Netflix’s Nimona, Knights of the Zodiac, and every new movie to watch at home this weekend

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 he has some highly anticipated releases on Netflix, as well as some fantasy action and dystopian satire films on VOD.

Nimonathe highly anticipated adaptation of ND Stevenson’s acclaimed graphic novel starring Chloë Grace Moretz (Super awesome) and Riz Ahmed (Sound of metal), is available to stream on Netflix, as well as a new psychological horror thriller starring Sarah Snook (Succession). The sci-fi horror comedy M3GAN is finally available to stream on Max while the new Children of the Corn remake is now streaming on Peacock. On the VOD side, we have the live-action adaptation of Masami Kurumada’s classic mythological action manga Saint Seiya with Mackenyu (Rurouni Kenshin, A piece) and Sean Bean, as well as a wild grindhouse-style spoof of the classic Swiss children’s story Heidi.

Let’s get into it!

---

New on Netflix

Nimona

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

Genre: Fantasy adventure comedy
Duration: 1h 41m
Drivers: Troy Quane, Nick Bruno
Form: Chloe Grace Moretz, Riz Ahmed

Inspired by ND Stevenson’s beloved 2015 graphic novel, this animated adventure comedy stars Chloë Grace Moretz (Super awesome) as Nimona, a teenage shape-shifter who teams up with the knight (Riz Ahmed) who must kill her to clear his name of a crime and save her own life.

Run Rabbit run

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

Genre: Psychological thriller
Duration: 1h 40m
Director: Diana Reid
Form: Sarah Snook, Lily LaTorre, Damon Herriman

Sarah (Sarah Snook), a fertility doctor, becomes troubled by the strange behavior of her daughter (Lily LaTorre), whose mannerisms and personality begin to resemble those of her long-lost sister, Alice. While trying to understand the cause of her daughter’s condition, Sarah is forced to confront her own beliefs about the afterlife as she processes the repressed trauma of her past.

New on Max

Rock Hudson: All Heaven Allowed

Where to watch: Available to stream on max

Image: Max

Genre: Documentary
Duration: 1h 44m
Director: Stephen Kiak
Form: Rock Hudson, Illeana Douglas, Carole Cook

This documentary delves into the career of Rock Hudson, one of the most iconic and celebrated leading men of Hollywood’s golden age, as well as his private life as a closeted gay man and his tragic passing in 1985 from AIDS.

Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music

Image: HBO

Genre: Documentary
Duration: 1h 46m
Drivers: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

In 2016, queer theater luminary Taylor Mac performed a one-off 24-hour show that extravagantly traversed the history of American popular music. Seven years later, we have a documentary about that day, tracing the thrilling (and exhausting) 24-hour process, with all the costume changes, musical numbers, and audience interaction that the show entailed.

New on Prime

M3GAN

Where to watch: Available to stream on Scoop

Image: Universal Pictures

Genre: Sci-fi horror comedy
Duration: 1h 42m
Director: Gerald Johnson
Form: Allison Williams, Jenna Davis, Violet McGraw

The latest horror movie from Housebound director Gerard Johnstone and Malicious Screenwriter Akela Cooper follows Gemma (Allison Williams), a roboticist for a Seattle toy company who creates an artificially intelligent doll to care for her orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw). But when the doll begins a series of violent murders ostensibly in service of her main directive, Gemma will have to fight to protect her niece and the world from what she has created.

From our review:

The graveyard of horrible horror comedies is one of the saddest and most boring in the whole movie. It’s full of hundreds of dirty parodies, laughable crap, silly crap, and probably a few unfortunate movies that weren’t intentionally designed to be laughed at. The worst movies in the subgenre feel like tightrope walkers trying too hard to balance what the makers seem to think are two opposing extremes, hoping to have audiences laughing one minute and screaming the next. But following in the footsteps of classics like the original Chucky movie Child’s playdirector Gerard Johnstone and the team behind the new horror comedy M3GAN realize that laughing and screaming aren’t really that different – and more importantly, that both can be the key to having a great time.

New on Peacock

Book Club: The Next Chapter

Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock

Image: Focus functions

Genre: Comedy
Duration: 1h 47m
Director: Bill Holderman
Form: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen

Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen reprise their roles as Diane, Vivian, Sharon and Carol in the 2018 romantic comedy sequel Book club. Meeting in person for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the four friends travel to Italy to celebrate Vivian’s impending nuptials.

New on Shake

Children of the Corn

Where to watch: Available to stream on shudder

Image: RLJE Films

Genre: Horror
Duration: 1h 33m
Director: Kurt Wimmer
Form: Elena Kampouris, Kate Moyer, Callan Mulvey

Kurt Wimmers 2020 adaptation of Stephen King’s 1977 short story centers on Boleyn Williams (Elena Kampouris), a high school girl who finds herself at odds with a psychopathic 12-year-old who rounds up the other kids in her small Nebraska town to kill any adult in their path. It’s the 11th Children of the Corn movie, but it’s not connected to any of the previous ones.

New on VOD

Knights of the Zodiac

Where to watch: Available to purchase for $14.99 on Amazon, AppleAnd Vudu

Photo: Stage 6/Toei Animation

Genre: Fantasy action
Duration: 1h 52m
Director: Thomas Baginski
Form: Sean Bean, Famke Janssen, Mackenyu

This mythological martial arts fantasy film is based on Masami Kurumada’s manga Saint Seiya follows the story of teenage orphan Seiya (Mackenyu) who, after being recruited by a wealthy billionaire (Sean Bean), discovers he is destined to protect the reincarnation of the goddess Athena (Madison Iseman). Seiya dons the armor of the Pegasus Knight and must battle against supernatural forces to protect humanity from harm.

From our review:

[There are] two things new viewers can enjoy: Bean and Janssen’s sadly brief appearances and short, whimsical bursts of creative action. It seems like the people behind it Knights of the Zodiac started taking the worst part of the franchise and then kept making worse and worse decisions. The film’s only saving grace is that there was once a live-action American TV pilot from the 1990s (only 19 seconds of which survive), so Knights of the Zodiac in any case, it cannot be called the worst piece of Saint Seiya media ever made.

To show up

Where to watch: Available to purchase for $5.99 on Amazon, Appleand Vudu

Photo: Allyson Riggs/A24

Genre: Drama
Duration: 1h 47m
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Form: Michelle Williams, Hong Chau, Andre 3000

Kelly Reichardt (First cow) is a special filmmaker, the kind whose latest work can always be seen by appointment. Her latest one To show upabout a sculptress (Michelle Williams) who balances her professional life with her personal life as she prepares to embark on a new path.

Are you there God, it’s me, Margaret

Where to watch: Available to purchase for $5.99 on Amazon, Appleand Vudu

Photo: Dana Hawley/Lionsgate

Genre: Growing up drama
Duration: 1h 46m
Director: Kelly Fremon Craig
Form: Abby Ryder Fortson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates

Judy Blume’s iconic coming-of-age story gets this adaptation from Kelly Fremon Craig (The edge of seventeen), starring Abby Ryder Fortson (the original Cassie from the Ant-Man movies) as Margaret and Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, and Benny Safdie as her family.

Crazy Heidi

Where to watch: On rent for $2.99 Amazon

Image: Raven Banner Entertainment

Genre: Dystopian action adventure
Duration: 1h 32m
Drivers: Johannes Hartmann, Sandro Klopfstein
Form: Alice Lucy, Kel Matsena, Casper Van Dien

This action thriller depicts Heidi’s classic Swiss childhood story in a gory grindhouse-esque exploitation parody. In a dystopian Switzerland ruled by a tyrannical cheese baron (Casper Van Dien), Heidi embarks on a violent campaign to free her country and avenge her murdered lover.

Love gets a room

Where to watch: Available to rent for $3.99 on Vudu

Image: Nostromo Productions

Genre: Drama
Duration: 1h 43m
Director: Rodrigo Cortes
Form: Clara Rugaard, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Mark Ryder

Inspired by a true story, Love gets a room is a World War II real-time drama that follows a Jewish actress imprisoned during the Nazi occupation of Poland, and her theater troupe’s daring efforts to stage the play from which the film takes its title in light of that occupation.