Tag: movies

3 underrated Amazon Prime Video movies you should watch this weekend (April 10-12)

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This weekend’s watchlist covers three different genres of movies, so you can pick whatever you are in the mood for. We have a trio of hidden gems on Amazon Prime Video that deserve way more attention.

There is a gritty Michael Caine revenge thriller you should not miss, a micro-budget 1950s sci-fi mystery that thrives on atmosphere and dialogue. For horror fans, we have a psychological horror bout a hospice nurse whose faith tips into something far more dangerous that gets inside your skin.

We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best free movies, and the best movies on Amazon Prime Video.

Saint Maud (2019)

Saint Maud is not a horror film in the traditional sense, and going in expecting one will work against you. What it actually is is a deeply unsettling psychological portrait of a young hospice nurse named Maud, a recent Catholic convert who becomes dangerously fixated on saving her terminally ill patient’s soul in ways that grow increasingly disturbing.

Morfydd Clark’s performance is the engine of the whole thing, holding a fragile, frightening line between piety and paranoia throughout. I really like how the film gets under your skin without ever fully explaining itself. You finish it feeling like you witnessed something you were not supposed to see, and that feeling does not leave quickly.

You can watch Saint Maud on Amazon Prime Video

Harry Brown (2009)

If you have a soft spot for slow-burn British crime dramas, Harry Brown is the movie you need to watch this weekend. Michael Caine plays the title character, a widowed, retired Royal Marines veteran living on a decaying South London housing estate overrun by gang violence. When his only friend is murdered, Harry stops looking the other way.

What makes this film work so well is how it refuses to glamorize what follows. Harry is not an action hero. He is an old man with emphysema who stumbles during a chase and collapses on a canal path.

I really like how the film earns every moment of tension because it keeps Harry vulnerable and the world around him genuinely threatening. Caine is absolutely extraordinary here, and there are sequences in this film that will make you forget you are watching a 77-year-old man.

You can watch Harry Brown on Amazon Prime Video

The Vast of Night (2019)

Have you accidentally tuned into a late-night radio broadcast and could not bring yourself to switch off. Well, The Vast of Night is exactly that kind of sci-fi movie.

Set over a single night in 1950s small-town New Mexico, the film follows Fay, a teenage switchboard operator, and Everett, a fast-talking local radio DJ, as they stumble onto a mysterious audio frequency that sends them down a strange and increasingly eerie rabbit hole.

There are no big set pieces or alien invasions. The tension is built almost entirely through dialogue, long unbroken camera takes, and an incredibly precise sound design that makes the night feel alive and watchable.

What I really love about this movie is how it makes stillness feel tense. A long phone call, a quiet street, a voice crackling through static, and somehow all of it keeps you completely locked in. For a movie made on a low budget, The Vast of Night makes an entertaining watch.

You can watch The Vast of Night on Amazon Prime Video

Hollywood’s biggest filmmaker just came out clean about using AI in movies

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Legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg voiced concerns about the growing role of artificial intelligence in creative industries during an appearance at SXSW in Austin. Speaking during an interview session at the 2026 event, Spielberg made it clear that while he supports technology in many fields, he strongly opposes AI replacing human creativity in filmmaking.

Spielberg Draws A Line On AI In Creative Work

During the discussion, Spielberg revealed that he has never used AI in any of his films, a statement that drew enthusiastic applause from the audience. The director emphasized that although artificial intelligence can be useful in certain disciplines, it should not replace the people responsible for storytelling and artistic expression.

“I am not for AI if it replaces a creative individual,” Spielberg said during the conversation.

Steven Spielberg.
Michael Loccisano / Getty Images

The filmmaker explained that in his own creative process, including television writing rooms, he still relies entirely on human collaboration. According to Spielberg, there is no “empty chair with a laptop in front of it” representing an AI contributor. For him, the development of stories and characters remains a fundamentally human activity.

Spielberg’s stance reflects broader concerns across Hollywood, where writers, directors, and actors have increasingly debated how AI might affect jobs and creative control in the entertainment industry.

A Director Known For Exploring Technology

Despite his skepticism toward AI replacing creative professionals, Spielberg is not opposed to technology itself. Throughout his career, many of his films have explored futuristic technologies and their potential consequences.

His filmography includes classics such as Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Spielberg has also examined the relationship between humans and advanced technology in projects like Minority Report, Ready Player One, and A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

These films often present technology as both a powerful tool and a potential threat, themes that echo Spielberg’s real-world perspective on artificial intelligence.

AI’s Growing Presence In The Entertainment Industry

Spielberg’s comments come at a time when AI tools are increasingly entering the filmmaking and television production landscape. Technology startups are developing AI-powered platforms designed to assist with script development, editing, and visual effects, often marketing them as tools that can reduce production costs.

John Williams and Steven Spielberg in the 1980s
Disney+

Major streaming platforms are also exploring how artificial intelligence might streamline content creation. Amazon has reportedly begun testing AI tools for film and television production. Meanwhile, Netflix recently acquired an AI-focused filmmaking company associated with Ben Affleck in a deal reportedly valued at around $600 million.

While these developments could reshape how films and shows are produced, they have also sparked ongoing debates about whether AI will assist creative professionals or eventually replace them.

The Future Of AI In Hollywood

Spielberg’s remarks highlight a central question facing the entertainment industry: how to integrate new technologies without undermining the human creativity that defines filmmaking.

For independent filmmakers working with limited resources, AI tools may offer opportunities to reduce production costs or speed up certain tasks. However, many established creators argue that storytelling should remain driven by human imagination rather than automated systems.

As AI continues to evolve and spread across the entertainment industry, discussions like the one at SXSW suggest that Hollywood’s biggest names are determined to ensure technology enhances creativity rather than replacing it.

Captain America: Brave New World and The Wild Robot just hit streaming

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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, Captain America: Brave New World, the Marvel superhero movie starring Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford, smashes its way onto Disney Plus after hitting video on demand in April. It’s a big week for animation, with the Oscar-nominated The Wild Robot and the Korean science fiction romance Lost in Starlight both releasing on Netflix, while DreamWorks’ adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s internationally bestselling Dog Man graphic novel series arrives on Peacock. New titles available to rent include the Chinese legal thriller The Prosecutor, and two tales of forbidden love: the Shakespearean musical Juliet & Romeo and The Grey director Joe Carnahan’s action flick Shadow Force.

Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!

Genre: Science fiction romance
Director: Han Ji-won
Cast: Kim Tae-ri, Hong Kyung/Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Justin H. Min

Set in 2050 Seoul, Netflix’s first Korean original animated film is a story of literally star-crossed lovers. An astronaut headed for Mars and a musician fall for each other and face the pain of separation. Trying to make a long-distance relationship work is especially difficult when you’re 139 million miles away from each other.

Genre: Crime drama
Director: Carlos Sedes
Cast: Carmen Machi, Ivana Baquero, Tristán Ulloa

Based on a true story, this Spanish film stars Ivana Baquero (Pan’s Labyrinth) as Maje, the young widow of a man stabbed seven times and left in a parking lot in a seeming crime of passion. The investigation leads to Maje’s lovers, as the police try to figure out who’s really behind the crime.

Genre: Family science fiction
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: Chris Sanders
Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor

Based on Peter Brown’s middle-grade book, DreamWorks’ Academy Award-nominated film follows Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), a helpful robot who accidentally washes up on an island that’s only inhabited by animals. While she initially terrifies all the creatures there, she winds up befriending a fox (Pedro Pascal) who helps her raise a runty gosling (Kit Connor) and prepare him for his first migration.

From director Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon), The Wild Robot is a tenderly crafted story that pushes computer animation in a beautiful new direction — and is exactly the sort of movie that the current animation landscape so desperately needs.

Captain America: Brave New World

Genre: Superhero action
Run time: 1h 58m
Director: Julius Onah
Cast: Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Harrison Ford

Set after the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Captain America: Brave New World sees Sam Wilson — having fully embraced his role as the new Captain America — being called on to resolve an international incident in the wake of a failed assassination attempt on newly elected President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford). With time running out and the walls closing in, will Sam be able to come out on top and rescue the world from the brink of devastation? Probably!

As a Captain America movie, Brave New World is batting strongly below average. Its plot is at least mildly reminiscent of 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but it’s both fair and unfair to compare the two. Unfair in that Winter Soldier is still among the best-regarded MCU movies, while BNW is running uphill from table-setting a potential new Captain America franchise, dealing with post-production rewrites and reshoots, and the general malaise of the MCU’s post-Avengers: Endgame audience. But fair in that, like Winter Soldier, BNW was also clearly designed as a grounded thriller (by the sliding scale of “grounded” in the MCU) featuring global political stakes and a superpowered conspiracy at its heart.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Genre: Political drama
Run time: 2h 48m
Director: Mohammad Rasoulof
Cast: Soheila Golestani, Missagh Zareh, Mahsa Rostami

Writer and director Mohammad Rasoulof had to flee Iran after he was sentenced to eight years in prison ahead of the premiere of The Seed of the Sacred Fig. The Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated film is a fictional story set against the backdrop of political protests, incorporating real footage of the 2022 and 2023 unrest that followed the death of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini, who was fatally beaten by Iranian “morality police” under the accusation that she was wearing her hijab improperly.

Genre: Family comedy
Run time: 1h 29m
Director: Peter Hastings
Cast: Peter Hastings, Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery

Peter Hastings continues the Captain Underpants franchise with an adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s graphic novel series about a hero created when a police officer and his dog were stitched together into one individual after being wounded while failing to defuse a bomb. Pete Davidson plays Dog Man’s evil cat nemesis in the DreamWorks film, which uses CG animation styled to resemble craft materials.

Genre: Thriller
Run time: 1h 31m
Director: Mel Gibson
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Topher Grace, Michelle Dockery

No one is quite who they seem in Mel Gibson’s claustrophobic thriller, where a U.S. Marshal (Michelle Dockery) hires a pilot (Mark Wahlberg) to get an informant from Alaska to New York so he can testify against the crime family he worked for. As they travel across the wilderness, the group fights for control of the increasingly tense and violent flight.

New on Shudder and HIDIVE

Genre: Horror anime
Run time: 1h 31m
Director: Toyoo Ashida
Cast: Kaneto Shiozawa, Michie Tomizawa, Seizō Katō

AMC Networks re-released a digitally remastered version of Toyoo Ashida’s classic anime film to celebrate its 40th anniversary in theaters in April, and is now offering it across both its anime and horror streaming services. Set in a far future where vampires rule the world, the action-packed film follows a mysterious vampire hunter hired to protect a woman from a vampire lord who wants her to be his next bride.

Genre: Action comedy
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: James Madigan
Cast: Josh Hartnett, Katee Sackhoff, Charithra Chandran

Basically Bullet Train but in the air, Fight or Flight casts Black Hawk Down and Penny Dreadful star Josh Hartnett as a disgraced Secret Service agent given the chance to clear his name by catching an elusive hacker known as the Ghost, who’s boarded a flight from Bangkok to San Francisco. Unfortunately, the plane is packed with assassins looking to kill the Ghost and anyone who gets in their way.

Genre: Musical romance
Run time: 2h 2m
Director: Timothy Scott Bogart
Cast: Jamie Ward, Clara Rugaard, Rupert Everett

West Side Story already did the decisive musical version of Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet, but this adaptation plays closer to the original text while adding a soundtrack full of original pop tunes to the tale of two feuding houses of Verona. Filmed on location in Italy, Juliet & Romeo’s high-profile supporting cast includes Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter, The White Lotus) as Lord Montague and Rebel Wilson (Bridesmaids, Pitch Perfect) as Lady Capulet.

Genre: Legal thriller
Run time: 1h 57m
Director: Donnie Yen
Cast: Donnie Yen, Cheung Chi Lam Julian, Michael Hui

Ip Man’s Donnie Yen directs and stars in this Chinese legal thriller loosely based on a real 2016 drug trafficking case. Yen plays detective Fok Chi-ho, who loses faith in policing and decides the better way to ensure criminals face justice is as a public prosecutor. The Prosecutor might be mostly courtroom drama, but there’s still plenty of action, combining old-school martial arts techniques with modern film technology.

Genre: Action thriller
Run time: 1h 43m
Director: Joe Carnahan
Cast: Kerry Washington, Omar Sy, Mark Strong

Eight years ago, Kyrah Owens (Kerry Washington of Scandal and Little Fires Everywhere) and Isaac Sarr (Omar Sy of Lupin and Jurassic World) joined a multinational special forces group dubbed Shadow Force, but they’ve left that life behind to raise their son. Their old boss (played by Mark Strong of Shazam! and Sherlock Holmes) doesn’t accept their resignation, and is trying to hunt them down.

The Lord of the Rings soundtrack issued in vinyl boxset from Rhino

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Howard Shore won multiple Oscars, Grammys, and Golden Globe awards for his score for the Lord of the Rings series. Performed originally by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra with choral contributions from the London Voices and London Oratory School Schola, the score has become a favorite for film screenings with live accompaniment. Now you can get a vinyl version of the soundtrack to set the stage for your next Dungeons & Dragons game — or the epic task of cleaning your apartment.

Available exclusively on Rhino.com, the $149.98 box set includes six LPs on 180-gram black vinyl, two for each of Peter Jackson’s films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy. Along with the iconic instrumental music, the tracklist includes Enya’s “May It Be” and “Aníron (Theme For Aragorn And Arwen)” and Annie Lennox’s Academy Award-winning song “Into the West,” which closes out The Return of the King. The box features sepia-toned art, with a great image of Treebeard carrying Merry and Pippin, plus a booklet filled with stills from the film.

Only 2,000 copies of the set are available worldwide, so if this soundtrack is precious to you, be sure to order it quickly.

Final Destination: Bloodlines got a unique cut for IMAX release only

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It’s been nearly 15 years since Final Destination 5, the most recent installment in the horror-movie franchise where someone responds to a premonition about deadly disaster by saving the victims, who death then jealously pursues in the order they should have died, through a series of ridiculous contrivances. The series revives with Final Destination: Bloodlines, which puts a new twist on the gimmick: This time around, one survivor of the original disaster staved off death long enough to have kids and grandkids, so death chases them down too, in order of birth.

For a lot of filmmakers, that time gap would be a reason to start from scratch as much as possible, to revamp and update the franchise. Directors Adam B. Stein and Zach Lipovsky (who also made the fascinating 2018 sci-fi puzzlebox movie Freaks, now on Netflix) certainly do some of that — including using their framing for an IMAX version of the movie they say will never be seen in any other format. But they also told Polygon that they went back to study the franchise’s previous films in obsessive detail, to capture everything that made these movies work.

“There are key shots in the previous movies that are iconic,” Lipovsky told Polygon via Zoom. “We just were so inspired by them. We even took it to the next level — we analyzed every single death set piece in all the previous movies, and built this incredibly complex spreadsheet with how many omens they had, what type of death it was, and what the other deaths were that came after it, to see what the pattern of death was, and which ones worked really well, and which ones didn’t. We really analyzed the key DNA pieces, the set pieces we could best learn from and bring into our movie.”

Stefanie (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), a dark-haired young woman, stands with her back to the camera, in front of an elaborate timeline on the wall built on newspaper clips covered with red ink lines and post-its, in Final Destination: Bloodlines

Photo: Eric Milner/Warner Bros. Entertainment

He says previous Final Destination movies showed death’s impending arrival on a scene in a variety of ways, “whether that’s through wind, or the way the camera moves, or the way water drips, or things like that,” which the directors picked up for Bloodlines. “But even the fun they had with the way they transition from one scene to the next, we were really inspired by that as well. One of our all-time favorite shots is when [2006’s Final Destination 3] cuts from the two tanning beds to the two coffins. It’s cinematic, but it also has an irony and a fun to it. That’s the tone you’re always trying to capture.”

The “arrival of death” tipoffs in a Final Destination movie also include creepy music cues, and ominous shots of the various mundane objects that are about to self-assemble into a murderous Rube Goldberg device leading to a messy death. But with Bloodlines, Stein says, the team added in IMAX camera cues.

“Because we got to work with the IMAX team, to film it for IMAX with their cameras and their specs, they really encouraged us to see if there was a way we could use the IMAX aspect ratio shift as a creative tool,” Stein says. “And that got us really excited to use it almost as a omen in itself. In the IMAX version of this movie, there is a specific shot where we have a creepy push-in for each death sequence that we designed to be the moment where we expand to the IMAX aspect ratio right as death arrives. It’s the harbinger of death.”

That effect won’t be visible at all for people in regular theaters, or watching the film later in home formats, Stein says. “It’s only in the IMAX version of the movie, which you can only see opening week in IMAX theaters. It’ll never be released on home video or on streaming. So for audiences that don’t know that’s what’s happening, they’ll just feel it as a bit of an increase in the intensity in those moments, as they get sucked into that bigger aspect ratio. And for the IMAX fans who have a keen eye, who are looking out for it, they’ll be able to see those particular shots where death arrives and leaves each scene.”

A line of characters in mourning black stand outside around a coffin in the foreground in Final Destinations: Bloodlines

Photo: Eric Milner/Warner Bros. Entertainment

Stein and Lipovsky’s enthusiasm for the franchise shows through when they talk about the details of their plot, with the central family facing death one by one. But they light up even more when talking about the filmmaking process. “Final Destination is the ultimate treat for a filmmaker to shoot, because there is no personified antagonist,” Lipovsky said. “There’s no monster, there’s no man with a knife, no nothing. It’s just shots of objects and the wind, and the way the camera rotates slightly and pushes in. Ultimately, it’s really the filmmaking that’s coming for these characters, and all the clever ways these objects are misdirecting them and moving around them — which is ultimately us.

“So basically, Adam and I got to be death, to build all these crazy machines and use all the tools of cinema we delight in to create tension. And that’s a really just a beautiful gift as a filmmaker to indulge yourself with, and to play with all the incredible technicians we collaborated with, to just give the sense that there’s an evil force there, even though you don’t see anything.”

Stein says that dynamic — getting to “play death” in every sequence — made the project fun for him and Lipovsky in a way that they hope carries over to the audience. “A lot of people assume horror movie sets are very bleak, but there’s a great sense of playfulness and fun in horror,” he said. “Because you’re letting loose with your dark sense of humor, and all the technicians are having so much fun with being covered in fake blood, and having fake bodies being torn apart by puppeteers. All those practical effects bring a lot of fun to the set, as everyone’s figuring out how to do all this stuff.

“And I think that comes across on screen, especially in a tone like Final Destination’s. We always said we wanted to create a movie where you have to watch it through your fingers ’cause it’s so intense, but you’re also laughing at the same time. And when you see this movie in a packed theater with an audience that is really coming into the audience experience in that way — everyone is horrified, and they have to look away. But they’re also laughing uproariously, which I think surprises some people when they really see this movie in a packed theater.”

Final Destination: Bloodlines opens in theaters on May 16.

Thunderbolts*’ depression story has one painful flaw

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The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Thunderbolts*, is baldly and emphatically about dealing with depression. It opens with state-assassin-turned-mercenary-assassin Yelena​​ Belova (Florence Pugh) in voiceover, musing about the “emptiness” that characterizes her life, how she can’t enjoy or connect to things the way she used to. The story repeatedly touches on different ways people self-medicate to survive the loss of hope, from alcohol and drugs to a variety of forms of emotional suppression. The action climax has the heroes physically battling a powerful, destructive manifestation of one character’s bottomless despair and self-hatred.​​ Trust a superhero movie to find a way to let someone punch depression in the face — a cathartic act for those of us who’ve gone through these particular mental health struggles, though not a practical solution outside of a fantasy setting.

Even in the middle of a long wave of horror movies that turn anxiety and PTSD into literal monsters, though, it’s strange to see Marvel turning mental health crisis management into a punch-’em-up, in a movie that’s as much cinematic therapy (and exploration of complex PTSD, exposure therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy) as it is action-adventure story. And it’s even odder to get to the end of the film and see what’s missing. The Thunderbolts* writers, with director Jake Schreier, get some things right about this kind of mental illness. But having navigated depression myself, I squirmed at parts of the messaging, particularly at the movie’s climax. As much as the filmmakers want to leave viewers with positive, even actionable messages about mental health, parts of those messages land oddly for those of us who’ve been there.

[Ed. note: Major spoilers ahead for Thunderbolts*, including end spoilers.]

Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) sits on a motorcycle, cool sunglasses and leather jacket on, in Thunderbolts*

Image: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

For much of the movie, Yelena is the face of depression in the movie’s central metaphor. A lot of her arc throughout this film involves her analyzing and fighting her own hopelessness and weariness, then trying to connect with other people when she recognizes the same emotions in them. At times, she blows up at anyone trying to connect with her in return. One of the movie’s most purposefully painful scenes features her railing at her dad figure Red Guardian (David Harbour) about how guilt, grief, and isolation have taken over her life, and eventually turning on all the other heroes she’s been tentatively connecting with, doing everything she can to tear them down emotionally as well.

But the movie’s real conflict involves Bob (Lewis Pullman), an experimental test subject who Yelena and three other mercenaries — John Walker from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Ghost from Ant Man and The Wasp, and the ill-fated Taskmaster from Black Widow — meet in a bunker where they’ve all been set up to die. As the merc team tries to figure out how to escape the bunker alive, Bob says he has no value to them, and it would be better for everyone if he just remained locked up down below. Yelena immediately recognizes this as a self-destructive impulse akin to her own, and tries to counsel and comfort Bob, and help him see his own worth. In the process, she’s talking herself through her own depression as much as she’s trying to help him fight his.

Later, though, Bob gets a bigger jolt of self esteem from the movie’s villain, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who tries to set him up as Sentry, a hero completely under her control. That plan falls apart, unleashing the Void, a powerful force that drags everything around it into shadow. It’s about as literal a depiction of depression as you’re likely to see on screen — especially since the whole time the Void is blanketing Manhattan in darkness and blasting its inhabitants into dark smudges, it’s whispering bleak messages about the futility of struggle, the pointlessness of everything, and especially how laughable he considers Bob’s fleeting attempts at self worth.

The Void (Lewis Pullman) in Thunderbolts*, an all-black outline of a man, one arm raised with his fingers splayed

Image: Marvel Studios

Anyone who’s fought depression — clinical and ongoing, short-term and conditional, or anything in between — will recognize some of the Void’s toxic messaging, and will see it as a metaphor for that inner voice that whispers, You’ve messed everything up or Your friends don’t really care about you or You have no value or just Give up, there’s no point in trying. It’s easy to sympathize with Bob’s frustration with that voice, and his desire to pound it into submission. Thunderbolts*’ smartest insight is that his rage and frustration aren’t much use in fighting the Void: They give him the nerve and impetus to resist it, but they aren’t a solution on their own. The usual dynamics of superhero films aside,​​ violence isn’t the answer here.

Instead, the answer turns out to be a group hero-hug, a verbal reminder that Bob isn’t alone, and an admission that sometimes, the best we can hope for is company in misery. That can be a powerful idea: One of the worst parts of chronic depression is the feeling of being exiled, distanced from everyone else, locked into a poisonous little world where your thoughts run in circles, and every self-defeating impulse and thought feeds the next one. The group hug breaks the cycle for Bob, and lets him see outside the hallucinatory world he’s built for himself — a place where he both relives and hides from his most traumatizing memories. The Thunderbolts/New Avengers team hauls him back into the real world, where he can start healing.

That’s a solid metaphor, and an effective cinematic way of externalizing a largely internal conflict. (It works similarly well in Laika’s ParaNorman, another movie where a hero has to dive into a villain’s fantasy headspace, navigate their trauma, and break their cycle of misery with a simple “I understand your suffering and you aren’t alone.”) But it misses one big issue with depression, the aspect of the movie that most made me shrink in my seat in the theater: the sense of shame that comes with needing this kind of help, and with putting this much weight and demand on other people.

Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and Bob (Lewis Pullman) stand together in the dark, with her holding up a flashlight, in Thunderbolts*

Image: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

There’s a comforting fantasy in the idea that even though everyone in Thunderbolts* is navigating major traumas of their own, they’re all capable of temporarily setting their personal issues aside to focus on comforting and supporting Bob. Granted, they don’t have much choice, given that he’s encompassing the world in nightmarish darkness. Still, the film frames that group hug as an act of caring and empathy, not desperation or grudging heroic obligation. His easy ability to absorb that comfort when it comes, though, to take on Yelena’s message of companionship as a real fix for his loneliness, and to do it without embarrassment — to me, that felt harder to believe than MCU multiverses or magic, and almost toxic itself in its lack of weight or complexity.

I’ve been through this kind of crisis myself, facing my own mental health struggles or trying to help friends navigate theirs. And shame is often a major factor, both as an ongoing part of the larger weight of depression and, in moments like these, where long-simmering melancholy reaches a boiling point. It’s hard to accept help. It’s hard to admit to problems. The societal view of depression holds that everyone should be strong, independent, and self-contained, and that it should be embarrassing to demand other people’s time, attention, or love.

More personally, when everyone around you is in crisis, it feels selfish to demand special attention or to compound the demands other people are facing. It makes sense that the Thunderbolts* filmmakers didn’t want to send Bob down a shame spiral when he returns to the real world, complicating the movie’s feel-good beat with a second breakdown. But their solution is to make him cheerfully oblivious about the trials he’s put the rest of the world through. That lack of self-awareness becomes even more awkward and unpleasant when his condition is played for comedy.

Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Lewis Pullman as Bob, Florence Pugh as Yelena, and Wyatt Russell as John Walker in Thunderbolts* leaning around a corner while in their superhero costumes

Photo: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

By the end of the climactic battle in Thunderbolts*, the Void has been temporarily vanquished, and Bob is back in the real world as a mostly normal human. But he has no memory of anything he just went through, or any of the havoc his friends suffered because of him. Standing in the wreckage of the Manhattan block he destroyed minutes earlier, almost killing dozens of people with falling wreckage before almost obliterating millions with his powers, he’s blithely unaware of the trouble he’s caused. His memory lapse is treated like a gag, but it’s a horrific story beat. He hasn’t learned anything from his experiences. He isn’t capable of gratitude for what his friends just went through to help him. And he isn’t capable of returning their care, or offering support in return.

Some aspects of the final Bob confrontation felt entirely authentic to me — the specific undermining whispers the Void has for him, say, or Bob’s confused veering between anger and despair. There’s certainly wisdom in the admission that while no one can fill the gaping hole inside someone else, we can at least share our experiences, commiserate with other people, and work around that feeling of being alone.

Even so, I was shocked how uncomfortable I felt with the idea of him making his problem into everyone else’s problem, forcing all the other characters to drop everything to take care of him. The problem isn’t just that he needs help, because we all need help from time to time. It’s the way his need eclipses everyone else’s — and then the way that once his needs are met, he’s breezily happy and disengaged from the struggles all his friends are facing. It’s a bizarrely lighthearted transition away from the film’s heavier look at depression. And it’s certainly a harsh way to portray caretaking, as a crucial yet hilariously thankless and kind of unfulfilling job.

The obvious implication here is that Bob might return to being the Void at some point, and that in the meantime, the other members of his team will have to navigate their own crises without any meaningful input from him. They’re learning how to form a community and support each other, but he’s set up as an endless drag on their empathy and energy and resources, with nothing to contribute and no sense of self-awareness about it. For someone who’s had to ask others for help, this version of Bob is humiliating all on its own — a portrayal of depression as a kind of bottomless, oblivious selfishness.

The Thunderbolts stand together in a group, all looking various forms of alarmed and concerned, except Bob, who looks blank

Image: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

For me, that image is more frightening than the Void itself. Possibly the only good things that come from navigating a mental health crisis are the ability to recognize the symptoms and navigate them more effectively the next time whenever they surface again, and the ability to see the signs in other people and connect with them. Maybe Bob’s value to the group is in serving as an example, training the team to trust each other more, showing them how to selflessly respond to and support each other through their various crises. Maybe it’s fine that he’s the guy who showed up at the potluck with an opened package of napkins, while everyone else spent hours whipping up homemade food, because it’s not his fault he doesn’t know how to feed himself, and there’s still enough food to go around.

Certainly I appreciate that Bob is able to hear and accept the message that he isn’t alone. In the real world, that kind of connection can be difficult to internalize, and difficult to believe or accept as help in the midst of a depressive episode. And I appreciate that the Thunderbolts* writers (original writer Eric Pearson and a rewrite team including Beef writer Lee Sung Jin and The Bear’s showrunner/co-creator Joanna Calo) have the sense to not portray the big hug-it-out moment as a permanent, magical fix to Bob’s problems: At best, it’s an interruption in the pattern, and a suggestion of a path forward for his friends, who are all facing their own mental health battles. It’s a sensible reminder that every depression episode is its own unique challenge, and sometimes just surviving the moment is enough.

But leaving Bob as a permanent broken stair in his friend group, the amiable, adorkable, hapless dude who just might explode at any moment, feels like a horror. Bob isn’t completely oblivious by the end of the movie — presumably his friends have filled him in on what they went through with him. He isn’t fixed, and he knows it. But he’s doing the work: reading a self-help book (Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being), avoiding behavior he knows triggers his depression, expressing his needs to other people. (Not shown: therapy, medication, or learned therapeutic techniques like CBT.) He’s stable, for the moment, and he’s consciously practicing self-care. Certainly that’s more of a kindness than leaving him wallowing in shame and guilt over everything the Void nearly did.

Still, in a movie that’s so much about positive messaging — whispered counterarguments to the Void, parallel messages that say, You aren’t alone in this, other people have been here too and Your friends really do care about you, you just need to let them in — I don’t know what Bob’s shameless, comfortable complacency at the end really gets us, except a sense that it’s kind of funny to be needy, damaged, and destructive. Some of this response, I recognize, is my own Void still whispering back at me, identifying with the villainous parts of Bob instead of the human ones.

But I’ll stand by this as long as I’m fighting my own mental health fight: I’d rather be part of the team, fighting through my own embarrassment and pain to try to hug people and help them, than to be Bob, causing problems I don’t even see, and then walking away smiling afterward. I’ve known a lot of people fighting this kind of inner war, and I’ve fought it myself, for most of my life. None of us are as complacent about it as Bob, or as willing to let other people do all the work on our behalf. And it feels a wee bit cavalier to put him through this titanic battle — to go through the thoughtful work of humanizing mental health struggles and portraying them as a heroic battle against evil — and then robbing Bob of the chance to really process anything he’s experienced, or take a meaningful role in his own recovery.

This overlooked Florence Pugh Netflix horror movie is a must-watch

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It can sometimes feel like Florence Pugh emerged into the world a full-formed movie star. One day, she was getting some light awards buzz for roles in indie roles on the festival circuit; the next, she was headlining major films and strutting down red carpets in designer fashion. Now, for another career milestone: As the top-billed star of Marvel’s Thunderbolts*, Pugh continues to solidify her place as one of the most successful actors of her generation.

If you’ve been paying attention, Pugh’s rise to A-lister status was painstakingly earned. Before her career-making role in the cult thriller Midsommar — which led to parts in major projects like Little Women and multiple MCU installments — she paid her dues with a series of lesser-known movies. Of the bunch, one of the most overlooked and underrated is the horror flick Malevolent, a Netflix original that landed quietly in 2018 but is worth revisiting as Pugh leads a ragtag team to save the Marvel universe on movie screens across the world this weekend.

In Malevolent, Pugh plays Angela, part of a team of phony ghost hunters whose scam runs its course when they’re lured to an actual haunted house. While the group’s scheme mostly relies on technological trickery, Angela appears to have some actual, latent psychic powers. Director Olaf de Fleur reveals these within its first few minutes, showing the world through her eyes as objects mysteriously move and ghosts jump out at her from the shadows (the first of many jump scares Malevolent has in store).

Pugh plays all this with surprising coolness, even as the horror amps up in the film’s final act. There’s an impressive stoicism to her performance: she’s calm and collected, with a clear hint of sadness just below the surface. She doesn’t shriek once, at the most letting out a gasp when she comes face to face with one of Malevolent’s many deformed ghosts.

This type of subtle performance has become a cornerstone of Pugh’s career. You can see the same approach in movies like Midsommar and Dune: Part Two, where she’s able to establish complex characters with just a few sparse lines of dialogue and a soulful look into the camera. It’s a talent that dates at least back to Malevolent, where Pugh conveys more with a simple facial expression than most actors can with an entire monologue. During the movie’s few happy moments, the camera will sometimes linger on Pugh’s smile for one second too long as it falls away to reveal the despair underneath.

That’s also a stylistic choice for Malevolent, as de Fleur makes a habit of holding each shot for an extra second or two, imbuing the movie with a sense of dread that never breaks. He also constructs some impressive shots, including an opening scene in which the camera is framed through the perspective of a young girl. Her father has hired the group to communicate with his dead wife, but as the scene plays out, you can’t see anyone’s faces until they crouch down to speak to the girl directly.

While there are plenty of reasons to praise Malevolent — the synthy soundtrack is eerie without sounding like a Stranger Things imitation, and some of the practical effects are downright terrifying — it’s also far from a perfect movie. Not all the characters get quite enough development for their eventual deaths to resonate, and as the film reaches a somewhat hectic climax, it can be hard to follow the action. De Fleur’s insistence on building mood over noisy jump scares also limits Malevolent’s effectiveness as a horror film. Because sometimes, you really do need the main character to scream bloody murder when the moment calls for it.

At this point in Pugh’s career, it seems unlikely she’ll ever wind up in another low-budget Netflix horror movie, and that makes Malevolent’s existence all the more special. She may not approach the role in typical scream queen fashion, but her skills as an actor more than make up for it. All the building blocks of a remarkable career are on display here, from her subtle, inward performance to a tangible coolness under pressure she is able to evoke. In the years since, Pugh’s added a few more tricks to her repertoire (you wouldn’t know it from Malevolent, but she’s also hilarious). And yet, even in this imperfect, scary horror flick from 2018, there’s no doubt that Florence Pugh was a movie star in the making.

New to Netflix May 2024: Every movie and TV show

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Even with Netflix’s recommendation algorithm serving you new movies, new TV shows, and original programming tailored to your viewing habits, the streaming service’s fire hose of content makes what’s coming difficult to parse. We’re here to help.

This month has some exciting back catalogue picks, like the whole Twilight saga, the Ocean’s Eleven movies, horror flicks like Heart Eyes, Train to Busan, and Smile; and The Wild Robot. There’s also a new volume of Love, Death & Robots out, along with more Blood of Zeus. Netflix’s first original Korean animated movie, Lost in Starlight, also arrives sometime this month.

Editor’s Pick: Past Lives

Greta Lee and Teo Yoo look at each other longingly in front of a carousel in Past Lives

Image: A24

Director: Celine Song
Cast: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro

Director Celine Song’s debut theatrical film is an achingly poignant story about one woman and the two great loves of her life. A semi-autobiographical movie, Past Lives follows Nora, who moves from Korea to Canada in her youth, leaving behind a childhood sweetheart. Though they reconnect in their 20s, the relationship fizzles out due to distance and other life opportunities. Ten years later, the two reconnect one last time and reflect on where life has taken them.

Black Mirror: Thronglets (Netflix Games)

From Netflix: Oh, look! A Thronglet! Enter the world of “Black Mirror” with this curiously cute simulation from the episode “Plaything.” Play at your own risk.

Single’s Inferno: Choices (Netflix Games)

From Netflix: Take a romantic beach walk, send a sweet note and… win a “chicken fight”? Do whatever it takes to get quality time with your crush in this story game.

Street Fighter IV CE (Netflix Games)

From Netflix: Go blow for blow against warriors around the world. Rule the ring with your favorite fighters in this hard-hitting version of the classic arcade game.

Available sometime in May

Losmen Bu Broto: The Series (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: For the Broto family, managing their beloved Yogyakarta inn is no easy feat — especially when their youngest son falls in love with a married guest.

Lost in Starlight (Netflix Film)

A woman in a space suit on the verge of tears. From Lost in Starlight.

Image: Netflix

From Netflix: When an astronaut leaves Earth for Mars, the vast infinite space divides star-crossed lovers in this animated romance that crosses the cosmos.

Mad Unicorn (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: An aspiring entrepreneur breaks new ground with the launch of a startup courier service that brings new opportunities – and powerful enemies.

Rhythm + Flow: Poland (Netflix Series)
From Netflix: Aspiring Polish rappers drop bars, battle, and craft tracks to impress judges Bedoes 2115, DZIARMA, and Sokół — vying for fame and a 500,000 złoty prize.

Angi: Fake Life, True Crime (Netflix Documentary)

From Netflix: Sentenced for the murder and impersonation of her friend, this documentary sheds new light on Angi — and the death of her husband years before.

The Biggest Fan (Netflix Film)

From Netflix: Facing online cancellation, an actress travels to Mexico to revive her career. But when she meets her biggest fan, her life turns upside down.

The Four Seasons (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: The decades-long friendship between three married couples is tested when one divorces, complicating their tradition of quarterly weekend getaways

Airport
Airport ‘77
Airport 1975
Ali
American Gangster
American Graffiti
Burn After Reading
Constantine
Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Dawn of the Dead
Eat Pray Love
The Equalizer 2
Hanna
Home
The Jerk
The Lego Movie

A group of anthropomorphic lego characters stand together in astonishment in The Lego Movie.

Image: Warner Home Video

Mid90s
The Mule
Ocean’s Eleven
Ocean’s Thirteen
Ocean’s Twelve
The Paper Tigers
Past Lives
Sisters
Starship Troopers
The Sugarland Express
Trainwreck
Trolls
Twilight
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 2

Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) confronts Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) about his identity

Image: Summit Entertainment

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Ma Dong-Seok wearing a bloody t-shirt and holding his fists on a train in Train to Busan

Image: Well Go USA Entertainment via Everett Collection

Unseen: Season 2 (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: In the wake of tragedy, Zenzi is forced to trust those who put her behind bars. Will her newfound desire for freedom finally put her grief to rest?

Conan O’Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (Netflix Comedy Special)

From Netflix: Comedy’s biggest stars gather to toast and celebrate late-night legend Conan O’Brien as he accepts the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Britain and The Blitz (Netflix Documentary)

From Netflix: This immersive documentary brings history to life through vividly restored archival footage and firsthand accounts of WWII Britain during the Blitz.

Mighty Monsterwheelies: Season 2 (Netflix Family)

From Netflix: Bolts, Sweeps, Axyl and the gang are back on patrol in Motorvania, keeping everyone safe from avalanches, storms — and even a runaway Ferris wheel!

The Devil’s Plan: Season 2 (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: Brilliant contenders gather for a new battle of minds. From a Go legend to a poker pro, Hollywood actor, news anchor, and lawyer — who will triumph?

Untold: Shooting Guards (Netflix Sports Film)

From Netflix: What really went down between Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton? This exposé unpacks how a gambling dispute led to guns drawn in an NBA locker room.

Full Speed: Season 2 (Netflix Sports Series)

From Netflix: Tales of triumph and tenacity fuel this high-octane sports docuseries following NASCAR Cup Series drivers on and off the track during the playoffs.

Last Bullet (Netflix Film)

From Netflix: Car genius Lino returns to conclude his vendetta against Areski and the corrupt commander who ruined their lives in this turbo-charged trilogy finale.

Blood of Zeus: Season 3 (Netflix Anime)

From Netflix: Set loose from captivity and burning for revenge, the king of the Titans swears to crush the Olympian gods and reclaim the power they stole from him.

FOREVER (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: Reunited as teens, two childhood friends fall deeply in love, experiencing the joy and heartache of a first romance that will change their lives forever.

Heart Eyes

A masked figure with glowing heart-shaped eyes in Heart Eyes.

Image: Sony Pictures Releasing/Everett Collection

Karol G: Tomorrow was Beautiful (Netflix Documentary)

From Netflix: Karol G pulls back the curtain of her career in this intimate look at her life as she navigates a stadium tour, love, health and chasing greatness.

A Deadly American Marriage (Netflix Documentary)

From Netflix: A chilling 911 call. A gruesome scene. What is the real story behind Jason Corbett’s brutal death? In this documentary, Jason’s wife and children reflect on the elusive truths behind their seemingly fairytale life.

Bad Influence (Netflix Film)

From Netflix: An ex-con gets a fresh start when hired to protect a wealthy heiress from a stalker — but their chemistry is hard to resist as they grow closer.

Nonnas (Netflix Film)

From Netflix: After the loss of his mother, a man risks everything to honor her by opening an Italian restaurant with a group of local grandmothers as the chefs.

The Royals (Netflix Series)

From Netflix:When charming Prince Aviraaj meets Sophia, a self-made girl boss, the worlds of royalty and startups collide in a whirlwind of romance and ambition.

Tastefully Yours (Netflix Series)

All American: Season 7

Bad Thoughts (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: In this six-episode dark comedic series, Tom Segura navigates unthinkable situations and fantasies within a cinematic world.

Untold: The Liver King (Netflix Sports Film)

From Netflix: He built a supplement empire by devouring raw meat on social media. And he had the muscles to prove it. But, really, how did the Liver King get so huge?

American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden (Netflix Documentary)

From Netflix: Featuring rare footage and interviews with CIA insiders, this edge-of-your-seat documentary series traces the epic hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story (Netflix Documentary)

From Netflix: Recently discovered police recordings and first-person accounts tell the story of Fred and Rose West, two of the UK’s most prolific murderers.

Married at First Sight: Season 17

Smile

A woman smiles with devilish glee in Smile

Image: Paramount Pictures

Snakes and Ladders (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: An ambitious but overlooked teacher wants to be head of a prestigious school, but must climb a slippery ladder of lies and corruption to reach the top.

From Netflix: At a private school where gambling determines social status, a skillful new student with a mysterious past is shaking things up — and betting on revenge.

Love, Death & Robots: Volume 4 (Netflix Series)

A warrior woman attacks with a spear. Her hair is pulled up in a high ponytail. Everything around her is orange and red. From Love, Death & Robots

Image: Netflix

From Netflix: Dinosaur gladiators, messianic cats, string-puppet rock stars — it can only be Love, Death + Robots. The fourth volume, presented by Tim Miller (Deadpool, Terminator: Dark Fate) and David Fincher (Mindhunter, The Killer), sees Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2, Season 3’s “Kill Team Kill” return as supervising director for ten startling shorts showcasing the series’ signature, award-winning style of bleeding-edge animation, horror, sci-fi, and humor. Buckle up.

Franklin (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: A counterfeit artist, also a single father, is forced to work with his ex-lover to craft the perfect $100 bill — all to save his dying daughter.

Pernille: Season 5 (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: With Ole Johan’s wedding planning soaking up all the attention, Pørni struggles to balance the demands of her job with her family — and her own heart.

Secrets We Keep (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: When a neighbor’s au pair vanishes from her wealthy suburb, Cecilie seeks answers — and unravels secrets that shatter her seemingly perfect world.

Thank You, Next: Season 2 (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: Leyla is finally about to get her happy ending with Cem, but will she allow herself to trust his mysterious nature and fall in love all over again?

Vini Jr. (Netflix Documentary)

From Netflix: Vini Jr. has it all: talent, resilience and boldness. Follow his dancing, unpredictable feet on his inspiring journey to becoming a global soccer star.

Dear Hongrang (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: When a long-missing heir returns with lost memories, love and suspicion entwine. Is he truly Hongrang, or a stranger disturbing hearts and family ties?

Football Parents (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: When it comes to their children’s amateur football careers, this group of parents has no shame, no chill — and a peculiar sense of team spirit.

The Quilters (Netflix Documentary)

From Netflix: In this award-winning short documentary, men in a Missouri maximum-security prison design and sew beautiful, personalized quilts for foster children.

Rotten Legacy (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: After a grave illness, a media mogul discovers his children’s tactics threaten the empire he carefully built — and he’ll do whatever it takes to save it.

Sarah Silverman: Postmortem (Netflix Documentary)

From Netflix: Following the recent death of both of her parents, comedian Sarah Silverman finds comedy in the darkest corners of life. She hilariously navigates the absurdities of death with her signature wit, from unexpectedly finding the “deal of a lifetime” while planning their funerals to cherishing the bittersweet experience of hearing her mother’s last words.

Untold: The Fall of Favre (Netflix Sports Film)

From Netflix: This eye-opening documentary delves into Brett Favre’s controversial career, the dark side of sports stardom and the scandals that marred his legacy.

Newly Rich, Newly Poor (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: A wealthy businessman and a working-class dreamer discover they were switched at birth. Now, they must swap lives to learn what truly matters.

Real Men (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: Mattia, Massimo, Riccardo, and Luigi, four friends in their forties, confront their prejudices in a world evolving towards gender equality. They must rediscover their place in society and relationships amid hilarious situations and unexpected challenges.

Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: Six sexy singles check into a motel in pursuit of true love, only to discover their longtime booty calls, or “sneaky links,” are there as well. Facing desires old and new, and many hard truths, guests must decide whether to strengthen their sneaky link, or explore new connections. Will they stay sneaky, or is love worth “checking out”?

The UnXplained with William Shatner: Season 6

A blonde girl in a pink dress standing next to a chic woman in white. From Sirens.

Image: Netflix

From Netflix: Devon thinks her sister Simone has a really creepy relationship with her new boss, the enigmatic socialite Michaela Kell. Michaela’s cult-ish life of luxury is like a drug to Simone, and Devon has decided it’s time for an intervention, but she has no idea what a formidable opponent Michaela will be. Told over the course of one explosive weekend at The Kells’ lavish beach estate, Sirens is an incisive, sexy, and darkly funny exploration of women, power, and class.

Tyler Perry’s She The People (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: Lieutenant Governor candidate Antoinette Dunkerson runs a successful campaign and now must figure out how to thrive under a sexist and condescending governor while attempting to keep her family in line now that they’re all in the public eye.

Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds (Netflix Documentary)

From Netflix: For the first time ever, go inside the cockpit with the U.S. Air Force’s legendary flight squadron, The Thunderbirds, and witness the unprecedented training, peril, and personal sacrifice it takes to push the limits of aviation as a member of one America’s most revered demonstration teams.

Big Mouth: Season 8 (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: Nothing brings out the hormones — or the heartbreak — quite like high school. These longtime friends are growing up, and it’s the ultimate happy ending.

Fear Street: Prom Queen (Netflix Film)

From Netflix: Who will be voted queen at Shadyside High’s 1988 prom? For underdog Lori, competition is cutthroat even before someone starts killing off the candidates.

Forget You Not (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: An aspiring stand-up comedian turns her struggles into heartfelt humor as she balances work and relationships while caring for her aging father.

Off Track 2 (Netflix Film)

From Netflix: Siblings Lisa and Daniel gear up for the Vätternrundan cycling race, where unexpected detours, old flames and marriage problems test their resolve.

Our Unwritten Seoul (Netflix Series)

From Netflix: Twin sisters— one living in Seoul, the other from the countryside— switch lives.

The Wild Robot

Image: DreamWorks Animation/Universal Pictures

CoComelon: Season 13 (Netflix Family)

From Netflix: Ready to move? Get up and groove! Join JJ and his friends as they dance to fun, familiar songs like “Twist and Shout,” “The Locomotion” and more.

Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders (Netflix Documentary)

From Netflix: Who really laced Tylenol with cyanide? This true-crime series examines alarming theories behind the unsolved killings — and tracks down a key suspect.

Mike Birbiglia: The Good Life (Netflix Documentary)

From Netflix: In his latest hour, Mike Birbiglia—who merges storytelling, theater, and comedy in a way that The New York Times has called “Birbiglian”—opens up about his father’s recent stroke and discusses how it has prompted him to reevaluate his own approach to fatherhood. Birbiglia says of the new special: “Over the years I’ve done a lot of personal shows but somehow this one is the most personal because it’s not in my past. It’s my life right now. So there’s really no filter. At certain points during the tour I literally thought on stage: ‘Whoa. Am I really gonna tell this story?’ But that’s sort of the idea behind these shows. I try to probe into what’s most painful in order to figure out what’s most funny.”

F1: The Academy (Netflix Sports Series)

From Netflix: Follow fifteen of the world’s best female drivers as they take to the tough tracks of F1 Academy in this high-octane documentary from Hello Sunshine.

From Netflix: A brash but brilliant detective (Matthew Goode) leads a cold case unit in this Edinburgh-based drama by the writer and director of “The Queen’s Gambit”.

A Widow’s Game (Netflix Film)

From Netflix: When a man is found dead, the investigation shatters his widow’s perfect facade and exposes a hidden double life in this thriller based on real events.

The Heart Knows (Netflix Film)

From Netflix: After a heart transplant, Manuel feels a personality shift and explores his donor’s life, leading him to meet the widowed Vale and her community.

Netflix Tudum 2025: The Live Event (Netflix Live Event)

From Netflix: Netflix Tudum 2025 is a must-watch LIVE event celebrating the global fandom of Netflix’s beloved series and movies. This high-energy show will be streamed LIVE on Netflix May 31st at 5:00 PM PT / 8:00 PM ET from the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. The show will be packed with huge stars, exclusive reveals, and dynamic live performances sure to delight fans around the world.

This lesser-known Twilight Zone episode inspired Ryan Coogler’s Sinners

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Ryan Coogler, the Academy Award-nominated director of Creed and Black Panther, hasn’t been shy at all about citing the various inspirations behind his new horror thriller Sinners. In the weeks leading up to the film’s premiere, Coogler has been making the rounds along the press circuit, drumming up excitement and talking at length about the creative process behind his latest original feature. “It’s a genre-fluid film,” Coogler told SciFiNow in January. “There are vampires in the film, okay, but it’s really about a lot more than just that. It’s one of many elements and I think we’re gonna surprise people with it.”

Coogler’s right; there’s a lot more to Sinners than first meets the eye, and that’s especially apparent from the breadth of influences Coogler has pulled from while writing the film’s script. He’s cited From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty, the oeuvre of the Coen brothers, and even Puss in Boots: The Last Wish as inspirations behind Sinners, though the most intriguing reference he’s nodded to might be a lesser-known episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone.

Black twins Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) stand blocking the doorway to their juke joint alongside their bouncer Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners

Image: Warner Bros./Everett Collection

“Truthfully, the biggest influences are not in cinema,” Coogler told SciFiNow. “The novel Salem’s Lot is a massive influence on the film. Then there’s a real deep-cut influence. My favorite thing ever made is The Twilight Zone, and my favorite episode is called ‘The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank’ – probably Salem’s Lot and ‘The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank’ are probably the biggest influences.”

Premiering in the third season of The Twilight Zone, the episode centers on Jeff Myrtlebank, a young man living in a small town in the southernmost section of the Midwest who mysteriously returns to life at his own funeral, much to the shock of his loved ones and pastor. Despite their reasonable trepidation, the townspeople declare it a miracle — that is, until rumors begin to swirl regarding minor yet noticeable shifts in Jeff’s behavior following his unexpected resurrection.

“I’m real concerned,” Jeff’s mother tells her husband over breakfast. “He only ate two eggs again; why, ever since he’s sprouted teeth he’s been having three eggs at breakfast.” Jeff’s father notices a change in Jeff as well. “I recollect worrying many times that he leaned just a shade towards the side of shiftlessness,” he says. “And since his sickness, he’s been fighting in that work just like he was a year behind.”

A woman staring in astonishment at a man lighting his pipe with a lit match in The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank, an episode of The Twilight Zone.

Image: Paramount Global

Eventually, these idle rumors become fodder for suspicion and outright hatred of Jeff’s newfound character and candor. It gets so bad that even Comfort Gatewood, Jeff’s own fiancée, begins to doubt that Jeff is who he says he is. “I expect it from the others, but not from you, Comfort,” Jeff tells her in frustration. “I’m getting sick and tired the way everybody treats me like a vampire.”

The conclusion of the episode leaves the question of Jeff’s true nature, as well as that of his resurrection, tantalizingly unanswered, but the most intriguing connection between “The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank” and Coogler’s Sinners is evident in its penultimate moment. When Jeff is surrounded by a group of angry neighbors, Comfort’s brother Orgram accuses him of being a “haint,” a ghostly presence believed to possess the bodies of mortal men for its own nefarious purposes. This same term appears in Sinners, when Wunmi Mosaku’s character, Annie, speaks about the power of music to rend asunder the veil dividing the world of the living and the dead.

Even apart from its connection to Coogler’s latest film, however, “The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank” is a terrific Twilight Zone episode that knows that the most interesting questions are often best left unanswered. It may not be as iconic as “Nightmare at 20000 Feet” or “Five Characters in Search of an Exit,” but it’s nevertheless a great episode to watch whether or not you plan on venturing out to the theater to see Sinners.

The Twilight Zone is available to stream on Pluto TV and Paramount Plus.

The Monkey, One of Them Days on Netflix, and every movie new to streaming

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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, The Monkey, the new black comedy horror thriller from director Osgood Perkins (Longlegs), screeches and bangs its way onto VOD. That’s not all that’s new to rent and purchase this week, as Steven Soderbergh’s spy thriller Black Bag, starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, also comes to VOD, along with Naoko Yamada’s The Colors Within, Paddington in Peru, and more. Plus, the new buddy comedy One of Them Days, starring Keke Palmer and SZA, comes to streaming on Netflix.

Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

SZA and Keke Palmer leaning over a balcony decorated with christmas lights in One of Them Days.

Image: Sony Pictures

Genre: Buddy comedy
Run time: 1h 37m
Director: Lawrence Lamont
Cast: Keke Palmer, SZA, Katt Williams

SZA and Keke Palmer star in this buddy comedy in which they play two best friends who have one day to find the $1,500 they need for rent, because one of their boyfriends blew through all their cash. Hilarity and hijinks ensue, as the two desperately try to come up with the cash, resorting to taking out sketchy loans, donating plasma, and climbing up a telephone pole to retrieve a pair of Jordans.

Where to watch: Available to stream on Max

Genre: Horror comedy
Run time: 1h 31m
Director: Kyle Mooney
Cast: Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, Julian Dennison

Remember when everyone thought the year 2000 would cause a bunch of electronics errors? Well, in Kyle Mooney’s Y2K, the error isn’t so much an error as it is electronic devices coming to life and trying to enslave humanity. Aren’t we glad that that didn’t happen IRL? There are some brutal and hilarious deaths, including a kill by Tamagotchi, a very 2000 soundtrack, and one great cameo.

Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder

A woman stands in front of a mannequin dressed in a black outfit in 825 Forest Road.

Image: Blue Finch Film Releasing

Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Stephen Cognetti
Cast: Lorenzo Beronilla, Brian Anthony Wilson, Elizabeth Vermilyea

Director Stephen Cognetti (Hell House LLC) is back with a new supernatural horror thriller. After a grisly family tragedy, Chuck Wilson (Joe Falcone) moves to the town of Ashland Falls with his wife (Elizabeth Vermilyea) and sister (Kathryn Miller) in hopes of starting a new life. Upon moving into their new home, however, the family finds themselves stalked by a malevolent presence whose influence runs deep throughout the town’s history.

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender leaning in for a kiss in Black Bag.

Photo: Claudette Barius/Focus Features

Genre: Spy thriller
Run time: 1h 33m
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Marisa Abela

Steven Soderbergh returns for his second feature film of 2025, this time a sultry spy thriller starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender as a happily married couple of British intelligence officers. When a top-secret malware program is stolen, Kathryn (Blanchett) is implicated and George (Fassbender) is secretly tasked with investigating her. As the plot unfolds, the couple is faced with the challenge of whether or not they can trust each other in a field where nearly everyone knows how to lie.

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Naoko Yamada
Cast: Akari Takaishi, Sayu Suzukawa, Taisei Kido

In this quiet, contemplative movie from K-On! and Sound! Euphonium director Naoko Yamada, three lonely teenagers start a band. It’s less about a love for music and more about the three of them finding kindred spirits with each other. The main character has a form of synesthesia where she sees particular emotions and people as colors. The splashes of gorgeous watercolor hues add some beautiful emotional impact to the otherwise grounded visuals.

What makes The Colors Within work so well is how the naturalistic animation combined with the specific set-pieces and situations create such a distinct feeling and atmosphere. There are just so many gorgeous, evocative moments where the movie lingers: Kimi’s forlorn reflection in a set of Newton balls; the slightly fuzzy city lights behind Totsuko’s hand as she waves goodbye to Kimi; Rui’s sneakers on the snow-covered steps of the church, shifting as he calls his mother. All the small details contribute to a feeling of soft loneliness that slowly lessens as the characters grow closer and closer.

The Last Stop in Yuma County

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Genre: Neo-Western thriller
Run time: 1h 30m
Director: Francis Galluppi
Cast: Jim Cummings, Jocelin Donahue, Sierra McCormick

This neo-Western crime thriller centers on a travelling knife salesman who unwittingly finds himself in an unconventional hostage situation after being stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop. Held at gunpoint by two ruthless bank robbers, both he and the rest stop’s waitress (Jocelin Donahue) must find a way to escape without arousing the robbers’ suspicions, all the while carrying on a normal workday like nothing’s happened. Things only get weirder and worse from there.

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Neon/YouTube

Genre: Horror comedy
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Osgood Perkins
Cast: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery

Coming off the strength of last year’s breakout horror thriller Longlegs, director Osgood Perkins is back with a new black comedy horror based on Stephen King’s 1980 short story. The Monkey stars Theo James (Divergent) as Hal and Bill, identical twins who have to find a way to destroy a cursed cymbal-banging monkey toy with the power to kill anyone unfortunate enough to cross its path.

As Polygon’s editor-in-chief Chris Plante puts it:

The Monkey, for all of the familiar trappings, isn’t just another horror-tinged distraction. As the kills become gnarlier — and more, how do I put this?… impressive? — it becomes clear that Perkins is using a familiar skeleton to support something muscular and human. He once again borrows from the works of some of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Not the ones that get added to the Criterion Collection, but those you see get loving 4K discs from boutique brands like Arrow and Vinegar Syndrome.

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Genre: Psychological thriller
Run time: 1h 44m
Director: Mark Anthony Green
Cast: Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis

Ayo Edebiri (Bottoms) stars in this psychological horror thriller as Ariel Ecton, a young music journalist who is invited to the remote compound of a reclusive pop star (John Malkovich) who has been unseen for the past 30 years. What at first seems a once-in-a-lifetime interview opportunity quickly morphs into a nightmarish scenario as Ariel finds herself surrounded by cultish sycophants, intoxicated colleagues, and a nefarious idol with a lot more than music on his mind.

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Paddington in his wee red hat and adorable blue coat, standing on a mountain in Peru with a bunch of llamas behind him

Image: Sony Pictures

Genre: Adventure
Run time: 1h 46m
Director: Dougal Wilson
Cast: Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer

Everyone’s favorite polite, marmalade-loving bear is back! His adopted siblings are all getting older and his parents face the possibility of an empty nest. But Paddington is called to Peru because his dear Aunt Lucy has vanished from the home for retired bears! Paddington and his family trek through the Peruvian jungles and soon learn that Aunt Lucy isn’t the only lost thing people are searching for. Olivia Colman and Antonio Banderas join the cast and commit fully to the bit of campy Paddington cast member.

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Genre: Mystery thriller
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Duke Johnson
Cast: André Holland, Gemma Chan, May Calamawy

Duke Johnson (Anomalisa) makes his solo directorial debut with this crime mystery romance starring André Holland (Moonlight) and Gemma Chan (The Creator). Having lost his memory following an assault in Idaho, Paul Cole (Holland) attempts to put his life back together in an unfamiliar town. While courting a local costume designer named Edna (Chan), Paul begins to recover fragments and traces of his previous life as an actor, forcing him to question who he is now and what he truly wants out of life.

Night of the Zoopocalypse

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

A group of colorful animals staring in fear in Night of the Zoopocalypse.

Image: Viva Pictures

Genre: Horror comedy
Run time: 1h 31m
Directors: Ricardo Curtis, Rodrigo Perez-Castro
Cast: David Harbour, Bryn McAuley, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee

This animated adventure follows the antics of a bunch of zoo animals… who find themselves facing off against a bunch of zombie-like aliens. A quirky timberwolf teams up with a gruff mountain lion to protect the zoo. They need to learn to work with all the other animals in order to save their home from the creepy alien zombies. David Harbour voices the mountain lion! Appropriate!