This weekend’s streaming lineup is a peculiar one. Netflix, Prime Video, Shudder and VOD rental shelves are packed with titles, and what links them together is that none of them are continuations of properties anyone really cared about. The offerings include a dinosaur fantasy, a horror road trip, a horror cabin birth, a Bourdain biopic, and a disaster parody train. Every single one can be watched immediately.
Below is a ranking of entries, ordered according to their actual merit.
The End of Oak Street
David Robert Mitchell directs The End of Oak Street, a film now available to rent. It follows a family whose neighborhood is suddenly thrown thousands of years into the past, populated with dinosaurs and terrifying creatures from the Mesozoic Era. The premise is absurd. The execution, per Polygon‘s review, turns it into the sort of classic Amblin romp you’d stumble across while channel surfing and wind up watching through to the end.
Denise, played by Anne Hathaway, is a wife pushed to her breaking point. Her husband Greg, played by Ewan McGregor, has no idea what’s going on. The children sense the strain at home but lack any clear course of action. Everything changes when their street suddenly enters an earlier age, and the outcome becomes one of the most terrifying dinosaur films ever produced. The movie lasts 1 hour and 39 minutes.
The director is Mitchell, and the cast features Maisy Stella alongside Hathaway and McGregor. The review points out that the film goes above and beyond to make up for a summer that didn’t get a real Jurassic World sequel.
It Ends
A horror film called It Ends is now available to rent, directed by Alexander Ullom. Four friends and recent college graduates set out on a road trip together before their lives take separate directions. During the journey, they miss a turn and find themselves on a two-lane highway with no visible end. The movie’s runtime is 1 hour and 29 minutes.
In our conversation with Ullom, he describes the film as a mirror held up to the many problems weighing down today’s graduating students, who enter a world that no longer operates the way it once did. He argues that at this stage, young people are simply searching for any path that might work. The film takes that search and makes it strange and dangerous through its constant motion.
The cast includes Phinehas Yoon, Akira Jackson and Noah Toth.
Hellcat
Brock Bodell directs Hellcat, a horror film now available on Shudder. Lena (Dakota Gorman) wakes up in a locked camper that’s being towed by a stranger claiming he wants to save her life. She has an infection, and the driver speaks to her through an intercom, telling her he’s taking her to a doctor. The film runs 1 hour and 31 minutes.
The cast also includes Todd Terry and James Austin Johnson.
Tony
Tony is a biopic about Anthony Bourdain, directed by Matt Johnson, now available to stream. It traces the beloved cook and writer back to his days as a drifting teenager who stumbled into a kitchen job by accident, where he found his true calling. Dominic Sessa takes on the part of the young Bourdain, while Antonio Banderas and Emilia Jones complete the cast.
The film runs 1 hour and 46 minutes.
Best of the Best
Now streaming on Netflix, Best of the Best is a comedy directed by Lena Khan. Two lifelong best friends, Maya (played by Maitreyi Ramakrishna) and Anjali (played by Priyanka Kedia), start college together at UCLA. They sign up for a Bollywood dance team, only to find themselves thrown into a competitive and cutthroat world they didn’t anticipate. The film’s runtime is 1 hour and 52 minutes.
Finding Emily
Finding Emily is a romantic comedy directed by Alice MacDonald, currently available on VOD. A lovesick college student (Spike Fearn) spots the girl of his dreams at a party, only knowing her name is Emily, and sends a mass email to the school to try to find her. A second Emily receives his email and joins him to document it all for her psychology dissertation. The film features Angourie Rice, Spike Fearn and Minnie Driver.
The film runs 1 hour and 50 minutes.
The Napa Boys
Prime Video hosts The Napa Boys, a comedy directed by Nick Corirossi. It follows an ensemble cast in a parody of Hollywood’s present-day franchise culture, presented as the fourth installment in a series about a group of wine enthusiasts. The film sends its characters on an adventure through the Napa Valley. Kevin Smith and Nick Corirossi appear alongside Sarah Ramos.
The film runs 1 hour and 32 minutes.
The Rivals of Amziah King
The Rivals of Amziah King is a western directed by Andrew Patterson, now available to stream on VOD. It centers on the reunion between Amziah King (Matthew McConaughey), a magnetic musician and beekeeper, and his estranged daughter (Angelina LookingGlass) in rural Oklahoma. As the pair reconnect, Amziah aims to bring her into the family business, which turns out to be far more perilous than she had anticipated. Kurt Russell completes the cast.
The film runs 2 hours and 11 minutes.
Goody Goody
Goody Goody, a horror film directed by Raymond Creamer, is currently streaming on Shudder. The plot centers on Goody (Samantha Robinson) and Jayson (Colby Hollman), who decide to rent a remote cabin for a home birth so they can fully control the delivery process, and bring along a doula. When Goody’s labor begins during a raging storm, they come to suspect that an evil presence may be residing inside their cabin — and that this malevolent force could be linked to their unborn child. Colleen Foy rounds out the cast.
The film runs 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Stop! That! Train!
On Netflix, Adam Shankman directs Stop! That! Train!, a parody of disaster films starring an ensemble cast of drag performers. Two bored train stewardesses take new jobs at a luxury train company, then face a massive storm that threatens to derail their train. To survive, they must team up with the other passengers and crew members. The cast features RuPaul, Marcia Marcia Marcia and Jujubee.
The film runs 1 hour and 35 minutes.
The Ranking
- The End of Oak Street — the scariest dinosaur movie ever made, with Mitchell turning an absurd premise into a classic Amblin romp.
- It Ends — a surreal and sinister road trip that captures the anxiety of graduating into a broken world.
- Hellcat — a locked camper, a stranger towing it, and an infection nobody wants.
- Tony — the closest thing to a real Bourdain story, with Dominic Sessa playing the young version of the late cook.
- Best of the Best — a Bollywood dance team at UCLA sounds like the most fun option here.
- Finding Emily — the mass-email plot is genuinely weird, and it stars Angourie Rice.
- The Napa Boys — a parody of Hollywood’s franchise culture, starring Kevin Smith and Nick Corirossi.
- The Rivals of Amziah King — Matthew McConaughey as a beekeeper in rural Oklahoma? Sign me up.
- Goody Goody — a horror cabin birth with an evil force connected to the unborn baby.
- Stop! That! Train! — an ensemble of drag performers on a luxury train, parodying disaster movies.
What’s Actually Worth Watching
The three films with real hooks are the standouts here. The End of Oak Street is the scariest dinosaur movie ever made, and Mitchell’s approach to an absurd premise holds promise. It Ends takes a road trip as its vehicle for examining the anxiety of graduating into a world that no longer functions, which is a smart thematic angle. Hellcat is the kind of horror film that skips setup in favor of payoff, and the locked camper premise is genuinely unsettling.
The Bourdain biopic is a solid fourth option, though it’s a bit of a stretch to call it essential viewing. The Bollywood comedy at UCLA is the most fun-sounding title on the list. The rest are worth a look for genre fans, but they don’t have the same pull as the top three.
The Schedule Table
| Platform | Movie | Genre | Runtime |
|---|---|---|---|
| VOD | The End of Oak Street | Fantasy | 1h 39m |
| VOD | It Ends | Horror | 1h 29m |
| Shudder | Hellcat | Horror | 1h 31m |
| VOD | Tony | Drama | 1h 46m |
| Netflix | Best of the Best | Comedy | 1h 52m |
| VOD | Finding Emily | Romantic comedy | 1h 50m |
| Prime Video | The Napa Boys | Comedy | 1h 32m |
| VOD | The Rivals of Amziah King | Western | 2h 11m |
| Shudder | Goody Goody | Horror | 1h 20m |
| Netflix | Stop! That! Train! | Comedy | 1h 35m |
The Verdict
A strange weekend has arrived, packed with unusual films. A dinosaur fantasy, a horror road trip, a horror cabin birth, a Bourdain biopic, and a disaster parody train fill one list together, with no obvious reason to pay attention to any of them. The ranking above shows which ones sound more appealing than the rest, not which ones you can ignore.
The full set of ten pieces can be found at polygon.com, and the opening entry among them stands as the strongest.
Source material: “10 New Movies to Watch This Weekend on Netflix, Prime Video, and VOD (September 18-20),” Polygon.
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