Netflix’s Bruised, Disney’s Beatles doc, and 14 new movies to watch now

The Thanksgiving weekend can be a great time to watch and quieter for new major releases. This week’s new theatrical releases include a new Resident Evil movie and a wild true-crime romp in the form of House of Gucci.

But good news: If you’re stuck at home with tons of family, reeling from the Thanksgiving holiday overloaded, there are a ton of new movies premiering on streaming and rental platforms for you to watch at home. Pickings include Halle Berry’s directorial debut Bruised on Netflix, Peter Jackson’s big Beatles documentary on Disney Plus, a movie that might just win Kirsten Stewart an Oscar, plus a ton of genre fare for those who aren’t quite ready for the holiday season. Here’s what to watch this week.

Bruised

You should be watching: Netflix is available to stream

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 struggles 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

You should be watching: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. Are you a fan of fast-paced chases, intense interrogation scenes and frenetic gun fights as well as stylish explosions. Of course you do, go watch Raging Fire!

Black Friday

You should be watching:Amazon, Apple, Vudu and Vudu are all available for rent at $6.99

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. The horrors of holiday shopping season increase when some employees are transformed by alien goop. 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: Go Back

You should be watching:Disney Plus is available to stream

Walt Disney Studios

This is the most recent film by 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

You should be watching:Amazon, Apple, Vudu and Vudu are all available for rent at $19.99

Photo by Neon

Pablo Larraín’s psychological drama SpencerThis story is about Diana, Princess-of-Wales, who struggles with mental illness and the destructive influence of Prince Charles. She decides to end her ten year marriage to Prince Charles. 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 savage way. While heading to Sandringham Estate, she sees a scarecrow standing in the middle of a field, wearing her father’s red coat. John Spencer, Spencer’s father died from a heart attack three months following that Christmas. The outerwear is returned to her, and she hopes to get it clean. 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

You should be watching: You can stream HBO Max on your computer.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Based on Kevin Jakubowski’s book of the identical name 8-Bit Christmas is yet another consumerist-driven holiday children’s comedy à la Christmas Story OrIt’s all about the JingleThe story follows Jake Doyle, a young boy from Chicago’s suburbs who longs to have his own 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

You should be watching:Rentable for as low $5.99 at Amazon, Apple and Vudu

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. You can think of Inception but with less emphasis on corporate intelligence 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 It is solid and has a lot of surprises and complications. There are also plenty of double-crossings and dual-dealings of rich monsters and slimy mobsters. 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

You should be watching: Shudder is available to stream

Shudder

Do you need to scare the family that gathered together for the holidays? 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.”

And here’s what dropped last Friday:

Tick, Tick… Boom!

You should be watching:Netflix is available to stream

Photo by Macall Polay/Netflix

Based on an autobiographical musical with the same name. Let me know if you are interested in renting creator Jonathan Larson, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tick, Tick… Boom!Andrew Garfield stars as Jon, an ambitious theater composer who struggles to succeed in the modern world. He is frustrated by his failures and worried about his 30th birthday. Jon continues to pursue his personal goal to make something extraordinary, but he remains oblivious of the fact that a medical condition will ultimately take his life. According to our review

This version is only available from the moment. Tick, Tick… Boom!This is heartfelt, moving and touching. It’s a generous two-hour thank-you note from Miranda to the man who helped make his career possible. Several of the songs are show-stoppers, including the ballad “Why” (a touching reflection on Jon’s lifelong friendship with Michael), the jaunty ditty “Boho Days” (which is like Let me know if you are interested in renting compressed into three minutes), the comedic “Therapy” (a dissection of a broken relationship, in the style of KanderAnd Ebb musicals like Chicago and Cabaret), and “Sunday” (a Sondheim-derived ode to brunch with an impressive list of cameos Netflix has asked critics not to reveal). Music-theater enthusiasts will be eager to watch this movie on multiple occasions. There are many.

King Richard

You should be watching:On HBO Max, you can watch it live.

Warner Bros.

A biopic drama for 2021 King RichardWill Smith stars as Richard Williams. He is the father to future tennis star Venus (Saniyya Sydney) or Serena Williams(Demi Singleton), and tries to raise them and help them to achieve greatness. We review.

Without stating explicitly, this film is an adaptation of real events. That leads to friction between the glossy, wholesome triumphs common to most sports biopics, and the uneasy interrogation needed for a character like Williams, a vain leader who’s guiding his daughters toward tremendous triumphs, while feeding them uncomfortable and even disturbing messages. That push and pull between frankness and a spin that flatters Williams keeps Green’s King RichardThis film is truly a masterpiece. But it doesn’t inhibit it from being enjoyable. It’s tonally conflicted, but it’s an oddly compelling piece about an unlikely Black family succeeding in a white-dominated space.

Last Night at Soho

You should be watching:Rentable at $19.99 from Amazon, Apple and Vudu

Focus Features Photo

Edgar Wright’s giallo-inspired psychological horror thriller Last Night at Soho stars Thomasin McKenzie (The Old, Jojo Rabbit() Ellie is a shy fashion designer and aspiring model who fantasizes about the 1960s glamour. After moving to London to attend college, Ellie begins to experience vivid dreams of living in ’60s Soho through the eyes of Sandie (The Witch’s Anya Taylor-Joy), a wannabe singer whisked into a whirlwind relationship with a charming manager named Jack (Matt Smith). You can see the amazing results of those dreams, but soon, things take a dark turn. They begin to affect her reality, and they haunt her every step. Ellie must find a brutal killer in order to heal her wounds and not become a victim. Our review gives us the following:

Soho feels like Wright’s most explicit interrogation of his own sentimental impulses, and simultaneously, his most stylistically grandiose work. This story is also centered on the brutal and vulgar exploitation of women. This is certainly Edgar Wright at his Edgar Wright-iest, but even as he’s arguing against celebrating the past in Last Night at Soho, he’s celebrating it himself, in ways that are hard to escape, and at times, harder still to enjoy.

Zeroes and one

You should be watching:Amazon, Apple, Vudu and Vudu are all available for rent at $6.99

Lionsgate image

Set over the course of one night, Abel Ferrara’s gritty political-thriller Zeroes and oneEthan Hawke plays the role of J.J. (an American soldier stationed at Rome) and Justin (his militant twin brother). J.J has to race against the clock to discover what his brother is aware of the terrorist attack on the Vatican and stop it from causing chaos. The trailer looks exciting, and the premise alone sounds eerily similar to Hawke’s previous performance in the 2014 sci-fi action thriller Predestination crossed with Ang Lee’s 2019 film Gemini Man. So if you’re a fan of either one of those movies, you should absolutely give this one a shot.

Jungle Cruise

You should be watching:Rentable for as low $5.99 at Amazon, Apple and Vudu

Image: Walt Disney Pictures

All aboard the Jungle Cruise, Choo choo! The latest effort in Disney’s ongoing effort to spin every one of its notable theme-park rides into a sustainable theatrical franchise, Jungle Cruise stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Frank “Skipper” Wolff, a riverboat captain hired to transport Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) into the heart of the exotic jungle in search of the Tree of Life. It’s not exactly FitzcarraldoOr Z, the Lost CityBut it is. DoesThere are zombie snake-men as well as CG-animated fore-paws. Jesse Plemons is a German aristocrat who lives in a submarine. Our review:

Jungle Cruise is beholden not just to the antiquated tropes of archaeological adventure movies, but also the ride’s own problematic legacy. They do try their best to alter that legacy. It is a smart decision to make the treasure a part of nature, rather than a remnant of an old civilization. But the best adaptation is that the indigenous people of the jungle are civilized, and they’re Frank’s buddies — they only attack the tourists because they have an agreement where he pays them to scare the travelers for extra thrills. The leader of the tribe — the infamous Trader Sam, originally an outdated park character — is a woman in the movie. She doesn’t get a lot of screen time, and is more of an Easter Egg than a woman of color with a story of her own, but at least the filmmakers are acknowledging the ride’s past and considering how to modernize their thinking.

Ghostland prisoners

You should be watching:Shudder is available to stream

Image: RLJE Films

As anyone familiar with Nicolas Cage’s work knows, there’s no such thing as “over-the-top” to the Oscar-winning actor. When it comes to Ghostland prisoners, a neo-noir Western action movie starring Cage as a criminal mercenary named Hero sent to a parallel dimension to rescue a warlord’s granddaughter, it’s really just par for the course for Cage at this point. There’s samurai action, gore, and testicle-mounted explosives galore, and it absolutely, unequivocally Whips. .

Ghostland prisonersIt is ready for the midnight movie-show, packed house and few drinks. Presented in the less-than-ideal at-home venue, by nature of virtual Sundance, it’s a delightful love letter to action-movie excess. Like The Wachowskis’ Jupiter AscendingOder, a more literal translation: Roger Rabbit: Who Was It?, Sono embraces cartoon nonsense logic in order to whisk Cage to each of the film’s unexpected mile markers. So obviously, the Governor is American and walks out wearing all whites with a cowboy hat. The samurai warriors might as well be RPG NPCs engaging in a sword battle set to Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle.” A sequence depicting the accident that melted the countryside into a decaying shade of its former self flips across the screen like the pages of a manga. A star who has perfected the mouth-agape, raised-eyebrow “Wut?” face is the glue that keeps all the pieces stuck to the collage.

Candyman

You should be watching:Rentable for $5.99 at Amazon, Apple and Vudu

Universal Pictures

DaCosta’s 2021 sequel to the 1992 horror classic CandymanIn a surprising and divisive way, Candyman is recontextualized in the original film. He’s seen as less a specter than a single specter. More, Candyman is seen as a generational trauma created by the loss of Black men to systemic violence. While the creative ambitions of DaCosta’s film are admirable, the film itself might leave something to be desired for some viewers. According to our review

DaCosta is like Anthony and wants to convey something with her work. Her Candyman makes broad metaphorical strokes about the larger urban Black experience, but it’s aimed at an oblivious audience that needs didactic storytelling to understand racial politics. The film’s end is particularly muddled, doing more to set up a sequel than to smartly bind together Candyman’s varied, nascent themes. The film is missing out on a cohesive vision, to the point where the audience will spend the entire film waiting for the flashbacks and summaries to end, and for DaCosta’s movie to finally begin. But by the end, she’s only offered a visually stunning homage to the original film. For a director of her talent, that isn’t enough.

Multiverse

You should be watching:Amazon, Apple, Vudu and Vudu available to rent for $6.99

Image: Saban Films

Do you like 2004’s Primer? Do you like watching actors argue with themselves, but don’t feel like watching Zeroes and one or 1998’s Dead Ringers? MultiverseThis should appeal to you. Sci-fi thriller Loretta (Paloma Kawiatkowski), Danny, Amy (Sandra Mae Frank), Gerry (Munro Chambers), are four young scientists who are on the brink of finding a way to prove multiverse theory. After a terrible tragedy, they become more focused on their mission and find a way of traveling to other universes. Their actions may inadvertently put at risk the lives not only of their family members but all universes.