Inside Out 2, Longlegs, Netflix’s Incoming and every new movie to stream this week
Every week at Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases for streaming and VOD, and highlight the biggest and best new movies to watch at home.
This week, two of the year’s biggest releases make their debut as rental albums: Inside Out 2 And Long legs. These films probably couldn’t be more different, but there’s bound to be a household renting both this weekend. Also of note: John Woo’s remake of his classic hitman film The murderer launches on Peacock, a thrilling new anime film hits Netflix, and Kevin Costner’s Western odyssey Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1 will premiere on Max.
Here’s everything new to check out this weekend!
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Comedy
Playing time: 1h 31m
Directors: John Chernin, Dave Chernin
Form: Mason Thames, Ramon Reed, Raphael Alejandro
A teen comedy about a wild night during the first week of high school, Incoming follows four incoming freshmen who crash a party…with unexpected results. It’s the directorial debut of brothers John and Dave Chernin, who It’s always sunny in Philadelphia created together and collectively The Mick.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix from August 25
Image: Toei Animation/GKIDS
Genre: Sports drama
Playing time: 2h 4m
Director: Takehiko Inoue
Form: Shugo Nakamura, Jun Kasama, Shinichiro Kamio
Legendary mangaka Takehiko Inoue (Vagrant, Slam Dunk) steps down to direct his feature film debut based on his critically acclaimed coming-of-age sports manga. Directed immediately after the conclusion of the 1993 anime, The first Slam Dunk follows the Shohoku High School basketball team as they prepare for their biggest challenge yet: taking on Sannoh Kogyo High for the inter-high school basketball championship.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Comedy
Playing time: 1h 35m
Director: Theda Hammel
Form: John Early, Qaher Harhash, Elizabeth Dement
A bizarre and ridiculous comedy about a man named Terry (John Early) who is quarantined in his ex-husband’s Brooklyn home while trying to deal with a parade of unwanted visitors.
The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Comedy drama
Playing time: 2h 4m
Director: Tina Mabry
Form: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Sanaa Lathan, Uzo Aduba
Inspired by the 2013 novel by Edward Kelsey Moore, The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat follows three lifelong best friends who have seen it all and are now facing new challenges. The cast includes Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Sanaa Lathan and Uzo Aduba as the three friends, and Mekhi Phifer, Julian McMahon and Vondie Curtis-Hall.
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max
Image: Warner Bros.
Genre: Western
Playing time: 3h 1m
Director: Kevin Costner
Form: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington
Partners, take note: Kevin Costner is back in the saddle with the first installment of a planned four-part Western epic! Horizon: An American Saga follows the lives of a group of families, pioneers and missionaries over 15 years, covering the expansion of the American West before and after the Civil War. It appears that the second film in the tetralogy a little longer than expected to be released, so you still have plenty of time to catch up on Costner’s ambitious dream project!
Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock
Image: Peacock
Genre: Action thriller
Playing time: 2h 6m
Director: John Woo
Form: Nathalie Emmanuel, Omar Sy, Sam Worthington
Legendary action film director John Woo returns with an English-language retelling of his 1989 action thriller The murdererthis time starring Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones) and Omar Sy (She-wolf). Emmanuel portrays Zee, a notorious assassin known and feared in the Parisian underworld as the “Queen of the Dead.” After refusing to kill a witness who was blinded during her latest assignment, Zee becomes the target of her former employers. Her escapades attract the attention of Sey (Sy), a shrewd police detective with whom she reluctantly forms an alliance.
It’s certainly a departure from the original film starring Chow Yun-fat, but hey: if Olivier Assayas can pull off a successful remake Irma Vep Why couldn’t Woo, almost 26 years later, do the same with his own work?
Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder
Image: Shudder
Genre: Horror
Playing time: 1h 32m
Directors: John Adams, Toby Poser
Form: Olivera Perunicic, Bruno Veljanovski, John Adams
This new and extremely gross horror film comes from the directing duo that directed the excellent film Halberd. The plot follows a fracking crew that discovers the frozen remains of a French soldier from the Napoleonic Wars, whose flesh happens to harbor some sort of mysterious parasitic monster. Once the monster breaks free from its original host, it wreaks all sorts of disgusting, fantastically gory havoc on everything in sight.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Disney/Pixar
Genre: Fantasy about growing up
Playing time: 1h 36m
Director: Kelsey Man
Form: Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman
Almost ten years later Inside Out became one of the most beloved Pixar films ever made, the sequel broke box office records and became the highest-grossing Pixar film ever and the highest-grossing film of 2024 by some margin. It takes place two years after the original, Inside Out 2 follows Riley as a 13-year-old with new challenges and new emotions.
Pixar purists are certainly right to worry about the studio’s recent commitment to sequels and franchises, and how many of the more recent originals have lacked the old emotional magic that gave the studio its reputation and produced a stream of indelible, memorable hits. But Inside Out 2 is a good sign that the company is returning to its core strengths. It’s a sequel to a film that didn’t ask for one, and an expansion of a setting that drew much of its original power from the simplicity of its premise: five emotions locked in conflict over an unprecedented new challenge. But the new film earns its place in the Pixar pantheon for its creativity, its craft, and its sincere writing. It’s almost enough to Inside Out 3: The student days seems like a promising pitch.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Neon/Everett Collection
Genre: Horror thriller
Playing time: 1h 46m
Director: Osgood “Oz” Perkins
Form: Maika Monroe, Blair Underwood, Nicolas Cage
Long legs‘ advertising campaign may have sold it on the back of how ridiculously scary it is, but the best surprise about this Nicolas Cage-led horror film is that it’s also incredibly funny. The film follows Maika Monroe as a fearless FBI agent tasked with solving a series of cold cases involving a serial killer who never seems to visit the families he murders. Monroe is excellent in the role, but of course it’s Cage’s performance as the bizarre and titular killer, Longlegs, that really steals the show.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Sideshow and Janus Films
Genre: Drama
Playing time: 1h 46m
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Form: Hitoshi Omika, Ryo Nishikawa, Ryuuji Kosaka
Ryusuke Hamaguchi returns with a sequel to his 2021 Oscar-nominated drama Drive my car. His latest film, Evil does not existfollows the story of a widower and his eight-year-old daughter living in a remote village, whose way of life is threatened by the arrival of a company planning to build a glamorous camping resort nearby. Does evil exist, and if so, in what ways does evil take shape in our daily lives?
Evil does not exist leans toward a folk-horror tradition, as Hamaguchi slowly moves away from emotionless naturalism, building toward an impressionistic, opaque finale. The provocation of the film’s title echoes through the forest, where the film begins and ends by looking down on it from below. Perhaps that’s what the title is alluding to. Perhaps it’s a whisper, echoing through and from the ground itself, about the folly of believing that the earth, even in its silence and beauty, has any regard for our moral attitude toward it. Perhaps we should tread more carefully, and be fearful in what we take. Perhaps evil only matters because we’re here to think about it, and when we’re gone, so it will be.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Horror
Playing time: 1h 38m
Director: Damian McCarthy
Form: Carolyn Bracken, Johnny French, Steve Wall
Strangeness follows Darcy (Carolyn Bracken), a blind psychic medium grieving the recent death of her sister (also Carolyn Bracken). Not entirely satisfied with the official story behind the murder, Darcy returns to the crime scene and uses a (very creepy-looking) wooden mannequin to psychically determine what really happened the night her twin sister died.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Metro Films/Astute Films
Genre: Drama
Playing time: 2h 32m
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Form: Jalal Altawil, Maja Ostaszewska, Tomasz Włosok
The film by Polish director Agnieszka Holland won the Special Jury Prize at the 80th Venice International Film Festival and was condemned by Polish government officials. The film offers a refreshing view of the border crisis in Belarus and the story of refugees trying to find a better life in Poland and the steps the government will take to stop them. This has made an impression.