This week’s slate of new movies to watch at home is led by Elvis, the audaciously over-the-top Elvis Presley biopic by none other than Baz Luhrmann. While you’re in the mood for that, why not consider Elvis Presley’s best movies as an actor or other good movies about musicians?
Beyond the King, this week also sees the latest Jurassic World movie roar its way onto Peacock, one of our favorite movies of the year making its long-awaited streaming debut, that animated Blazing Saddles adaptation (yes, we are also still struggling to believe that’s real), and much more.
Here’s everything new you can watch at home this weekend.
Elvis
Where to watch: Available to stream on HBO Max
Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 musical biopic chronicles the life of American music icon Elvis Presley (Austin Butler) from his childhood singing in a small church choir to his stadium-packing performance as a rock legend. Tom Hanks co-stars as Elvis’ manager, Col. Tom Parker, a controversial and inscrutable foil to Elvis who follows the young legend’s ascent to fame like an ever-present shadow.
From our review:
As Elvis, Butler is almost pretty enough, and he nails the drawl and the mannerisms without letting them overwhelm his delicate portrait of a half-shy, insecure man who could only intermittently find the courage to let his incandescent talent lead the way. He doesn’t manage to locate Presley’s depths, or the insane highs of his delusional ego. But Luhrmann, as obsessed with the stage as ever, is more interested in Presley as a performer than as a psychological subject. And on stage, Butler (who sings some numbers himself, and blends his performance with original Elvis recordings elsewhere) is dynamite: total physical conviction and lightning-rod charisma.
Jurassic World Dominion
Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock
Billed as the “epic conclusion of the Jurassic Era,” and the sixth film overall in the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World Dominion is set four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, as Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), and Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon) are faced with surviving in a brave new world now overrun by genetically resurrected dinosaurs.
From our review,
Dominion leans into the notion of a sci-fi dystopia doubling as an old-fashioned monster movie, something Universal knows a thing or two about. Like a ’50s B-movie, Jurassic World Dominion pauses to pontificate about humankind’s place in the evolutionary chain in between sequences that deliver the teeth-gnashing goods. If we have to wade through some silly, pandering nostalgia to get to this pleasingly vast dinosaur playground, so be it.
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
Where to watch: Available to stream on HBO Max
Jane Schoenbrun’s 2021 coming-of-age horror drama tells the story of Casey (Anna Cobb), a teenage girl who becomes immersed in a viral role-playing game. As she begins to notice inexplicable and sinister changes within herself, Casey is forced to confront the possibility of whether all of this is in her head. Think 2018’s Eighth Grade by way of Marble Hornets.
From our review:
This is the real horror of trying to figure out who you are by being online. The hope of the internet is that everybody can find community, that the strangeness of activities like anonymously working to scare each other online can create a safe, creative place. Schoenbrun suggests that within that range of collective expression, people can decide who and what they want to be. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair isn’t just a movie about connecting, it’s about becoming. It’s a powerful acknowledgement of how confounding and frightening young adulthood can be. But it’s also a film about hope. There’s a name for the specific kind of alienation and confusion its characters are feeling. Maybe, it suggests, people like Casey will find that name, in spite of the machine’s best efforts.
Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus
The animated martial arts comedy Paws of Fury transplants the broad strokes of Mel Brooks’ satirical Western black comedy Blazing Saddles from the American frontier to the villages of feudal Japan, following the story of a dog named Hank (Michael Cera) who sets out on a quest to fulfill his dream of becoming a samurai.
From our review:
The switch from cowboys to samurai also makes Paws of Fury far less of a genre parody, because neither Brooks nor the younger filmmakers who actually made this movie seem especially interested in the dynamics of a samurai movie. This is an all-purpose spoof, with specific nods to older, American, mostly unrelated films like West Side Story and Star Wars. Make no mistake: This is no substitute for Blazing Saddles. Even older children would be more interested in Brooks’ Spaceballs, a 1987 Star Wars spoof that, while funny, is similarly broad and not especially well-versed in the genre it’s goofing on.
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.
Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock
Executive produced by Jordan Peele, Adamma Ebo’s debut satirical comedy Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. stars Regina Hall (Scary Movie) and Sterling K. Brown (Hotel Artemis) as Trinitie and Lee-Curtis Childs, the first lady and pastor of a Southern Baptist megachurch. The film follows the couple, in mockumentary style, as they desperately attempt to rebuild their congregation in the wake of a major scandal.
I Came By
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
In what looks like a mashup of the 2016 home invasion horror film Don’t Breathe and the 2004 German crime drama The Edukators, Under the Shadow director Babak Anvari’s 2022 crime thriller I Came By centers on a rebellious young graffiti artist (George MacKay) who, after breaking into the house of a prestigious judge (Hugh Bonneville) and discovering a terrible secret, is drawn into a deadly cat-and-mouse game that threatens both his life and the lives of those dear to him.
Love in the Villa
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
This Netflix romantic comedy stars Umbrella Academy’s Tom Hopper and The Vampire Diaries’ Kat Graham as two people, each intending to go on a solo vacation, who mistakenly double book an Italian villa.
Fenced In
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
This Brazilian comedy follows a man who moves to a quiet small town to avoid the stress of city life after a health incident. Unfortunately, his eccentric neighbor runs a samba school next door.
The Festival of Troubadours
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
A drama about generational conflict, this Turkish movie is about an estranged father and son who attempt to repair their relationship.
Blind Ambition
Where to watch: Available to rent for $3.99 on Google Play
The 2021 documentary Blind Ambition follows the stories of Joseph, Tinashe, Marlvin, and Pardon, four young men who leave their homeland of Zimbabwe in search of opportunities elsewhere. Arriving in South Africa, the men acquire restaurant jobs and eventually become sommeliers. Bonding with one another, the group are encouraged to become the first-ever Zimbabwe team to compete in the World Wine Tasting Championships in Languedoc, France.