Your Weekly Update on Streaming and Cinema's Latest Releases!

The Spotlight

• Barbie movie gives new life to the iconic toy.

• Disney releases remake of Haunted Mansion.

• Knock at the Cabin hits Prime Video.

• We celebrate Greta Gerwig’s box office success.

Stick around until the end when we share our recommendations if you liked God’s Country, Little Women, and Knock at the Cabin.

What’s At The Cinema?

Barbie reinvents the famous doll with a tale of existential angst. When Barbie, brilliantly played by Margot Robbie, starts having thoughts of death, she ventures out of Barbieland and into the real world to uncover the cause of this totally unacceptable state of mind.

If you like occasional musical numbers, the colour pink, and Ryan Gosling (who seriously steals the show as a Barbie-obsessed Ken) then make sure to see this one on the big screen.

Here are some reviews you can trust:

Haunted Mansion is a remake of the 2003 film, which was based on the Disney theme park ride of the same name. Disney seems to be stuck on haunting our collective screens with redos of their old ideas; this time the studio takes it literally with a star-studded ghost-story.

Set in New Orleans, this movie takes on bigger themes than its former version as it attempts to deal with loss and the afterlife. If all that feels a bit gloomy— don’t worry, it still has ghosts trying to kill people and Danny DeVito being Danny DeVito.

Expect an audience full of scary movie lovers and fans of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia… my kind of people.

Also, there’s still time to watch Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One in a dark room full of other people you don’t know munching on popcorn.

What’s Available to Stream?

New to streaming this week, depending on where you are and if you use a VPN or not:

Prime Video: Knock at the Cabin (2023)
Hulu: God’s Country (2022), Smoking Causes Coughing (2022)
Netflix: Paradise (2023), Hidden Strike (2023)
MAX: August: Osage County (2013), After the Bite (2023)
Apple TV+: The Beanie Bubble (2023)
Paramount+: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)

Knock at the Cabin, the latest by M. Night Shyamalan, auteur and master of the twist ending, will be released on Prime Video this week. If you’ve booked an idyllic cottage in the woods this summer, don’t watch this movie.

It tells the story of a gay couple and their daughter enjoying a special getaway before having their cabin besieged by four armed intruders, who are tasked with an important mission.

The film keeps you on edge as you wait to see how harsh this family’s online review will inevitably be.

On Hulu, you can catch the heady God’s Country starring Thandiwe Newton as Sandra, a former cop turned university professor, who you seriously don’t want to mess with.

When she’s not busy marking papers, she’s protecting the land she lives on in the vast expanses of western Montana. Things come to a head when two hunters trespass on Sandra’s land and the conflict between them and her escalates.

Check it out if you’re in the mood for an adult version of Home Alone.

What We’re Watching

To celebrate Greta Gerwig’s massive box office hit, Barbie, we’d like to salute other films either directed or starring the multitalented actor/director:

Little Women (2019) is Gerwig’s adaptation of the classic novel of the same name. It stars Saoirse Ronan as Jo March, a young woman determined to decide her own future and become a writer.

Her sisters, Meg, Amy, and Beth are also trying to find their paths in life but, unlike Jo, have to deal with the stress of Jo constantly turning their every move into fiction.

It’s an ideal film to watch with your overly intrusive sibling to teach them a lesson.

Mistress America (2015) is a highly underrated cinematic gem written collaboratively by Gerwig and her long term partner, the filmmaker Noah Baumbach.

It follows Tracy Fishko, smartly played by Lola Kirke, as she navigates her first year at college. She feels lost and uncertain of herself in New York City and decides to call her soon-to-be stepsister Brooke (Gerwig) to be her guide.

20th Century Women (2016) has a brilliant ensemble cast that portrays a kind of family at a unique moment in time. Annette Bening plays Dorothea Fields, a matriarch that has her own style of doing things in 1970s California.

She enlists the help of various women, one being Abbie portrayed by Gerwig to help raise her son. The film is a semi-autobiographical story of director Mike Mills teenage years.

If you’ve been trying and failing to start a nice commune with a few of your friends this might be the one to watch.

If You Liked…

God’s Country: Straw Dogs (1971), Hell or High Water (2016), The Beasts (2022)

Little Women: Pride and Prejudice (2005), Lady Bird (2017), Emma (2020)

Knock at the Cabin: The Village (2004),The Strangers (2008), Us (2019)

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See you next Friday,

The Watchlist Team.