Happy Friday, Polygon readers!
Each week, we round up the most notable releases new to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.
This week, Barbie, Greta Gerwig’s box-office behemoth about everyone’s favorite fashionista everywoman, finally comes to streaming following its tremendously profitable theatrical run. Spencer director Pablo Larraín’s satirical dark comedy about a vampiric dictator arrives on Netflix, alongside a new romance drama starring Haley Lu Richardson (The White Lotus). Pixar’s latest fantasy drama, Elemental, comes to Disney Plus, Fast X races onto Peaco*ck, and much more are arriving on streaming and VOD this weekend, include genre movie sensations Talk to Me and John Wick: Chapter 4.
Here’s everything new to watch this weekend!
New on Netflix
El Conde
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Photo: Pablo Larraín/Netflix
Genre: Black comedy horror
Run time: 1h 50m
Director: Pablo Larraín
Cast: Jaime Vadell, Gloria Münchmeyer, Alfredo Castro
Spencer director Pablo Larraín’s latest satire asks a simple question: What if, besides being an unrepentantly monstrous dictator responsible for the deaths of over 3,000 Chileans and the embezzlement of nearly $28 million, Augusto Pinochet was also a bloodsucking vampire? After living nearly 250 years as a creature of the night, Pinochet decides to die, but not before tying up some loose ends regarding his family’s estate.
Love at First Sight
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Netflix
Genre: Romance
Run time: 1h 30m
Director: Vanessa Caswill
Cast: Haley Lu Richardson, Ben Hardy, Jameela Jamil
Haley Lu Richardson (The White Lotus) and Ben Hardy (X-Men: Apocalypse) are two perfect strangers who unexpectedly fall in love during their shared seven-hour flight to London. After losing each other at customs, the odds of them meeting again seem slim... or are they?
New on Disney Plus
Elemental
Where to watch: Available to stream on Disney Plus
Genre: Romantic comedy-drama
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Peter Sohn
Cast: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen
Set in a world inhabited by the anthropomorphic manifestations of the four elements, Pixar’s latest animated comedy centers on Ember (Nancy Drew’s Leah Lewis) and Wade (Archive 81’s Mamoudou Athie), a fire and water element, respectively, who unexpectedly meet and fall in love despite their cultural differences.
From our review:
The core of Elemental is about cross-cultural relationships and the pressure of being a second-generation immigrant living up to parental expectations, while trying to figure out what you actually want out of life. The characters and their relationships are vibrant and fully fleshed out. Visually, Elemental is up there with Inside Out in just how dang cool it looks. But every tender, heartfelt moment in Elemental immediately raises a million world-building questions. While fantasy movies certainly don’t have to address every single wrinkle of their settings, there comes a point where the cool aesthetic and zany elements erode the heart of a story.
New on Hulu
Theater Camp
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Comedy
Run time: 1h 32m
Directors: Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman
Cast: Ben Platt, Molly Gordon, Noah Galvin, Jimmy Tatro
The funniest movie of the year finally makes its way to streaming.
Theater Camp is a delightful ode to the mockumentaries of Christopher Guest, following a troubled summer camp for theater nerds that finds itself in financial and organizational disarray after the founder falls ill. The founder’s well-meaning but incompetent YouTuber son (the reliably excellent Jimmy Tatro) takes over, balancing the outsized personalities of the campers and counselors while trying to save the camp.
New on Prime Video
A Million Miles Away
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Image: Prime Video
Genre: Biopic
Run time: 2h 1m
Director: Alejandra Márquez Abella
Cast: Michael Peña, Rosa Salazar, Bobby Soto
A Million Miles Away tells the incredible true story of José M. Hernández (Michael Peña), an engineer and astronaut, and the difficult path he took to get there. The movie charts his journey from working on a farm as a child in California to being a NASA astronaut.
New on Peaco*ck
Fast X
Where to watch: Available to stream on Peaco*ck
Image: Universal Pictures
Genre: Action
Run time: 2h 21m
Director: Louis Leterrier
Cast: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson
The Fast and the Furious returns for its 10th numbered installment. Fast X sees Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his found family of criminal cohorts turned secret agents menaced by a new threat in the form of Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa), a sociopathic villain with a flair for theatrics.
From our review:
Fast X suffers from the same condition as latter-day MCU movies, where it’s so laden with internal mythology that it feels more like homework than popcorn entertainment. “The days when one man behind the wheel of a car can make a difference are done,” Aimes soberly informs Dom in the buildup to the film’s fiery, physics-defying action climax, which naturally involves one man behind the wheel of a car. Aimes is meant to be wrong in his prediction, and wrong-headed for even thinking it. But the days when a goofy, overstated line like that is enough to keep audiences coming back to this franchise may be waning, too.
New on Shudder
Elevator Game
Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder and AMC Plus
Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 34m
Director: Rebekah McKendry
Cast: Gino Anania, Megan Best, Alec Carlos
Based on the online phenomenon about traveling to an alternate dimension through elevators, this movie is about a group of young people who try to prove urban legends like it false. Bad news for them: This is a horror movie, so anything goes when it comes to urban legends.
New on Starz
John Wick: Chapter 4
Where to watch: Available to stream on Starz
Photo: Murray Close/Lionsgate
Genre: Action
Run time: 2h 49m
Director: Chad Stahelski
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård
Keanu Reeves returns in the fourth installment of the John Wick series as the legendary monosyllabic-speaking assassin with a penchant for improvisational carnage. Hunted by the ruthless Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), John is forced to fight alongside and against old friends and former enemies alike to once again earn his freedom from the criminal underworld he has fought so desperately to escape.
New to rent
Barbie
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
Genre: Barbie
Run time: 1h 54m
Director: Greta Gerwig
Cast: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera
Hey, it’s Barbie! You know, Barbie — everyone’s favorite multi-hyphenate renaissance woman with a penchant for all things pink. After experiencing an inexplicable existential crisis, Barbie (Margot Robbie) embarks on a journey of self-discovery to find the root of the problem, and Ken (Ryan Gosling) decides to tag along! What could go wrong?
From our review:
Barbie starts off slow, doing the work of establishing the cutesy realm of Barbieland so there’s a clear, dark contrast when the film eventually enters Reality. But even in this opening act, Gosling swipes each scene from the sidelines, his face wracked by the near-constant heartbreak of Barbie’s lack of interest in him. As a viewer, I was far more drawn to his arc, even as I worried, Is it a bad thing that Ken is the best thing about the Barbie movie?
Talk to Me
Image: A24
Genre: Supernatural horror
Run time: 1h 35m
Directors: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
Cast: Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird
Talk to Me follows a group of Australian teenagers who discover how to conjure the spirits of the dead using an embalmed hand. Naturally, they start filming themselves messing around with it, but when one of them holds on to to the hand for too long in order to communicate with a lost loved one, they inadvertently open the door to a world of horrors beyond their greatest fears. Praised as one of the scariest movies of the year, Talk to Me is the directorial debut of YouTubers Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou and already has a sequel in production.
Retribution
Photo: Stephan Rabold/Roadside Attractions
Genre: Action thriller
Run time: 1h 30m
Director: Nimród Antal
Cast: Liam Neeson, Noma Dumezweni, Matthew Modine
Remember Phone Booth, that 2002 movie starring Colin Farrell about a publicist who gets trapped in a phone booth by a sniper who will shoot him if he gets out? Well, Retribution is a lot like that, but phone booths don’t meaningfully exist anymore, so instead it’s a car; and instead of a sniper, it’s a serial bomber with an ax to grind; and instead of Colin Farrell, it’s Liam Neeson playing a banker driving his kids to work. Got it? Yeah, you got it.
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