Greetings, Polygon readers!
Each week, we round up the most notable releases new to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.
This week, Oppenheimer, the historical biopic starring Cillian Murphy as the so-called “Father of the Nuclear Bomb,” finally drops onto streaming following its critically and commercially successful theatrical debut earlier this year. Leo, the new animated comedy starring Adam Sandler as a talking lizard, premieres on Netflix this week alongside the scripted documentary Stamped from the Beginning based on Ibram X. Kendi’s book. There’s plenty of exciting releases this week, like Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener on Hulu, Good Burger 2 on Paramount Plus, the fantasy comedy Genie starring Melissa McCarthy on Peacock, and more.
Here’s everything new to watch this week.
New on Netflix
Leo
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Netflix
Genre: Musical comedy
Run time: 1h 42m
Directors: Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel, David Wachtenheim
Cast: Adam Sandler, Bill Burr, Cecily Strong
Adam Sandler’s latest Netflix project is also co-written by the comedian. He plays a lizard named Leo, who along with a turtle (Bill Burr) are the pets for a fifth-grade classroom. The two try and escape the classroom and live life on their own terms.
Stamped From The Beginning
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Netflix
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 31m
Director: Roger Ross Williams
Cast: Angela Davis, Alexa Rachelle Jennings, Ibram X. Kendi
A hybrid documentary/feature film adapted from the book by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning digs into the pervasive anti-Black racism in America and its history as a strategic tool.
New on Hulu
Master Gardener
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu Nov. 23
Image: Bonnie Marquette/Magnolia Pictures
Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 51m
Director: Paul Schrader
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, Quintessa Swindell
The third film in Paul Schrader’s “accidental trilogy” of thematically tied films stars Joel Edgerton (The Underground Railroad) as Narvel Roth, a horticulturist with a dark past who is tasked with taking on the wayward grand-niece (Quintessa Swindell) of his wealthy benefactor (Sigourney Weaver). As the two grow closer, Narvel’s history slowly comes to light, threatening to uproot the simple life he has worked so meticulously cultivate.
The Last Rider
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Image: Roadside Attractions
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Alex Holmes
Cast: Perico Delgado, Laurent Fignon, Cyrille Guimard
This documentary follows the story of Greg LeMond, the first non-European cyclist to win the Tour de France. The Last Rider charts LeMond’s early career as a professional cyclist, his life-threatening brush with death while turkey hunting with his family, and ultimately his victory during the 1986 Tour de France.
New on Max
Little Richard: I Am Everything
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max Nov. 23
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Lisa Cortes
Cast: Billy Porter, John Waters, Tom Jones
This documentary chronicles the life and career of Little Richard, one of the earliest stars of rock ‘n roll music, as well as the Black queer origins of the genre itself. With appearances by Billy Porter, John Waters, and Nile Rodgers along with archival footage of Little Richard’s performances, this film untangles the complex and enduring legacy of this American musical trailblazer.
New on Apple TV Plus
The Velveteen Rabbit
Where to watch: Available to stream on Apple TV Plus
Image: Apple TV Plus
Genre: Fantasy drama
Run time: 44m
Directors: Jennifer Perrott, Rick Thiele
Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Nicola Coughlan, Alex Lawther
Based the children’s book by Margery Williams, this short film follows the story of a 7-year-old named William (Phoenix Laroche) who receives a stuffed rabbit for Christmas that leads him into a world of fantastical splendor.
New on Paramount Plus
Good Burger 2
Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus
Image: Paramount Plus
Genre: Comedy
Run time: 1h 46m
Director: Phil Trail
Cast: Kenan Thompson, Jillian Bell, Lil Rel Howery
Set twenty six years after the events of the first film, Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell reprise their roles as Dexter Reed and Ed who reunite to save Good Burger from a nefarious mega corporation that wants to automate its workforce.
New on Peacock
Genie
Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock
Image: Peacock
Genre: Fantasy comedy
Run time: 1h 33m
Director: Sam Boyd
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Paapa Essiedu, Denée Benton
Workaholic father Bernard (Paapa Essiedu) can’t seem to find a healthy balance between his professional life and his home. That changes after he accidentally awakens a genie named Flora (Melissa McCarthy), who helps him to understand what truly matters during a shenanigan-filled adventure across New York City.
New on AMC Plus
What Comes Around
Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus Nov. 24
Genre: Thriller
Run time: 1h 25m
Director: Amy Redford
Cast: Summer Phoenix, Grace Van Dien, Kyle Gallner
After a young woman (Grace Van Dien) is seduced by an older and controlling man online, a rift forms between the woman and her mother (Summer Phoenix) in this psychological drama thriller.
New on Criterion Channel
Afire
Where to watch: Available to stream on Criterion Channel
Image: The Criterion Channel
Genre: Romantic drama
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: Christian Petzold
Cast: Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Enno Trebs
While vacationing on the Baltic Sea, four young people meet by coincidence while staying at the same holiday home. As a nearby forest fire steadily grows closer nearby, the group find themselves trapped with one another as tensions and passions flare to a pitch.
New to rent
Oppenheimer
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Universal Pictures
Genre: Historical biopic
Run time: 3h
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon
Cillian Murphy stars as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the so-called “Father of the Atomic Bomb,” in Christopher Nolan’s biopic chronicling the scientist’s tenure at a clandestine research facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico to his embattled reputation and public disgrace in years following World War 2.
From our review,
In its final stretch, Oppenheimer uses the political campaign to discredit the physicist and unpick his legacy as a way to get under the skin of a man whose stance on his awful creation remained contradictory and enigmatic. After the overpowering bomb sequences, that’s a surprisingly subtle and complex tack for Nolan to take, but it works because the story is driven by the historical record and the characters, rather than by dogma, with the appalling moral consequences emerging naturally from the details. Nolan is not one to let any member of the audience miss his point, and the film’s final scene does ram it home. But first, he builds out the web of ambition, compromise, dreams, politics, jealousy, and inspiration — in a word, humanity — that unleashed the forces he stands in awe of. In Oppenheimer, man is the most dreadful machine of all.
The Marsh King’s Daughter
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Lionsgate Films/STX Entertainment
Genre: Psychological thriller
Run time: 1h 49m
Director: Neil Burger
Cast: Daisy Ridley, Ben Mendelsohn, Brooklynn Prince
Daisy Ridley stars in this psychological thriller based on Karen Dionne’s novel as Helena, a woman with a troubled past who journeys into the the marshlands of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on the hunt for her father (Ben Mendelsohn) who has escaped police custody. Knowing that he will eventually come to terrorize her family, Helena arms herself to either kill or capture him before he hurts anyone else.
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