Delighted Friday, Polygon readers! Today is light on new movies on VOD or on streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney Plus, but we’re here however to run through the choices available to watch in the house.
Today consists of The Northman’s streaming launching on Peacock, a gay modern Pride and Bias adjustment on Hulu, a new action motion picture on Netflix, Disney Plus’ Stargirl sequel, and more to check out. Let’s dive in.
The Northman
Where to see: Available to stream on Peacock
Image: Focus Includes Robert Eggers ‘visceral historical vengeance drama The Northman tells the story of Amleth( Alexander Skarsgård ), the son of a deposed king (Ethan Hawke), who runs away from his house after his dad is betrayed and killed by his uncle Fjölnir(Claes Bang). Predestined to avenge his daddy’s death, Amleth journeys to Iceland camouflaged as a servant and, with the aid of a sorceress called Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy), enacts his plot for vengeance.
From our review:
The violence that follows (and precedes) Amleth’s arrival in Iceland is gory and graphic, and Eggers movies Viking raids on humble villages in impressively choreographed tracking shots that move through the blood, mud, and gurgling death rattles of dozens of sackcloth-clad extras. The dialogue similarly mixes savagery with bombast: One character chokes out a death curse, promising to plague his killer until “a flaming vengeance gorges on your flesh.” Another optimistically tells a good friend, “together we will rave on the battlefield of remains.” Place all this versus the marvelous Icelandic landscape and an acoustic backdrop of growing drums and deep bass chants that roll in like a thunderstorm, and the impact is appropriately breathtaking.
Fire Island
Where to see: Readily available to stream on Hulu
Image: Jeong Park/Searchlight Pictures Joel Kim Booster stars in this modern-day gay Pride and Bias adaptation directed by Andrew Ahn and written by Booster. It follows a group of friends who travel to the getaway Fire Island for one life-altering summer season. With Booster, SNL’s Bowen Yang, and Margaret Cho, it promises to be an amusing and gay romp.
Interceptor
Where to watch: Readily available to stream on Netflix
Image: Brook Rushton/Netflix The American-Australian action drama Interceptor stars Elsa Pataky as JJ Collins, a durable and battle-hardened army captain who is put in charge of a nuclear rocket base in the middle of the Pacific Ocean after being dismissed from the Pentagon. When terrorists mount a collaborated attack on the base, Collins is required to utilize her years of tactical training to prevent the machinations of a previous intelligence officer and avoid nuclear annihilation.
Wonderful Beasts: The Tricks of Dumbledore
Where to view: Offered to stream on HBO Max
Image: Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros Pictures The carcass of the Harry Potter franchise lurches forward with
the 3rd installment in the Wonderful Beasts series. It is now available to view on HBO Max. From our evaluation: Amphibian’s convoluted, anticlimactic quest to secure and deliver his valuable freight lacks the happy interest that lent the first Fantastic Monsters a much-needed bump in charm. One creatively staged setpiece pits Newt and his brother Theseus(Callum Turner )against a crustaceous leviathan in a panopticon-style prison tower, where the young boys engage in a silly crab-walk, reminding viewers that playing amusing every now and then won’t hurt anyone. Apart from that, Newt’s piece of the plot has the very same blandness as its visual: Series director David Yates communicates that this part of the story is set in the past by grading everything to a desiccated gray or brown. It’s difficult to think of a real-life kid being charmed by this motion picture, and it’s depressing to realize that the desired audience here is most likely IP followers too old for kid things, yet unwilling to leave this universe behind. Hollywood Stargirl Where to see: Offered to stream on Disney Plus
Image: Disney Director Julia Hart(Quick Color)returns for this follow up to the 2020 Disney Plus film Stargirl. Like the very first adaptation, this one considerably sways from the source material: Hollywood Stargirl is a straight sequel to the motion picture and not an adaptation of the initial book’s sequel, Love, Stargirl. When her mom, Ana (Judy Greer), is employed to work on a film, Stargirl (Grace VanderWaal) uproots her life and makes new pals in Los Angeles.
Fire Music
Where to view: Offered to stream on Requirement Channel
Image: Guy Le Querrec/ Magnum Photos, via Submarine Deluxe Tom Surgal’s 2018 documentary Fire Music charts the development and legacy of free jazz, among America’s speculative and ingenious art forms. Showcasing the likes of John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, and Sun Ra, Fire Music is a kaleidoscopic dive into the world of the 1960s jazz scene that draws a direct line from the avant-garde of then to the experimentation of now.
Karen Dalton: In My Own Time
Where to view: Available to stream on Requirement Channel
Image: Greenwich Home Entertainment This documentary about the famous vocalist premiered in 2020, had a limited theatrical run in 2021, and now makes its streaming debut in 2022. A highly influential artist that motivated Nick Cavern(who features in the documentary), Joanna Newsom, and lots of others, Dalton never reached the level of fame and appeal as many of the artists that followed in her footsteps. This documentary assures an inside try to find old fans and an intro for new ones.
Dashcam
Where to see: Offered to rent for $5.99 on Amazon and Vudu
Image: Momentum Pictures This brand-new scary film produced by Blumhouse is shot completely with an iPhone and a control panel video camera. It follows a musician(played by real-life artist Annie Hardy )who leaves the U.S. for the UK to prevent pandemic lockdowns. When she picks up an unanticipated passenger on the road, things deviate for the even worse.
Unhuman
Where to see: Offered to lease for $5.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Blumhouse Tv The latest variation of “high school zombie comedy”comes from Marcus Dunstan, co-writer of the fourth through seventh models of the Saw franchise. In Unhuman, a group of high school students endure a bus crash just to discover zombies where they crashed.
White Elephant
Where to view: Offered to lease for $3.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: RLJE Films Direct-to-video master Jesse V. Johnson (Hell Hath No Fury, Avengement) returns with this criminal activity thriller. Michael Rooker stars as a previous Marine who now works for the mob and is purchased to murder a police officer (Olga Kurylenko) who saw a tried assassination by mob employer Arnold Solomon (Bruce Willis). Johnson, a previous stuntman who dealt with Willis previously in their professions, spoke with the LA Times about the movie and why he didn’t feel comfortable making more movies with Willis after this experience.