Instead of a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking this year, you’re getting a Glass Onion as the much-anticipated Knives Out sequel debuts on Netflix today. We also get a The Witcher prequel, a new Matilda adaptation, and more streaming this week!
MOVIES
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Netflix – 23 December
Writer/director Rian Johnson almost singlehandedly revived the whodunnit genre with 2019’s brilliant Knives Out. Earning $312.9 million worldwide off a budget of just $40 million, with a premise that lent itself to additional stories, sequels were instantly greenlit. What nobody expected was that Netflix would snap up the rights, meaning that Daniel Craig’s southern-drawling detective Benoit Blanc will now be solving his next crime right in the comfort of your home. And it’s a crime that takes him to Greece this time, introducing to a star-studded line-up of suspects that includes Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista. To say that early reviews for Glass Onion have been good, would the biggest understatement of 2022 with most critics proclaim this sequel to easily surpass its already magnificent predecessor in every way.
Strange World
Google Play Movies – 23 December 2022
Disney’s latest animated feature film was unfortunately quite the bomb when it hit cinemas earlier this year, with projections claiming it will lose the Mouse House nearly $150 million. The film received generally positive reviews but audiences just didn’t show up to see it. Some have chalked this up to the fact that this was Disney’s first animated feature with an openly gay lead character, but that’s hard to prove. What is fact is that there’s a good chance that you probably never watched Strange World on the big screen. If you’re interested in fixing that though, you’re in luck as you can now grab it off Google Play Movies.
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical
Netflix – 25 December 2022
Although I’ve unfortunately never experienced it myself, I have been told by numerous people that the stage musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Matilda is one of the greatest theatrical productions of the modern age. And now that adaptation is getting an adaptation as Netflix offers a new feature film version of the classic story about a precocious young girl who discovers she has the magical ability to move things with her mind who has to overcome all sorts of family dilemnas and one famously mean teacher. This film is actually directed by Matthew Warchus, one of the playwrights who created the multi-award-winning stage production, so he should know how to capture the original’s magic.
Smile
Google Play Movies/Apple TV
If your family tells you to smile more over Xmas festivities, kindly point them towards this horror film that became a sleeper hit in cinemas earlier this year. Turning its $17 million budget into $216 million earnings, this one was a huge success with audiences who most definitely not smiling through its creepy tale of a therapist who starts experiencing nightmarish events after witnessing the strange suicide of a patient. Smile is currently available for rental on Google Play Movies and Apple TV.
SERIES
The Witcher: Blood Origin S1
Netflix – 25 December 2022
Once the biggest thing on Netflix, The Witcher franchise is an odd spot at the moment. Star Henry Cavill quit the role and is being replaced by a Hemsworth brother not named Chris much to the ire of fans. Surely a new prequel series set 1200 years before we met Geralt of Riva and which explores the origin of the very first witcher will help to placate fans for now? Well, no. Unfortunately, online chatter has been predominantly negative thus far, mainly due to how trailers for Blood Origin have indicated that the showrunners have taken big liberties with Andrzej Sapkowski’s original book series. Well, these changes are for the better or worse is up to you to decide. Hell, maybe you don’t even care about source material fidelity as long as you get a good story! Me? I’m just here to watch Michelle Yeoh as an ass-kicking elf.
Treason S1
Netflix – 26 December 2022
Charlie Cox has been so great in the role of Marvel’s Daredevil, and people are so hyped to see him back in the mask, that it’s easy to forget that the British actor has other projects as well. And next up is Treason, a twisty spy thriller series that sees Cox as Adam Lawrence, an MI6 Deputy Chief elevated to the top job after an assassination attempt leaves his boss incapacitated. There’s just one small problem: Lawrence has a past relationship with Olga Kurylenko’s Kara, the same Russian spy responsible for his boss’ attack. And now nobody trusts Lawrence, and he soon realizes he can’t trust anybody else! Reviews for Treason have called it solidly thrilling spy fare, though some have claimed the logic of its plot doesn’t always hold up to scrutiny.