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.