Wicked, Netflix’s Wallace & Gromit, and every new movie to streaming

Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

This week, Wicked, the musical fantasy starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, sings and dances its way onto VOD. That’s not all: actor-director Jesse Eisenberg’s new comedy-drama A Real Pain starring Kieran Culkin (Succession), also backpacks onto VOD this week. There’s tons of new releases to stream this week, too, including a new Wallace & Gromit feature on Netflix, the social horror thriller The Front Room on Max, and the Psychological drama Mothers’ Instinct starring Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway on Hulu. If that weren’t enough, Barry Lyndon is free to watch on YouTube! This is not a drill!

Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Genre: Comedy
Run time: 1h 19m
Directors: Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham
Cast: Ben Whitehead, Peter Kay, Lauren Patel

Wallace and Gromit are back in their first new film since 2008! Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl features the return of fan-favorite nemesis Feathers McGraw, a villainous penguin with a bone to pick with everyone’s favorite doofus-and-dog duo. When Wallace invents a robotic garden gnome to help him with his chores around the house, Feathers seizes on the opportunity to hijack the robot for his own mischief.

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Genre: Psychological drama
Run time: 1h 34m
Director: Benoit Delhomme
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, Josh Charles

Benoit Delhomme’s period drama stars Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway as Alice and Céline, two housewives with a sisterly bond who live next door to one another in an picturesque 1960s American suburb. When their idyllic lives are upended by inexplicable tragedy, the harmony of their daily existence is shattered by paranoia, grief, and barely concealed rage exploding to the surface.

Where to watch: Available to stream on Max

Genre: Horror thriller
Run time: 1h 34m
Directors: Max Eggers, Sam Eggers
Cast: Brandy, Andrew Burnap, Kathryn Hunter

Brandy stars in this new horror thriller from director duo Sam and Max Eggers as Belinda, a newly pregnant anthropology professor eagerly expecting the birth of her next child while still mourning the death of her firstborn son. When she and her husband Norman (Andrew Burnap) take in his newly widowed stepmother Solange (Kathryn Hunter), the arrival of their new guest brings about several dark disturbing revelations that threaten Belinda’s life and sanity.

Where to watch: Available to stream on AMC Plus

Genre: Comedy thriller
Run time: 1h 36m
Director: Austin Peters
Cast: Elizabeth Banks, Lewis Pullman, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

Elizabeth Banks stars in this new comedy thriller as Hope Goldman, a famed aesthetician who is on the verge of her greatest professional success yet: launching her own proprietary skin care line! Problem is, Hope’s got competition in the form of rival aesthetician Angel Vergara (Luis Gerardo Méndez) who opens a new boutique right across from her own. With the help of her life coach (Lewis Pullman), Hope pulls together a desperate scheme to come out on top.

Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

Genre: Sci-fi thriller
Run time: 1h 48m
Director: Mikael Håfström
Cast: Casey Affleck, Laurence Fishburne, Emily Beecham

This sci-fi thriller stars Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea) as John, an astronaut aboard an experimental spacecraft designed to make a years-long mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. When the passengers aboard the ship begin to suspect that the mission has somehow been compromised, John must work alongside the ship’s captain (Laurence Fishburne) in order to find a solution and survive.

Where to watch: Available to stream on YouTube

Genre: Historical black comedy
Run time: 3h 5m
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee

If you’re looking for a film that’s the epitome of the phrase, “every frame a painting,” look no further than Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 masterpiece starring Ryan O’Neal. Set in 18th Ireland, Barry Lyndon chronicles the life of a incorrigible charlatan who marries into high society. When Lyndon’s incessant philandering and drunkenness runs afoul of his son-in-law Lord Bullingdon (Leon Vitali), the feud between the two escalates to its breaking point. Commonly cited as one of the finest films in Kubrick oeuvre, Barry Lyndon is a must-see if you enjoy thoroughly imagined period pieces and exquisite cinematography.

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

Genre: Fantasy musical
Run time: 2h 40m
Director: Jon M. Chu
Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande-Butera, Jeff Goldblum

Adapted from Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s 2003 play of the same name, Wicked follows the story of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the future Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and her friendship with Galinda (Ariana Grande), who later becomes Glinda the Good. Upon being invited to the Emerald City at the behest of the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), Elphaba and Galinda’s friendship is put to the test.

For the most part, Chu uses the new medium to add meaningful additions to the story. Not all of them land. The movie’s last big scene, in particular, suffers from this strange sort of start-stop integrated with some superfluous big set pieces that undermine the emotional catharsis of the Big Moment. Such is the nature of extending a nearly three-hour musical into two movies, even with a natural intermission. And overall, adding breathing room to songs and scenes worked for the most part. It’ll take more than some extra fluff to bring the movie down.

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

Genre: Comedy-drama
Run time: 1h 30m
Director: Jesse Eisenberg
Cast: Kieran Culkin, Jesse Eisenberg

Jesse Eisenberg returns to direct and star in his follow-up to 2022’s When You Finish Saving the World. Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin (Succession) star in A Real Pain as David and Benji, two estranged cousins who embark on a tour across Poland in an attempt to bond and honor the memory of their late grandmother. As their trip wears on, the two are forced to confront the ways they’ve grown apart from one another and remember their respective importance in each other’s lives.

The movie’s comparatively low stakes mostly keep it grounded to a story of two disconnected cousins who both so clearly miss the friendship they had when they were kids, and want to get back to it. David can’t understand why Benji isn’t growing up in all the ways that David has. Benji can’t admit that he feels left behind. All this is set against the backdrop of an effective and delicately handled Holocaust tour that causes everyone in the tour group to react in different, profound, and difficult ways.