We may earn a commission from links on this page.
Looking to settle in with a good movie? Me too. That's why I've pored over release schedules to bring you the best original and new-to-streaming movies you can watch on Netflix, Prime, Max, Hulu, and other streaming platforms this week.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)
Based on everything we know about movies based on video games, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 shouldn't even be watchable—a third movie based on the 1990s Sega mascot?—but somehow, Sonic 3 is good, even if you don't feel nostalgic for the games. It's surprisingly complex for a kids' movie about a blue hedgehog that runs fast, but it doesn't stray from manic energy and over-the-top vibe of the source material. Jim Carrey deserves special praise: He plays a dual-villain role as both Eggman and Robotnik, and manages to more than hold his own with his frenetic, CGI co-stars.
Where to stream: Paramount+
Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy
It may be distasteful to root around in the dirty laundry of dead celebrities, but it's so entertaining. Matthew Perry: a Hollywood Tragedy is of high-enough quality that you won't feel that bad as you learn about the ring of shady Los Angeles drug dealers and Dr. Feelgoods who (allegedly) provided Friends star Matthew Perry the horse tranquilizer that led to his death. We also get a window into Perry's childhood, his mental health struggles, and his meteoric ascension to the top of the Hollywood dungheap.
Where to stream: Peacock
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Dungeons and Dragons, the game, owes a lot to Tolkien, but Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves shines most when it's least like The Lord of the Rings. Unlike other direct and indirect D&D adaptations, Honor Among Thieves respects the source material while not taking itself too seriously. It captures the lighthearted anarchy and laughs of a good game of D&D with your pals, and makes you feel like this ragtag band of adventurers' quest for a powerful relic is in imminent danger of going off the rails hilariously if someone rolls a one.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Wrong Track
I've been watching a lot of foreign language original Netflix content lately, and man, is it good, so I have high hopes The Wrong Track, a comedy from Norway about the long-distance Birkebeinerrennet ski race. Main character Emilie's life has fallen apart, so she decides to rebuild by joining her brother in a long distance skiing adventure. It's not the most original premise, but the possibilities are endless, and I can't wait to see what people in Norway think is funny.
Where to stream: Netflix
Last week's picks
Grand Theft Hamlet (2024)
Back in the bad old days of the full-lockdown pandemic, British stage actors and gamers Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen had the audacious, ridiculous idea of staging a production of Hamlet within the video game Grand Theft Auto V Online. Composed entirely of footage captured in-game, Grand Theft Hamlet features all the backstage drama of a "let's put on a show" documentary, but it's punctuated by the chaos and violence of online gaming—other players break up rehearsals with gunplay, the NPC police arrive ready to kill the cast and crew, etc. Grand Theft Hamlet is funny, but it's also shot through with glimpses of the lives behind the avatars, and it defiantly asserts that Art still matters, no matter how absurd the world becomes, online and off.
Where to stream: Mubi
Nosferatu (2024)
Robert Eggers's remake of Nosferatu doesn't rethink the source material. Instead, Eggers raises the original film's dark, corrupted imagery from the dead to terrify another generation. The new Nosferatu hits the same basic plot beats as F. W. Murnau's 1922 expressionist masterpiece: Thomas Hutter, an unsuspecting young lawyer, travels to the Carpathian Mountains for some routine business with a new client, but quickly learns that Count Orlock is actually Nosferatu, an elementally evil vampire who is has dark plans for Hutter and Humanity. If you like your vampires un-sexy and truly monstrous, don't miss Nosferatu.
Where to stream: Peacock
Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music
Peacock is a must-subscribe for fans of Saturday Night Live. Viewers can stream all 50 seasons of the show, the 50th anniversary special, a multi-part behind-the-scenes docu-series, the SNL concert at Radio City Music Hall, and more. But, because music ages better than comedy, my must-watch piece of SNL 50th anniversary content is Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music. Directed by Questlove, this documentary chronicles the ludicrously deep lineup of emerging geniuses, one-hit-wonders, and musical legends who have performed on the show, including David Bowie, Prince, Radiohead, Adele, Run DMC, Beyonce, The Replacements, Nirvana, and basically everyone else who is awesome.
Where to stream: Peacock
Memes and Nightmares
LeBron James and Maverick Carter executive-produced Memes and Nightmares, a quirky comedy documentary that takes viewers inside the world of NBA Twitter (or NBA X now, I guess). When a beloved meme (J.R. Smith Squinting) disappears from the internet, Josiah Johnson, former college baller and current king of NBA Twitter, embarks on a quixotic quest to uncover what happened. Featuring interviews with terminally online fans, NBA players, techies, and many other possible suspects, Memes and Nightmares is as much about the bonds we form and the communities we build in a digital world as it is about a missing meme.
Where to stream: Hulu
Things Will Be Different
In this inventive puzzle-box thriller, first-time director Michael Felker deftly blends sci-fi, action, and horror into a movie with more twists than 1950s dance party. Adam David Thompson and Riley Dandy play Joseph and Sidney, a brother and sister who use time travel to escape after a bank robbery. But the pair learns that the punishment for breaking state and federal laws is child's play compared to the punishment for breaking the laws of Space and Time.
Where to stream: Hulu
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire