Netflix’s Enola Holmes 2, Weird Al, and every new movie to watch at home

Enola Holmes 2, the sequel to the 2020 mystery film starring Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown as Sherlock Holmes’ teen sister, premieres on Netflix this weekend. That’s not all, as Crimes of the Future — David Cronenberg’s latest body horror opus starring Viggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux — finally comes to streaming on Hulu, while new comedy mystery See How They Run makes its own streaming premiere on HBO Max.

Still not interested? Not to worry — there’s plenty more new movies available to watch on VOD and streaming. Here’s the rundown on everything there is to watch this weekend.

Enola Holmes 2

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Photo: Alex Bailey/Netflix

Genre: Mystery/action thriller
Run time: 2h 9m
Director: Harry Bradbeer
Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter

Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) reprises her role as Sherlock Holmes’ (Cavill) brilliant and capricious teenage sister in the sequel to 2020’s Enola Holmes. Searching for the missing sister of her first client as a private detective, Enola finds herself swept up in a larger, more sinister mystery. To solve it, she’ll have to call up not only her brother, but allies both new and old to crack the case and secure her place as London’s next master sleuth.

From our review:

The Enola Holmes movies aren’t just delightful mysteries focusing on a plucky teenage detective and a spectacular cast of supporting characters: They also hold a magnifying glass over the world of Victorian London, one often glamorized in other adaptations. The hand holding that glass is shaky, though, and still obscures part of the view. With such a marked improvement, maybe the next one will get it perfect. And Enola Holmes does deserve a third movie — and perhaps a fourth and a fifth. She’s a wonderful heroine who not only works well with her famous brother, but also on her own. The world deserves more Enola Holmes.

Crimes of the Future

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Photo: Nikos Nikolopoulos/Neon

Genre: Horror/sci-fi
Run time: 1h 47m
Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart

Viggo Mortensen stars in Cronenberg’s latest venture into body horror as Saul Tenser, a performance artist in a dystopian future where a combination of pollution, environmental collapse, and biotechnological advances have yielded a world where humans no longer feel pain and vestigial organs have manifested among certain individuals to compensate for poisonous elements in the atmosphere and food. When Saul is approached by a mysterious man with a ghastly offer, he finds himself at the epicenter of a conspiracy designed to steer the course of human evolution.

From our review:

There are discomfiting moments, horrific moments, and even some flashes of gnarliness in his relatively recent movies, like Maps to the Stars and Cosmopolis (both with Stewart’s Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson; Taylor Lautner must be doing kick-flips as he waits by the phone). But Crimes is Cronenberg’s first full-on sci-fi/horror movie since 1999’s playful gaming odyssey eXistenZ. His return to genre territory is both more extreme and less. eXistenZ is a more user-friendly trip for the squeamish, but in spite of Crimes’ explicitly surgical moments, it’s a more contemplative, sometimes recessive film. You could even call it a mood piece.

See How They Run

Where to watch: Available to stream on HBO Max

Image: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Genre: Whodunit/comedy
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Tom George
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, David Oyelowo

Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan star as grouchy Inspector Stoppard and his irrepressibly chipper partner Constable Stalker in this mystery-comedy set in 1950s London. When the director (Adrien Brody) of an upcoming film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is killed during a party celebrating the play’s 100th performance, Stoppard and Stalker are called in to investigate and nab the culprit. Who among the cast is responsible for the murder, you’re wondering? I’ll never tell; watch the movie and find out!

From our review:

See How They Run works better as an outright comedy than as a murder mystery, although it doesn’t nail either form. Chappell’s script is loaded with tasty barbs, painful puns, and gently mocking characterization. George, a seasoned director of British TV comedy, knows how to set gags up and pay them off. But there’s a halting rhythm to it, and scenes sometimes coast too long in an airless haze in between jokes. Comedy, with its dependence on chemistry among the cast, must have been one of the hardest genres to shoot under pandemic conditions.

Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Image: Starlight Pictures/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Genre: Fantasy/adventure
Run time: 2h 47m
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt

The highest-grossing Hindi film in 2022, this fantasy action-adventure movie — the first in a planned cinematic universe known as the Astraverse — follows the story of Shiva (Kapoor), an orphan with pyrokinetic abilities who discovers that he is in fact a living weapon known as an “Astra,” one of the human incarnations of a pantheon of ancient deities known as the Brahmānsh. With no other choice, Shiva is forced to stop the most powerful of the astras from falling into the wrong hands in order to save the life of his love Isha (Bhatt) and the entire world.

From our review:

Big-canvas, effects-heavy Indian film had a moment in the U.S. earlier this year when the Telugu-language hit RRR became a big-screen attraction and object of film-geek admiration. Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva seems unlikely to inspire similar devotion. In North America, at least, it feels like it’s been plugged into the release schedule as a stopgap, at a time when moviegoers are about to enter a month or more without spectacle-fueled big-screen productions. Anyone suffering from severe summer-movie withdrawal might want to seek this one out, so long as they prepare themselves for a familiar summer sensation. The film pops, then fizzes and fades: It’s a firecracker of a movie, for better and worse.

Causeway

Where to watch: Available to stream on Apple TV Plus

Image: Apple TV Plus

Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 32m
Director: Lila Neugebauer
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Brian Tyree Henry

After suffering a traumatic brain injury while serving in Afghanistan, Lynsey (Lawrence) returns to her hometown of New Orleans and befriends James (Henry), a local car mechanic wrestling with his own injurious past. As the two bond over their common struggle of adjusting to a life in a place that doesn’t quite feel like home anymore, their relationship deepens and grows into something neither of them could have expected.

Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me

Where to watch: Available to stream on Apple TV Plus

Image: Apple TV Plus

Genre: Documentary/biography
Run time: 1h 35m
Director: Alek Keshishian
Cast: Selena Gomez

This feature-length documentary charts six years in the life of singer-actor Selena Gomez as she balances the opportunities afforded by her rise to stardom, the demands of her newfound fame, and her personal health struggles.

My Policeman

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

Image: Parisa Taghizadeh/Amazon Prime Video

Genre: Romance/drama
Run time: 1h 53m
Director: Michael Grandage
Cast: Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, David Dawson

Based on Bethan Roberts’ 2012 novel of the same name, Harry Styles (Don’t Worry Darling) stars in this 2022 romantic drama as Tom Burgess, a closeted gay policeman living in 1950s Brighton who marries a schoolteacher named Marion (Emma Corrin) to conceal his ongoing affair with his lover, Patrick (David Dawson), a museum curator. When the truth of Tom and Patrick’s relationship is brought to light, all three of their lives are rocked by the consequences.

Satan’s Slaves 2: Communion

Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder

Image: Rapi Films/Shudder

Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 59m
Director: Joko Anwar
Cast: Tara Basro, Endy Arfian, Bront Palarae

Four years after their dead mother came back to life and took their youngest brother away, three siblings and their father seek safety and a fresh new start in a crowded apartment complex. When a heavy storm isolates the building and cuts off power, the family once again find themselves talked by a malevolent spirit dead set on dragging them all to hell.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Where to watch: Available to stream on The Roku Channel

Image: Roku Channel

Genre: Biography/satire
Run time: 1h 48m
Director: Eric Appel
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, Rainn Wilson, Julianne Nicholson

Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) stars in new satirical biopic of “Weird Al” Yankovic, the iconic accordion-playing pop music satirist. Exploring the musician’s rise to fame on the back of songs like “Eat It” and “Like a Surgeon,” the film riffs not only on Yankovic’s own life, but the very form and convention of musical biopics themselves.

From our review:

It’s an extended work of parody art that’s actually funny, and an extended return to comedy from someone who is something of a master at it. In a world where the man hasn’t released an album in eight years, it’s damn refreshing to have this cinematic ode to his specific brand of humor.

The Bad Guys

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: DreamWorks

Genre: Animated comedy/heist
Run time: 1h 39m
Director: Pierre Perifel
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Awkwafina

This animated heist movie follows a group of anthropomorphic animal criminals who get caught, pretend to be reformed, and then find themselves actually wanting to be the thing they’re pretending to be. With an ensemble cast featuring Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Awkwafina, Anthony Ramos, and more, we can all agree on one thing: Yes, Mr. Wolf is pretty hot.

From our review:

It’s all pretty lightweight stuff, and after recent mainstream triumphs like Turning Red and Encanto from two different arms of Disney, The Bad Guys may well shore up DreamWorks’ status as the B-squad of contemporary American animation, where spectacle is the default and emotional growth is a little pat. But the better DreamWorks cartoons come alive when they’re liberated from Disney formulas, rather than chasing after or self-consciously spoofing them. Even when The Bad Guys resembles other movies, it’s stealing from them gracefully, with its own sensibility and energy.

The Minute You Wake Up Dead

Where to watch: Available to rent for $6.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Grindstone Entertainment

Genre: Mystery/thriller
Run time: 1h 30m
Director: Michael Mailer
Cast: Morgan Freeman, Cole Hauser, Jaimie Alexander

Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption) stars in this neo-noir thriller as Thurmond Fowler, the sheriff of a small Mississippi town investigating a mysterious murder that may or may not involve a local waitress (Alexander) and her new boyfriend — a shady stockbroker (Hauser) responsible for the loss of millions of dollars. Soon enough, enterprising criminals begin to descend on the town, looking to collect on a supposedly large cache of money rumored to be the impetus behind the killing. Can Fowler solve the case in time before anyone else gets hurt?

Next Exit

Where to watch: Available to rent for $6.99 on Apple and Vudu

Image: Magnet Releasing

Genre: Sci-fi/comedy-drama
Run time: 1h 43m
Director: Mali Elfman
Cast: Katie Parker, Rahul Kohli, Karen Gillan

This sci-fi comedy-drama follows Rose (Parker) and Teddy (Kohli), two strangers who meet while en route to their respective appointments to be euthanized in an experimental procedure that will ensure that they will successfully transcend into the afterlife. From the looks of the trailer, Next Exit feels like a cross between 2017’s The Discovery and last year’s On the Count of Three.

Soft & Quiet

Where to watch: Available to rent for $5.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Blumhouse Productions/Momentum Pictures

Genre: Horror-thriller/drama
Run time: 1h 31m
Director: Beth de Araújo
Cast: Stefanie Estes, Olivia Luccardi

Shot in real time, director Beth de Araújo’s thriller follows an elementary school teacher (Estes) who organizes a club meeting between like-minded women to get together and be racist. Things take a turn when, after stopping by a liquor store for drinks, an altercation breaks out between the group of women and two mixed-raced sisters with a connection to the teacher’s past. The film received a positive reception earlier this year at the SXSW Film Festival, where it was described as “a nightmare of white supremacy.” Sounds festive!

The System

Where to watch: Available to rent for $6.99 on Apple and Vudu

Image: The Avenue Entertainment

Genre: Action
Run time: 1h 37m
Director: Dallas Jackson
Cast: Tyrese Gibson, Terrence Howard, Jeremy Piven

Tyrese Gibson (F9) stars as a young veteran who, newly returned from war and caught up in a drug bust to pay for his child’s medicine, is sent undercover to notoriously dangerous prison to take part in an illicit underground fighting tournament among the inmates and take down the Warden. Also, Lil Yachty is here! That’s sounds fun, right? Of course it does!