Palm Springs, Greyhound, and the new movies you can now watch at home

The biggest movie news of the week is that Euphoria creator Sam Levinson has completed a movie while in lockdown. The film, titled Malcolm & Marie, stars John David Washington and Zendaya, and was shot in compliance with WGA, DGA and SAG-AFTRA approvals and COVID-19 safety protocol. Other details are scant, though the initial report on the film compares it to Netflix’s Marriage Story.

As for what else is on the way, Ernest Cline’s book Ready Player One is getting a sequel: Ready Player Two. Details as to the new book’s plot are also scarce, but Ready Player Two at least has a release date — the book will hit shelves on Nov. 24.

The sequel to the 2018 Halloween, meanwhile, has been delayed to next year. In a letter posted to Twitter, John Carpenter wrote that Universal had agreed to give Halloween Kills a theatrical and IMAX release in Oct. 2021. Carpenter also posted a teaser for the new movie, hinting that it would pick up right where Halloween ended.

While you wait, here are the new movies available to watch at home.

First Cow

Where to watch it: Buy on digital, $12.99 on Google Play, $14.99 on Amazon and Apple

Photo: Allyson Riggs/A24

Kelly Reichardt’s new film is nothing short of a miracle, conveying an incredible amount of care and tenderness in the story of two men getting by in 1820s Oregon. Their fledgling cake-baking business depends on their stealing milk from the sole cow in the territory; will they be able to continue to get away with it? From our review:

The meat of the story isn’t just Cookie and King-Lu’s tenuous success. Their story is a micro version of the American Dream, of supply and demand, of the arrival of so-called civilization to the American West. The conversations the two men have about what they’re doing — the balance between risk and reward, and how long they’ll have a monopoly — are applicable throughout history. Every enterprise must deal with the inescapable reach of capitalism and larger structures of power, as well as, on a less cynical note, the simple human desire for more than just the bare necessities.

Greyhound

Where to watch it: Streaming on Apple TV Plus

Photo: Apple

Tom Hanks wrote and stars in this World War II drama, which follows a convoy of Allied ships across the North Atlantic, and the warships charged with keeping them safe. It’s heavy on naval warfare, and paints a different picture of war than what audiences are used to. From our review:

The whole journey is tense. The action swells when the U-boats draw close, but the convoy won’t actually be safe until the journey is complete, as is clear from the stress Krause is constantly facing. Hanks, who also wrote the script (his other scripts include That Thing You Do! and Larry Crowne), adapting C.S. Forester’s 1955 novel The Good Shepherd, maintains that tension through repetition. Most of the dialogue in Greyhound is repeated orders. When Krause orders a change in the direction of his ship’s rudder, it gets echoed down the line, as soldiers spring into action to make it happen. When he receives radar updates in return, they’re relayed through at least one middleman, with each person beginning to speak before the other has finished reporting. Something is always happening.

Palm Springs

Where to watch it: Streaming on Hulu

Photo: Hulu

Palm Springs stars Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti as a man stuck in a time-loop and the woman he accidentally brings into it. As they repeat a single day over and over again, they get to know each other, and are forced to face the problems they’ve been running from. From our review:

Like Groundhog Day itself, Palm Springs has a sneakily sentimental message about the value of maturing and caring about other people, and about valuing time and living your best life and not taking anything for granted and so forth. But also like Groundhog Day, Palm Springs is mostly bent on letting the audience hang out with some colorful characters engaging in increasingly wacky behavior. It’s a romantic comedy, but first and foremost, it’s an actual comedy.

Relic

Where to watch it: Rent on digital, $4.99 on Amazon, $6.99 on Google Play and Apple

Photo: IFC Films

Australian filmmaker Natalie Erika James makes her directorial debut with Relic, a horror movie focused on three generations of women in a single family. Kay (Emily Mortimer) brings her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) to investigate what’s going on when Kay’s mother Edna (Robyn Nevin) goes missing for a few days. As Edna, who can’t explain where she’s gone, tries to tell them that there’s something wrong with the house, it becomes a question of whether or not she’s in her right mind, or if something really is haunting them.

We Are Little Zombies

Where to watch it: In virtual cinemas around the country

Photo: Oscilloscope

We Are Little Zombies follows four orphans who decide to form a band after a chance meeting at a crematorium. They feel that they’re kindred spirits — even though they’ve lost their parents, they find themselves unable to cry. They’re little zombies, hence their band name, Little Zombies. Through music, they attempt to get their feelings back.

The Outpost

Where to watch it: Rent on digital, $5.99 on Amazon, $6.99 on Apple

Photo: Screen Media

One of the 2020 SXSW titles thrown a curveball by the coronavirus crisis, this military drama tells the story of the U.S. soldiers and two Latvian military advisors stationed in the mountains of north-eastern Afghanistan, forced to fight for their survival when a force of Taliban fighters launches an attack. Compared favorably in a number of reviews to Black Hawk Down, the new film from Rod Lurie (The Contender) has a stacked cast including Scott Eastwood, Orlando Bloom, and Caleb Landry Jones.

New on Netflix this weekend

• Gina Prince-Bythewood’s action-packed superhero movie The Old Guard
• The documentary Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado
• The based-on-a-true-story series Stateless
• Down to Earth with Zac Efron, a series that pairs Efron with a wellness expert
• The animated series The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants in Space

And here’s what dropped last Friday:

The Truth

Where to watch it: Rent on digital, $6.99 on Google Play

Photo: IFC Films

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest film focuses on a mother and daughter, and the lies families tell each other to bolster their own desires to be remembered well. Catherine Deneuve stars as Fabienne, a legendary actress whose new memoir sets off sparks between her and her daughter, Lumir (Juliette Binoche), who can’t stand the idealized history Fabienne is trying to sell the public. From our review:

Rather than focusing solely on Lumir and Fabienne, Kore-eda takes a broad scope, which gives The Truth some of his trademark warmth. The film has less of a sense of urgency than most of his other work — After Life had a weeklong time limit imposed on its characters, for instance, and disaster seemed to loom just off-screen in every frame of Shoplifters and Nobody Knows. But Fabienne isn’t on death’s doorstep, and the unease between her and her daughter has been brewing for a long time. Fabienne’s memoir does prompt arguments, but the blowouts aren’t what change Fabienne’s heart. As it does in real life, change happens slowly here, and incrementally.

We Bare Bears: The Movie

Where to watch it: Buy on digital, $14.99 on Amazon, Google Play, and Apple

Image: Cartoon Network

The popular animated series We Bare Bears gets a feature-length film, this time pitting the three main bears — Grizz (Eric Edelstein), Panda (Bobby Moynihan), and Ice Bear (Demetri Martin) — against a nature preservationist (Marc Evan Jackson) who believes the bears ought to be removed from their home in San Francisco and separated. Will the friends manage to weather this new threat, or will they be torn apart? Only one way to find out!

John Lewis: Good Trouble

Where to watch it: Rent on digital, $6.99 on Google Play

Photo: Magnolia Pictures

This new documentary chronicles John Lewis’ decades of activism, stitching together archival footage and interviews to tell his story. The film also explores Lewis’ childhood, as well as his 1957 meeting with Martin Luther King Jr., his initial ambitions of becoming a minister, and his path to becoming the U.S. representative for Georgia’s 5th congressional district.

The Outpost

Where to watch it: Rent on digital, $14.99 on Google Play and Apple

Image: Screen Media Films

The Outpost is based on Jake Tapper’s book The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor, which focused on the Battle of Kamdesh. Scott Eastwood, Orlando Bloom, and Caleb Landry Jones star as soldiers given a frustratingly vague mission and facing seemingly insurmountable odds. The film focuses on their heroism, as well as the poor leadership that put them in the middle of a battle where they were outnumbered three to one.