The Best New Movies to Stream This Week
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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.
The best new movie that came out this week is Flow, a universally beloved movie that is guaranteed to make you cry. It's so good, you should pay to rent it; it's VOD-only for now. If sensitive French animation isn't your jam, you might enjoy Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, a documentary about The Jerry Springer Show. Different strokes, as they say.
Flow (2024)
If you're anything like me, you missed French film Flow at Cannes and during its limited theatrical run in 2024. We should both be ashamed of ourselves. This breathtakingly beautiful animated adventure story about animals who must work together is exactly the kind of movie we both like. We're not alone, either: Flow earned a 97% positive critical rating and 99% positive audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. So let's treat ourselves better in the future, and start with watching Flow, all right?
Where to stream: VOD
Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action
If you wanted to pinpoint the moment Western Culture fell off the cliff that led to (gesturing vaguely at everything) this, the popularity of The Jerry Springer Show is a solid contender. Through interviews with the people responsible and plenty of footage from the show, Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action takes viewers behind-the-scenes of the Chicago-based talk show that built an empire on fistfights and scandals, both in front of and behind the camera.
Where to stream: Netflix
Stopmotion (2023)
A tortured artist whose most disturbing creations become real isn't the most original plot in horror movie history, but if it ain't broke, why fix it? The art in this case is stop-motion animation, the creepiest kind of animation, and the creation that comes to life, The Ash Man, is a stop motion figure made of raw steak and roadkill, so it's going to get grisly. Stopmotion was written and directed by acclaimed stop motion animator Robert Morgan, so the details are spot-on.
Where to stream: Hulu
Look Into My Eyes
I'm inclined to think of "psychics" as cynical ghouls who exploit grief for profit, but Look into My Eyes' director Lana Wilson has a more nuanced view of the craft. Her documentary examines the relationship between small-time, New York psychics and their clients without weighing in on whether the mediums' claims are true. Instead of exploitation, Wilson finds healing, faith, and human connection. No matter how skeptical you are, it's a fascinating take on the subject.
Where to stream: Max
Last week's picks
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The beloved stop-motion characters created by Aardman Animations are back in Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, in which Gromit (he's the dog) becomes concerned with his master's overreliance on technology. Wallace has invented a high-tech garden gnome, but it turns evil, forcing an absurd showdown. The roller coaster pace and precise comic timing raise the chaos high enough to earn Vengeance Most Fowl a rare 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Where to stream: Netflix
Cunk on Life
Cunk on Life (an offshoot of the "documentary" series Cunk on Earth) illustrates what would happen if the BBC hired the dumbest person on Earth to host a sweeping documentary that examines the meaning of life. Philomena Cunk, played by comedian Diane Morgan, travels the world to interview real academics, philosophers, and other very smart people, ostensibly to ask big, important questions, but really to test their patience with her deadpan, stupid persona. If you like comedy that's actually funny, don't miss Cunk on Life.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Rig
The Rig has a perfect set up for a horror-thriller: A mysterious fog rolls over an offshore oil rig, cutting off all communication. Paranoia, claustrophobia, and terror rise as the tension becomes unbearable. Then the crew learns that the fog besetting the oil rig leads to something unnatural and unspeakable, forcing desperate men to work together to survive.
Where to stream: Prime
Interstellar (2014)
Christopher Nolan directed this science fiction story about a group of astronauts who fly through a wormhole in search of a new home planet for humans to crap up. With a cast that includes Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Caine, thoughtful ideas about down-to-earth values, and a heavy dose of Nolan's unique cinematic style, Interstellar is required viewing. After an IMAX rerelease earlier this year, people who missed it the first time around are finally appreciating it as a new sci-fi classic.
Where to stream: Netflix
A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
This prequel to A Quiet Place brings us back to the start of the series, the day the blind, noise-averse aliens invaded earth and killed almost everyone in the world. Lupita Nyong'o stars as Sammy, a terminally ill woman whose journey to New York City for a slice of pizza is interrupted by the end of the world. A film that’s equal parts horror and character study, A Quiet Place: Day One is a great choice for fans of horror movies with a sci-fi bent.
Where to stream: Prime
Paddington (2014)
Universally admired family flick Paddington proves that CGI characters can be lovable and memorable and that children's movies can be emotionally affecting without being mawkish and sentimental. Nailing the tone in a movie about a bear in a red hat in the modern world is a hell of a balancing act, but Paddington pulls it off without seeming to break a sweat. A true classic you should revisit before the three-quel arrives in theaters in February.
Where to stream: Hulu
Don't Die: the Man Who Wants to Live Forever
Sorry for spoiling this Netflix original documentary, but its subject, entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, is not going to live forever. He's not going to achieve his more modest goal of living to 200 either. That foreknowledge adds to the poignancy and ridiculousness of Johnson's pursuit—dude is spending millions per year to forestall Death, and Death just does not care. While you and I are probably not going to that level, we're all doing something (even if it's just fretting) and Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever asks some interesting questions about our relationship to the end of life.
Where to stream: Netflix
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Rapper Boots Riley's cinema debut is a fearless provocation that's hilarious, surreal, and crammed with pointed social commentary. Atlanta's Lakeith Stanfield plays Cassius “Cash” Green, a telemarketer who's stuck in the boiler room until he learns to "talk white." Cash's new vocals (provided by a voiceover from comedian David Cross) open up a new world of money and power that only costs your soul to enter.
Where to stream: Hulu
The Front Room
The directorial debut of Max and Sam Eggers, half-brothers of Nosferatu director Robert Eggers, The Front Room is a surrealist domestic horror story in which the worst mother-in-law imaginable moves in to "help" her pregnant daughter-in-law and her son. Despite the seriousness of the trailer, The Front Room is leavened by dark humor throughout. Solange, played by Kathryn Hunter, is a true nightmare, and will do anything to drive a wedge between her son Norman, played by Andrew Burnap, and his wife Belinda, played by Brandy Norwood.
Where to stream: Max
2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
This year's winners of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Musical Excellence Award were Jimmy Buffett and The MC5, and inductees included A Tribe Called Quest and Ozzy Osbourne, proving that the words "rock and roll" don't actually describe anything. But whatever; it's still cool to see performances from the likes of Cher and Dua Lipa, who perform a duet of Cher's "Believe"; The Roots backing up Robert “Kool” Bell for a medley of Kool and the Gang classics; and Demi Lovato and Slash playing classic rock from Foreigner.
Where to stream: Hulu
The Leopard Man (1943)
Just as Leopard Man producer Val Lewton's most famous film, Cat People, didn't have any cat people in it, Leopard Man is not about a leopard man. Lewton spent most of his career as the head of B-movie production company RKO's horror department, where studio heads dictated their movie's titles, but let Lewton actually film whatever he wanted. Lewton chose to make Leopard Man an atmospheric, creepy, surprisingly progressive examination of misogyny and violence, rather than a cheesy monster flick. Leopard Man is arguably the first movie about a serial killer, and remains among of the best examples of the genre ever made.
Where to stream: Max