A Batman Christmas, new Netflix films, and everything else new to watch

Welcome to the busiest moviegoing season of the yr, when movies in theaters are literally value trekking out to see and everything hitting VOD and streaming is… the flicks that got here out a number of months in the past which are additionally tremendous value trying out. Ack!

Work at your individual tempo. But yeah, this weekend at residence has everything from Leave the World Behind, a new Netflix movie from the creator of Mr. Robot, to an animated Batman Christmas particular and Martin Scorsese’s newest three-hour epic, Killers of the Flower Moon, which is hitting digital rental earlier than finally touchdown on Apple at an unspecified date in 2024.

Or you and the household may simply watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie once more — it’s on Netflix now. But if you happen to want alternate options, there are lots of, many extra. Let’s dig in.

New on Netflix

Leave the World Behind

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Photo: Jojo Whilden/Netflix

Genre: Psychological thriller
Run time: 2h 21m
Director: Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot)
Cast: Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke

Adapted from Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel, Sam Esmail’s directorial function debut is an Airbnb story from hell. Mid-vacation in Long Island, a Manhattan couple hears a knock on the door. It’s the house owners of their rented residence, who’re escaping the apocalypse. What follows guarantees to be a cerebral, prickly thriller that won’t fully work, however offers its all-star solid a lot to chew on. From our evaluation:

Racial, sexual, generational, and class fault-lines are drawn however then quickly scuffed over, virtually in embarrassment, because the characters sink reflexively right into a shared worldview that they will’t appear to let go of […but the] film is brilliantly solid, a minimum of. Hawke embodies the blinkered insouciance of progressive intellectuals, Ali has the polish and confidence that cash breeds, and Roberts, as a secretly insecure striver trapped between these two worlds, flashes with a brittle testiness.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Nintendo, Illumination/Universal Pictures

Genre: Animated journey
Run time: 1h 32m
Director: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (Teen Titans Go! To the Movies)
Cast: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black

While the mixed energy of Barbie and Oppenheimer might have eclipsed Nintendo’s foray into animated movie, let’s not neglect that Mario made a mega impression earlier this yr on the worldwide field workplace, gave its mother or father firm the arrogance to announce a live-action Zelda film, and may very simply get nominated for an Oscar within the yr 2024. The Mario film is, if not good, essential — and now it’s streaming on Netflix, prepared for teenagers and their nostalgic mother and father to watch a zillion occasions.

New on Hulu

The Mission

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 44m
Directors: Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (Boys State)

Heralded as one of many nice documentaries of 2023, The Mission chronicles the repeated makes an attempt by John Allen Chau, an American missionary, to deliver Christianity to the Indigenous peoples of the distant North Sentinel Island. Law forbade outsiders from setting foot on the island, however that didn’t cease Chau, who was finally killed by arrows throughout his last try to sail ashore. From documentarians Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (who beforehand directed the searing political doc Boys State), the National Geographic movie guarantees to get the blood pumping and ask a number of huge questions because it unravels Chau’s life.

New on Prime Video

Merry Little Batman

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

Image: Prime Video

Genre: Animated comedy
Run time: 1h 36m
Director: Mike Roth (Regular Show)
Cast: Luke Wilson, Yonas Kibreab, James Cromwell, David Hornsby

You suppose you realize the story: Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin lays an egg, Batmobile misplaced a wheel, and Joker obtained away. But Batman’s first animated Christmas film presents a wholly new perspective. When Bruce Wayne’s son Damian is left residence alone on Christmas Eve, Gotham’s supervillains come out to play and a new hero of the vacation season should stand up. David Hornsby from It’s Always Sunny because the Joker? How may this be something lower than good?

Your Christmas or Mine 2

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

Photo: Colin Hutton/Prime Video

Genre: Romantic comedy
Run time: 1h 34m
Director: Jim O’Hanlon (Your Christmas or Mine?)
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Cora Kirk, Alex Jennings, Jane Krakowski

Uh oh, new couple James (Asa Butterfield) and Hayley (Cora Kirk) hoped to meet one another’s households throughout a Christmas trip within the Alps, however somebody tousled the lodging preparations! Now James’ wealthy household is staying in a “rustic” lodge and Hayley’s penny-pinching dad is holed up in a five-star resort! Whoops!

New on Paramount Plus

Showing Up

Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

Photo: Allyson Riggs/A24

Genre: Comedy
Run time: 1h 48m
Director: Kelly Reichardt (First Cow)
Cast: Michelle Williams, Hong Chau, John Magaro

Drama or comedy, never-miss filmmaker Kelly Reichardt goals for the intimate. Which means she might by no means make a movie that causes sufficient splash for the Oscars or big-time prime 10 lists. But right here’s no shock to anybody conversant in her work: Showing Up, which reteams her with common collaborator Michelle Williams, cuts deep to the guts of artwork and the artist’s life, affirming Reichardt to being in league of her personal. From our current record of the highest 50 films of 2023, the place Showing Up ranks tenth:

Reichardt’s genius is getting the viewers laughing on the artists however by no means the artwork. For instance, it’s humorous to suppose that an artist devoted a yr of her life to crocheting a jumpsuit. Except then, in Showing Up, you see the outfit and it’s lovely — an intentional undermining of the punchline. A instructor smugly opines on ceramics, however every bit he holds up is so lovingly crafted that they confidently communicate for themselves.

This determination (rib artists, rejoice artwork) units the tone. We people are artifice, a bunch of contradictory masks that we placed on to match the state of affairs and the gang. But our creations — once we commit to a craft, no matter medium it might be — are an expression of our most susceptible selves.

New on Shudder

The Sacrifice Game

Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder and AMC Plus

Image: Shudder

Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 30m
Director: Jenn Wexler (The Ranger)
Cast: Mena Massoud, Olivia Scott Welch, Gus Kenworthy, Madison Baines

After premiering on the weirdo-approved Fantastic Fest earlier this yr, Jenn Wexler’s newest horror joint lands on Shudder in time for the vacations. Our editor Tasha Robinson caught this one on the fest, so I’m ceding the ground. Here’s her micro-take (watch out for extra on this one quickly):

Jenn Wexler’s Christmas-set horror film The Sacrifice Game takes most of its runtime to reveal what it’s actually about, and that reveal is a doozy. But the wait to get there’s by no means uninteresting: Along the best way, there’s a “sad Christmas with the left-behinds at a boarding school” story that meshes completely with The Holdovers, and a “dangerous cultists on the road” story that meshes equally properly with Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It’s no shock that these two tales collide, it’s only a shock precisely how and why they collide.

New to lease

Killers of the Flower Moon

Where to watch: Available to lease on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Apple

Genre: Drama
Run time: 3h 26m
Director: Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver)
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons

Some name it Martin Scorsese’s magnum opus. Others marvel if adapting David Grann’s acclaimed nonfiction guide was an unattainable process, even for a legend. But everybody appears to agree: You have to discover a huge chunk of time and watch Killers of the Flower Moon, one of many yr’s most formidable dramatic ventures. And Scorsese threw his complete self into it. From our evaluation:

As Scorsese will get deeper into his old-master section, it feels as if he’s working out of endurance with the Catholic agonies and fire-and-brimstone filmmaking he’s recognized for. Killers of the Flower Moon is usually plainspoken, sorrowful, and smart. At the very finish, Scorsese makes a private intervention on behalf of what actually issues on this story. It’s a transferring gesture from an artist who is aware of he solely has time to say a lot extra, and who can see clearly what wants to be mentioned.