This Is Where I Leave You – Picture: Warner Bros. Pictures
It’s finally the weekend, and if that means you’re settling in for a weekend of watching Netflix, allow us to give you four handpicked new movies and a new documentary that landed on the service in the US over the past seven days.
Missed any of the new releases on Netflix this week? You can check out a full list of all the new titles plus daily recaps via our new on Netflix section.
Want even more movie recommendations? You can check out our picks of what’s coming up for the entire month of March or our favorite Netflix Original movies.
The Hunger Games (Four Movies)
Rating: PG-13
Language: English
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Director: Gary Ross / Francis Lawrence
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth
Picture: Lionsgate
It’s always great when Netflix manages to pick up entire collections of movies, and that’s what it did on the first of the month with both The Hangover movies and, perhaps more unexpectedly, all four of The Hunger Games.
Likely serving as an early marketing tactic for the prequel movie out later this year, the movies adapt the excellent book series following Katniss Everdeen, who reluctantly finds herself fighting the capital.
Be warned, though – the window in which The Hunger Games will be carried on Netflix is extremely short, with all four movies only on Netflix US for 31 days (meaning it leaves at the end of March 2023).
Turbo (2013)
Rating: PG
Language: English
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Director: David Soren
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Maya Rudolph
Writer: David Soren, Darren Lemke, Robert Siegel
Runtime: 96 min / 1h 36m
For the younger ones, Netflix relicensed Turbo, the animated movie from DreamWorks about racing snails.
The New York Post called the movie when it was released ten years ago “A fresh, fast and funny little fable.”
It also comes when the companion series to Turbo, Turbo Fast, has just started showing a removal notice for April 2nd on Netflix.
This Is Where I Leave You (2014)
Rating: R
Language: English
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Director: Shawn Levy
Cast: Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda
Writer: Jonathan Tropper
Runtime: 103 min / 1h 43m
Looking for a movie with lots of big recognizable stars coming together for a big ensemble comedy? This Is Where I Leave You fits the bill.
Directed by Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy, the 2014 movie is about a group of siblings having to return to their childhood homes and live under the same roof for a week.
ReelViews gave the movie a 75 rating saying:
“Even considering some of its late-innings flaws, this is an engaging movie that doesn’t mistake histrionics and bile for solid family reunion drama.”
Out of Africa (1985)
Rating: PG
Language: English
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Director: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer
Writer: Karen Blixen, Judith Thurman, Errol Trzebinski
Runtime: 161 min / 2h 41m
Given that we’re currently deep into Oscar season, it’s fitting that one of the unannounced titles that dropped on Netflix on March 1st is one of the most decorated Oscar movies in history.
A wealthy Danish woman moves to Nairobi to marry a baron but soon falls for a dashing big-game hunter who won’t be tied down.
The movie swept the ’86 Oscars winning best picture, director, and cinematography among their seven total pickups at the awards.
Split at the Root (2022)
Rating: TV-PG
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
Director: Linda Goldstein Knowlton
Runtime: 96 min / 1h 36m
Finally, we come onto the latest ARRAY release, which landed on Netflix in multiple countries, including the US, UK, Canada, and Austrlia. We’re discussing the new documentary by producers Lana Parrilla and Marti Noxon.
The documentary “follows the emotional journey of mothers separated from their children at the U.S. border and the grassroots initiative that, against all odds, reunites those families.”
Split at the Root has notably picked up the coveted NYT Critic’s Pick award, with the review calling the documentary a “powerful lens”.
What new movies are you checking out on Netflix this weekend? Let us know in the comments down below.
Netflix Synopsis: "When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one strange little girl."
