This week, the new movies to watch at home are led by a big theatrical release that’s finally coming to home video, and an exciting Netflix movie that’s a bit of a throwback.
First, let’s talk about Elvis. Baz Luhrmann’s maximalist approach is a pitch-perfect vehicle for a story about one of American pop culture’s most legendary figures, and it’s finally available to watch at home if, like me, you haven’t been able to go to the cinema.
The other highlight is Netflix’s Day Shift, a vampire-hunting action-comedy-horror hybrid from first-time director and legendary stuntman J.J. Perry starring Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco and Snoop Dogg. It’s a blast and a throwback to a bygone era of action movies.
In addition to these two, there are a couple of children’s films, a documentary about Princess Diana, David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future and Alex Garland’s Men at reduced rental prices and much more.
Elvis
Where to watch: Available to rent or buy for $19. Read also : Netflix: Exciting movies will debut in 2023.99 on Amazon, Apple, Vudu
Baz Luhrmann’s biopic of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll stars Austin Butler (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) as the legendary musician and Tom Hanks as his promoter, Colonel Tom Parker. From our review:
It turns out that the decisive casting choice is not the actor, but the director. Baz Luhrmann is exactly what an Elvis biopic needs: He has no restraint, no shame and no self-consciousness. He is the only filmmaker who could address the legend of Elvis Presley with the contemporary high camp and emotional sincerity it deserves.
While you’re in the mood, why not check out our list of great musician biopics or the best movies from Elvis’ acting career?
Day Shift
Where to watch: Can be streamed on Netflix Read also : Pop music and ‘Grease’ star Olivia Newton-John has died at the age of 73.
This new action-horror comedy is the directorial debut of longtime stunt performer and action coordinator J.J. Perry. It is in many ways a return to buddy comedy action films from 30 years ago, but with modernized choreography. Jamie Foxx plays a vampire hunter in desperate need of cash who teams up with a Vampire Hunters’ Union representative (Dave Franco) and an old friend (Snoop Dogg) to try and secure a big score.
The refreshingly low stakes and the way the mundane and the supernatural blend effortlessly here are just two of the ways Day Shift will remind savvy viewers of the many ’80s and ’90s video stores that the film so clearly is a love letter to. The Lost Boys, Dead Heat, and Fright Night all get their separate tributes, among other films. Some of these references are presented in subtle ways intended only for the most dedicated film geeks. Others are roaring, loving cries.
Secret Headquarters
Where to watch: Can be streamed on Paramount Plus Read also : Uncharted with Tom Holland will hit Netflix in July 2022.
Owen Wilson is an Iron Man and Green Lantern hybrid in this kid-centric superhero film from Catfish and Nerve directors Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost.
When Secret Headquarters spoils the kids’ fun with super-powerful gadgets, it shines. Narrowing its focus to the conflict between Charlie and his father, and the toll that being a masked vigilante takes on family life, it stands out from other entries in the “kids discover superpowers and/or supergadgets” subgenre. It could use a little less focus on the serious adult issues of it all, but when Joost and Schulman narrow the plot down to smaller stakes and silly shenanigans, Secret Headquarters turns out to be a fun, heartwarming romp.
Crimes of the Future
Where to watch: Available to rent for $5.99 on Apple, Amazon, Google
David Cronenberg’s latest body-horror venture stars Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart. There is no better time to revisit Cronenberg’s history with the genre he has long championed.
There are uncomfortable moments, horrifying moments, and even some glimpses of grittiness in his relatively recent films, like Maps to the Stars and Cosmopolis (both with Stewart’s Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson; Taylor Lautner has to do kick-flips while waiting on the phone .) But Crimes is Cronenberg’s first full-on sci-fi/horror film since 1999’s playful gaming odyssey eXistenZ. His return to genre territory is both more extreme and less so. eXistenZ is a more user-friendly ride for the squeamish, but despite Crimes’ explicitly surgical moments, it’s a more contemplative, sometimes recessive film. You can even call it a mood piece.
Men
Where to watch: Available to rent for $5.99 on Amazon, Apple, Vudu
Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation) returns with this horror film about a young woman (Jessie Buckley) who flees to the countryside after a traumatic experience with her husband, only to encounter a very strange group of men (Rory Kinnear), that share the same face.
Meaning and purpose aside, men are a sensualist’s dream. Garland and cinematographer Rob Hardy (who also shot Ex Machina and Annihilation) give the film a breathtakingly intense visual crispness with vibrant colors and endlessly arresting images. Simple images of a moss-covered tree or the ripples of a raindrop in a puddle are almost overwhelmingly beautiful. The score by Ben Salisbury and Portishead’s Geoff Barrow – who also collaborated on Garland’s previous two films – mixes ambient noise and music with Buckley’s vocalizations, sometimes to hauntingly beautiful effect, as when she explores the echoes of a tunnel by harmonizing with her own voice. Later, a scream of pent-up emotional pain slips into the soundtrack so completely that it might as well be something Harper thinks more than anything she actually does.
Happy Birthday
Where to watch: Can be streamed on Netflix
This surreal Telugu language crime comedy is set in a fictional country where a law has been passed mandating gun ownership. The film follows a group of people at a fancy hotel that requires customers to have guns, and a series of incidents that ensue.
Code Name: Emperor
Where to watch: Can be streamed on Netflix
This action thriller from Spain follows the moral dilemma of a secret agent when he is asked to hit an innocent politician.
Heartsong
Where to watch: Can be streamed on Netflix
Heartsong is a musical romantic drama from Turkey that follows a nomadic folk musician from the Dom people who falls in love with the bride of a wedding he has been hired to perform at. The film offers plenty of Dom folk music.
Bank Robbers: The Last Great Heist
Where to watch: Can be streamed on Netflix
Argentina’s most famous bank robbery is investigated in this true crime doc, when five masked robbers held 23 people hostage and robbed a bank in broad daylight in 2006.
Pakka Commercial
Where to watch: Can be streamed on Netflix
Another Telugu-language comedy on Netflix this week, this one is a courtroom action comedy about a lawyer who takes on a controversial client. His relationship with the client brings him into conflict with his former judge father.
Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story
Where to watch: Can be streamed on Netflix
This documentary tells the story of pioneering skateboarder Leo Baker, who won gold at the 2014 Summer X Games and is also one of the most prominent trans athletes in sports.
13: The Musical
Where to watch: Can be streamed on Netflix
The film adaptation of Jason Robert Brown, Robert Horn and Dan Elish’s 2007 stage musical follows a boy who moves from New York to Indiana and wants to have a bar mitzvah to be remembered in his new environment.
The Princess
Where to watch: Can be streamed on HBO Max
Not to be confused with the recently released Hulu action movie of the same name, this The Princess is a documentary about Princess Diana from Oscar-nominated documentarian Ed Perkins (Black Sheep).
I Love My Dad
Where to watch: Can be rented for $6.99 on Apple, Vudu
An irreverent comedy based on a true story, Patton Oswalt stars as a father who tries to connect with his estranged son by posing as a woman online. Yes, he tries to mold his own son (played by writer/director James Morosini, whose real-life experience the story is based on).
Wifelike
Where to watch: Available to rent for $5.99 on Apple, Amazon, Vudu
Wifelike is an R-rated science fiction thriller and follows a detective (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who recently lost his wife and is assigned an AI companion (Elena Kampouris) designed to act like her. As a result, he is drawn into a conflict with a resistance group trying to end the practice when the AI companion begins to recall memories that aren’t exactly hers.
Instead of developing the uneasy, unbalanced relationship between these two specific characters, Wifelike digs up some barely hidden subtext and proudly lays it out as text: Men subjugate women, and if their attempts to do so are thwarted, they will invent new women to subject to something more. There are moments when the film seems poised to provocatively recast grief and loneliness as overriding excuses for male misdeeds, but Bird pulls back from that by not including any major characters who truly grieve. It’s just another interesting idea that the film rises and falls.
