Krypto Joins the Fray: Superman, Fixed and the Must-Stream Movies This Weekend
This weekend’s streaming and VOD lineup adds several new movies you can watch at home, including dog-focused comedies and a few darker genre picks. Below you’ll find where each title is available, the main credits, and brief, factual synopses to help you pick what to watch.
- New Netflix arrivals like Fixed and Mononoke: The Ashes of Rage.
- New releases on Apple TV Plus, HBO Max, and Hulu.
- Recent films now available to rent, including Eddington and Superman.
New on Netflix
Fixed
Genre: Animated comedy · Run time: 1h 25m · Director: Genndy Tartakovsky · Cast: Adam DeVine, Idris Elba, Kathryn Hahn.
The film follows a mutt named Bull (voiced by Adam DeVine) who learns he will be neutered. Consequently, he decides to spend one last night out with his friends. The story uses elements common to raunchy romantic comedies and shows Bull at a food festival, getting into fights with cats, and interacting with a neighboring show dog.
Mononoke: The Ashes of Rage
Genre: Horror anime · Run time: 1h 14m · Directors: Kenji Nakamura, Kiyotaka Suzuki · Cast: Hiroshi Kamiya, Haruka Tomatsu, Tomoyo Kurosawa.
The sequel to Mononoke: Phantom in the Rain follows a demon-slayer trying to stop supernatural creatures that are preying on imperial handmaidens and concubines, while palace succession issues complicate the plot. A third film in the trilogy is scheduled for next year.
Ashes of Rage drops gobsmacking visual hints and puzzles throughout its tightly structured narrative, and they’re wonderful to analyze and pick at, especially on a second viewing. The movie is like a picture book: Scene transitions showcase beautiful tapestry-like art, this time around depicting a maiden on a small boat, surrounded by burning mice and smoke. Fire, in general, is artfully woven throughout the majority of the scenes.
Night Always Comes
Genre: Crime thriller · Run time: 1h 48m · Director: Benjamin Caron · Cast: Vanessa Kirby, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Zack Gottsagen.
Facing eviction, Lynette (Vanessa Kirby) spends a night trying to gather $25,000 to save her home and protect her brother, who has Down syndrome. Her attempts to raise money lead her into Portland’s criminal underworld, where she uses prostitution and car theft as possible options.
New on Apple TV Plus
The Instigators
Genre: Heist comedy · Run time: 1h 41m · Director: Doug Liman · Cast: Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Hong Chau.
A former Marine (Matt Damon) who needs money teams up with an ex-con (Casey Affleck) to steal bribe money from Boston’s corrupt mayor at an election-night party. When the plan goes wrong, the pair end up pursued by both organized crime and law enforcement.
New on HBO Max
The Legend of Ochi
Genre: Fantasy adventure · Run time: 1h 36m · Director: Isaiah Saxon · Cast: Helena Zengel, Finn Wolfhard, Emily Watson, Willem Dafoe.
Set in a remote area of the Carpathian Mountains, the film follows 12-year-old Yuri (Helena Zengel) as she seeks to return a baby ochi — a mythical, apelike creature — to its family. The movie used complex puppetry to realize the creature and centers on Yuri’s quest and her relationship with her father, Maxim (Willem Dafoe).
While Yuri and the ochi are captivating, Saxon doesn’t spend nearly enough time with them. Nor does he spend enough time on the messy family dynamics that motivate Yuri to run away in the first place. That latter lack ends up undermining the movie the most. Yuri’s family has supposedly been broken apart by the ochi, but viewers don’t get much sense of what their family was like before the attack, and their current motives feel unclear and contradictory.
New on Hulu
It Feeds
Genre: Horror · Run time: 1h 42m · Director: Chad Archibald · Cast: Ashley Greene, Ellie O’Brien, Juno Rinaldi.
After a young girl arrives at a community psychiatry practice in a panicked state, the practitioner Cynthia (Ashley Greene) uses clairvoyant abilities to find that a dark entity has attached to the child’s mind. Cynthia enters the girl’s psyche to attempt to remove the entity before it fully consumes her.
Sharp Corner
Genre: Thriller · Run time: 1h 50m · Director: Jason Buxton · Cast: Ben Foster, Cobie Smulders, Gavin Drea.
Josh (Ben Foster) and Rachel (Cobie Smulders) buy a house near a dangerous, sharp road corner. After witnessing multiple car crashes there, Josh becomes obsessed with the accidents and with preventing further deaths, while also considering ways his involvement might influence outcomes.
New to rent
Descendent
Genre: Science fiction thriller · Run time: 1h 32m · Director: Peter Cilella · Cast: Ross Marquand, Sarah Bolger.
Sean (Ross Marquand) expects his first child, but wakes in a hospital after apparently falling from a school roof. He believes he was abducted by aliens and becomes focused on protecting his family from those he thinks are invaders.
Eddington
Genre: Neo-Western · Run time: 2h 29m · Director: Ari Aster · Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Luke Grimes.
Set during the COVID-19 pandemic and amid Black Lives Matter protests in a New Mexico town, the story follows the anti-mask sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) as he runs for mayor against the incumbent (Pedro Pascal). The campaign escalates tensions and results in violence in the town.
Smurfs
Genre: Animated musical comedy · Run time: 1h 32m · Director: Chris Miller · Cast: Rihanna, James Corden, John Goodman.
This Smurfs reboot features musical numbers and multiple animated styles as the characters travel through alternate dimensions. The film includes numerous cameo appearances from well-known actors and is aimed at children and families.
Superman
Genre: Superhero · Run time: 2h 9m · Director: James Gunn · Cast: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult.
James Gunn’s reboot begins three years after Superman first began protecting Metropolis, rather than showing his origin. The plot follows Superman after he loses a fight for the first time and must work with allies to stop a war and unravel schemes by Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult).
