There are so many new movies available to stream this weekend, we’re adding an extra, sixth recommendation for your viewing pleasure!
Mickey 17, just three weeks after debuting in theaters, arrives on digital and on-demand, and a smattering of some of 2024’s best films are now streaming on services you’re likely already paying for.
Missed Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown? It’s now on Hulu.The Fire Inside, a terrific underdog boxing movie that transcends its genre, is on MGM+, which offers a free one-week trial. Bring Them Down, a movie you may not have heard of with a cast you definitely have, is on Mubi.
Queer, the A24 film that earned Daniel Craig lots of praise, is now on Max, and The Line, a movie about frat life starring some of Hollywood’s hottest young stars, makes its way to Hulu.
Here’s what to know about the movies newly available to stream as of this week and where you can find them.
Click on the links below to jump straight to a specific movie:
Mickey 17
Robert Pattinson and Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17. (Warner Bros./Courtesy of Everett Collection)
Mickey 17 is South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho’s follow-up to his Best Picture-winning Parasite, and it’s a classic case of a director cashing in his “blank check” from Hollywood after a big win at the Oscars.
The budget for Parasite was about $11 million, and the budget for Mickey 17 was $118 million. Bong spent a ton of Warner Bros. money to make something that wasn’t exactly the most commercially viable product — sure, it’s based on a book, but not a widely known bestseller.
Based on the 2022 novel Mickey7, Mickey 17 is a science-fiction film set in the year 2054, following a man who joins a space colony as an “Expendable,” a disposable worker who gets cloned every time he dies for research purposes.
The film is at its best when it leans into the humor regarding these deaths, highlighting Robert Pattinson’s Mickey character’s buffoonery and the various ways scientists experiment on his character, and at its worst when Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette are chewing scenery as the villains.
The movie pivots in the third act to something completely different, aligning itself more with Bong’s environmental-message-heavy effort Okja than the rip-roaring excitement of something like Snowpiercer, which balanced its class-conscious satire with thrills in a more compelling fashion. Mickey 17 is unwieldy, but the setup is fun enough, as is watching Pattinson play against himself when Mickey 18 rears his head.
How to watch: Mickey 17 is now available to rent or purchase on Prime Video and other video-on-demand platforms.
Rent or buy
The Fire Inside
Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry in The Fire Inside. (Sabrina Lantos/Amazon MGM Studios/Courtesy of Everett Collection)
The Fire Inside is a compelling, satisfying coming-of-age drama in the form of an underdog sports movie, anchored by the two terrific lead performances by Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry. What could very easily be a clichéd affair winds up resonating by delving deeper into the characters and their circumstances.
The film tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (Destiny), a boxer from Flint, Mich., who became the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport. But even at the pinnacle of success, Shields has to reckon with the fact that not all dreams are created equal, and the real fight has only just begun.
It ultimately reveals itself to be much more than your average underdog boxing movie, although it’s initially satisfying in that mode too. There’s a subversion of the formula that ultimately takes the movie to another level, deconstructing the narratives we’re familiar with from these types of stories and showing the harsh realities that can happen after someone achieves their dreams.
How to watch: The Fire Inside is now streaming on MGM+.
Stream on MGM+
A Complete Unknown
Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro in A Complete Unknown. (Searchlight Pictures /Courtesy of Everett Collection)
A Complete Unknown starts strong, charting the rise of Bob Dylan from the very moment he stepped foot in New York City, hitchhiking there to see the terminally ill Woody Guthrie and play him a song that he wrote in his honor. It’s a remarkable and emotional sequence that sets the stage for a biopic that soars any time the songs are the focus. Thankfully, that’s pretty often.
Timothée Chalamet is as good as you’ve heard, if not better, and Monica Barbaro stuns as Joan Baez, proving why she earned a surprise Oscar nomination.
Despite all the “he’s an enigma!” posturing, it’s still hitting the marks you’d expect a biopic to hit, although it’s more concerned with Dylan’s effect on others around him than his own journey.
While presenting the award for Best Original Song at the Oscars in March, Mick Jagger joked that the producers really wanted Bob Dylan to do it, but he didn’t accept the invitation. The audience laughed at the anecdote, and fans of the enigmatic Dylan will know it to be true.
How to watch: A Complete Unknown is now streaming on Hulu.
Stream on Hulu
Bring Them Down
Barry Keoghan in Bring Them Down. (Mubi/Courtesy of Everett Collection)
Bring Them Down may just be the most gripping movie ever made about farming The stakes may seem low from an outside perspective, but it’s clear that there are years of rivalry and tension built up here that renders seemingly mundane activities riveting, intense and, ultimately, violent.
An Irish shepherding family is thrust into battle on several fronts: internal strife, hostility within the family and rivalry with another farmer. Paternalism, heritage and the generational trauma cycle through the cultural prism of Ireland.
It’s a character-focused film that gets at the inherently male urge to not communicate your feelings, among other big ideas. It’s incredibly well acted, populated with faces you’ll recognize like Barry Keoghan, Christopher Abbott and Colm Meaney, and it culminates in a shocking, if inevitable, fashion. If a good adult drama is what you seek, Bring Them Down will scratch the itch.
How to watch: Bring Them Down is now streaming on Mubi.
Stream on Mubi
Queer
Daniel Craig in Queer. (A24/Courtesy of Everett Collection).
Queer is the second 2024 film, after Challengers, to be directed by Luca Guadagnino, written by Justin Kuritzkes and scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and that is an incredible feat in itself. It’s based on a novella by William S. Burroughs, and much like David Cronenberg’s 1991 Naked Lunch, another famous Burroughs adaptation, it blends in details from the author’s real life in addition to his prose.
In 1950s Mexico City, an American immigrant in his late 40s (Daniel Craig) leads a solitary life amid a small American expat community. However, the arrival of a young student stirs the man into finally establishing a meaningful connection.
It’s a movie about longing and desire, a topic oft depicted in film, but the way Guadagnino shoots certain sequences is so visually striking and powerful that it makes yearning and loneliness feel like fresh, exciting ideas. The way a ghostly apparition of Craig acts out what he’s too cowardly to do is a breathtaking image — and one of several in the film. It’s also a movie about addiction and an unflinching one at that.
Queer may get a little too out-there in its third act, but it features a career-best performance from Craig and some of the most beautiful images of the year. It’s easy to forgive.
How to watch: Queer is now streaming on Max.
Stream on Max
The Line
Lewis Pullman in The Line. (Utopia/Courtesy of Everett Collection)
The Line is a provocative movie about fraternity culture starring some of Hollywood’s hottest young stars. The movie sat on a shelf so long before its eventual release late last year that most of its cast members have since broken out to become huge stars. It stars Alex Wolff, Lewis Pullman, Austin Abrams, Halle Bailey, and Angus Cloud alongside veterans Scoot McNairy and John Malkovich.
Tom (Wolff), a passionate brother of his fraternity, is charmed by the promises of high social status and alumni connections that open doors. But as Annabelle (Bailey), a classmate outside his social circle, enters his life, his devotion begins to falter. Once the scheduled hazing of new fraternity members comes to a disturbing head, Tom faces the decision of a lifetime.
It’s a movie that is very much exploring what drives frat life rather than endorsing it. It’s about the institutions that lead to such a culture, how it preys upon the fragile male ego and where the true motivation lies. It may not say anything new about the potential toxicity surrounding Greek life, but it’s full of strong performances and gets its point across in compelling ways.
How to watch: The Line is now streaming on Hulu.
Stream on Hulu
Bonus pick: Mufasa: The Lion King, a movie we highlighted when it hit on-demand last month, is now streaming on Disney+
