Netflix’s Leave the World Behind, a Batman Christmas thing, and every new movie to watch this weekend
08.12.2023 - 23:59
/ polygon.com
/ Chris Pratt
/ Martin Scorsese
/ Flower Moon
Welcome to the busiest moviegoing season of the year, when films in theaters are actually worth trekking out to see and everything hitting VOD and streaming is… the movies that came out a few months ago that are also super worth checking out. Ack!
Work at your own pace. But yeah, this weekend at home has everything from Leave the World Behind, a new Netflix film from the creator of Mr. Robot, to an animated Batman Christmas special and Martin Scorsese’s latest three-hour epic, Killers of the Flower Moon, which is hitting digital rental before eventually landing on Apple at an unspecified date in 2024.
Or you and the family could just watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie again — it’s on Netflix now. But if you need alternatives, there are many, many more. Let’s dig in.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Psychological thriller
Run time: 2h 21m
Director: Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot)
Cast: Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke
Adapted from Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel, Sam Esmail’s directorial feature debut is an Airbnb story from hell. Mid-vacation in Long Island, a Manhattan couple hears a knock at the door. It’s the owners of their rented home, who are escaping the apocalypse. What follows promises to be a cerebral, prickly thriller that may not entirely work, but gives its all-star cast plenty to chew on. From our review:
Racial, sexual, generational, and class fault-lines are drawn but then rapidly scuffed over, almost in embarrassment, as the characters sink reflexively into a shared worldview that they can’t seem to let go of [...but the] movie is brilliantly cast, at least. Hawke embodies the blinkered insouciance of progressive intellectuals, Ali has the polish and confidence that money breeds, and Roberts, as a secretly insecure striver trapped between these two worlds, flashes with a brittle testiness.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Animated adventure
Run time: 1h 32m
Director: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (Teen Titans Go! To the Movies)
Cast: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black
While the combined power of Barbie and Oppenheimer may have eclipsed Nintendo’s foray into animated film, let’s not forget that Mario made a mega impact earlier this year at the worldwide box office, gave its parent company the confidence to announce a live-action Zelda movie, and could very easily get nominated for an Oscar in the year 2024. The Mario movie is, if not good, important — and now it’s streaming on Netflix, ready for kids and their nostalgic parents to watch a zillion times.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 44m
Directors: Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (Boys State)
Heralded as one of the great documentaries of 2023,