The 5 best films new to streaming in January 2024

Happy New Year, Polygon readers! The holiday season is behind us and 2024 is just around the corner.

The New Year has already given us one amazing action movie and many more exciting upcoming movies are just around the corner. But the new year also means a change in movies on streaming services, with exciting new titles on Netflix, Hulu, Max and Prime Video.

We’ve gone through the very long lists of new titles on each platform and selected the best of the best for you to enjoy at home this month. There are award-winning films from directors, new films, hidden gems from beloved stars and much more.

Let’s dive in and see what this month has in store!

Editor’s Choice

Shoplifters

Where to see: Hulu
Genre: theatre
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Pour: Lily Franky, Sakura Ando, Mayu Matsuoka

Masterful Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda was responsible for two of the best films of 2023: the found family crime drama estate agents and the captivating mystery thriller Monster.

While many who were familiar with the international film scene were fans of Kore-eda before his drama ShopliftersWinning the Palme d’Or and being nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar helped introduce his work to a whole new audience.

Like many of Kore-eda’s films Shoplifters deals with the nature of what family is and the lengths we must go to survive. It’s about a found family living in poverty who take odd jobs and shoplift to make ends meet. The family meets a young girl and takes her in, thus expanding their circle despite the difficulty of feeding another mouth.

Beautifully shot on 35mm film and with heartfelt performances that will fully immerse you in the story. Shoplifters is a masterpiece from one of our most thoughtful and sensitive filmmakers. —Pete Volk

New on Netflix

The first purge

A young woman stands on the hood of a car in front of a group of protesters in

Genre: Dystopian action horror
Director: Gerard McMurray
Pour: Y’lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade

The Purge series has undergone one of the most fascinating creative evolutions of any horror series of the last decade. What began as a dystopian take on the home invasion subgenre, anchored by a strong performance from Ethan Hawke, has morphed into a gritty funhouse mirror of American carnage, an anthology of semi-standalone films that reveal the horror at hand It’s worth watching a society take part in an annual celebration of its own destruction. 2024 is an election year, so of course you would think I would recommend it The Purge: Election Year, Right? No, this is predictable; Instead, you should watch Gerard McMurray’s 2018 prequel, which delves into the explicit motivations behind the Purge.

Set in 2014, the film follows Nya (Lex Scott Davis), a young community activist; Isaiah (Joivan Wade), Nya’s younger brother; and Dmitri (Y’lan Noel), Nya’s ex-lover and prominent drug dealer, all of whom must survive the first annual purge in their native Staten Island. Even if it is carried out under the pretext of giving the population the opportunity to vent their pent-up anger, the true motive is clear: it is to instill fear and terror in the population and the poorest and most marginalized members of the to eradicate society. It is ironic that if we go back to the origins of the purge in the universe, The first purge is an example of the most complete maturation of the series’ concept and themes to date. Equal parts horror, action and social commentary, the film is as clever as it is scary. –Toussaint Egan

New on Hulu

The King of Comedy

Genre: Black humor
Director: Martin Scorsese
Pour: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Sandra Bernhard

Did you like it joker, Todd Phillips’ controversial hit starring Joaquin Phoenix as the clown prince of crime? Look forward to Joker: Folie à Deux, the upcoming sequel starring Phoenix alongside Lady Gaga? Then you should be careful The King of Comedyone of the two Martin Scorsese films that directly inspired Phillips’ film.

The King of Comedy follows Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro), a troubled aspiring stand-up comedian. After crossing paths with his idol Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), a successful talk show host, Rupert becomes obsessed with breaking into show business until he becomes delusional, culminating in a plan that may catapult him to stardom could… if he isn’t killed first. A darkly satirical examination of celebrity culture and the dangers of fandom. The King of Comedy is one of Scorsese’s most underrated masterpieces and highly recommended for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the creative inspirations behind it joker. -THE

New at Max

Bounce

In Ricochet, a young Denzel Washington in a police uniform aims his revolver.

Genre: Dark crime thriller
Director: Russell Mulcahy
Pour: Denzel Washington, John Lithgow, Ice-T

Highlander And Resident Evil: Extinction Director Russell Mulcahy, an unhinged John Lithgow and a baby-faced Denzel Washington unite in this unique crime thriller that is one of the strangest and most fascinating films of Denzel’s career.

Bounce is a revenge story of a sociopathic murderer (Lithgow) who goes to extreme lengths to destroy the life of the now famous ex-cop (Washington) who arrested him years ago. When I say extreme lengths, I mean it – Bounce is about as dark as dark thrillers get, so be prepared.

Adding to the sordid affair is an all-time villain from Lithgow, who gets to have a sword fight in the prison canteen with the Aryan Brotherhood in full homemade body armor. But Denzel also delivers a typically charming performance, and Mulcahy’s bold direction, with clever transitions, multiple split diopters and other touches, helps breathe life into the film.

Bounce is a messy film with dark themes and themes. But it’s also a surprisingly effective film about white people’s resentment of black class advancement. an all too relevant topic. —PV

New to Prime Video

Return to Seoul

Jin-Min Park as Freddie, wearing dark red lipstick and a black leather coat and standing in the middle of a Korean city street at night in

Genre: theatre
Director: Davy Chou
Pour: Ji-Min Park, Oh Kwang-rok, Guka Han

Return to Seoul was one of my favorite films I saw last year, so I would be remiss not to recommend it now that it’s available to stream. Written and directed by Davy Chou, the film follows Freddie (Ji-Min Park), an impulsive 25-year-old woman who “accidentally” arrives in Seoul after her flight to Tokyo is canceled. Adopted by French parents, Freddie attempts to reconnect with her birth parents to gain a greater sense of peace and closure with her past.

The film’s strength lies primarily in Park’s magnetic and mercurial performance, which paints a fascinating portrait of a woman at odds with her own sense of identity and belonging in a land that is both familiar and foreign. If you’re looking for a deeply moving, beautifully shot and captivatingly performed drama, then Return to Seoul is all that and more. -THE