Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.
This weekend, Mickey 17, the new sci-fi comedy from director Bong Joon Ho (Parasite) and starring Robert Pattinson (The Batman), duplicates itself onto VOD after a long time spent in cryosleep. That’s not all that’s available to rent this week; there’s also Novocaine starring Jack Quaid, the apocalyptic fantasy In the Lost Lands starring Dave Bautista and Milla Jovovich, and much more. We’ve also got new streaming premieres as well, like the presidential action thriller G20, starring Viola Davis (Widows), on Prime Video and the historical drama Small Things Like These, starring Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer), on Hulu.
Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Image: Lionsgate
Genre: Historical drama
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Tim Mielants
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Eileen Walsh, Michelle Fairley
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) stars in this period drama as Bill Furlong, a devoted father and coal merchant who uncovers a terrible revelation behind a convent in his town, which in turn forces him to reckon with a shocking truth of his own. Based on Claire Keegan’s 2021 novel, Small Things Like These tackles the lingering controversy behind Ireland’s “Magdalene laundries.”
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Image: Werewolf Films/Shout! Studios
Genre: Thriller
Run time: 1h 30m
Director: Sam Yates
Cast: Shazad Latif, Daisy Ridley, Matilda Lutz
Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) and Shazad Latif (The Commuter) star in this neo-noir thriller as Annette and Ben, a married couple whose daughter is cast in a new film. When Annette grows to suspect that Ben is having an affair with Alicia (Matilda Lutz), a famous actor who is their daughter’s castmate, their marriage begins to fracture — prompting Annette to contemplate the unthinkable.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max
Genre: Documentary thriller
Run time: 1h 25m
Director: Asif Kapadia
Cast: Samantha Morton, Naomi Ackie, Hector Hewer
Inspired by Chris Marker’s 1962 dystopian featurette La Jetée, Asif Kapadia’s documentary-fiction hybrid centers on a scavenger (Samantha Morton) in an apocalyptic future sifting through her memories of the past. It hasn’t exactly gotten particularly good reviews, but the premise sounds interesting enough to warrant a watch, at the very least.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Genre: Action thriller
Run time: 1h 48m
Director: Patricia Riggen
Cast: Viola Davis, Anthony Anderson, Marsai Martin
The G20 summit in South Africa gets taken over by terrorists who intend to use deepfake technology to take control of the world’s financial markets. But U.S. President Danielle Sutton (Viola Davis) has more than a few tricks up her sleeve — even if she’s stuck in a stylish, sleeveless red gown (don’t worry; she rips it apart so she can kick butt). And the stakes are even more personal, because she invited her family along to South Africa and they’re among the hostages. President Sutton punches, kicks, stabs, and shoots to save her family and the fate of the world.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
Genre: Sci-fi comedy
Run time: 2h 17m
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun
Bong Joon Ho is back with his first film since 2019’s Oscar-winning Parasite and his first American production since 2017’s Okja. Based on Edward Ashton’s novel, Mickey 17 stars Robert Pattinson (The Batman) as Mickey Barnes, a down-on-his-luck space colonist who volunteers to become an “expendable,” an indentured clone worker on the ice planet of Niflheim. When another copy of himself is cloned accidentally, the two must work together to conceal their secret or risk both being killed off by the colony’s ruthless leaders.
There’s a lot of interesting ideas at play in Mickey 17, from its farcical depiction of quasi-corpocratic religious institutions to its playful exploration of the nature of identity and labor. At the heart of the film’s multilayered ideas, though, is the story of a man coming to grips with his own apparent disposability in a callous and indifferent universe and figuring out what’s worth sticking up for. We’ve all known Mickey Barnes at some point in our lives; hell, some of us might’ve even been Mickey Barnes at one point or another. If there’s one thing to take away from Bong’s story of clones and sex jokes, it’s that it’s never too late to change.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Dark action comedy
Run time: 1h 50m
Directors: Dan Berk, Robert Olsen
Cast: Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson
Jack Quaid stars as Nathan, a mild-mannered man who works at a bank and also has a condition that prevents him from feeling pain. He tries not to talk about his condition too much, but after a gang of robbers breaks into his work and holds his co-worker and love interest hostage, he attempts a rescue mission. It spirals wildly out of control, and the limits of his condition are put to the test.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image Vertical
Genre: Epic dark fantasy
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Cast: Dave Bautista, Milla Jovovich, Arly Jover
Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista star in this dark fantasy movie, which takes place in a distant future. Earth is now a dystopian wasteland, where order is maintained by the Church. A witch (Jovovich) escapes execution and ends up enlisting a mysterious bounty hunter (Bautista) in a dangerous mission to please the Queen. It’s based on a short story by George R.R. Martin, first published in Amazons II, an anthology of fantasy stories featuring female protagonists.
Anderson’s world-building and eye for compelling visuals throws you right into the sheer scale of In the Lost Lands, evoking massive castles and other huge structures in this desolate land with the unnatural sheen of digital photography and his strong eye for light and shadow. Martin’s typically evocative location names also help out: The protagonists visit Fire Fields, Shadow’s Bane, and my personal favorite, Skull River (which is, it turns out, a more literal name than you might expect).
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Genre: Biographical crime drama
Run time: 2h 3m
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Robert De Niro, Debra Messing, Cosmo Jarvis
Robert De Niro stars in this period crime drama in the dual role of Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, two of the most infamous crime bosses of the 1950s locked in a battle for supremacy over New York City. The Alto Knights charts the origins of their feud, from the disintegration of their once close friendship to the series of bloody betrayals that set them on a course for destruction that would change the history of organized crime.
