Happy New Year, Polygon readers! After the flurry of new movies arriving at home for the Christmas season, we’re in a bit of a slower season of new movie releases at home.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t any to watch, however! Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story) has a new movie out — his adaptation of Don DeLillo’s White Noise makes its way to Netflix. There are new documentaries on Prime Video and HBO Max, and the Scott Derrickson horror movie The Black Phone, with Ethan Hawke, also makes its way to Prime Video.
Let’s get into it!
Netflix
White Noise
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Photo: Wilson Webb/Netflix
Genre: Comedy
Run time: 2h 15m
Director: Noah Baumbach
Cast: Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle
Noah Baumbach adapts Don DeLillo’s famed postmodern novel for Netflix, with a star-studded cast including his partner Greta Gerwig (with whom he is writing the upcoming Barbie), Adam Driver, and André Benjamin. It’s the first time Baumbach has directed a full-length feature adaptation of someone else’s writing.
From our review:
The thing that most annoys DeLillo purists about Baumbach’s film might be the thing that makes it most pleasurable to watch for everyone else: It’s fun. It’s a messy movie that can’t quite find the thread to make sense of DeLillo’s vision or the reality of his characters — particularly during its bewildering final third, after the Airborne Toxic Event dissipates and Jack becomes obsessed with Babette’s place in a kind of pharmaceutical conspiracy. But it has been made with wit and an infectious relish. Baumbach lunges for laughs and scares, often successfully, and splashes the screen with bright color and movement. Under the end credits, he stages a dance number in the aisles of the supermarket that DeLillo and his pretentious characters imagine as the modern American church. Is Baumbach still making a point, or just cutting loose? The latter, I suspect, and more power to him. He took Netflix’s money and ran.
Stuck with You
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Netflix
Genre: Romantic comedy
Run time: 59m
Director: Frank Bellocq
Cast: Kev Adams, Camille Lellouche
Two people get stuck in an elevator on their way to a New Year’s Eve party and forge a connection in this short French rom-com.
Prime Video
Wildcat
Image: Prime Video
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 45m
Director: Melissa Lesh, Trevor Beck Frost
Cast: N/A
Wildcat follows a young soldier back from war who travels to the Amazon rainforest and bonds with a scientist and an orphaned ocelot.
The Black Phone
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Image: Universal Pictures
Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 33m
Director: Scott Derrickson
Cast: Mason Thames, Ethan Hawke
This isn’t The Black Phone’s streaming debut — the Ethan Hawke-led horror first landed on Peacock a few months back. But with a move to Prime Video, there are a whole lot more people who can watch The Black Phone now. Whether that’s a good thing is up to you!
From our review:
Outside of the feeling of morbid inevitability, however, The Black Phone is a mess. The main issue is the performances, which range from puzzling to outright cringeworthy. Jeremy Davies is especially bad as Finney and Gwen’s drunk dad, whose slurring and screaming doesn’t register as authentically pathetic or threatening. Hawke is also too all over the place to read as credibly frightening: When we first see The Grabber, his face is painted white and he speaks in a high, affected voice that recalls Atlanta’s Teddy Perkins. Weird, right? What’s he trying to signify, and how does it fit into his psychosis? Doesn’t matter — that’s the first and last time that character detail will crop up in the film.
HBO Max
This Place Rules
Where to watch: Available to stream on HBO Max
Image: Warner Media
Genre: Documentary
Run time: Unknown
Director: Andrew Callaghan
Cast: Andrew Callaghan
This documentary is produced by Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, and Jonah Hill, among others, in collaboration with A24, and follows “gonzo journalist” Andrew Callaghan as he documents the events that led to January 6 Capitol Riot.
Shudder
Burial
Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder
Image: Shudder
Genre: Thriller
Run time: 1h 35m
Director: Ben Parker
Cast: Tom Felton, Harriet Walter, Charlotte Vega
Tom Felton stars in this thriller about a group of soldiers bringing Hitler’s dead body from Germany to Russia who are ambushed by Nazi soldiers.