Weekend Watchlist, 8/29: Killer Bs
What to watch at home this weekend
Happy Friday, PV Guide readers! I hope you have a great weekend ahead of you.
Every Friday, I’m recommending a few great things to watch that the algorithm might not be pushing at you right now, with a focus on variety, so every reader can find something they’re interested in. The Weekend Watchlist will always be 100% free. (But I have opened up PV Guide’s Premium Tier, for those interested in supporting this work!)
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This week’s a busy one for new titles to watch at home. A bunch of new movies hit VOD – I Know What You Did Last Summer, Oh, Hi!, She Rides Shotgun, Together, and Red Sonja. But the highlight, of course, is Baby Assassins 3. It is The Movie Of The Summer, and that recommendation overrides all recommendations that follow.
On the streaming side, the murder mystery The Thursday Murder Club premieres on Netflix, and Thunderbolts* hits Disney Plus. I actually quite liked Thunderbolts* and think it’s the first good MCU movie since Black Panther, so if that sounds appealing to you, check it out.
Really though, you should stop everything and watch Baby Assassins 3. But if you’ve already seen Baby Assassins 3 (congrats on your good choices!), you should stop everything and watch Baby Assassins 3 again. But if you’ve already done that, here are three more recs for what to watch at home this weekend.
Blue Ruin
If you like: Suspense, strong filmmaking, criminals who aren’t great at crime
Watch at: Free with ads on Tubi, The Roku Channel, Prime Video, Fandango
Watch trailer here
There’s a new Toxic Avenger movie out this week, finally playing in theaters after being deemed “unreleasable” because it’s “too out there”. It’s now nearly two years since it premiered to mostly positive reviews at Fantastic Fest, and I’m excited to see what Peter Dinklage can do with the role.
The Toxic Avenger comes from writer-director Macon Blair, following up on his directorial debut I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore. But I think of Blair as the lead of the fantastic revenge thriller Blue Ruin, which was my introduction to Jeremy Saulnier and his meticulously crafted movies.
Blair plays Dwight, a man who lives in his blue Pontiac Bonneville and returns home to get vengeance on the man who murdered his parents. Problem is, Dwight’s not very good at this assassin business, and things go wrong quickly.
Like all Saulnier movies, Blue Ruin is economical, making the most out of every choice and never using more words or time than necessary. He has since gone on to direct Green Room and Rebel Ridge, two of my favorite movies of the past ten years. While he’s not involved with Toxic Avenger, this movie is a great reason to revisit one of Blair’s iconic performances as an actor.
The Bikeriders
If you like: Period pieces, crime stories, beautiful people making bad choices
Watch at: Prime Video, or for rent
Watch trailer here
This week’s biggest release is Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing, about an ex-baseball pro who gets caught up in a world of crime. Leading the way as that ex-baseball pro is Austin Butler, and few people have been hotter in a movie recently than Austin Butler in The Bikeriders.
Inspired by photographer Danny Lyon’s photo book of the same name, The Bikeriders follows the fictional Vandals Motorcycle Club in the 1960s and 70s. It has an absolutely stacked cast – Butler is joined by Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, and Mike Faist, to name a few – and many of them are doing fun voices to fit the period and region. Hardy and Butler are two of our best at being the “guy with a weird voice,” but Comer really shines here, too.
The Bikeriders comes from filmmaker Jeff Nichols, best known for Take Shelter, Mud, and Midnight Special. It’s a strong period piece boosted by a terrific group of artists behind it.
Blood and Bone
If you like: Martial arts movies, movies that can be called Westerns without any of the “Western” iconography, Michael Jai White
Watch at: Netflix (leaving Aug. 31)
Watch trailer here
No theatrical tie for this one – Blood and Bone is one of my favorite movies ever, and it’s leaving Netflix this weekend, so it’s time for you to watch it. Along with Undisputed II: Last Man Standing, this movie sparked my love of martial arts films and of Michael Jai White as a movie star.
White is Isaiah Bone, a seemingly unbeatable martial artist who just got out of prison and links up with local fight promoter Pinball (Dante Basco) to join an underground fighting ring. We soon learn Bone has bigger plans – but not before he tears through the competition on his way to the top.
Blood and Bone is a terrific display of White’s varied talents as a screen fighter and actor, and shows you can design exciting fights around a character who never even comes close to losing. For more, read the oral history I wrote at Polygon about the movie, speaking to many of the people who worked on it, which includes quotes like “We beat up 50,000 motherfuckers in like five days with three cameras.”
