The new year is just around the corner, and the burning question of what to watch remains. Prime Video, Hulu, and more of the best streaming services are sharing the gift of new movies to curl up and watch after a big New Year's Eve night out.
We've rounded up the best new movies that just landed on streaming, spotlighting all of the hits and none of the duds to make your next movie night go off without a hitch.
If you want to keep the Christmas spirit alive for just a little longer, Peacock's The Holdovers is an unconventional holiday dramedy that reunites Paul Giamatti and director Alexander Payne nearly 20 years after the duo's hit Sideways. The Flash zips on over to Prime Video this week, so you can finally watch this year's most divisive superhero movie from the comfort of your couch. Meanwhile, Max has a new behind-the-scenes documentary on The Color Purple hosted by Oprah Winfrey herself in honor of the latest adaptation of Alice Walker's seminal novel.
So without further ado, here are the top new movies streaming this week.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Hulu)
I'm admittedly not the biggest Quentin Tarantino fan, but I found Once Upon a Time in Hollywood enjoyable enough. It's not as bloody as his other films (or at least, not until the last 20 minutes or so) and Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt have impeccable energy as they pal around amid the final moments of Hollywood's golden age.
DiCaprio kills it as Rick Dalton, a once-successful Western TV star now desperate to find the next opportunity that'll pull his career out of its slump. With his license suspended after a DUI arrest, he's chauffeured around town by his best friend and stunt double Cliff Booth (Pitt), who is also struggling to find work. When Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) moves in next door with her husband Roman Polanski, Dalton thinks that networking with the new generation of talent could be just the thing to revive his flagging career. The meandering stories of all three collide when a violent confrontation with the Manson Family rocks Hollywood one evening.
Watch it now on Hulu.
The Flash (Prime Video)
The controversial superhero movie starring Ezra Miller, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, and Ron Livingston lands on Prime Video just in time for Christmas. Even for a DC movie, the Flash struggled at the box office, with its summer theatrical release pulling in around $270 million on a $220 million budget.
It follows Barry Allen as he uses his superspeed to literally race back through time and rewrite history to save his parents. Of course, time travel shenanigans rarely ever go as planned, and complications with using the Speed Force result in Allen being flung back in time to when he first got his superpowers. He becomes trapped in an alternate reality where General Zod, the Kryptonian turned Phantom Zone exile that viewers will remember from Man of Steel, threatens to destroy the world. With no other superheroes to turn to, the Flash works together with other versions of himself to coax this reality's Batman out of retirement and rescue a Kryptonian prisoner who ends up not being quite the Superman he's after.
Watch it now on Prime Video.
The Holdovers (Peacock)
In the mood for something more Christmas-y? The Holdovers reunites Sideways alums Paul Giamatti and director Alexander Payne for a dramedy about three outsiders snowed in over a holiday break at a New England boarding school in 1970.
Paul Hunham (Giamatti) plays a curmudgeonly classics teacher who is universally disliked by both his students and coworkers. His worst nightmare comes true when he's forced to stay on campus during Christmas break to supervise the handful of boys with nowhere else to go. As the days stretch on, he forms unlikely bonds with the smart but troubled Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) and the school’s grieving head cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). Left to their own devices on the all-but-empty school grounds, they get up to misadventures and find a semblance of family along the way.
Streaming now on Peacock.
Oprah and The Color Purple Journey (Max)
Over on Max, there's a new behind-the-scenes documentary hosted by Oprah Winfrey that provides an inside look at the making of the new The Color Purple movie, which landed in theaters on Christmas.
Winfrey takes viewers inside the four-decade-long cultural phenomenon inspired by Alice Walker's seminal work, exploring the importance of the novel, multiple film adaptations, Broadway productions, and the ever-evolving conversation around the legacy of Walker's novel.
Watch it now on Max.
It Lives Inside (Hulu)
From the studio that brought us Parasite and The Killing of Two Lovers comes It Lives Inside, a supernatural horror movie that tackles themes of cultural identity and the strain of building a life in an unfamiliar landscape.
Desperate to fit in at school, Samidha (Megan Suri) rejects her East Indian culture and family and starts going by the name Sam in a bid to better blend in with her white classmates. In doing so, she's grown distant from her former best friend, Tamira, another student of South Asian descent. Now an outcast, Tamira starts carrying around a strange glass jar that she claims houses a boogeyman from the children's stories they read growing up. Embarrassed by her behavior, Sam smashes the jar open and unwittingly releases a demonic spirit that grows stronger by feeding on loneliness. She must come to terms with her heritage to defeat it.
Watch it now on Hulu.
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