Happy Friday, Polygon readers!
Each week, we round up the most notable releases new to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.
This week, The Killer, David Fincher’s latest psychological thriller, finally arrives on Netflix following its brief theatrical run. Charlie Day’s satirical comedy Fool’s Paradise comes to Hulu, while a new documentary on actor-director-comedian Albert Brooks premieres on Max. There’s a ton of other new releases to choose from on VOD, including the biographical comedy-drama Dumb Money starring Paul Dano, A24’s Dicks: The Musical, and more.
Here’s everything new to watch this weekend!
New on Netflix
The Killer
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Action thriller
Run time: 1h 58m
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell
Based on the 1998 French graphic novel, David Fincher’s latest stars Michael Fassbender as a professional assassin who becomes the center of an international manhunt after his latest assignment goes wrong.
From our review:
In theory, The Killer could be seen as a film about the ruthlessness of the gig economy, disguised as a crime thriller. It sends the Killer through a Russian nesting doll of missions until there’s little delineation between his personal life and his profession. But Fincher and Walker have little to say about anything they present on screen, or the fleeting thematic subtext they introduce. The film is airtight in its construction, but slight in its artistic objectives. Beyond Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ nerve-wracking score, there really isn’t that much to it.
Squaring the Circle
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Art documentary
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Anton Corbijn
Cast: Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, Jimmy Page
Dutch photographer and director Anton Corbijn (The American, A Most Wanted Man) makes his second straight doc about the music industry here after 2019’s Depeche Mode concert movie Spirits in the Forest. This time, he turns his eye on the album art design studio Hipgnosis, with the help of some rock ’n’ roll luminaries.
New on Hulu
Fool’s Paradise
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Satirical comedy
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Charlie Day
Cast: Charlie Day, Ken Jeong, Kate Beckinsale
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Charlie Day makes his feature directorial debut in this satirical comedy about a mute amnesiac (Day) who is abducted by a desperate publicist (Ken Jeong) to impersonate his client — a method actor who refuses to leave his trailer to film a biopic about Billy the Kid. It gets even weirder than that, trust me.
New on Max
Albert Brooks: Defending My Life
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 28m
Director: Rob Reiner
Cast: Albert Brooks, Judd Apatow, James L. Brooks
Framed as a dinner conversation between actor-director Albert Brooks and director Rob Reiner, this documentary charts Brooks’ career from his early work on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and his mainstream acting debut in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver to his meteoric rise to fame starring in such films as Private Benjamin and Broadcast News. Guests include Larry David, Conan O’Brien, Sarah Silverman, and Jonah Hill.
New on Shudder
Birth/Rebirth
Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder
Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Laura Moss
Cast: Marin Ireland, Judy Reyes, Breeda Wool
This horror-thriller follows a morgue technician who performs a miracle by successfully bringing the body of a dead girl back to life. Unfortunately, this miracle comes at a price, forcing the technician to hunt down pregnant women in order to harvest their biological material to keep the girl alive.
New to rent
Dumb Money
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Biographical comedy-drama
Run time: 1h 45m
Director: Craig Gillespie
Cast: Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Vincent D’Onofrio
Remember the GameStop short squeeze of 2021? No? That’s OK — admittedly, it was a very hectic and wild time, what with the whole… everything going on. In case you’re looking for a refresher, this biographical comedy-drama about a middle-class financial analyst who struck big during squeeze might be just what you’re looking for.
From our review:
Where The Big Short was patronizing but still hugely entertaining and legitimately informative, Dumb Money’s creators seem uninterested in explaining what the hell happened with the GameStop scenario, or how the hell it happened. The script assumes that the audience is either already familiar with the story, or doesn’t much care about the financial specifics and just wants to see the news reenacted by people they know. Most of the jargon goes unexplained, and the series of events that facilitated the saga is just shrugged off in favor of a simplistic “isn’t this crazy?!” tone.
Dicks: The Musical
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Musical comedy
Run time: 1h 26m
Director: Larry Charles
Cast: Josh Sharp, Aaron Jackson, Nathan Lane
This musical comedy follows two longtime business rivals who inadvertently discover they are identical twin brothers separated at birth. Concocting a scheme to get their divorced parents back together, they switch places in order to orchestrate a reunion. Think The Parent Trap, but with more musical numbers, dick jokes, and Megan Thee Stallion.
From our review:
Dicks takes shots at different kinds of modern movies early on, starting with other A24 movies. A24’s logo is accompanied by grandiose music, and its signature elevated horror threatens to become a tongue-in-cheek thematic inspiration when Trevor and Craig wonder whether their predicament meets the qualifications for abuse and trauma. The film’s New York-set, American Psycho-esque corporate saga is clearly filmed in Los Angeles, with the seams of several sets and stages showing in the margins, while the stock footage it uses of NYC is all distinctly anachronistic.
Rebel
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Drama
Run time: 2h 15m
Directors: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Cast: Aboubakr Bensaihi, Lubna Azabal, Tara Abboud
Rebel follows the story of Kamal (Aboubakr Bensaihi), a Moroccan-born Belgian rapper who chooses to travel to Syria to aid victims of a war. After being abducted by the Islamic State, Kamal is forced to work as a cameraman filming the group’s skirmishes against the military. While trying to find a way to escape, Kamal must find a way to save his impressionable younger brother, Nassim, who is being groomed as an Islamic State recruit.
Foe
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Sci-fi drama
Run time: 1h 50m
Director: Garth Davis
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal, Aaron Pierre
Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal star in this sci-fi psychological thriller about Henrietta and Junior, a married couple whose love is put to the test when Junior is called to work on a large space station orbiting Earth. In his stead, Henrietta will be left in the company of a robotic replica of her husband. Remember that one episode from the sixth season of Black Mirror that starred Aaron Paul and Josh Hartnett? This sounds kind of like that.