Freaky, Mulan, Mank, and 8 New Movies to Watch at Home Right Now!

Everything has changed this week. Perhaps? In an unprecedented move, Warner Bros. announced that its entire film would premiere exclusively in both theaters and on HBO Max for a month in 2021. Like tentpoles Matrix 4, Space Jam 2, Godzilla versus King Kongand Denis Villeneuve dune All would become streaming exclusives to cope with the oppressive weight of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a blessing for moviegoers. For those who value the theatrical experience, it’s a bit terrifying.

As the theater business continues to face safety precautions and shutdowns, new films continue to bypass traditional releases by going straight to VOD. This week features a plethora of films that hit theaters earlier this year as well as some higher quality titles that are worth asking out right away. To help you work through all of the options, here are the new movies to watch on VOD this weekend.

Freaky

Where to see it: Rent on digital, $ 19.99 Amazon, Apple and Vudu

Photo: Universal Pictures

Blumhouse’s murderous attitude towards the Crazy Friday Formula is a hoot. While the idea of ​​a young woman and a 50-year-old serial killer switching bodies could spark an investigation into their gender and psyche, Freaky Most of the time, the bigger effects on gags, gore, and maximum entertainment are bypassed. From our full review during the movie’s limited run:

[Freaky’s] In the horror department, there are fast-paced, dizzying scenes. Creative methods of murder abound, including a particularly inspired scene with a broken tennis racket. The script has a snappy sense of humor that winks at horror traditions. “Please don’t be the butcher!” Millie whispers fruitlessly to herself when she spots the killer in a parking lot. “Everyone is tired, we hit a lot,” Millie-as-the-Butcher pleads with Naya and Josh after initially not believing their story and attacking them in the school cafeteria with Tater Tots and Carrots. “You’re black, I’m gay, we’re so dead,” Josh complains to Naya when they are in danger.

Black bear

Where to see it: Rent on digital, $ 5.99 Amazon, Apple and Vudu

Photo: Momentum Pictures

Black bearthat we saw at Sundance 2020 is not a movie for a socially concerned audience. It’s a drama with changing realities – a type of movie where a story plays out and then plays out in a completely different way so the audience can decipher what’s going on and what it all means. But every version of the film’s reality is tense. Aubrey Plaza plays a film writer and director who goes to a huge house in the woods that she has been told is a retreat where she can solve the problems on her latest project. Then their hosts (played by Christopher Abbott and Sarah Gadon) start having nasty personal battles – with each other, with her, about her. With open nods to John Cassavetes, the writer and director Lawrence Michael Levine pours out the drama, while the three main actors circling in different configurations and stab each other. It’s an actor’s shop window and a compelling narrative conundrum, but it’s also fickle as hell, like being stuck in a house with your angry, most dramatic family members on vacation.

godmother

Where to see it: Stream on Disney Plus

Photo: KC Bailey

With Jillian Bell as the fairy godmother in training and Isla Fisher as the single mother who could use a little help. godmother follows a certain trend that Disney is undermining its own tropes for comedy. But it’s not quite Bewitchedas examined our review. Here’s a foretaste:

While Bewitched focused on bringing fairytale magic into everyday life, godmother finds its originality in doing the opposite: in the end, it’s about how fairy tales can learn a thing or two from real life. It is more important to remember what brings happiness in everyday life than to focus on a fog that is happy forever. The delivery is not that smooth; The conflict of the fairy godmother going out of style fades into the background for most of the film before revving up for a showdown in the eleventh hour at the end of The Film and Mackenzie’s move from Eleanor to a nuisance a blessing is absurdly quick. But the final fairytale subversion is made with a steady hand.

Deficiency

Where to see it: Stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

Fight Club, The social network, and Ex girlfriend Director David Fincher is back with a new feature after a few years devoted to his TV series Mindhunter. And the project is a heady sucker: focused on the life of screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, Deficiency tells the story of how Citizen Kane while jumping through time to explore his subjects of tumultuous career. Our full review shows how unusual it is:

The back and forth structure is vaguely reminiscent Citizen KaneStill, it lacks the refined, driving energy that drives the storytelling of this multi-interview classic. The fluidity is replaced by clattering subtitles that identify the year and location in the script: “EXT. PARAMOUNT STUDIOS – DAY – 1930 (FLASHBACK) ”and so on. Is this a comment on the artisanal effort that can go into even a nimble script, or is the film itself a little artisanal? Fincher transforms this ambiguity into a playfulness that even some of his pulp adaptations have lacked. Where films like how The girl with the dragon tattoo can feel like challenging, relentless journeys into nowhere, especially Deficiency revels in its dreamy atmosphere.

Fat man

Where to see it: Rent on digital, $ 6.99 Amazon and Apple

Photo: Saban Films

Brothers Eshom and Ian Nelms are the stylish filmmakers behind 2017 Small town crime. Their latest feature sounds crazy: After financial difficulties, Santa Claus himself makes a deal for the military. At the same time, a little girl hires an assassin to kill him. Chaos follows. The hurdle for some viewers is that the controversial actor Mel Gibson himself appears as “Fatman”. The mileage may vary, however Fat manIt is noteworthy that VOD made financial waves during the strangest holiday season ever recorded.

Mulan

Where to see it: Stream on Disney Plus

Photo: Jasin Boland / Walt Disney Pictures

Mulan debuted earlier this year on Disney Plus as part of the experimental Premier Access plan, which subscribers could purchase for an additional $ 30. Now the live-action remake can be streamed on the service for free. The reactions can vary. From our review:

However, the best comparison remains The rise of Skywalker. Mulan Handy raises the bar set by live action types like The Lion King and Beauty and the Beastbut it still fails to regain the magic of the movie it is customizing. It eschews the strongest ideas in animation (the songs and the humble origins of heroism) in an attempt to tell a more conventional story. In the animated film, the emperor says of Mulan: “You don’t meet a girl like that in every dynasty.” It is an incomprehensible act. So is the 1998 film.

Ammonite

Where to see it: Rent on digital, $ 19.99 Amazon and Apple

Photo: Neon

The year is 1840 and Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) is looking for fossils. When a young woman (Saoirse Ronan) is sent to her excavation site by the sea, the two enter into an intense and life-changing relationship. Ammonite played on the (digital) festival circuit earlier this year to steadily gain recognition, and with Neon, the company behind the winner of the best picture last February parasiteBehind this, the film will probably be in the price discussion until the Oscars in – Oops, April !? But this weekend the theaters are skipped so you can see it now. Look out for our rating on the website soon.

Dear Santa

Where to see it: Rent on digital, $ 5.99 Amazon, $ 6.99 Apple and Vudu

Image: IFC Films

The film by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Dana Nachman takes viewers a little less politically behind the scenes of the postal service than they did in the last six months of the conversation about the postal service. In particular, Nachman delves into the United States Postal Service’s 100-year-old Operation Santa program, providing “unparalleled access” to the hundreds of thousands of letters sent to Santa Claus each year. From huge New York City surgeries to small-town Santa Clauses, the film promises a heartwarming nonfiction experience with Christmas energy.