaries chronicles Itō’s real-time investigation into her own assault, the subsequent media scandal that followed, and her struggle to navigate the country’s outdated sex crimes laws in search of justice.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder and AMC Plus
Genre: Horror comedy
Duration: 1h 26m
Director: Steffen Haars
Form: Nick Frost, Aisling Bea, Sebastian Croft
A quirky family goes on a well-deserved vacation to a remote island. What can go wrong? Well, like the characters in Go awaythe new horror comedy from director Steffen Haars, soon discovers that a serial killer is on the loose and is looking for his next victims. The film stars Nick Frost, known for his iconic role in Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Deadnext to Aisling Bea (This way).
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple and Vudu
Genre: Adventure
Duration: 1h 25m
Director: Gin Zilbalodis
The feature debut of animator Gints Zilbalodis won the Golden Globe award for best animated film last weekend, and it’s not hard to see why. Besides being a visually stunning spectacle devoid of any dialogue, it is also, as my colleague Petrana Radulovic puts it, a “vibrant story of loss, survival and renewal.” Current centers on a black cat who navigates the post-apocalyptic ruins of a world engulfed by a flood aboard a boat piloted by a capybara. If that doesn’t sound like a good time, I don’t know what does.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple and Vudu
Genre: Apocalyptic musical
Duration: 2h 28m
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Form: Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, George MacKay
The act of murder director Joshua Oppenheimer films from documentary to fiction in style. This science fiction musical centers on an eccentric and wealthy family who live in a luxurious, secluded house converted into a salt mine twenty years after an apocalyptic event. Having never seen the outside world, the only member of the family’s beliefs (George MacKay) is shocked by the mysterious appearance of a woman (Moses Ingram) from the surface.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple and Vudu
Genre: Documentary thriller
Duration: 1h 25m
Director: Asif Kapadia
Form: Samantha Morton, Naomi Ackie, Hector Hewer
Inspired by Chris Marker’s 1962 dystopian featurette La Jetee, Asif Kapadia’s hybrid documentary-fiction focuses on a scavenger (Samantha Morton) in an apocalyptic future who searches through her memories of the past. It hasn’t exactly gotten great reviews, but the premise sounds interesting enough to at least warrant a watch.
Soundtrack of a coup
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple and Vudu
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 2h 30m
Director: Johan Grimonprez
This documentary (also one of the year’s best) details the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose uranium became a controversial resource during the Cold War. After learning that their diplomatic envoy to Africa has served as a smokescreen for a secret post-colonial coup, jazz ambassadors including Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane and Nina Simone grapple with the contradiction of representing a country where institutional segregation is rampant .