The Best New Movies to Stream This Week

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Looking to settle in with a good movie? Me too. That's why I've pored over release schedules to bring you the best original and new-to-streaming movies you can watch on Netflix, Prime, Max, Hulu, and other streaming platforms this week.

Late January is the perfect time to check out a sensitive character comedy like A Real Pain, and it's never a bad time to dig into the story of P. Diddy with a documentary like Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy.

A Real Pain (2024)

Written by, directed by, and starring Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain is a buddy comedy/road movie in which a pair of mismatched cousins tour through Poland to visit holocaust memorials. This plot would be a disaster in the wrong hands, but Eisenberg's sensitive directorial skills and amazing performances from both Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin elevate A Real Pain into a memorable, touching film you shouldn't miss. It more than earned its 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Where to stream: Hulu

Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy

Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy takes viewers behind the music and behind the mugshot. Through never-before-seen archival footage and interviews with the (probably former) friends and associates who knew him best, The Making of a Bad Boy explores Sean "Diddy" Combs' long journey from musical icon and hip hop impresario to nearly universally hated pariah and prisoner.

Where to stream: Peacock

Sleep (2023)

Korean psychological thriller Sleep balances nuanced characters with a slow-burn ghost story about the world we inhabit while we dream. Jung Yu-mi and Lee Sun-kyun play Soo-jin and Hyun-su, a married couple with a baby on the way whose seemingly tranquil domestic lives are shattered when Hyun-su starts talking in his sleep, saying "Someone’s inside." Spooky!

Where to stream: Hulu

Last week's picks

Back in Action

In Back in Action, the star power is turned up past 11. This action-comedy stars Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz as CIA agents who left the undercover life to raise a family together. But when their cover is blown, these seemingly normal parents come out of retirement to kick ass, take names, and make jokes. It's been over a decade since Diaz has appeared in a feature, so expect something special.

Where to stream: Netflix

Unstoppable

Jennifer Lopez anchors this inspiring story based on the real life of one-legged wrestler Anthony Robles, played by Jharrel Jerome. In Unstoppable, Lopez plays Anthony's mother Judy, one of those devoted movie moms who will not let her son give up on his dream of becoming a college wrestling champion, no matter how many sacrifices she has to make. Man, isn't the human spirit something?

Where to stream: Prime

A Different Man (2024)

If you like your comedy pitch black and shot through with absurdity and social commentary, A Different Man is the movie for you. Sebastian Stan plays Edward, a struggling actor with an extreme facial deformity. A medical procedure transforms him into a handsome dude—a different man—but he's only pretty on the outside. Edward soon learns that beauty is skin deep, but ugliness can go right down to the marrow. Like just about everything released by A24, A Different Man received well-deserved raves from critics.

Where to stream: Max

Henry Danger: The Movie

Henry Danger returns to TV in this straight-to-streaming-and-basic-cable feature. It's been five years since the final season of Nickelodeon's Henry Danger TV show, and you gotta wonder if the show's original audience aged out of fandom. Whatever, though: there will always be kids and tweens into a superhero that isn't dark and broody. Here, Danger teams up with a superfan to explore an alternative dimension which could trap the pair forever.

Where to stream: Paramount+

Hereditary (2018)

I love horror movies, and Hereditary is the best one that been made in the last decade, at least. Ari Aster's masterpiece is not a movie for the faint of heart. It's legitimately disturbing in a primal way, a carefully paced, slow burn of dread that becomes builds to a shocking conclusion. The cast is amazing, but Toni Collette's portrayal of a mother struggling with mental illness stands out as one of the most unsettling performances in horror movie history.

Where to stream: Netflix

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