Wicked, A Real Pain, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl from Netflix and every new movie on streaming
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, Badthe musical fantasy with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, sings and dances its way to VOD. That’s not all: the new comedy-drama from actor-director Jesse Eisenberg A real pain with Kieran Culkin (Succession), also backpacks on VOD this week. There are also tons of new releases available to stream this week, including a new Wallace & Gromit feature on Netflix, the social horror thriller The front room about Max, and the psychological drama Maternal instinct starring Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway on Hulu. If that wasn’t enough, Barry Lyndon can be viewed for free on YouTube! This is not an exercise!
Here’s everything new to watch this weekend!
Wallace & Gromit: Revenge on the Most Birds
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 1h 19m
Directors: Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham
Form: Ben Whitehead, Peter Kay, Lauren Patel
Wallace and Gromit are back in their first new movie since 2008! Wallace & Gromit: Revenge on the Most Birds features the return of fan-favorite nemesis Feathers McGraw, a mean penguin with a bone to pick with everyone’s favorite doofus-and-dog duo. When Wallace invents a robotic garden gnome to help him with his house chores, Feathers seizes the opportunity to hijack the robot for his own mischief.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Image: Neon
Genre: Psychological drama
Duration: 1h 34m
Director: Benoit Delhomme
Form: Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, Josh Charles
Benoit Delhomme’s period drama stars Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway as Alice and Céline, two housewives with a sisterly bond who live next door to each other in a picturesque 1960s American suburb. When their idyllic life is disrupted by an inexplicable tragedy, the harmony of their daily existence is disrupted by paranoia, sadness and barely hidden anger that explodes to the surface.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max
Photo: Jon Pack, A24/Everett Collection
Genre: Horror thriller
Duration: 1h 34m
Directors: Max Eggers, Sam Eggers
Form: Brandy, Andrew Burnap, Kathryn Hunter
Brandy stars in this new horror thriller from directing duo Sam and Max Eggers as Belinda, a newly pregnant anthropology professor eagerly awaiting the birth of her next child, while still mourning the death of her firstborn son. When she and her husband Norman (Andrew Burnap) take in his recently widowed stepmother Solange (Kathryn Hunter), the arrival of their new guest brings several dark, disturbing revelations that threaten Belinda’s life and sanity.
Where to watch: Available to stream on AMC Plus
Image: IFC
Genre: Comic thriller
Duration: 1h 36m
Director: Austin Peters
Form: Elizabeth Banks, Lewis Pullman, Michaela Jae Rodriguez
Elizabeth Banks stars in this new comedy thriller as Hope Goldman, a celebrity esthetician on the brink of her greatest professional success yet: launching her own skin care line! The problem is that Hope faces competition in the form of rival beautician Angel Vergara (Luis Gerardo Méndez) who opens a new boutique right across the street from hers. With the help of her life coach (Lewis Pullman), Hope devises a desperate plan to emerge victorious.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus
Image: Bleecker Street Media
Genre: Sci-fi thriller
Duration: 1h 48m
Director: Mikael Håfström
Form: Casey Affleck, Laurence Fishburne, Emily Beecham
This sci-fi thriller stars Casey Affleck (Manchester by the sea) as John, an astronaut aboard an experimental spacecraft designed for a yearlong mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. When the passengers aboard the ship begin to suspect that the mission has somehow been compromised, John must work with the ship’s captain (Laurence Fishburne) to find a solution and survive.
Where to watch: Available to stream on YouTube
Image: Warner Home Video
Genre: Historical black comedy
Duration: 3h 5m
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Form: Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee
If you’re looking for a film that epitomizes the phrase “every frame is a painting,” look no further than Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 masterpiece starring Ryan O’Neal. It is set in 18th Ireland, Barry Lyndon tells the life of an inveterate charlatan who marries into high society. When Lyndon’s incessant philandering and drunkenness clash with his son-in-law Lord Bullingdon (Leon Vitali), the feud between the two escalates to a breaking point. Often cited as one of the best films in Kubrick’s oeuvre, Barry Lyndon is a must-see if you enjoy deeply imagined period pieces and exquisite cinematography.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple and Vudu
Genre: Fantasy musical
Duration: 2h 40m
Director: Jon M Chu
Form: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande-Butera, Jeff Goldblum
Based on the 2003 play of the same name by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman. Bad follows the story of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the future Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum’s film The Wonderful Wizard of Ozand her friendship with Galinda (Ariana Grande), who later becomes Glinda the Good. When Elphaba and Galinda are invited to the Emerald City at the behest of the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), Elphaba and Galinda’s friendship is tested.
For the most part, Chu uses the new medium to add meaningful additions to the story. Not all of them land. The film’s last major scene in particular suffers from this strange kind of start-stop, integrated with some superfluous major set pieces that undermine the emotional catharsis of the Big Moment. Such is the nature of expanding a nearly three-hour musical into two films, even with a natural intermission. And overall, adding breathing room to songs and scenes worked for the most part. It takes more than some extra fluff to bring the film down.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple and Vudu
Image: Topic Studios/The Sundance Institute
Genre: Comedy-drama
Duration: 1h 30m
Director: Jesse Eisenberg
Form: Kieran Culkin, Jesse Eisenberg
Jesse Eisenberg returns to direct and star in his 2022 sequel When you’re done saving the world. Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin (Succession) star A real pain as David and Benji, two estranged cousins who tour Poland in an attempt to honor the memory of their late grandmother. As their journey continues, the two are forced to confront the ways in which they have grown apart and remember their respective importance in each other’s lives.
The relatively low stakes of the film mean that it is largely based on a story of two unrelated cousins who both so clearly miss the friendship they had when they were children and want to get back to it . David can’t understand why Benji doesn’t grow up the way David did. Benji can’t admit that he feels abandoned. All of this is set against the backdrop of an effective and subtly handled Holocaust tour that causes everyone in the tour group to respond in different, profound and difficult ways.