Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish movies available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
1. Godzilla vs. Kong (HBO Max)
Do you like to watch monsters pummel the ever-living hell out of each other? (Of course you do! Who doesn’t?!) Well, has HBO Max got a movie for you! (Though we should note that you can also see it in theaters.) This seemingly non-stop parade of cinematic excess is a long way from Godzilla’s original legacy as an anti-nuclear parable, but it’s entertaining as hell, so we forgive everything. Watch it on HBO Max.
2. Zack Snyder’s Justice League (HBO Max)
After a hardcore fan campaign and plenty of backlash (of both the content-related and behind-the-scenes varieties), the fabled “Snyder Cut” is no longer fabled but a real thing. It’s also a 4-hour thing, so it’s quite a mouthful to chew, but it’s undeniably a vast improvement over the theatrical version. Snyder’s version isn’t technically canon, but it’s still the realization of a fever dream and one that will satisfy those who longed for actual character depth amid all the CGI mayhem. Watch it on HBO Max.
3. Concrete Cowboy (Netflix)
Idris Elba on a horse and wearing a cowboy hat? Sure, sign us up. Director Ricky Staub uses actual members of Philadelphia’s Fletcher Street Riding Club in the film, and the film also serves as a pretty good history lesson explaining why there are often Black cowboys on horses in the middle of large cities. Watch it on Netflix.
4. The Last Cruise (HBO Max)
If you enjoy documentaries that feel like horror movies that will give you nightmares when you sleep, this one is right up your alley. Director Hannah Olson combed through hundreds of hours of video footage taken by passengers and crew members aboard a cruise ship in the midst of a COVID outbreak to transport audiences back to the early days of the pandemic. Watch it on HBO Max.
5. Bad Trip (Netflix)
Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery, and Tiffany Haddish in a wild road trip prank comedy where they pull strangers into nutso stunts as they make their way to New York. You could do a whole lot worse in on a Saturday night. Watch it on Netflix.
6. Minari (VOD)
Do you want to make Alan Kim happy? You should, as he’s the world’s most adorable child. All you have to do is watch Minari. Not only will you get to enjoy a very good movie about a Korean-American family, including patriarch Steven Yeun, living in small-town Arkansas in the 1980s, you will also bring a smile to make this gosh-darn cute kid’s face. Watch it on VOD.
7. Nomadland (Hulu)
In his review of the film last year, our Mike Ryan wrote, “there’s a scene in Nomaldland so beautiful I gasped as it whisked my brain to some of Terrence Malick’s early work.” That pretty much sums it up well — Nomadland is one of the most beautiful and touching movies we’ve seen in a while. Watch it on Hulu.
8. Wolfwalkers (Apple TV)
Wolfwalkers was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars. It probably will not win because it’s going against Soul and Onward, but it should. The third and final installment in Tomm Moore’s majestic “Irish Folklore Trilogy,” after The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, is gorgeous and profound and lyrical. Pixar can always win another Oscar next year. Watch it on Apple TV.
9. Kid90 (Hulu)
Actress Soleil Moon Frye mines her vast archive of diaries and videos, creating a star-studded scrapbook of her bittersweet ’90s teen experience that is as affecting as it is surprisingly relevant no matter when you came of age. Watch it on Hulu.
10. The Sound Of Metal (Amazon Prime)
Riz Ahmed is terrific in The Sound of Metal and is a, mark it down, done deal for a Best Actor Oscar nomination. Ahmed plays Ruben Stone, a drummer in a heavy metal band who is losing his hearing at a dramatic speed. As a former addict, he worries about relapsing and checks himself into a shelter for deaf addicts. It’s here he learns to sign and starts to accept himself in new ways. Things get complicated after Ruben has surgery to install implants that, sort of, restore some of his hearing, but now he’s caught between two worlds and has to decide how he wants to live. Ahmed gives a reserved performance (at least for a character who plays in a heavy metal band) as he copes with the anguish of who he was, who he is now, and who he’s going to be. Watch it on Amazon Prime.