The 10 Best New Movies to Stream This Weekend
There are some great movies to stream in January, whether you like Scorcese films or splatter-flicks.
Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon is at the top of the list of great films you can stream this month, but there's also Saltburn, the movie everyone is talking about; the mindless-but-stylish action flick Lift; and the white-knuckle documentary Beyond Utopia. Here are the 10 best movies you can stream this weekend.
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
A new Scorsese film is a cultural event, and Killers of the Flower Moon lives up to the sky-high hype that accompanies a release from one of the greatest directors of all time and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, two of the biggest movie stars of all time. This sprawling, violent, harrowing historical drama tells the story of what happened to the Osage Nation when oil was discovered under the Oklahoma reservation they were forced onto. Spoiler: Everyone didn’t say “good for them!" and go about their day. Watching such an epic movie on a small screen has its limitations, but the three-and-a-half-hour runtime screams “watch this from your couch.”
Where to stream: Apple TV+
Saltburn (2023)
Drawing inspiration from A Clockwork Orange, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and late-stage capitalism, Saltburn is a dark comedy about a debauched young man obsessed with wealth and who is willing to do anything to get the status he craves. Saltburn is deliberately provocative, serving up sex, drugs, and violence without shame, but underneath the flash and shock is a dark story about obsession and the evil that comes from envy and wealth.
Where to stream: Apple TV+
Beyond Utopia (2023)
Beyond Utopia topped many critics “best of 2023” lists and has earned a perfect score on RottenTomatoes. A documentary that often plays like a thriller, Beyond Utopia uses home video footage to document a family trying to escape North Korea. Their life-or-death flight will leave you riveted as they go through tense confrontations at government checkpoints, hook-up with a seedy underground of profiteers, and travel overland through jungles and over mountains toward liberation. Beyond Utopia will stay with you, and as cheesy as it may sound, this movie will make you feel thankful for the freedom you enjoy.
Where to stream: Hulu
Lift (2024)
Lift is not going to change anyone’s life, but if you’re looking for a fast-paced, stylish heist flick that will hold your interest without being challenging, Lift is waiting on Netflix. Kevin Hart plays Cyrus, the leader of an impossibly competent and stylish gang of high-tech thieves. They’re planning their biggest job yet—boosting a grip of gold bars from an in-flight 777—but Interpol agent Abby Gladwell (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is hot on their trail. Hart plays against type, dropping his doofy comedy persona for a suave vibe, and he’s surrounded by a likable cast who banter pleasingly between over-the-top action sequences.
Where to stream: Netflix
Destroy All Neighbors (2024)
This kind of made-for-the-cult-section movie isn’t for everyone, but if you like splatter-comedy masterpieces like Dead Alive, Basket Case, and The Evil Dead, then Destroy All Neighbors is definitely for you. Jonah Ray Rodrigues plays William Brown, a nerdy musician whose biggest concern is finishing a prog-rock album that no one will listen to. But then Vlad (Alex Winter) moves next door. Vlad is a literal neighbor from hell, and his arrival sets off an outrageous spiral of murder, gore, and gross-out special effects. Destroy All Neighbors is held together by winning performances and the sense that everyone involved was actually having fun while making this movie.
Where to stream: Shudder
Good Grief (2023)
The romantic tragi-comedy Good Grief is set amongst sophisticated London urbanites who have better furniture and better friends than you, but miraculously the movie manages to not be annoying because the tragedy and death don’t spare anyone—even witty, creative rich people. If you like serious movies wrapped in funny jokes or comedies that are pretty tragic, Good Grief is the movie you should watch this weekend.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Pigeon Tunnel (2023)
No one makes better documentaries than Errol Morris. In The Pigeon Tunnel, Morris turns his probing lens toward David Cornwell, known to readers as novelist John le Carré. He’s written acclaimed espionage novels like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and The Constant Gardener, but Cornwell wasn’t working from imagination alone. During the Cold War, he was an agent for both the British Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).
Where to stream: Apple TV+
The Holdovers (2023)
The Holdovers tells the story of the relationship between a troubled school kid, played by Dominic Sessa, and a hard-ass teacher, played by Paul Giamatti. The pair are at odds but forced to spend Christmas break together at the boarding school they’re both imprisoned in. In other hands, this could have been a mawkish, sentimental mess, but director Alexander Payne doesn’t make obvious choices or take the lazy way out, so the emotional resonance of the two prickly main characters coming together is genuine. Don’t blame me if you cry at the ending.
Where to stream: Peacock
Society of the Snow (2023)
It may be cold where you are, but it's not "eat your friends" cold. In 1972, an airplane carrying an amateur rugby team from Uruguay crashed in the Andes mountains. Though grit, heroism, and cannibalism, 16 of the 45 passengers survived. Society of the Snow tells their story with photography that makes the mountains seem as ominous as they are beautiful, but it also digs into the mysterious center of this unbelievable true story by suggesting a spiritual journey as much a physical one.
Where to stream: Netflix
Bitconned (2024)
I want to say I’m tired of documentaries about lowlifes and criminals, but the allure of outlaws is powerful. The outlaws in Bitconned, a new Netflix original docuseries, are a gang of blackhearted goofs from Miami led by Ray Trapani. In 2017, Trapani and company muscled their way into the ground floor of the booming cryptocurrency world and scammed every mark the internet could offer up to them—and that’s a lot of marks. Unlike international bankers, dumb dudes from Florida who scam people tend to get caught, so Bitconned offers a comeuppance narrative to go with the “dipshits get rich” main story, which might have been satisfying if the real ending of the story wasn’t so depressing.
Where to stream: Netflix