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 week, Venom: The Last Dance, the latest in the Tom Hardy superhero franchise, slithers its way onto Netflix. There’s loads more in terms of new streaming releases this week as well, Nosferatu on Peacock and Grand Theft Hamlet on Mubi. As for new releases for purchase on VOD, there’s Barry Jenkins’ Mufasa: The Lion King, the horror comedy Companion, The Brutalist, and Dog Man.
Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!
New on Netflix
Venom: The Last Dance
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Superhero action
Run time: 1h 50m
Director: Kelly Marcel
Cast: Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple
Tom Hardy returns for one last outing as the long-tongued parasitic antihero Venom. Following the events of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Eddie Brock (Hardy) and the Venom symbiote are still on the run. Hunted by both the military and a mysterious extraterrestrial threat known as the Xenophage, Eddie and Venom must work together once more to survive and clear their name.
From our review:
The original Venom found success in the mess of Hardy’s gutsy performance straining against stakes as mundane as Eddie interacting with his ex and her aggressively normal new boyfriend, after they watched him feverishly climb into a restaurant’s lobster tank. Last Dance, however, removes every human consideration from the equation of Eddie’s life — every social tie, every personal goal, every stake smaller than “aliens and the government are trying to kill us.”
New on Hulu
Things Will Be Different
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Sci-fi thriller
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: Michael Felker
Cast: Adam David Thompson, Riley Dandy, Chloe Skoczen
Following a botched robbery, two estranged siblings go to ground in an abandoned farmhouse where they discover a closet with the inexplicable power to transport them to an alternate dimension. While the pair manage to elude the police, they cannot ignore the rift that their relationship has undergone… nor can they escape the consequences of their own actions.
New on Max
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max
Image: Vertical Entertainment
Genre: Sci-fi thriller
Run time: 1h 31m
Director: George Nolfi
Cast: Anthony Mackie, Morena Baccarin, Maddie Hasson
Three years after a civilization was destroyed by a race of subterranean creatures, a widower (Anthony Mackie) journeys to Boulder, Colorado, along with two women searching for a way to kill the invasive species. After descending to ground level, the trio must fight to survive against overwhelming odds.
Watchmen Chapter II
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max
Genre: Dystopian sci-fi
Run time: 1h 26m
Director: Brandon Vietti
Cast: Troy Baker, Adrienne Barbeau, Michael Cerveris
The second and final installment of Brandon Vietti’s animated adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ landmark superhero miniseries Watchmen has finally arrived. As the world hurtles toward doomsday, will Nite Owl, Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan, and Silk Spectre be able to uncover the orchestrator behind the conspiracy to pit the United States and Russia against one another in global conflict?
New on Peacock
Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock
Image: Focus Features
Genre: Gothic horror
Run time: 2h 12m
Director: Robert Eggers
Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp
Director Robert Eggers (The Witch) returns with his most ambitious project to date: a remake of F.W. Murnau’s seminal vampire horror film, based unofficially on Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. Set in 1830s Wisburg, Germany, Eggers’ film centers on Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) and Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), a newlywed couple who are ensnared in the machinations of Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), a reclusive nobleman and vampire who lusts after Ellen.
From our review:
The key creative pact in any Dracula movie, though, is between the director and his vampire. (E. Elias Merhige playfully explored this topic in his 2000 film Shadow of the Vampire, in which John Malkovich plays a fictionalized Murnau, with Dafoe as a version of Schreck who might actually be a vampire.) This is the one area where Eggers and Skarsgård diverge sharply from the original film. Skarsgård’s Orlok is still ancient, corpse-like, and heavily taloned. But where Schreck was twisted and withered, Skarsgård’s version is towering and hairy, swathed in furs, with a long mustache and a barbaric aspect. Even his looming physicality is dwarfed by his voice; Skarsgård speaks outrageously slowly in a cartoonish Transylvanian accent, rolling his R’s for days, and the sound mix gives his every utterance a booming, subsonic resonance that rattles the theater. It’s a choice; it may be too much for some, but it couldn’t be any more Gothic.
New on Mubi
Grand Theft Hamlet
Where to watch: Available to stream on Mubi US
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 29m
Directors: Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane
Cast: Sam Crane, Mark Oosterveen, Pinny Grylls
Grand Theft Auto Online is one of the most commercially successful MMOs of the past decade, amassing over 20 million active users per month and billions of dollars in annual microtransaction revenue. But can it pull off a reenactment of Shakespeare? In this experimental documentary, Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane attempt to do just that, pulling off a successful performance of Hamlet within the game amid the chaos and unpredictability of GTA Online’s player base. Simple, right?
From our review:
Spontaneity is the key to GTA Hamlet’s success as a theatrical production, as it is for any of the other countless GTA Online role players attempting to make their virtual dreams come true inside a chaotic game. Some people play the game without committing crimes. Others roleplay as high school students. Some people play as an assassin-for-hire, while others pretend to be cops. All of them have to navigate the essential tension between their individual goals, what the game was actually designed for, and the goals of every other player around them.
New to rent
Mufasa: The Lion King
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Disney
Genre: Family adventure
Run time: 1h 58m
Director: Barry Jenkins
Cast: Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tiffany Boone
Academy Award-winning director Barry Jenkins dives into the surprisingly complicated origin story of Mufasa, Simba’s father in The Lion King. Turns out, instead of inheriting the lion-throne, Mufasa was an orphan who floated down a river before being discovered by a young prince and his mother, à la Moses. There’s a good, toothy thread in this movie about Scar and Mufasa’s relationship — if you can dig it out from beneath the photorealistic lions, Lin-Manuel Miranda soundtrack, and super-duper simplified plot.
From our review:
There is a glimmer of something wonderful in Mufasa. Jenkins and Nathanson put a twist on Mufasa and Taka’s relationship that could’ve given a beautifully tragic edge to the confrontation we know is coming in The Lion King. But while their ill-fated brotherhood could’ve added even more heartbreak to the original movie, it was also the thread that was doomed to never be explored thoroughly in this prequel. There’s just too much working against it, from the flat animation and subpar songs to the preordained fate that awaits both characters. Sanding the nuance off that relationship might’ve worked for a DTV prequel, but on a big screen, it feels jarringly abrupt.
A Complete Unknown
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Searchlight Pictures
Genre: Docudrama
Run time: 2h 21m
Director: James Mangold
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning
Timothée Chalamet stars as Bob Dylan in this heavily Oscar-nominated docudrama from director James Mangold (Ford v Ferrari). After arriving in New York City, the 19-year-old folk music prodigy navigates the pitfalls of fame as his meteoric rise to stardom coincides with the political and social upheaval of the 1960s.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
Genre: Dark comedy thriller
Run time: 1h 37m
Director: Drew Hancock
Cast: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage
Sophie Thatcher stars in a dark sci-fi comedy as Iris, a young woman on a weekend getaway with her boyfriend and some friends. But, surprise! Iris is actually a companion robot rented by her boyfriend, who’s able to control her emotions and intelligence via an app on his phone. That’s not the only big secret that comes to light, as the weekend quickly unravels into bloody chaos.
The Brutalist
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: A24
Genre: Epic drama
Run time: 3h 34m
Director: Brady Corbet
Cast: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce
Director Brady Corbet (Vox Lux) returns with his Oscar-nominated drama starring Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a Holocaust survivor who immigrates to the United States in hopes of restarting his career as an architect. After much hardship, László earns the patronage of Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), a wealthy industrialist who sees promise in the architect’s creativity and vision.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Animated comedy
Run time: 1h 47m
Director: Peter Hastings
Cast: Peter Hastings, Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery
It’s a man! It’s a dog! It’s… Dog Man? The movie is based on the super popular children’s graphic novel series of the same name by Captain Underpants creator Dav Pilkey (in the comics universe, it’s penned by two Captain Underpants characters). Dog Man (the character, not the movie itself) was once a separate man and dog, but after a deadly accident, the doctors decided to stitch the dog’s head on the man’s body. Just the kind of existential body horror that kids eat up! In the movie, Dog Man tries to thwart the machinations of Petey the Cat, who has accidentally created a baby version of himself.
The Room Next Door
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
Genre: Psychological drama
Run time: 1h 47m
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, John Turturro
Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore play two friends, Martha and Ingrid, who reconnect after Martha is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Martha plans to end her life with euthanasia pills, instead of suffering her final days in pain and anguish. She invites Ingrid on a trip to her country home so that the two can spend Martha’s final moments together. The Room Next Door is based on What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez. It won the Golden Lion at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival.
The Killer
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu; streaming on Peacock
Genre: Action thriller
Run time: 2h 6m
Director: John Woo
Cast: Nathalie Emmanuel, Omar Sy, Sam Worthington
Legendary action director John Woo returns with an English-language reimagining of his 1989 action thriller The Killer, this time starring Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones) and Omar Sy (Lupin). Emmanuel portrays Zee, a notorious assassin known and feared in the Parisian underworld as the “Queen of the Dead.” After refusing to kill a witness who was blinded during her latest assignment, Zee becomes the target of her former employers. Her escapades draw the attention of Sey (Sy), a savvy police detective with whom she reluctantly allies.
It’s certainly a departure from the original film starring Chow Yun-fat, but hey: If Olivier Assayas can successfully remake Irma Vep nearly 26 years after the fact, why shouldn’t Woo be capable of doing the same with his own work?
From our review:
The shootouts are tense and balletic, with terrific sound design punctuations of gunfire, something that was also a strength in Silent Night. The loud bangs play well off the dramatic, moody score from composer Marco Beltrami, which, like the movie, balances romance and excitement with shades of classical orchestration and jazz. And the movie just looks great, even though it’s a straight-to-streaming production: The colors pop, the city of Paris buzzes with life, and the way Woo moves his camera to follow and augment the action is unparalleled.