Club Benefits
Another week is over, huzzah! But that means the question of how to fill your weekend remains. With the best streaming services serving up a heap of new movies, the question of "what to watch" can quickly turn into a headache. I've sifted through all the new releases this week to highlight the best of the best, so you don't waste your precious streaming time with a dud.
For anyone with kiddos out there, Pixar's blockbuster "Hoppers" movie finally made its way over to Disney+ for a satisfying family movie night pick. If you're looking for frights instead, I'd recommend Adam Scott's haunting "Hokum" on paid video-on-demand platforms or "Keeper" on Hulu for some slow-burn dread. Meanwhile, Netflix has a new rom-com, "Office Romance," starring the queen of rom-coms herself, Jennifer Lopez. Finally, if the latest "Scary Movie" made you miss the franchise back in its heyday, check out "The Blackening" on Prime Video for a smart satire on the genre that'll leave you in stitches.
For even more recommendations on what to watch, check out our round-up of all the best movies and shows on streaming this weekend. Now let's dive into this weekend's best picks.
‘Hoppers’ (Disney+)
Pixar was due for a win after last year's "Elio" marked the studio's weakest box-office debut on record, and "Hoppers" proved to be exactly the home run the studio needed. The animated adventure grossed more than $360 million worldwide during its theatrical run, and this week it made its debut on Disney's streaming platform. In our "Hoppers" review, Malcolm McMillan described it as "delightful" and "basically Avatar but better." Judging by its impressive 94% Rotten Tomatoes score from both critics and audiences, he's far from alone in that opinion.
The movie follows Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda), a nature-loving teenager who gets a chance to transfer her consciousness into a lifelike robotic beaver to see what day-to-day life is like in the animal kingdom. Blending sharp humor with an uplifting message about conservation and protecting the environment, "Hoppers" is an ideal pick for a family movie night this weekend. The voice cast is equally strong, featuring Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, and Dave Franco in memorable supporting roles.
Watch "Hoppers" on Disney+ now
‘Hokum’ (PVOD)
"Hokum" and "The Backrooms" are cut from the same cloth, in that both captured that sense of discovery and dread of a horror video game in movie form. Irish horror filmmaker Damian McCarthy, the mind behind the chilling folk-horror standouts "Caveat" and "Oddity," returns with another nightmare-inducing tale that felt like a more supernatural twist on "The Shining." "Severance's" Adam Scott stars as Ohm Bauman, a jaded novelist with a wicked case of writer's block.
He sets out to scatter his parents' ashes at an isolated hotel in Ireland where they spent their honeymoon. Once there, he's fascinated by local folk tales about a centuries-old witch supposedly trapped inside the hotel's sealed honeymoon suite. As strange visions haunt him and a hotel employee mysteriously disappears, Ohm finds himself drawn into a dark mystery that forces him to confront traumatic secrets from his own past.
Buy or rent "Hokum" on Prime Video now
'Office Romance' (Netflix)
One of Netflix's newest original movies is "Office Romance," a glossy, star-studded romantic comedy that marks a return to form for Jennifer Lopez in the genre she helped define. Built around a forbidden workplace relationship, it mines plenty of laughs from two career-driven professionals trying to keep their personal lives hidden while keeping things professional at the office. It doesn't aim to reinvent the genre, but with plenty of sharp banter and easy chemistry between the two leads, "Office Romance" delivers exactly what it promises.
Lopez stars as Jackie Cruz, the formidable CEO of a major airline whose high standards keep her employees constantly on edge. But the latest hire, Daniel Blanchflower (Brett Goldstein), a talented and ambitious attorney, tests her resolve in ways she never saw coming. Despite strict workplace policies and the obvious risks of getting involved with a colleague, the two soon find it impossible to ignore their growing chemistry — or keep whatever this thing is between them under wraps.
Watch "Office Romance" on Netflix now
'Keeper' (Hulu)
For a slow-burn folk horror movie, "Keeper" delivers a heavy dollop of dread. Director Osgood Perkins's follow-up to "The Monkey" got mixed responses from critics and audiences alike, but a steady throughline of tension punctuated by some truly unsettling moments kept me engaged well enough.
"Keeper" stars Rossif Sutherland and Tatiana Maslany as Malcolm and Liz, a couple heading off for a quiet weekend at a remote cabin. But when Malcolm’s obnoxious cousin (Darren Westbridge) and girlfriend (Eden Weiss) show up uninvited, things start to unravel. After Liz eats a cake that may have been drugged, she starts seeing disturbing visions and hallucinations that suggest something dark is tied to the cabin’s history.
Watch "Keeper" on Hulu now
'The Blackening' (Prime Video)
Like the "Scary Movie" franchise, "The Blackening" deliberately leans into a familiar horror setup as part of its satire on common tropes. If you’ve seen even a handful of slasher films, you probably already know where this is going. A group of lifelong friends heads to a secluded cabin in the woods for a carefree weekend getaway, only to stumble on a strange board game that forces them into a deadly game with no way out. To make it through the night, they’ll have to rely on their knowledge of horror movie rules, though that may not be enough to save them.
While it definitely leans more comedy than horror, "The Blackening" is a smart deconstruction of the genre that looks beyond cliches to skewer racial stereotypes. I was cracking up when I saw it in theaters a few years ago, and it made me fondly remember the "Scary Movie" franchise back in its heyday.
Watch "The Blackening" on Prime Video now
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