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 latest Marvel superhero movie starring Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford, soars onto video on demand following its theatrical premiere in February. There are a few other exciting titles to rent this weekend, including The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, The Woman in the Yard, and the action thriller A Working Man starring Jason Statham. There’s plenty new to streaming this week as well, like Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door on Netflix, the sci-fi horror comedy Companion on Max, the lycanthropic body-horror thriller Wolf Man on Peacock, and James Cameron’s special edition version of The Abyss on Disney Plus!
Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Psychological drama
Run time: 1h 47m
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, John Turturro
Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore play two friends, Martha and Ingrid, who reconnect after Martha is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Martha plans to end her life with euthanasia pills, instead of spending her final days in pain and anguish. She invites Ingrid on a trip to her country home so that the two can spend Martha’s final moments together. The Room Next Door is based on What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez. It won the Golden Lion at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Image: Vertical Entertainment
Genre: Crime drama
Run time: 1h 56m
Director: Justin Kurzel
Cast: Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan
An action thriller based on a true story, The Order follows an FBI agent who realizes that a pattern in recent crimes points to white supremacist group the Silent Brotherhood — also known as the Order. Led by cult leader Bob Mathews (played here by Nicholas Hoult), the Silent Brotherhood was active in the United States in the 1980s. The Order competed for the Golden Lion at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Image: Lionsgate
Genre: Historical drama
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Tim Mielants
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Eileen Walsh, Michelle Fairley
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) stars in this period drama as Bill Furlong, a devoted father and coal merchant who uncovers a terrible revelation behind a convent in his town, which in turn forces him to reckon with a shocking truth of his own. Based on Claire Keegan’s 2021 novel, Small Things Like These tackles the lingering controversy behind Ireland’s “Magdalene laundries.”
Where to watch: Available to stream on Disney Plus
Genre: Sci-fi
Run time: 2h 20m
Director: James Cameron
Cast: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn
If there’s one thing James Cameron loves more than movies, it’s the ocean. Cameron’s love of deep-ocean exploration runs, well, deep — he was named a National Geographic explorer-in-residence and even became the first person to do a solo descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. All of which is to say: The man knows his submersibles.
The Abyss, Cameron’s 1989 sci-fi drama starring Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, has been one of the director’s most elusive movies to find on streaming. The premise centers on a divorced couple of petroleum engineers who, along with a Navy SEAL (Michael Biehn), embark on a top-secret mission to recover a nuclear submarine that’s mysteriously sunk in the deepest waters on the planet. Fans of James Cameron can finally experience the film in all its 4K glory on Disney Plus this week.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max
Image: New Line Cinema/Warner Bros. Pictures
Genre: Sci-fi horror
Run time: 1h 37m
Director: Drew Hancock
Cast: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage
Sophie Thatcher stars in this dark sci-fi comedy as Iris, a young woman on a weekend getaway with her boyfriend and some friends. But, surprise! Iris is actually a companion robot rented by her boyfriend, who’s able to control her emotions and intelligence via an app on his phone. That’s not the only big secret that comes to light, as the weekend quickly unravels into bloody chaos.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock
Image: Universal Pictures
Genre: Werewolf horror
Run time: 1h 43m
Director: Leigh Whannell
Cast: Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Matilda Firth
The latest in the ongoing, sort of accidental reboot of the Dark Universe, Wolf Man follows a man (Christopher Abbott) and his family on a trip back to his childhood home in the woods of Oregon. The only problem is there’s a monster loose in those woods, and it’s looking for new victims.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Mubi US
Genre: Historical drama
Run time: 2h 8m
Director: Miguel Gomes
Cast: Gonçalo Waddington, Crista Alfaiate
Set in British-controlled Burma in 1918, this historical drama centers on an unconventional couple: Edward (Gonçalo Waddington), a British civil servant who abandons his fiancée on the eve of their wedding, and Molly (Crista Alfaiate), his spurned fiancée who nevertheless pursues him relentlessly across the whole of Asia. Combining 16mm black-and-white cinematography with archival footage, Gomes won the award for Best Director at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where Grand Tour competed for the the Palme d’Or.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder
Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 46m
Directors: Joe DeBoer, Kyle McConaghy
Cast: Sterling Macer Jr., John Fleck, Tomas Boykin
After receiving a mysterious blood-stained note from a captive man, a seasoned dead letter investigator goes on the hunt to return it to its sender. Obviously, things take a turn for the worse.
Captain America: Brave New World
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Disney/YouTube
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 upon to resolve an international incident in the wake of a failed assassination attempt of newly elected President Thaddeus 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 Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Sci-fi comedy
Run time: 1h 31m
Director: Pete Browngardt
Cast: Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Peter MacNicol
The newest Looney Tunes movie was supposed to be released on Max — but then Warner Bros. decided to can a bunch of animation projects. Luckily, independent film distributor Ketchup Entertainment swooped in and handled the American theatrical release. The zany comedy follows Porky Pig and Daffy Duck as they scramble to save the world from an alien invasion. The movie’s got some impressive cartooning and lives up to the Looney Tunes pedigree.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Sports dramedy
Run time: 1h 39m
Director: Carson Lund
Cast: Keith William Richards, Frederick Wiseman, Cliff Blake
This sports dramedy follows a recreational baseball league as they play one final game before their beloved field is demolished in order to make room for a new middle school. The men all come together to celebrate the love of their game and muse about where they’re gonna go from here. While the field is based on a real one, the story of the team is fictional. And fun fact: The title of the movie comes from an unnaturally slow curveball!
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Universal Pictures
Genre: Psychological horror
Run time: 1h 28m
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Cast: Danielle Deadwyler, Okwui Okpokwasili, Peyton Jackson
Jaume Collet-Serra’s new horror thriller centers on Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler), a recently widowed single mother mourning the loss of her husband. Left to raise her two children alone in a rural farmhouse, Ramona’s fears are only intensified by the strange appearance of woman clothed in a black veil on her front lawn, ominously warning her that “today’s the day.” As the woman’s presence steadily grows more alarming and invasive, Ramona is pushed to her breaking point as she struggles to protect everything she has left.
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Amazon MGM Studios
Genre: Action thriller
Run time: 1h 56m
Director: David Ayer
Cast: Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng, Arianna Rivas
Jason Statham is back, and he ain’t no Beekeeper no more! No siree, this here’s a working man: a proud salt-of-the-earth construction worker making an honest living in Chicago, the city of broad shoulders! When human traffickers kidnap his boss’s daughter (Arianna Rivas), he’s gonna have to put in some overtime to make sure the job gets done right and she’s delivered safely from harm. Time to smash someone’s face with a sledgehammer!
