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.
10. (tie) Wendell and Wild (Netflix)
If you’re missing Key & Peele, we have some good news for you. Multiple seasons of the Comedy Central series will arrive on Netflix in November, so you can get your Hingle McCringleberry on, right from the comfort of your living room. In the meantime, you can enjoy Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele’s voices (along with that of Angela Bassett) as they play plotting demons who tangle with a teen who digs punk rock. Watch it on Netflix.
10. (tie) Falling for Christmas (Netflix)
Sorry to Mariah Carey but Lindsay Lohan is taking her place as the rightful queen of the holiday season this year. Her throne sits atop the bones of all the Hallmark movies she had to slaughter to get here and every Netflix Christmas flick that follows in her wake will shudder when those first few bars of “Jingle Bell Rock” begin to play. This is the future every millennial raised on The Parent Trap — and the Disney Channel Original movie Life-Size starring Tyra Banks — has manifested. In all seriousness though, this thing looks cute. Lohan plays a hotel heiress who, after a skiing accident, loses her memory and must live amongst the peasants of a snowy mountain town. While there she bonds with a sheriff/single-dad played by Glee’s Chord Overstreet and, presumably, realizes her former life wasn’t as picture perfect as she thought. Watch it on Netflix.
10. (tie)Enola Holmes 2 (Netflix)
Thank goodness Henry Cavill didn’t sign on to play Superman again before filming this sequel, or there’d be another The Witcher-esque switcheroo in the works. Cavill is back, but more importantly, Millie Bobbie Brown returns as the sassy younger sister of Sherlock Holmes. One of the bigger plot finds roots in the real-life Bryant & May match factory atrocities, but somehow, the overall mood stays light. Enola sets up her own detective shingle and goes undercover, so you can only imagine what hijinks will ensue. Watch it on Netflix.
9. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (The Roku Channel)
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story stars Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe as “Weird Al” Yankovic, obviously. The fake biopic depicts the world’s premier polka-loving pop song parodist as a hard-drinking sex maniac, obviously. It also stars Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, Quinta Brunson as Oprah Winfrey, and Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento, obviously. Should you watch Weird: The Al Yankovic Story this weekend on the Roku Channel? Obviously.
8. Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (Netflix)
Well, guess what: Scrooge is back. In animated form. In a trippy new animated story that features the voices of people like Luke Evans and Olivia Colman. Which is… fine. It’s fine! There’s a reason this story has been told 800 times. People love it! Now, you could just watch The Muppet Christmas Carol instead, if you want. That’s an option. But this is here now, too. So there’s that. Watch it on Netflix.
7. Lady Chatterly’s Lover (Netflix)
Netflix dives into another extremely British tale of class-crossing love affairs, this one based on a novel from the 1920s that was banned in many countries for obscenity but is now just a movie you can watch by clicking the button next to, like, The Crown. It’s kind of wild if you think about it, so… let’s not! Watch it on Netflix.
6. Disenchanted (Disney Plus)
Amy Adams returns in her breakout role, but she’s a princess who actually isn’t having as much fun as she imagined would be the case. Giselle is still married to Robert (Patrick Dempsey), and they’re still searching for their fairy tale. Maya Rudolph climbs onboard for a semi-evil role as a villain of suburbia, and this is all very G-rated material again because c’mon, Disney. The story will be as charming as always, but the real attraction is James Marsden’s returning Idiot Prince. Basically, I just want the Idiot Prince to get plowed down at every opportunity again. Watch it on Disney Plus.
5. Bullet Train (Netflix)
Bullet Train is chaos. Bloody, funny, frivolous, superficial chaos. Nothing and everything happens in this film about a group of assassins all vying for a briefcase that may just offer the biggest payload of their respective careers thus far. It’s jam-packed with action — the fast-paced, tightly-choreographed kind that gives you whiplash if you stare too long – and with a cast of A-listers, the best of which being Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry, who play a pair of Brit brothers constantly bickering on the job. It’s got enough twists and surprises to keep you entertained plus Brad Pitt unironically sporting a bucket hat for its two hour runtime. It’s just plain fun. We wish there were more movies like it out there. Watch it on Netflix.
4. Spirited (Apple TV Plus)
Apple TV+ is getting into the Christmas movie game with this musically inclined re-telling of that classic Dickens tales. Ryan Reynolds plays the modern-day Scrooge here, a guy named Clint Briggs who doesn’t take his holiday haunting lying down. Will Ferrell plays the Ghost of Christmas Present who’s determined to inject a bit of cheer into the proceedings no matter how many musical numbers and tap-dancing solos it takes. As far as Charles Dickens adaptations go, you could do a lot worse. Watch it on Apple TV Plus.
3. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (Disney Plus)
In the mood for some space-related superhero business this holiday season? Great! Why not?! Here we have the Guardians of the Galaxy — Chris Pratt, Pom Klementieff, Kevin Bacon a little bit — doing a bunch of Christmas things, for you, all month long. Is it kind of cute and sweet? Sure. Would we pay decent money to have our own lil Groot decorated like a Christmas tree? Of course. Would it be fun if they made a movie next year where Hulk had to take over for Santa due to an emergency? It’s worth considering. But for now, there’s this. Watch it on Disney Plus.
2. Reno 911! It’s A Wonderful Heist (Comedy Central)
The Reno 911! gang is back, ringing in the holidays with a nod to It’s A Wonderful Life, decaying shopping malls, and American weirdness. Not to oversell, but this laugh-until-your-face-hurts special once again proves that Tom Lennon, Niecy Nash, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Cedric Yarbrough, and company are operating at the top of their game as a collective. Watch it on Comedy Central.
1. Pinocchio (Netflix)
Guillermo del Toro made a stop-action version of the classic “liar puppet becomes a real boy” story and guess what: it’s great! Smart people are saying it’s the best Pinocchio since the first one, which is both high praise and a decently sick burn on the other version that just came out a few months ago. Either way! Feels like a fun one to watch with the family over the holidays. It’s definitely better than, like, talking. No one wants to do that. Let the adorable wooden puppet fill the air with his sweet journey toward being a human. Watch it on Netflix.