Weekend Watchlist, 7/18: Action comedy, internet horror, internet joy

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 just opened up PV Guide’s Premium Tier, for those interested in supporting this work! We are very close to our first subscriber goal, which would allow us to move off Substack.)

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This week is lighter on new arrivals to streaming, but there are still a few to note. We can skip talking about the live-action How to Train Your Dragon remake, and just note that M3GAN 2.0 arrives on VOD, and the Rami Malek spy thriller The Amateur makes its streaming debut on Hulu. I’m hoping to make time for The Amateur, but I also have a bit of a backlog I’m working through, so we’ll see!

This past week, I watched Sunshine, The Phoenician Scheme, The Old Guard 2, Cloud, The Iron Claw, and a rewatch of The Big Lebowski. Sunshine, The Phoenician Scheme, and Cloud were the main stand-outs – you should read my review of Cloud, if you haven’t yet, and keep an eye out for when it comes to theaters near you.

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Wingwomen

If you like: Action comedies, girls doing crimes together, found sisterhood
Watch at: Netflix
Watch trailer here

Here’s a hidden little gem on Netflix I wish more people knew about. Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) directs and stars in this French action comedy about a pair of thieves (Laurent and Adèle Exarchopoulos) stuck under the thumb of a crime lord (Isabelle Adjani) who find an opportunity for one last score to break away from the crime lord and live peacefully together. It’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s endearing – it’s a fun summer blockbuster-style action comedy to watch inside on a hot day.

Pulse

If you like: Techno-horror, J-horror, genuinely scary movies
Watch at: Peacock, AMC Plus, free with ads on Tubi and The Roku Channel, free with a library card on Hoopla
Watch trailer here

I loved Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s newest movie about the internet bleeding into real life, the action thriller Cloud. So with that movie coming out, why not watch (or re-watch) Kurosawa’s terrifying first foray into that subject matter, the brilliant horror movie Pulse? It follows two groups of people in Japan who find evidence that ghosts might be trying to use the internet to enter the real world. It’s an all-timer in the genre (and in Y2K-era bad vibes), and extremely unsettling in all the best ways.

Clipse’s Tiny Desk concert

If you like: Good vibes, good music
Watch at: The YouTube embed above

NPR’s Tiny Desk concerts are generally a good time, and this recent entry with hip hop duo Clipse (Pusha T and his brother Malice) is a standout because of how full of energy it is. The group comes in hot and never lets up, making good use of the environment – the desks, the crowd, etc. – and providing a fantastic 20+ minutes of good vibes for your weekend.

PV Guide is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.