Netflix’s Nimona, M3GAN, and every new movie to watch at home this week

Polygon Readers, Happy Friday!

We round-up the biggest, best, and most recent movies available on VOD and streaming every week. Netflix has some high-profile releases this week, along with some dystopian action movies and fantasy satires on VOD.

Nimona, the long-awaited adaptation of ND Stevenson’s celebrated graphic novel starring Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-AssRiz AhmedSound of MetalNetflix now offers a variety of films including the new horror psychological thriller, starring Sarah Snook.Succession). Sci-fi Horror Comedy M3GANMax has finally made the movie available for streaming. Children of the CornPeacock has a new remake streaming. On the VOD side of things, we’ve got the live-action adaptation of Masami Kurumada’s classic mythological action manga Saint Seiya starring Mackenyu (Rurouni Kenshin, One Piece) and Sean Bean, as well as a wild grindhouse-style spoof of the classic Swiss children’s story Heidi.

Let’s get into it!

Netflix is now offering a New Series

Nimona

You can watch the following:Netflix offers a wide range of streaming content

Image: Netflix

Genre: Fantasy adventure movie
Run time: 1h 41m
Directors: Nick Bruno
Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Riz Ahmed

Inspired by ND Stevenson’s beloved 2015 graphic novel, this animated adventure comedy stars Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-AssThe film stars Riz Ahmed as Nimona (a teenage shapeshifter) who joins forces with the knight tasked to assassinate her in order to clear her name and her life.

Run Rabbit Run

You can watch the following:Netflix offers a wide range of streaming content

Image: Netflix

Genre:Psychological thriller
Run time: 1h 40m
Director: Daina Reid
Cast: Sarah Snook Lily LaTorre Damon Herriman

Sarah Snook (a fertility doctor) is disturbed by the odd behavior of Lily LaTorre (her daughter), whose personality and mannerisms begin to mirror those of Alice (her long-lost sibling). As she attempts to understand the root of her daughter’s condition, Sarah is forced to confront her own beliefs about life after death as she processes the repressed trauma of her past.

Max: New Features

Rock Hudson All That Heaven Allowed

You can watch the following:Max is now available to stream

Max

Genre:Documentary
Run time: 1h 44m
Director: Stephen Kijak
Cast: Rock Hudson, Illeana Douglas, Carole Cook

This documentary delves into the career of Rock Hudson, one of the most iconic and celebrated leading men of Hollywood’s golden age, as well as his private life as a closeted gay man and his tragic passing in 1985 from AIDS complications.

Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music

Image: HBO

Genre:Documentary
Run time: 1h 46m
Directors: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

Taylor Mac is a famous queer actor who performed a 24-hour spectacular show, in 2016, that spanned the entire history of American pop music. We have now produced a film seven years after that event, which follows the exhausting (and exhilarating) experience of performing 24 hours in a row, including all costume changes, music numbers and audience interactions.

Prime Prime

M3GAN

You can watch the following:Prime Video is now available to stream

Universal Pictures

Genre:Sci-fi horror movie
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Cast: Allison Williams, Jenna Davis, Violet McGraw

Latest horror films from HomeboundGerard Johnstone, director MalignantAkela cooper follows Gemma, a roboticist at a toy factory in Seattle who builds a doll that is artificially intelligent to care for her orphaned nephew Cady (Violet McGraw). The doll is a roboticist who works for a toy company in Seattle. She creates an artificially intelligent doll to care for her orphaned niece, Cady (Violet McGraw).

Review:

It is one of the most saddest, and boring places in film. It’s filled with hundreds of bad-taste parodies, laughless messes, silly garbage, and probably a few unfortunate movies that weren’t deliberately designed to be laughed at. It’s like watching a tightrope act, where the filmmakers try to achieve a delicate balance of what they believe are opposites. The goal is to make the audience scream and laugh at the same time. Following in the footsteps classics such as the original Chucky film Child’s Play, director Gerard Johnstone and the team behind the new horror comedy M3GAN realize that laughing and screaming aren’t actually that different — and most importantly, that either one can be the key to a great time.

Peacock – New and Improved

Book Club: Next Chapter

You can watch the following:Streaming available on Peacock

Focus Features

Genre: Funny
Run time: 1h 47m
Director: Bill Holderman
Cast: Diane Keaton Jane Fonda Candice Bergen Mary Steenburgen

Diane Keaton Jane Fonda Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen reprised their roles as Diane Vivian Sharon and Carol in the sequel of the 2018 romantic comedy Book Club. Meeting in person for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the four friends travel to Italy to celebrate Vivian’s upcoming marriage.

Shudder Launches New Features

Children of the Corn

You can watch the following:Shudder is now available to stream

Image: RLJE Films

Genre:Fear Not!
Run time: 1h 33m
Director: Kurt Wimmer
Cast: Elena Kampouris, Kate Moyer, Callan Mulvey

Kurt Wimmer’s 2020 adaptation of Stephen King’s 1977 short story centers on Boleyn Williams (Elena Kampouris), a high school girl who finds herself at odds with a psychopathic 12-year-old rallying the other children in her small Nebraska town to kill every adult who stands in their path. It is the 11th Children of the Corn movie, but it’s not connected to any of the previous ones.

VOD – New and Improved

Knights of the Zodiac

You can watch the following:Purchase this movie for only $14.99 at Apple iTunes and Amazon

Photo: Stage 6/Toei Animation

Genre: Fantasy Action
Run time: 1h 52m
Director: Tomasz Baginski
Cast: Sean Bean, Famke Janssen, Mackenyu

This mythological martial arts fantasy film based on Masami Kurumada’s manga Saint SeiyaFollows the story of teenage orphan Seiya, played by Mackenyu. After being recruited to work for a billionaire, Sean Bean (Sean Bean), Seiya learns that she is the reincarnation and protector of goddess Athena. Seiya is armed with the armor and weapons of the Pegasus Knight to fight against the supernatural in order protect the human race.

Review:

[There are] two things for new viewers to enjoy: Bean and Janssen’s unfortunately brief performances, and short, erratic bursts of creative action. The people who created the film seem to have been behind it. Knights of the ZodiacThe movie started off by drawing from the worst parts of the franchise and then made progressively worse choices. The movie’s only saving grace is that there was once a ’90s live-action American TV pilot (only 19 seconds of which have survived), so Knights of the Zodiac at least can’t be called it the worst piece of Saint Seiya media ever made.

Attendance

You can watch the following:Purchase this movie for only $5.99 at Apple iTunes and Amazon

Allyson riggs/A24

Genre: Dramedy
Run time: 1h 47m
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Cast: Michelle Williams, Hong Chau, André 3000

Kelly ReichardtFirst Cow(is a filmmaker of a certain kind, whose latest work is always on appointment. She is currently working on her latest film. AttendanceIt’s about Michelle Williams (a sculptor) who is balancing both her professional and private life, as she prepares for a brand new way of doing things.

Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret

You can watch the following:Purchase this movie for only $5.99 at Apple iTunes and Amazon

Dana Hawley/Lionsgate

Genre: Coming-of-age dramedy
Run time: 1h 46m
Director: Kelly Fremon Craig
Cast: Abby Ryder Fortson Rachel McAdams Kathy Bates

Judy Blume’s iconic coming-of-age story gets this adaptation from Kelly Fremon Craig (Seventeen: The Edge of SeventeenAbby Ryder Fortson, the original Cassie in Ant-Man films, stars as Margaret, with Rachel McAdams as Margaret, Kathy Bates as Kathy, and Benny Safdie and her family as Benny.

Mad Heidi

You can watch the following:Rent a movie for only $2.99 at Amazon

Raven Banner Entertainment

Genre: A dystopian action adventure
Run time: 1h 32m
Directors: Johannes Hartmann, Sandro Klopfstein
Cast: Alice Lucy, Kel Matsena, Casper Van Dien

This action thriller reimagines the classic Swiss children’s story of Heidi into a gory grindhouse-style exploitation spoof. Heidi, a young woman in a dystopian Switzerland under the rule of a cheese baron who is tyrannical (Casper Van Dien), embarks on an aggressive campaign to set her country free and revenge her lover’s murder.

The Room That Love Has Afforded

You can watch the following:Vudu offers a 3-day rental for just $3.99

Image: Nostromo Productions

Genre: You can also watch the video below.
Run time: 1h 43m
Director: Rodrigo Cortés
Cast: Clara Rugaard, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Mark Ryder

The story is based on an actual event. The Room That Love Has Afforded is a real-time World War II drama that follows a Jewish actress caught in the Nazi occupation of Poland, and her theater troupe’s bold efforts to stage the play the movie derives its title from in the face of that occupation.