Netflix’s Power of the Dog, Spencer, and 10 new movies you can watch now

The release of BenedettaThe historical erotica drama of Paul Verhoeven, an acclaimed Dutch author (Total Recall, Robocop). But if a biographical drama about a lesbian nun in a 17th-century Italian covent doesn’t quite move the needle for you, there’s still plenty of new and exciting releases to watch on VOD and streaming this weekend.

Jane Campion’s western drama Dog PowerAfter a limited theatrical debut, the long-awaited Netflix premiere of Kirsten Dunst and Benedict Cumberbatch finally happens. Plus there are a few new animated films — one aimed at kids, and the other firmly for adults.

To help you get a handle on what’s new and available, here are the new movies you can watch with the click of a button this weekend.

Dog Power

What to Watch:Netflix streaming available

TIFF photo

Benedict Cumberbatch stars Dog PowerAs Phil Burbank, Phil is a charismatic but ruthless rancher. He sets his sights to torture Rose (Kirsten Dust), a widow, and Peter (Kodi Smith-McPhee). When Phil’s brother George marries Rose, his desire and method of intimidating them only intensifies … that is, until he takes the young Peter under his wing. Are there other motives for Phil’s strange behaviour? Our review revealed that

In the United States, there are no seismic events.Dog Power. No cattle stampedes nor gunfights are allowed. The movie’s abrupt end feels even more shocking because of its meditative nature. Campion, like many directors, is a movie that rewards repeated viewings. On a second watch, the connective tissues surrounding the narrative’s tendons don’t just become apparent, they gain a muscular meaning, a robustness that makes the film’s one major reveal even more enlivening. Dog Power doesn’t just mark Campion’s return — it’s the best movie of 2021 so far. This psychological Western’s themes of isolation and toxic masculinity are an ever-tightening lasso of seemingly innocuous events, and they import more horror and meaning on every closer inspection, corralling viewers under an unforgettable spell.

Summit of the Gods

What to Watch:Netflix streaming available

Image: Jullianne Films / Folivari / Mélusine Productions / France 3 Cinéma / AuRA Cinéma

Based on Jiro Taniguchi’s manga series of the same name, Patrick Imbert’s animated drama Summit of the Gods Follow the adventures of a Japanese journalist who, in his quest to discover the truth behind Mount Everest’s first attempt at climbing it, embarks on his own expedition. Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival this past summer, Imbert’s film has garnered significant acclaimed for its stunning visuals, deft pacing, and and impressive characters.

Dune

What to Watch:Amazon, Apple, Vudu and Vudu are all available for rent at $24.99

Warner Bros. Pictures

In the year 10191, Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villenueve’s adaptation of the celebrated Frank Herbert sci-fi epic stars Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, son and heir to the powerful Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac), who is forced to leave the planet of his birth to become the newly appointed stewards of Arrakis, a desert planet home to a coveted resource known as melange. There are sword fights, politics, intrigue, betrayal, drama, and oh — these colossal creatures called sandworms that burst out of the ground before devouring people. Honestly, there’s way too much to explain about DuneIt is impossible to cover everything in just one sentence. We have therefore created this helpful-dandy guide that will help you understand the vast, bizarre universe. But enough of all that, let’s hone in on the biggest question: should you set aside time this weekend to watch Villeneuve’s latest, hulking sci-fi extravaganza? This is our review.

If you can get lost in the cocoon of production, costume, and art-design opulence, and sink into the Big Event angle of it all — which is why people go to the movies, isn’t it? — the film, styled as Part one of DuneIt can also be very evocative. The problem, though, is the film’s pervasive emotional emptiness. Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts and Co-writers PassengersAnd Prometheus) and Eric Roth, rush through character journeys, and shortchange ostensible hero Paul Atreides (wild-hair-haver Timothée Chalamet). The entire dense mythology is not explained, and instead they recast whole communities as thinly drawn versions of popular pop-culture characters. The Fremen are now Tusken Raiders, the Bene Gesserit have become more or less Fremen. Macbeth’s witches.) All that streamlining has resulted in the loss of the connecting thread that links all the disparate parts into one cohesive entity. The film is a splendid, threadbare tapestry that unravels as you’re watching it.

Diary of the Wimpy Kid

What to Watch:Disney Plus streaming available

Image: Disney Plus

Based on Jeff Kinney’s coming-of-age book series, Diary of the Wimpy KidGreg Heffley is a young mischievous student who has an active imagination and worries about middle school. Greg, his friend Rowley and Rowley struggle to find their way in middle school, making friends as well as fitting in. For a children’s film, the trailer for Diary of the Wimpy KidThis animated film has some impressive animation and some really clever humor. If you’ve never read or seen anything of the series, don’t worry — this new movie recounts the events of the first book alone so you won’t miss anything.

Castle Falls

What to Watch:Amazon: $5.99; Apple: $6.99

Photo: Shout! Studios.

Dolph Lundgren (Rocky IVIndirects, stars and televised performances by? Castle FallsAction thriller “Thriller” focuses on two rival gangs who are trying to find a cache of millions hidden in a condominium near the edge of destruction. Hidden by a now-imprisoned gang leader, three desperate parties now vie for the prize: A prison guard (Lundgren) looking to use the money to pay for his daughter’s cancer treatment; a blue-collar demolition man (Scott Adkins) who accidentally discovers the money; and the gang whose leader stashed the cash away in the first place. There are only 90 minutes left before the condo is set on fire. The question of who will escape with the cash fast becomes more important than who will survive. Normally we wouldn’t bet against Adkins, but Lundgren did direct the movie…

And here’s what dropped last Friday:

Bruised

What to Watch: Netflix streaming available

Photo by John Baer/Netflix

Halle Berry stars in the film, directed by Basil Iwanyk.John Wick, Sicario), BruisedJackie Justice is a disgraced MMA fighter. She agrees to a brutal underground bout in an attempt to regain her spotlight. All the while trying to deal with her inner demons, and to reconcile with Manny, whom she had abandoned many years ago. Berry appears bruised and bleeding as she attempts to rise from the ground after her devastating loss. According to one report, Berry threw herself into the role — and broke two ribs in the process. “[It was] kind of a crazy injury,” stunt coordinator Eric Brown told Entertainment Weekly in August. “But that was just her intensity … Halle’s a special case. I’ve worked with tons of actors, and almost none of them have that kind of work ethic.”

Raging Fire

What to Watch:For $4.99, Amazon or Apple. Vudu is $3.99.

Image by Well Go USA Entertainment

If you’re looking for an explosive, action-packed, exquisitely well-shot Hong Kong crime drama to watch this holiday weekend, you may want to turn to Raging Fire. Donnie Yen (Star Wars Story: Rogue One) stars as Cheung Sung-bon, an officer of the Regional Crime Unit who finds himself at odds with Yau Kong-ngo (Nicholas Tse), a former protégé who embarks on a bloody mission of revenge for his mentor’s betrayal. Do you like fast chases and intense interrogations, gunfights with ferocious intensity, and spectacular explosions? Of course you do, go watch Raging Fire!

Black Friday

What to Watch:Rentable for as low as $6.99 at Amazon, Apple and Vudu

Screen Media Films – Image

If you don’t want to enter the battleground of Black Friday shopping, consider checking out this new horror comedy headlined by Devon Sawa, Ivana Baquero, Michael Jai White, and Bruce Campbell. When an alien goop transforms some employees into the undead, they bring on the usual horrors associated with seasonal shopping. While anyone who’s worked retail already knows the feeling, director Casey Tebo looks to have put enough of a genre spin on it to make this one a treat.

The Beatles: We Need to Get Back

What to Watch:Disney Plus streaming available

Walt Disney Studios

Check out the latest movie from The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is gong straight to the Extended Edition: After planning to release a two-hour version of the documentary, the filmmaker decided to chop up the film — which draws from more than 60 hours of unseen footage shot in 1969 by the director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, and 150 hours of unheard audio — into a multi-part Disney Plus special. But we’re still putting it on our list of the week’s movie offerings because of Jackson’s original vision and inevitable, cinematic touch. That’s it!

Spencer

What to Watch:Rentable for as low as $19.99 at Amazon, Apple and Vudu

Photo by Neon

Pablo Larraín’s psychological drama SpencerThe story centers around Diana, Princess Of Wales, who is struggling with mental health issues and under the influence of Prince Charles, makes the decision to end her decade-long marriage. Kristen Stewart has received significant praise for her portrayal of the late princess, and the film as a whole has been heralded by several critics as one of the year’s best. Our review.

This is a biopic acutely concerned with parsing Diana’s psychology, and specifically, her many demons. However, it is not in a sexy way. While heading to Sandringham Estate, she sees a scarecrow standing in the middle of a field, wearing her father’s red coat. In real life John Spencer was her father. He died of heart failure three months later. In the hope of having it cleaned, she goes back to fetch her outerwear. Diana grew up on the Queen’s estate in Park House, making her journey to the Christmas festivities both a heartening homecoming and an unfortunate duty, causing a wellspring of grief to affect her in varying fashions.

8-Bit Christmas

What to Watch: On HBO Max, you can watch it live.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Based on Kevin Jakubowski’s book, 8-Bit Christmas is yet another consumerist-driven holiday children’s comedy à la Christmas Story OrYou can jingle all the wayThis film tells the story Jake Doyle (a young boy who grew up in Chicago suburbs) and longs for his Nintendo Entertainment System. Narrated by Neil Patrick Harris, who plays an older version of Jake recounting the story to his young daughter in the present-day, the trailer looks charming and outrageous — the perfect kind of movie to get in the mood for the winter holidays.

Remembering

What to Watch:Amazon, Apple, Vudu and Vudu are all available for rent at $5.99

Photo: Ben Rothstein/Warner Bros. Pictures

Hugh Jackman (Logan) stars in Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy’s feature directorial debut Reminiscence as Nick Bannister, a private investigator who alongside his assistant Watts (Thandiwe Newton) specializes in navigating the minds of his clients in search of answers. Imagine Inception with less focus on corporate spying and impossible architecture. After crossing paths with a mysterious client (Rebecca Ferguson), Nick’s quest to solve her disappearance morphs into an obsessive odyssey that blurs the lines between past, present, reality, and fiction. Our review

As a noir mystery, Remembering Solid, but with many complications and unexpected reveals. It also features a variety of double-crossings. It mostly fails through its character dynamics, especially for anyone who isn’t swooning over Nick’s monomania. Nick’s soppy voiceover not only steers the audience toward maudlin self-pity, it overexplains things better left subtle and up to interpretation, and it prevents viewers from just quietly soaking in the movie’s elaborate dystopian spectacle. It’s an irritating, intrusive drag, constantly trying to steer the audience and tell them what to think or how to feel. Joy’s symbolism can be equally heavy-handed: a bit of business with a recurring lost queen from a deck of cards is a ridiculously gratuitous bit of stagecraft in a story about a missing woman.

The Strings

What to Watch: Shudder is available to stream

Shudder

You don’t have to panic about the holiday gathering of the entire family. In Shudder’s new release, Catherine, a budding musician, heads to a remote cottage to work on new material in solitude. But according to Shudder’s description, “Soon after, strange and seemingly supernatural occurrences begin to manifest at the cottage, escalating each night and dangerously eroding Catherine’s sense of reality.”