Netflix’s Lost Daughter, Encanto, and 10 new movies to now watch at home

Ah yes, New Year’s Eve: a time of jubilation, reflection, and renewal. Not necessarily a holiday known for an abundance of foot traffic to theater, but that hasn’t stopped studios from saving some of the year’s most anticipated films like Licorice Pizza, Resurrections by The Matrix, West Side StoryPlease see the following: Spider-Man, There’s No Way Home For the second half of December. If going out to the theater sounds like too much effort this holiday, not to worry; there’s still plenty of great new releases available on VOD and streaming.

Maggie Gyllenhaal The Lost Daughter, Fran Kranz’s directorial debut Mass, Vampire horror-comedy Red Snow, and several more recent releases available to stream and rent, there’s no shortage of movies to watch this weekend.

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.

The Lost Daughter

What to Watch:Netflix streaming available

Image by Netflix

Olivia Colman (Favorite) stars in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost DaughterAs Leda, an unmarried woman who is on holiday at the seaside and whose curiousity towards Dakota Johnson’s young mother gradually turns into a deep obsession. Unnerved by the pair’s relationship, Leda’s memories of her own tumultuous past as a young mother are triggered from deep within her, forcing her to confront the choices and consequences of her parenting that had until then remained long dormant and buried.

Mass

What to Watch:Rentable for as low as $5.99 at Amazon and Vudu, or $4.99 at Apple

Bleecker Street Media

Reed BirneyHunt), Ann Dowd (The Leftovers: Hereditary), Jason Isaacs (The PatriotMartha Plimpton (Beautiful Girls(Starring in 2021 Drama MassTwo sets of parents who were brought together in an unimaginable tragedy have decided to reconcile and meet to share their grief. This is not the kind of story you’d expect to see for Fran Kranz’s directorial debut (actor-writer Fran Kranz).Dollhouse, The Cabin in the WoodsHowever, it is a stunning premise. It looks intense and terrifying, with each lead actor receiving significant praise. Take a look for yourself first if you’re interested in watching this one.

Red Snow

What to Watch:Rentable for as low as $4.99 at Amazon and Apple, or $3.99 at Vudu

4Digital Media

Horror comedy Red Snow stars Dennice Cisneros (NCIS) as Olivia Romo, a struggling horror writer who nurses an injured bat back to health while spending her Christmas holiday alone at her deceased mother’s cabin. Olivia becomes a vampire and falls for the handsome bat. Things quickly take a dangerous turn however when a gang of vampires descend on Olivia’s cabin in search of her would-be lover.

And here’s what dropped last Friday:

Resurrections by The Matrix

What to Watch: You can stream HBO Max on your computer.

Warner Bros. Pictures

It’s been 18 years since the “one-two punch” of Reloaded: The Matrix RevolutionsComes Resurrections by The Matrix, a mind-bender from original mastermind Lana Wachowski that works as both commentary on the franchise’s legacy and a damn good heist movie set inside The Matrix. Read our amazing review to learn more. Here’s a taste:

Resurrections by The MatrixIt’s about accomplishing the impossible. On a very basic level, it’s about the insurmountable and inherently cynical task of making a follow-up to the Matrix trilogy, one that breaks technical and narrative ground the way the first film did. On a thematic one, it’s an agitprop romance, one of the most effective mass media diagnoses of the current moment that finds countless things to be angry about, and proposes fighting them all with radical, reckless love. On top of all that, it is also a kick-ass work of sci-fi action — propulsive, gorgeous, and yet still intimate — that revisits the familiar to show audiences something very new.

Encanto

What to Watch: Disney Plus is available to stream

Image: Disney

Disney’s final animated feature of the year made our list of the best movies of 2021. Here’s why:

It’s always a strange year when Walt Disney Animation Studios outdoes Pixar on color, emotion, and innovation, but that happened in 2021. Pixar’s film Luca is a low-key and generally low-stakes charmer about friendship and family, but Disney’s Encanto The story explores the same themes of belonging, connection and raises them to fever pitch. The story, about a magical home, the magical family it houses, and the one family member who doesn’t have a special gift, draws heavily on Colombian art and design for its richly textured characters and setting. But Lin-Manuel Miranda’s dizzyingly dense songs are the centerpiece of the film — they’re authentic earworms that function as important parts of the story instead of tacked-on interludes.

And the movie’s big emotions are compelling and powerful. Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) accepts her place as the family’s powerless black sheep with grace and humility for a long time, but eventually, the unfairness of the world catches up with her, and the seething hurt she’s been holding back for so long is palpable. Encanto is visually sumptuous, but it also cuts to the same kind of dark inner demons that the best Pixar movies reach, and offers some catharsis for anyone who’s ever felt at odds with their family, or the world in general.

Don’t Look Up

What to Watch: Netflix streaming available

Photo by NIKO TAVERNISE/NETFLIX

The Big Short ViceAdam McKay, director, merges with Step Brothers AnchormanAdam McKay directs this hilarious comedy about a world at end. McKay locked up an all-star cast for his first outing for Netflix, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, and Timothée Chalamet, but based on reviews, it seems to be polarizing the audience, even in its noble quest to shake up the conversation on climate change. Here’s a bit from our take:

Don’t Look Up It becomes an act of exhaustion well-acted. It’s not very interesting to see this cycle play out in a hypothetical context because this particular media circus is already repeated ad nauseum. McKay’s talented cast is wasted by having them work for virtually nothing. His film doesn’t have much to share. Why we are trapped in these cycles, and it doesn’t seem to offer anything beyond the greatest hits of a bad few months online. It would be a lot easier to accept jokes about political ineptitude, memes on the internet, and daytime television. Humor is not objective, but this example shows how it can look. Don’t Look Up’s specific jokes feels like a spoiler, depriving you of one of the three times you’ll likely experience a genuine laugh.

The Last Duel

What to Watch: Rentable on Amazon, Apple and Vudu

Photograph by 20th Century Studios

Ridley Scott’s medieval epic, starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Adam Driver, and Eve is killed’s Jodie Cormer, pretty much bombed in theaters this fall, despite promising reviews. Our colleague Zosha Millman caught it after a few weeks in theaters, and walked out having had one of her best movie experiences of the year, suggesting the movie’s themes on sexual violence and human strife were worth the challenge. “The absolute high of digesting such a complicated, thorny narrative in a theater all to myself is something I’ve been chasing ever since.”

Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City

What to Watch: Amazon, Apple, Vudu and Vudu are all available for rent at $19.99

Photo: Shane Mahood/Sony Pictures

A reboot of the Resident Evil movie franchise that skews closer to the games turned out to not be what fans wanted — no one showed up to theaters when the movie bowed in November and, after bombing, it quickly departed screens for premium home video rental. But here’s the thing: it’s pretty solid! Johannes Roberts is a horror filmmaker in James Wan’s style, even though it has many Easter eggs. On the scale of this year’s biggest surprises, Raccoon city is open to you It is there.

Lamb

What to Watch:Rentable for as low $5.99 at Amazon, Apple and Vudu

Photo: A24

LambA24 imported the drama “Starring” Prometheus’ Noomi Rapace, has a number of turns that would be egregious to spoil. But let’s just say Rapace’s character adopts Ada, a mysterious half-lamb half-human child, and that the director was It is reallyConsider filming live lamb births.

Benedetta

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

IFC Films – Photo

“Paul Verhoeven, you horny motherfucker, you’ve done it again.”

Joshua Rivera is our critic, and he ate the entire book. Robocop Elle director’s erotic drama about nuns in 17th century Italy. From an early age, Benedetta (Virginie Efira) has believed that she’s been touched by God. When Bartolomea (Daphne Patakia) arrives to her convent, Benedetta’s touched … by much more. The sexual and spiritual intertwine in ways that seem like a perfect fit for Verhoeven’s daring brand of cinema. Here’s more from Joshua:

Some might find it. BenedettaIt is too exploitative to be taken seriously. That criticism has its merits: The movie’s lasciviousness can be read as being meant for the camera as much as it is for the characters. The movie’s queerness could be seen as a ploy to seduce straight men. But in the context of the rigid confines of Catholicism at the peak of its powers, Verhoeven’s argument for Benedetta’s extremes is compelling. He forces the sacred against profane and calls into question the religious rejection of human experience.

C’mon C’mon

What to Watch: Amazon, Apple, Vudu and Vudu are all available for rent at $19.99

Image: A24

Mike Mills has the latest (For Beginners, Women in the 20th CenturyJoaquin Phoenix plays Johnny in “The Movie.” He is an uncle who assumes the role of father figure for his nephew without any guidance. It’s simple, straightforward, and quite moving. Vulture is our friend:

Johnny nurtures his 9-year-old nephew, Jesse (Woody Norman), taking him from his home in Los Angeles to the different cities he visits for work, while his novelist sister, Viv (Gabby Hoffman), helps Jesse’s father Paul (Scoot McNairy) during a manic bipolar disorder episode in the Bay Area.

There isn’t much that happens here C’mon C’mon. There’s no overly grand gestures of love. There’s no arch monologues. There’s no teary reappraisals underscored by irrevocable shifts in the characters’ lives. As Johnny travels with Jesse in tow and Viv wrestles with Paul’s refusal to heal in the linear fashion people who don’t struggle with mental illness expect, the film finds a raw beauty in the wonders and heartbreaks of everyday life. It’s a humble portrait of a family’s deepening connections supported by a number of cinematic pleasures — expert sound design and cinematography; touching performances by Norman and Hoffman; and a tremendous showing from Joaquin Phoenix, operating at a register he’s rarely found before. It’s a career best for him — lovely, empathetic, humane.