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, Horizon: An American Saga – Part 1, the new western epic starring and directed by Kevin Costner (Yellowstone), moseys its way onto VOD alongside Thelma, the new geri-action comedy starring June Squibb (Nebraska), and a host of other exciting releases. If you’re looking for the best new to streaming this week, feast your eyes on Land of Bad, the 2024 action thriller starring Liam Hemsworth, Luke Hemsworth, and Russell Crowe, which arrives this weekend on Netflix, as well as Love Lies Bleeding on Max and My Spy: The Eternal City on Prime Video. Also, The Strangers: Chapter 1 and the biographical drama Cabrini are now available to rent for a reduced price!
Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!
New on Netflix
Land of Bad
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Photo: Sarah Enticknap/The Avenue
Genre: Action thriller
Run time: 1h 50m
Director: William Eubank
Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Russell Crowe, Luke Hemsworth
Liam Hemsworth and Russell Crowe star in this military thriller about a rookie Delta Force officer who is lost in enemy territory when his team is ambushed. Refusing to leave without his comrades and with time running out, he’ll have to rely on a seasoned Air Force drone pilot to be his eyes in the sky in their desperate mission to escape alive.
Here’s what Polygon’s curation editor Pete Volk had to say:
If you’re looking for a pensive war movie that opines on the meaning of conflict or attempts to interrogate the genre, look elsewhere. But if a military thriller with strong, tense tactical action sequences, a game cast, and strong character beats to help it feel real sounds up your alley, you should absolutely check out Land of Bad.
Find Me Falling
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
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Photo: Pavlos Vrionides/Netflix
Genre: Rom-com
Run time: 1hr 33m
Director: Stelana Kliris
Cast: Harry Connick Jr., Agni Scott, Ali Fumiko Whitney
Romantic comedies just get all the dreamier when they’re set in the Mediterranean. Find Me Falling follows a rock star (played by Harry Connick Jr.) after a failed comeback. He retreats to a remote village in Cyprus to sort his life out, but eventually reconnects with an old flame.
The Teacher’s Lounge
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
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Photo: Judith Kaufmann/Sony Pictures Classics
Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: İlker Çatak
Cast: Leonie Benesch, Leonard Stettnisch, Eva Löbau
This German drama centers on Sarah Nowak (Leonie Benesch), an idealistic sixth grade teacher who arrives at a new school with hopes to foster a strong community of learning through trust and respect. When one of her students, a Turkish immigrant, is accused of theft, Sarah tries desperately to defend the child from the racist animosity and baseless accusations made by his peers and her fellow teachers. Can she hold fast to her dreams of teaching while fending off exhaustion and disillusionment?
New on Disney Plus
Young Woman and the Sea
Where to watch: Available to stream on Disney Plus
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Image: The Walt Disney Company
Genre: Biographical sports drama
Run time: 2h 9m
Director: Joachim Rønning
Cast: Daisy Ridley, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Stephen Graham
Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) stars as Gertrude Ederle, the first woman who swam across the 21-mile English Channel in 1926. Gertrude trains hard for the journey, supported by her coach Jabez Wolffe (Christopher Eccleston). The real life Gertrude also won an Olympic medal in 1924 in the 4×100 meter freestyle relay! Nice!
New on Max
Love Lies Bleeding
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max
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Image: A24
Genre: Romantic thriller
Run time: 1h 44m
Director: Rose Glass
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Jena Malone
Saint Maud director Rose Glass’s latest film follows the story of Lou (Kristen Stewart), a reclusive gym manager who falls in love with Jackie (Katy O’Brian), an ambitious bodybuilder who passes through town on her way to a Las Vegas competition. When Jackie runs afoul of Lou’s criminal father (Ed Harris), the two must find a way to escape their precarious situation in hopes of building a better life together.
New on Prime Video
My Spy: The Eternal City
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
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Image: Amazon Studios
Genre: Action comedy
Run time: 1h 51m
Director: Peter Segal
Cast: Dave Bautista, Chloe Coleman, Kristen Schaal
A sequel to Dave Bautista’s 2020 family comedy film My Spy, The Eternal City sees CIA Operative JJ (Bautista) roped into accompanying his young charge Sophie (Chloe Coleman) on a school trip to Italy. In true The Pacifier and The Spy Next Door fashion, it’s all about a suave action hero who takes on the daunting task of child supervision.
New on Peacock
Abigail
Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock
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Image: Universal Pictures
Genre: Horror comedy
Run time: 1h 49m
Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Cast: Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton
The directors behind 2019’s Ready or Not and 2022’s Scream are back with another horror comedy, this time centered around a group of kidnappers who are tasked with abducting the daughter of a wealthy businessman in exchange for ransom money. Unfortunately, the kidnappers have bit off more than they can chew, as this the little girl in question harbors a deadly secret of her own.
From our review:
Once Abigail reveals herself as a deadly supernatural creature, the movie transforms into more of an action slasher, rather than going for scares. In that way, Abigail feels more like Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s earlier movie Ready or Not than like any other vampire movie. Both movies are mostly set in heavily locked-down mansions where someone is viciously, comedically hunted down. And both feature a deep love for explosions of blood and guts. After Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s brief detour for two messy, chaotic, clumsy entries in the Scream franchise, Abigail proves they’re still excellent at creating tension in the hallways of massive houses, and flipping their horror into action at a moment’s notice.
New on Mubi
A Still Small Voice
Where to watch: Available to stream on Mubi US
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 33m
Director: Luke Lorentzen
A Still Small Voice follows the year-long residency of a young chaplain learning to give comfort and care to patients experiencing numerous critical health and life changes. Luke Lorentzen’s documentary is a sobering and therapeutic story about confronting the inevitablity of mortality.
New on Metrograph
Scala!!!
Where to watch: Available to stream on Metrograph
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 33m
Directors: Jane Giles, Ali Catterall
Alternatively titled “The Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World’s Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits,” this documentary couldn’t be more explicit in what it’s about. Based on co-director Jan Giles’ 2018 book Scala Cinema 1978-1993, the film chronicles the history of an infamous London cinema-turned-nightclub known for its raucous community of patrons and boundary-pushing programming.
New to rent
A Sacrifice
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
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Image: Vertical Entertainment
Genre: Psychological drama
Run time: 1h 34m
Director: Jordan Scott
Cast: Sadie Sink, Eric Bana, Sylvia Hoeks
In this thriller, Eric Bana plays a psychiatrist who’s investigating a cult responsible for a mass suicide in Berlin. But the already fraught events get extra personal when his daughter (Sadie Sink) falls for the son of the charismatic sect leader and gets pulled deeper into the cult.
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
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Image: Warner Bros.
Genre: Western
Run time: 3h 1m
Director: Kevin Costner
Cast: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington
Giddy up, partners — Kevin Costner is back in the saddle with the first entry in a planned four-part Western epic! Horizon: An American Saga follows the lives of a group of families, pioneers, and missionaries during 15 years spanning the pre- and post-Civil War expansion of the American west. It looks like the second film in the tetralogy might take a little longer than expected to release, so you’ve got plenty of time between now and then to catch up on Costner’s ambitious dream project!
Taking Venice
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Amei Wallach
This documentary follows the story of how two men, curator Alan Solomon and art dealer Leo Castelli, conspired to help American painter Robert Rauschenberg win the world’s most influential art exhibition in 1964. How did they plan to do that? Why, with the clandestine coordination and exhaustive resources of the U.S. government, of course!
The Dead Don’t Hurt
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
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Image: Shout! Studios
Genre: Western
Run time: 2h 9m
Director: Viggo Mortensen
Cast: Vicky Krieps, Viggo Mortensen, Solly McLeod
Kevin Costner isn’t the only one with a new Western out this week, as Viggo Mortensen tries his hand at the genre. The Dead Don’t Hurt follows the story of Holger Olsen (Mortensen) and his lover Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps), who attempt to build a life together after the former returns home from fighting in the Civil War. Irrevocably changed by his experience, Holger must confront the ways both he and Vivienne have grown in a ruthless world where violence and wealth are the law of the land.
Thelma
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
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Image: Magnolia Pictures
Genre: Action comedy
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Josh Margolin
Cast: June Squibb, Fred Hechinger, Richard Roundtree
Thelma is a revenge flick about one woman journeying across Los Angeles to reclaim what’s been taken from her… and also she happens to be 93 years-old, so a lot of that trekking is done on a senior mobility scooter.
From our review:
Thelma watches a Mission: Impossible film during the movie, and her Tom Cruise inspiration is not just there in spirit, but in the text itself. After she gets scammed, it’s seeing Cruise’s face on a magazine that inspires Thelma to take justice into her own hands. But that kind of sincerity wouldn’t work without Thelma’s terrific and committed performances, particularly from Squibb and Roundtree. Both actors are terrifically funny, and Roundtree’s charm gives the movie a tremendous amount of heart. For her part, Margolin says Squibb was adamant about owning the Tom Cruise mantle and doing as many stunts as she could herself.
It’s rare that a summer action movie also happens to be one of the funniest and sweetest movies of the year, but Thelma manages to pull it off. So if you’re feeling the lack of Tom Cruise at movie theaters this year, just remember that Thelma and June Squibb are there, carrying the torch in his honor.
Tuesday
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
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Image: A24
Genre: Fantasy drama
Run time: 1h 50m
Director: Daina O. Pusić
Cast: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lola Petticrew, Leah Harvey
Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars in Daina O. Pusić’s directorial debut as Zora, a mother caring for her ailing daughter Tuesday (Lola Petticrew). When the specter of death, disguised in the form of a talking parrot, arrives to shepherd her child’s soul away to the afterlife, Zora will have to confront her impending loss and cherish the remaining time she has with her daughter.
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