The Menu, Puss in Boots 2, and every new movie you can now watch at home

This weekend MenuThe dark comedy horror thriller featuring Ralph Fiennes, starring Ralph FiennesGrand Budapest Hotel), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s GambitNicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury RoadFollowing its theatre debut in November 2022, “The Movie” is now streaming live on HBO Max. If you’re not down to see a group of clout-chasing dilettantes and wannabe gourmands get their just deserts, not to worry — there are plenty of other new movies to choose from.

Puss in Boots – The Last Wish, the surprisingly good animated feature starring the eponymous breakout supporting character from DreamWorks Animation’s ShrekThis weekend, VOD will be available for. This period thriller is a mystery thriller Pale Blue Eye starring Christian Bale (The Dark KnightHarry Melling (The Ballad Of Buster ScruggsNetflix releases a Colombian Road Movie called ‘()’ The Kings of the WorldWhile the biographical Me Too drama She spoke.Peacock is now streaming this film. We’ve also got a couple recent VOD releases now available at reduced rental prices, like Todd Field’s latest (and excellent) psychological thriller Tár starring Cate Blanchett, Prey on the DevilFind out more.

There’s so much to choose from and so little free time to watch it all. Here’s a rundown on all there is new to enjoy on streaming and VOD this week.

Netflix: New Features

Pale Blue Eye

What to Watch:Netflix streaming available

Image: Scott Garfield/Netflix

Genre: Mystery/thriller
Run time: 2h 8m
Director: Scott Cooper
Cast: Christian Bale; Harry Melling; Gillian Anderson

Christian Bale stars in Scott Cooper’s 2022 historical mystery thriller as Augustus Landor, a world-weary veteran detective hired to investigate a series of murders at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Frustrated by lack of cooperation on part of the cadets, who have mostly sworn an oath of silence, Landor finds assistance in the form of an unlikely ally — a meek young military cadet by the name of Edgar Allan Poe (Melling).

The Kings of the World

What to Watch:Netflix streaming available

Image courtesy of Netflix

Genre: Adventure/drama
Run time: 1h 43m
Director: Laura Mora Ortega
Cast: Carlos Andrés Castañeda, Davison Florez, Brahian Acevedo

This Colombian fantasy-drama road movie follows the story of five orphaned boys who band together as an adoptive family to eke out a meager existence on the streets of Medellín. One of the children discovers that his grandmother has left him a piece of land. The land was confiscated by the government. After the expulsion, they embark on an adventure to Colombia in search for a better future.

HBO Max now available

Menu

What to Watch:You can stream HBO Max on your computer; you can also purchase it on Amazon and Apple for $14.99.

Photo: Eric Zachanowich/Searchlight Pictures

Genre:Horror/dark comedy
Run time: 1h 47m
Director: Mark Mylod
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult

Anya Taylor-Joy (The NorthmanNicholas Hoult’s stars (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Margot, a young woman who is invited on a “date” with a wealthy food snob named Tyler (Hoult) to eat at Hawthorne, an exclusive restaurant owned by reclusive world-renowned chef Julian Slowik (Fiennes). It’s not long, though, before they realize that Slowik has something else in mind for them besides overpriced oysters and beef bourguignon.

Our review:

Menu It often feels like an extended version of one-set plays, in which a crowd of people are forced to come together and gradually break down under stress. This allows them to discover new aspects about themselves. A lot of what keeps it going isn’t that stagey energy, but the staging itself. production designer Ethan Tobman was inspired by everything from Luis Buñuel’s devastating 1962 film The Exterminating Angel (another film about smug elites who can’t escape each other) to German expressionist architecture. He and cinematographer Peter Deming give the film a harsh, punishing chilliness that emphasizes both the lack of comfort or warmth in haute cuisine and the state of Chef Slowik’s mind. It’s an appropriately sumptuous and sense-driven film, with something striking to look at in every frame.

Peacocks are now in stock

She spoke.

What to Watch:Peacock is available to stream

Universal Pictures

Genre:Drama
Run time: 2h 9m
Director: Maria Schrader
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Patricia Clarkson

Zoe Kazan stars in this biographical dramaThe Plot against AmericaCarey Mulligan and ).Promising Young Woman) as Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the New York Times reporters who broke the landmark story of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual abuse against women.

AMC+: New

Vesper

What to Watch:AMC+ streaming available; Vudu and Amazon are also available for rent at $6.99

Image: IFC Films

A post-apocalyptic indie sci-fi movie that’s received rave reviews since its release last year, including from us! The film follows the story of a 13 year old girl who struggles to survive in a world where Earth’s ecosystem has collapsed and human civilization has fallen apart.

Our review:

VesperYou simultaneously play the role of a thrifty shoestring-budget indie. Double and like Alex Garland’s $50 million passion project Annihilation. It’s a small-scale story, at times so hushed and minimalist that even putting two characters in the same room can feel overcrowded. But in their first movie release since 2012’s well-received sci-fi import The Vanishing Waves, [directors Kristina]Buozyte [Bruno]Samper does a remarkable job creating an imaginable, real world from these small spaces. As effectively as any laborious explanation, the scenery conveys the story.

VOD – New

Devotion

What to Watch:On Jan. 8, Amazon, Apple and Vudu will offer $19.99 off your purchase

Photo: Eli Adé/CTMG

Genre:Dramatized biographical account of war
Run time: 2h 19m
Director: J.D. Dillard
Cast: Jonathan Majors, Glen Powell, Christina Jackson

Jonathan MajorsLovecraft CountryGlen Powell (Maverick: Top Gun() Star in the aerial war epic Jesse Brown, Tom Hudner and Tom Hudner are two elite naval officers and fighter pilots who have to learn how to cooperate in order to win one of the most challenging battles in the Korean War.

From our review:

The film’s combination of squareness and relative understatement, courtesy of director J.D. Dillard (Sleight), accumulates a quiet power. Not everyone grew up idolizing Tom Cruise’s smug hotshot Maverick, and this is a Naval-aviator movie without quite so much need for speed. Accordingly, the aerial combat isn’t as big-canvas thrilling as similar material in Maverick. But it does look convincing, and there’s something satisfying about how it emphasizes precision over power. Throughout the film, Dillard and Majors find grace notes, like the moment where Dillard’s camera stays fixed on the nose of a grounded plane as Jesse gets his bearings, or the striking look at Jesse’s preflight ritual. Dillard captures him staring at himself in the mirror and reciting all the ugly disqualifications he has received.

Puss in Boots – The Last Wish

What to Watch:Vudu, Apple and Amazon are available for purchase at $29.99

DreamWorks Animation Image

Genre: Adventure/comedy
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: Joel Crawford
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Harvey Guillén

Antonio Banderas returns as the swashbuckling feline Puss in Boots in the long-delayed follow-up to the character’s 2011 movie. Having discovered that he has already used up eight of his nine lives while adventuring across the kingdom of Duloc, Puss in Boots must embark on an epic quest in search of the very thing that drove Roy Batty to commit patricide in 1982’s Blade Runner: more life.

Our review:

The Last Wish is the closest I’ve ever seen a movie get to emulating hand-painted concept art. On their way to the wishing star, Puss and company traverse prismatic backdrops — from bright pinks and green forests to the rustic interiors of a cat-lady prison — that feel dabbed on by the artistic team. To bring the viewers into their battles and more, they use linework and color to draw them closer. Water is the WayTo jolt your senses, shift the frame rate regularly. Puss, looking more oil-painted than ever, may be monologuing about his legendary skills one second, animated “on the ones,” then find himself in a cacophonous skirmish with a towering troll the next, which the team animates “on the twos.” The sensation builds on the work of Spider-verseIt drags Shrek’s franchise into high art territory. It’s stunning.

Tár

What to Watch:Vudu and Amazon offer $5.99 off your purchase

Focus Features

Genre:Psychological drama
Run time: 2h 38m
Director: Todd Field
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss

Cate Blanchett stars in Todd Field’s first feature film since 2006’s Children under 5 as the eponymous Lydia Tár, a virtuosic composer and the first female conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra. Known equally for both her immense talent and fierce personality as she is for her, shall we say, unbecoming abuses of power, Tár is mere days from reaching what might be one of the most significant milestones of her career. But when her myriad infidelities and offenses begin to come to light, she’ll have to find a way to weather the storm or find herself swept aside into the dust bin of history.

Prey on the Devil

What to Watch:Vudu and Amazon offer $5.99 off your purchase

Lionsgate image

Genre: Horror/thriller
Run time: 1h 33m
Director: Daniel Stamm
Cast: Jacqueline Byers, Colin Salmon, Christian Navarro

Sister Ann (Jacqueline Byers) is a troubled nun who has a dark past. She attends an exorcism academy reopened by Catholic Church to help her become the first woman exorcist. Ann confronts the same demon who once tortured her family as she fights for her soul.

Paradise Ticket

What to Watch:You can purchase Vudu, Apple and Amazon.

Universal Pictures

Genre:Romantic comedy
Run time: 1h 44m
Director:Ol Parker
Cast: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Kaitlyn Dever

George Clooney and Julia Roberts star in this romantic comedy as a divorced couple who put aside their differences to work together with one goal in mind: stopping their lovestruck daughter, Lily (Kaitlyn Dever), from getting married and making the same “mistake” they did.