World News – US – New Movies To Watch This Week: « Borat » and « After » Sequel, « Witches » and « Rebecca » Remakes

It’s a week of high-profile sequels and remakes, all easier to see at home than at the movies

The most flashy of the group is Sacha Baron Cohen’s follow-up to « Borat », in which the gotcha comedian parodies right-wing values ​​not only by trying to embarrass Mike Pence and Rudy Giuliani, but also by making conservatives react. american medieval values ​​of the character Although Amazon Prime subscribers can watch the film through the service, it is also available in select drive-ins across the country

Another hybrid version, available in theaters and on demand, has already done big business overseas, competing with « Tenet » on a limited U-screen basis. Release: « After We Collided » continues the steamy fan-fiction romance inspired by One Direction’s Harry Styles, and by all reports the only thing worse than the movie is the news that it’s the second part of a planned four-movie franchise. p>

Netflix is ​​offering a pair of glossy movies this week, including the animated original « Over the Moon, » which marks the directorial debut of Oscar winner Glen Keane (« Dear Basketball ») C is a visionary Disney-caliber CGI of a Chinese girl who sets out into space on a quest to keep her late mother’s memory alive – and the kids will love it

A slightly tougher sell for the streamer is Netflix’s « Rebecca » remake, which looks gorgeous, but inevitably shrinks in the shadow of the Alfred Hitchcock classic that came before it. Yet it’s better than what you might think of, offering vintage glamor and gothic suspense for a younger audience, who may not be familiar with Daphné du Maurier’s novel

Other releases scheduled for Halloween include “Bad Hair,” an African-American horror satire on Hulu, and Roald Dahl’s adaptation of “The Witches,” starring Anne Hathaway and a host of visual effects « Death Becomes Her » director Robert Zemeckis injects some of that same camp energy into this brilliant studio-level production, which rotates from theaters to HBO Max

Here’s a look at the movies opened this week that Variety has covered, along with links to where you can watch them Find more movies and TV shows to stream here

Beasts Clawing at Straws (Kim Yong-hoon) Distributor: Artsploitation Films Where to find it: In theaters now
Inexpensive gangsters, duplicate dragon ladies, a dumb tattooed assassin, scoring schlubs and a comedic sleuth: « Beasts Clawing at Straws » could just as easily be called « Beasts Toying with Clichés » if it wasn’t. A fun Korean adventure wasn’t the case. Director Kim acknowledges some influence from « Fargo, » but there’s also a hint of « What’s up, Doc? » though much bloodier, as a Louis Vuitton bag filled with cash becomes the catalyst for a cascading chain of events that Kim daringly builds in a non-chronological fashion starring big stars Jung Woo-sung and Jeon Do-yeon The Movie Is An Oversized But Fun Ride – Jay WeissbergRead the full review

Synchronic Distributor (Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead): Well Go USA Where to find it: In theaters and drive-ins now
Making disappointing use of its ‘time travel pill’ claim, Benson’s sci-fi storyline is not ingeniously plotted at all, insists that we care about the truly sketched characters and that he doesn’t ‘is never believable enough to transcend an air of growing silliness (It is, among other things, the most trivial treatment of American slavery in recent cinema) The directors grant here a good level of professional polish with their accumulated expertise and their budget improved, but « Synchronic » remains a dud that gets more and more sketchy the more it takes itself seriously – Tomris LafflyRead the full review

After We Collided (Roger Kumble) Distributor: Open Road Films Where to find it: in theaters and on demand
“It’s a story you’ve heard before,” the opening voiceover sounds without a tone, but the point is, we didn’t really do it, because it’s not a story. ‘an incredibly repetitive series of minor dramas made between the two protagonists of the first film, totally self-involved and incredibly uninteresting Post « Twilight » and « Fifty Shades », this episode set aside in a projected four-movie series is the worst of all terrible franchise films revolving around the universally recognized truth that one man in possession of a dark secret and / or a leather jacket must need some primitive virgin non-entity to save it from itself – Jessica KiangRead the full review

Coming Home Again (Wayne Wang) Distributor: Outsider Pictures Where to find it: select a virtual theater to support
An intimate bedroom piece that tightly interweaves memories of food and family, discreetly sensitive Wayne Wang’s “Coming Home Again,” adapts Chang-rae Lee’s award-winning 1995 New Yorker essay, a personal piece on care of Lee for his terminally ill mother and Korean cuisine Dish A filmmaker with a diverse slate that includes films like « The Joy Luck Club » and female-centric populist films like « Maid in Manhattan » and « Last Holiday, » Wang operates loosely in the vein of his 1995 film « Smoke »Here: sharp and attentive observer of objects, undermining in objects the emotional traces of those who have touched them – Tomris LafflyRead the full review

Friendsgiving (Nicole Paone) Distributor: Saban Films Where to find it: in theaters, on demand and via digital providers
Surely since families gather for Thanksgiving, the option of a less hectic vacation spent with friends rather than relatives is on the table.However, the take-home, as it is, of sketchy ensemble comedy and Cowardly of Paone is that there is ultimately not much difference between the two: Turkey Day is a recipe for conflict with or without blood relatives present It’s a premise that “Friendsgiving” makes up by grouping together a mix of quirky and mismatched characters that you can’t imagine hanging around on purpose in the first place; all that binds them together is largely lost in the alcoholic haze of a slender storyline – Guy LodgeRead full review

The Place of No Words (Mark Webber) Distributor: Gravitas Ventures Where to find it: In theaters and on demand
With its modest intentions, « The Place of No Words » is vaguely reminiscent of David Lowery’s equally experimental « A Ghost Story » in a good way – that is, those who are patient with its deliberate formlessness will ultimately rewarded with something both intimate and progressively immersive a la « Where the Wild Things Are » While the open and messy narrative and layers of mythical metaphors are risky (and sometimes aloof) artistic choices, they make perfect sense to Webber , given the unique cinematic place the actor-turned-director has carved out for himself – Tomris LafflyRead the full review

Radium Girls (Lydia Dean Pilcher, Ginny Mohler) Distributor: Juno Films Where to find it: In select cinemas and virtual theaters
The half-life of radium-226, the poisonous isotope used in phosphorescent paint, is about 1600 years that of « Radium Girls, » the David and Goliath story of a handful of young women who pursued Big Radium sued in the 1920s, is probably much shorter In the two and a half years since it premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, this dramatization appears to have lost some of all of its luster it once might have had. Scrupulously sincere in its approach, the film aims for an inspiring, but sadly uninspired, true story, and its relationship to the actual story is clouded by how schematic it is fictional. – Jessica Kiang Read the full review

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Jason Woliner) CRITIC’S PICK Where to find it: In theaters and on Amazon Prime
No one knows « fake news » better than Sacha Baron Cohen, who pioneered a form of bogus journalism as political satire with « Da Ali G Show » and the 2006 spin-off film « Borat, » which brilliantly blurred the lines between directing and candid camera routines Now Baron Cohen is back in character with a stealth sequel Here, shot and delivered in the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic, is a staggering act of comedic revolt with built-in viral potential Loud and relevant the movie is shaping up to be like the kind of October surprise capable of making laughs, fueling public discourse and engaging voters, because a serious message cannot – Peter DebrugeRead full review

The Witches by Roald Dahl (Robert Zemeckis) Where to find it: HBO Max
In the 1990 screen version of « The Witches, » the Grand High Witch was played by Anjelica Huston in a performance of delectable kitsch and landscape devourers. Thirty years later, Robert Zemeckis has now made a version that stays true to the novel (and also builds on the previous film), and what he brings to it is his fusion of relatability and the game of gadgets. FX It’s nothing more than a baroque cartoon horror flick, but the best parts have a scathing malevolence that’s hard to resist Anne Hathaway’s performance triumph is that she never lets go the visual effects dominate her; she acts from the inside out, wears them like makeup – Owen GleibermanRead the full review

Bad Hair (Justin Simien) Where to find it: Hulu
Beauty standards hurt Anna’s hair is a battleground After an opening scene of a preteen hair straightening gone awry, she refuses to let it touch The combs, needles, scissors are obvious threats For Simien, throwing the lock over the shoulder is as threatening as opening a switch The director’s serio-comedic tone is sneaky, resonant, and horrifying at the same time.Despite jump fears, Simien is serious about his post.He wants to be clear that he thinks black women have been subjected to centuries of cultural oppression aimed at convincing them that their natural hair is a flaw – Amy Nicholson Read the full review

Over the Moon (Glen Keane) Where to find it: Netflix
« Over the Moon » celebrates Chinese culture like no traditional American toon – not even « Mulan » – has done before. But it does it in such a Western way that it feels like the creative team took « Coco » and dressed her in the colors, customs and costumes of another country The plot plays on the myth of Chang’e (Phillipa Soo), goddess of the moon, who sacrificed romance earthly with handsome Houyi (Conrad Ricamora) for immortality among the stars, which sparks the film’s main character, 13-year-old Fei Fei (Cathy Ang), to prove it’s true … by building a rocket on the moon – Peter DebrugeRead the full review

Rebecca (Ben Wheatley) Where to find it: Netflix
« Yesterday evening, I dreamed of returning to Manderley, » begins both Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 bestseller, « Rebecca, » and nearly every Gothic novel that has followed, including the winner of Alfred Hitchcock’s best atmospheric film of 1940 With such a definitive version already in the books, why reboot « Rebecca »? The previous movie is so important to everything Wheatley does that it necessarily gives the new project an inferiority complex But neither the director nor his writing team are trying to make a simple remake here Their « Rebecca » is more of a rehabilitation, restoring some key ideas that the Hays Code cleaned up – Peter DebrugeRead the full review

Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: America’s Cultural Learning for the Benefit of the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Luenell