This week has one of the best lineups of new movies on streaming this year
Good news, Polygon readers. This week is one of the most jam-packed for new releases available to watch at home so far this year. And there’s a little bit for everybody.
Right out of the gate, M. Night Shyamalan’s apocalyptic Dave Bautista vehicle Knock at the Cabin makes its streaming debut on Peacock. It’s one of our favorite movies of 2023, and one of the scariest horror movies of the year, too.
That’s far from all — two of 2022’s best movies also make their way to streaming platforms. The animated fantasy drama Inu-Oh, from the legendary director Masaaki Yuasa, lands on Hulu, and Jordan Peele’s exemplary Nope moves from Peacock to Prime Video.
That’s not it, especially for action fans. Global mega star Shah Rukh Khan returns to the screens with his big-budget action epic Pathaan, the fourth installment in the YRF Spy Universe, now on Prime. Veronica Ngo takes the reins of the Furie franchise with the sequel Furies, out on Netflix. And Guy Ritchie’s latest Jason Statham collaboration, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, arrives on VOD.
Let’s get into it.
NEW ON NETFLIX
FURIES
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Action-thriller
Run time: 1h 49m
Director: Veronica Ngo
Cast: Veronica Ngo, Song Luan, Thuan Nguyen
I’m on the record as being a big fan of 2019’s Furie, a martial arts revenge thriller that broke box-office records in Vietnam and cemented star Veronica Ngo and director Le-Van Kiet (who went on to direct The Princess) as talents to watch.
It’s four years later, and Ngo has been handed the keys to the franchise. She’s now behind the camera (as well as in front of it) in this brutal twist on a Charlie’s Angels-like story.
Set in 1990s Saigon, Furies follows three traumatized young women who are recruited by a gangster (Ngo) to form a kickass team of crimefighting avengers. With slick fight scenes and a cityscape equally soaked by neon and blood, there’s plenty to like about the prequel. It ultimately did not land in the same way Furie did for me, but I’m fully convinced of Ngo’s ability as a director and movie star, and hope she gets a blank check to make whatever she wants next. A word of caution: Furies includes multiple explicit scenes of sexual assault.
NEW ON HULU
INU-OH
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Historical fantasy musical
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Masaaki Yuasa
Cast: Avu-chan, Mirai Moriyama
Masaaki Yuasa’s animated musical follows the masked vagrant Inu-Oh who, after crossing paths with a blind biwa-playing musician named Tomona, finds himself overwhelmed by his compulsion to dance. As crowds flock to watch them perform together, the pair grow closer as both friends and business partners while steering their way through the inevitable pitfalls and hurdles that come with sudden stardom.
From a review:
As a director, Yuasa is best known for his characters’ thrilling rubber-band flexibility, and the ways he seeks out the same kind of elated freedom Inu-Oh and Tomona are exploring. In Inu-Oh, Yuasa and Nogi similarly free traditional Japanese entertainment from the expectations of tradition. Inu-Oh conflates Noh theater with a more contemporary experience of pop culture. Inu-Oh sings in piercing high notes (provided by Avu-chan of the band Queen Bee) and Tomona complements him with equally fierce, grungy vocals (from actor Mirai Moriyama). The sounds of electric guitars replace traditional instruments, and the two men salt their stage performances with Freddie Mercury-esque showmanship: One song moves to the beat of “We Will Rock You,” while another, named “Dragon Commander,” emulates the quickfire lyrics and borrowed operatic harmonies of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
CALL JANE
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Historical drama
Run time: 2h 1m
Director: Phyllis Nagy
Cast: Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, Chris Messina
When her request for an emergency abortion for her life-threatening pregnancy is denied, a 1960s suburban housewife must turn to an underground network of women who risk everything to allow her access to a safe procedure. Moved by their cause, she chooses to join them — becoming a “Jane” and adding other women in the exercise of their reproductive freedom in defiance of the laws and culture of her time.
NEW ON PEACOCK
KNOCK AT THE CABIN
Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock
Genre: Horror/thriller
Run time: 1h 40m
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Rupert Grint
Jonathan Groff (The Matrix Resurrections) and Ben Aldridge (Our Girl) star in M. Night Shyamalan’s latest horror-thriller as Eric and Andrew, a married couple whose quiet vacation getaway at a remote cabin with their daughter (Kristen Cui) is interrupted by the intrusion of four armed strangers led by a bespectacled, soft-spoken, and intimidating man named Leonard (Dave Bautista). Their mission? To prevent the apocalypse. The catch? One member of Eric and Andrew’s family must die in order to prevent it — and the family themselves must choose who among them must be sacrificed.
From a review:
As uneven as Knock at the Cabin is, it’s the work of a more complete Shyamalan than even the director who made Old two years ago. It’s a film from a creator who’s interested in probing the ideas of his earlier work with the style and workmanlike rigor of his comeback era. In turning his gaze toward the apocalypse, a messy, complicated filmmaker finally turns to the most neglected aspect of his reputation: that of a believer. By the time the credits roll, there’s an argument to be made that M. Night Shyamalan seems to know where he stands, and it doesn’t really matter to him what anyone makes of it.
NEW ON PRIME VIDEO
TOP GUN: MAVERICK
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Genre: Action
Run time: 2h 11m
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Cast: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly
The undisputed box-office champion of 2022 (although The Way of Water lurks), Top Gun: Maverick finally makes its way to Prime Video this week, after a few months on Paramount Plus. This just means it’s a great time to watch Top Gun: Maverick again. Or jump out of a plane, if you’re Tom Cruise. Up to you.
From a review:
If there’s something worth salvaging from that era — and from Top Gun — it’s the sense of optimism that used to dominate ’80s action movies. That and the belief that the simplest, corniest story, if told with enough skill and conviction, can delight everyone in the world. Top Gun: Maverick has both these qualities in abundance. They’re embodied in Tom Cruise, who is the auteur of his own myth, and might be the last true movie star. He wants to show you a good time, and he will. But more than that, he wants to take off and never come back down.
NOPE
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Genre: Sci-fi horror mystery
Run time: 2h 10m
Director: Jordan Peele
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea
Jordan Peele’s latest sci-fi horror mystery thriller stars returning collaborator Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) and Keke Palmer (Alice) as two siblings who, after discovering something miraculous and horrifying above the skies of their family’s California horse ranch, work together to capture bona fide proof of extraterrestrial life.
From a review:
It would be too much to call Nope a bad movie. Even in Peele’s lack of precision, plenty of good qualities lurk underneath the knottier shortcomings. But this horror flick doesn’t rise to the levels of Get Out or Us, either. It isn’t because in this case, Peele isn’t trying to teach white people to understand the full scope and feeling of racism. It’s because Nope is an idea more than a story. It’s a collection of individually captivating scenes, as opposed to an intriguing whole. It’s a handsome picture, but Peele is far too impressed with its handsomeness to work on populating it with fully felt characters. It might enthrall audiences, and it might frighten them, but it’ll struggle to stay with them after the credits start to roll.
PATHAAN
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Genre: Action thriller
Run time: 2h 26m
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, John Abraham
The fourth movie in the YRF Spy Universe, Pathaan is the long-awaited follow-up to the explosive War, which featured one of the single greatest movie scenes to ever exist. Gone are War stars Tiger Shroff and Hrithik Roshan, but back in is one of the biggest movie stars in the world: Shah Rukh Khan, in his first starring role in years.
In Pathaan, Khan plays an exiled intelligence operative looking to take down another former operative who has gone rogue. It was a huge production, and a smash hit in India and around the world.
NEW ON VOD
CHILDREN OF THE CORN
Where to watch: Available to rent for $6.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 33m
Director: Kurt Wimmer
Cast: Elena Kampouris, Kate Moyer, Callan Mulvey
Kurt Wimmer’s 2020 adaptation of Stephen King’s 1977 short story of the same name centers on Boleyn Williams (Elena Kampouris), a high school girl who finds herself at odds with a psychopathic 12-year-old girl who rallies the other children in her small Nebraska town to kill against every adult who stands in their path. It is the 11th Children of the Corn movie, but it’s not connected to any of the previous ones.
KUBRICK BY KUBRICK
Where to watch: Available to rent for $3.99 on Amazon and Vudu; $4.99 on Apple
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 5m
Director: Gregory Monro
Cast: Stanley Kubrick, Malcolm McDowell, Jack Nicholson
This documentary follows the career of Stanley Kubrick, one of the defining filmmakers of the 20th century, known for works such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Spartacus, Full Metal Jacket, and more. Kubrick by Kubrick includes several sound and film recordings of the director speaking on his process and work, tracing his life and career over the span of roughly three decades.
OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE
Where to watch: Available to rent for $19.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Spy action comedy
Run time: 1h 54m
Director: Guy Ritchie
Cast: Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett
Guy Ritchie’s last team-up with Jason Statham gave us the excellent LA heist thriller Wrath of Man. This time, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, Hugh Grant, and Cary Elwes are thrown into the mix in this fun action comedy about a group of secret agents who recruit a famous action star (Hartnett) to spy on a weapons dealer who is a big fan (Grant). While not nearly as consistently good as Wrath of Man, Ruse de Guerre is still a fun time at the movies, especially for fans of the very capable cast.
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