The 9 Best Movies and TV Shows to Watch This Weekend
Including the feats of athleticism.
If there’s one thing that could unite us right now, maybe it’s the 2024 Olympics? I’m not much of a sports girlie but every time they roll around, I somehow think it’s the perfect time to get into them. In another play for national unity, Marvel hopes that pairing Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman will marshal audiences en masse at the box office. There’s also a sweetly lower-key coming-of-age movie in theaters, an adaptation of a pandemic classic, and Apple TV+’s latest much-anticipated finale. Here’s everything to check out this weekend that isn’t just a Marvel movie. —Savannah Salazar
????????♂️ The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris ????????♀️
➼ The Opening Ceremony: The official kickoff of the Summer Games will be streamed and broadcast live on Peacock and NBC, respectively, starting at noon EST. This parade of nations will involve boats floating down the River Seine. NBC’s Mike Tirico will be joined by Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning. —Jen Chaney
➼ All the Sports, No Exceptions: Unlike the streaming rollouts of yesteryear, Peacock is streaming every single event. It’s got tools to follow your favorite sports, replay highlights, and listen to an A.I. of Al Michaels’s voice. Okay, it’s all a little much, but it beats watching shabby YouTube clips. —Eric Vilas-Boas
Featured Presentations
The Decameron
You already know whether or not you’re the sort of person who will enjoy a television show based on medieval Italian literature. If you are that sort of person, I love you, and you will love The Decameron. It adapts the frame narrative of Giovanni Boccaccio’s book of short stories, as a group of Italian nobles (and their assorted staff) shelter-in-place to avoid the Black Plague. Misadventures test a killer cast that includes Tony Hale, Zosia Mamet, and Derry Girl Saoirse-Monica Jackson. Showrunner Kathleen Jordan (who also created Netflix’s underrated Teenage Bounty Hunters) has a blast with the classical literary devices at play — mistaken identities, secret romances, reversals of fortune. I don’t know for sure that she went to Shakespeare camp, but I did, and I recognize the vibe. —Emily Palmer Heller
Streaming on Netflix
Didi
Sean Wang’s directorial debut lit up Sundance, where it won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award. Dìdi is his semi-autobiographical story of Chris Wang, a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy, set in 2008. Accompanied by a haze of millennial nostalgia, Wang shoots home movies, clashes with his mom, navigates puberty, and tries not to embarrass himself on AIM before he hits high school. Dìdi’s so good at what it’s doing that it’s a little unnerving. —E.V.B.
➼ In the immortal words of Warren Zevon: Enjoy every “Kids” needle drop.
In theaters now
Deadpool & Wolverine
“Honestly, it appears to exist solely to make money.”
Elite, season eight
After seven seasons of hard partying, devastating scandals, and many murders, the wealthy, horny teens enrolled at Elite’s Las Encinas will have their last threesome between classes. The soapy Spanish-language Netflix drama’s final season promises to include a juicy mystery that’ll inevitably distract the students from the world-class education they’re supposedly getting. Hopefully the senioritis won’t stop these crazy kids from being on their worst behavior. —Tolly Wright
Streaming on Netflix
Time Bandits
An adaptation of the 1981 movie Time Bandits stars Lisa Kudrow as the leader of a band of misfits who bring a history-obsessed young kid (Kal-El Tuck) into their time-warping adventures. —S.S.
Streaming on Apple TV+
Grand Finale
Presumed Innocent
➼ We’re obsessed. (After watching, here’s this and this and this and also this.)
Streaming on Apple TV+
Finally Streaming
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
I still don’t know what most of the actors are doing in this movie, but it’s on Netflix, so you don’t have to pay a rental fee to find out. —E.V.B.
Streaming on Netflix
➼ You can get the fourth Bad Boys, subtitled Ride or Die, on digital now, but I’m still annoyed they didn’t call that one Bad Boys 4 Life. So maybe don’t.
Double Feature, Olympics Edition
Cool Runnings
Look, this is not a great movie, per se. There are better sports movies and, more specifically, better Olympic sports movies. But few of them are as warmly earnest (or star John Candy). More importantly, this underdog story of the history-making first Jamaican bobsleigh team captures the energy of international competition better than almost any other film. Its artistic-license bullshits the true story, yes, but it’ll extend your Olympic high. “Sanka, you dead, man?” —E.V.B.
Streaming on Disney+
Want more? Read our recommendations from the weekend of July 19.
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