Glass Onion, Top Gun: Maverick, and every new movie you can watch at home

Polygon readers are excited that Christmas is upon us, as Netflix has a brand new Knives Out movie.

Daniel Craig has a brand new cast. Glass Onion: The Knives Out MysteryThis is one of many new movies that have landed on VOD and streaming services this week. It’s joined by the Matilda musical on Netflix, while Maverick is the Top Gun (Paramount Plus). Strange World (Disney Plus), look for opportunities on other platforms.

It’s an exciting week in VOD releases, too. The indie darling Aftersun, one of our top movies of the year, is now available for home viewing, as is the Santa-as-an-action-star flick Violent Night.

Let’s get into it!

Netflix

Glass Onion: The Knives Out Mystery

What to Watch:Netflix streaming available

Photo: John Wilson/Netflix

Genre: Mystery/comedy
Run time: 2h 20m
Director: Rian Johnson
Cast: Edward Norton and Daniel Craig. Dave Bautista

Rian Johnson’s sequel to his 2019 ensemble mystery now finds itself as a part of a franchise. It’s a Netflix bestseller, despite being a non-IP piece. The film was released in theaters first and is available now for streaming.

Daniel Craig is back to play the role of Benoit Blanc in this film. He now faces a new set of wealthy individuals as he tries to solve another murder. This time it’s in Greece, when a tech billionaire (Edward Norton) invites his friends for a party and one of them ends up dead.

Our review:

Glas Onion This movie is brighter and louder than the original, but it’s also more outgoing. Knives are Out. The movie’s fashion and themes are infused with a brazen, comical silliness. This time around, Johnson aims for big ideas and big laughs — this is a funnier movie, almost an outright comedy at times, and a broad one at that. Which? Knives are OutThe defensive pretensions of inherited wealth are targeted Glas OnionIn a world full of flash-in the-pan politicians, tech billionaires and influencers, this mocks their desperate pursuit of money. As before, though, the gentlemanly Benoit Blanc is here to strip these people’s illusions away with comic courtesy.

Invitation

What to Watch:Netflix streaming available

Marcell Piti/Screen Gems

Genre:Horror
Run time: 1h 44m
Director: Jessica M. Thompson
Cast: Thomas Doherty (Nathalie Emmanuel), Sean Pertwee

Inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Invitation follows a young woman who meets her extended family after her mother’s death, only to discover they are… vampires!

Our review:

A part You must get outOne-third Ready or notToo few parts. Dracula, InvitationThis is just a collection of far better horror stories, which it doesn’t measure up to. It’s possible to make vampires do anything you want in films, but InvitationMakes vampires dull.

Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical

What to Watch:Netflix streaming available

Photo by Dan Smith/Netflix

Genre: Musical/fantasy
Run time: 1h 57m
Director: Matthew Warchus
Cast: Alisha Weir, Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch

The movie adaption of the musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s MatildaGo semi-viralThis was a movie musical that premiered a few weeks ago with eye-catching choreography which puts shame on many modern movies.

Paramount Plus

Maverick is the Top Gun

What to Watch:Paramount Plus streaming available

Photo: Scott Garfield/Paramount Pictures

Genre:Take Action
Run time: 2h 11m
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Cast: Miles Teller, Tom Cruise and Jennifer Connelly

However, 2022 was the undisputed box-office champ (although Water is the Way lurks), Maverick is the Top Gun After many months of waiting, Paramount Plus finally gets the movie this week. This just means it’s a great time to watch Maverick is the Top Gun again. Or jump out of a plane, if you’re Tom Cruise. You can do it.

Our review:

If there’s something worth salvaging from that era — and from Top Gun — it’s the sense of optimism that used to dominate ’80s action movies. It is a belief that anyone can enjoy the simple, most boring story, provided they are told with enough conviction and skill. Maverick is the Top GunThese qualities are plentiful in Tom Cruise. They’re embodied in Tom Cruise, who is the auteur of his own myth, and might be the last true movie star. Cruise wants you to have a great time and he will. More than anything, he is determined to get off the ground and never stop moving.

Hulu

Mack & Rita

What to Watch:Hulu streamable

Image: Gravitas Ventures

Genre:Comedy
Run time: 1h 34m
Director: Katie Aselton
Cast: Diane Keaton. Elizabeth Lail. Molly Duplass

There’s a new way to do things Large, Freaky FridayAnd other body-swap humor Mack & RitaThe story follows Elizabeth Lail (a young writer) who eventually wakes up to be her 70-year old self (Diane Keaton).

Sharp Stick

What to Watch:Hulu streamable

Image by Utopia

Genre:Comedy
Run time: 1h 32m
Director: Lena Dunham
Cast: Kristine Froseth and Jon Bernthal are the Luka Sabbats

Lena Dunham delivered the comedy of the year with one of her best performances. Catherine Called Birdy. This is her second comedy from 2022. It’s more R-rated. The story centers on a woman (Kristine Foss) who begins an affair (Jon Bernthal), with her employer. Dunham stars in the comedy, along with Jennifer Jason Leigh (also co-stars) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.Bear, Andor).

Disney Plus

Strange World

What to Watch:Disney Plus streaming available

Image: Walt Disney Animation

Genre: Action/adventure
Run time: 1h 42m
Directors: Don Hall, Qui Nguyen
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union

This animated adventure was one of Disney’s biggest box-office flops in a while, and now you can check it out for yourself from the comfort of your home.

Check out our reviews:

When the emotional heart of the movie focuses on this group of ragtag explorers desperately trying to save the world they know, it’s a grand and exciting adventure, with beautiful scenery and fantastical creatures at every turn. It shines when the movie is focused on the larger scope of the story. But, when the film focuses back to its overdone relationships it loses the spark that makes the movie sparkle. These father-son relationships seem to be supposed to hold the movie together in reality. But they drag it down. Strange World down when it could’ve soared.

Apple TV Plus

The Horse, the Mole, and the Fox: A Boy, the Mole, and a Fox,

What to Watch:Apple TV is available for streaming

Photo: Apple TV

Genre:Families
Run time: 34m
Director: Peter Baynton
Cast: Idris Elba and Tom Hollander. Gabriel Byrne

Charlie Mackesy’s 2019 children’s novel gets a gorgeous hand-drawn animated adaptation, with Idris Elba, Tom Hollander, and Gabriel Byrne providing voice acting.

VOD

Aftersun

What to Watch:Amazon, Apple TV and Google Play are available for purchase at $19.99

Image: A24

Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: Charlotte Wells
Cast: Frankie Corio. Paul Mescal. Celia Rowlson Hall

Polygon’s No. The 8 Best Movies of the Year, a remarkable feature debut by Charlotte Wells is now available for you to view at your own home. I’ll let our blurb for Aftersun Let the words speak for themselves

The human memory is, famously, unreliable — faulty to the point of being thrown out even when it’s your sworn testimony. This is perhaps most evident in childhood memories. Even small and isolated memories can change their tone when viewed with adulthood’s full range of experiences, including the care, concern, and compassion that goes with them. It’s a tough concept to wrap your brain around at times. It is so. AftersunThis is an amazing feat of engineering, in that it captures the scope while allowing the concept to be framed with grace.

Young father Calum (Paul Mescal) and his 11-year-old daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) are on a rare resort vacation, a fading moment captured by her on a clunky camcorder (at least partially; you know what it’s like to hand a kid a video camera). While that plot is simple in construction, the execution of it is far more profound, capturing the wistful vantage points of both Calum’s and Sophie’s experiences on holiday with equal, vivid clarity. This is In Aftersun’s hands, memory is just as slippery as it’s always been. Conversations can sometimes wash over Sophie, and threaten to drown Calum. Growing up means seeing the whole picture. AftersunIt is quietly powerful in its ability capture this. It’s a testament to the performances at the center of it (Mescal’s compassionate weariness most of all) that the film manages to suggest so much without overstating its point. After all, memory may be unreliable, but sometimes memory — echoed in a grainy camcorder or the recollection of a warm embrace — is all we have. —Zosha Millman

Violent Night

What to Watch:Rentable for as low as $19.99 via Amazon or Vudu

Universal Pictures

Genre:Take Action
Run time: 1h 52m
Director: Tommy Wirkola
Cast: David Harbour, John Leguizamo, Beverly D’Angelo

David Harbour plays Santa Claus in the action film from 87North Productions. This action movie is a tribute to Hollywood’s legendary action studio, which brought you John Wick and many other action movies.

Our review:

Violent Night works best when it captures the warped sensibilities of early-’90s Chris Columbus movies, particularly All You Need is Home. It’s been pointed out so often that it barely needs to be said that the events of that film are actually horrifically traumatizing and violent, and that Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister is a pint-size sociopath. Little Trudy Lightstone has a sadistic streak in her, too, and the film’s most demented scenes are played with an outsized sense of cheer that effectively creates a sense of giggly discomfort. These moments were deliberately created. Although the film is filled with witty one-liners, outrageous bloodshed, and fun jokes, the overall message of the film is positive. Night of violence’s big red bag of self-aware tricks is overstuffed.