JOE Film Club: 7 movies and shows to stream this weekend

Stephen Porzio

It’s a particularly good weekend for fans of horrors and thrillers.

Another week has passed, meaning another edition of the JOE Weekend Streaming Guide is in order.

And for those looking for some cool movies and shows to watch this weekend, scroll below.

Movies

Atlas (Netflix, streaming from 24 May)

In this new Netflix original sci-fi action sci-fi thriller, Jennifer Lopez plays Atlas Shepherd, a brilliant but misanthropic data analyst with a deep distrust of artificial intelligence who joins a mission to capture a renegade robot with whom she shares a mysterious past.

But when plans go awry, her only hope of saving the future of humanity from AI is to trust it.

Cry Macho (Netflix)

Reportedly its director and star Clint Eastwood’s final Western, in this 2021 film he plays Mike Milo, a one-time rodeo star and washed-up horse breeder in the late ’70s who takes a job from an ex-boss (Dwight Yoakam) to bring the man’s young son (Eduardo Minett) home from Mexico.

“Forced to take the backroads on their way to Texas, the unlikely pair faces an unexpectedly challenging journey, during which the world-weary horseman finds unexpected connections and his own sense of redemption,” the plot synopsis for the neo-Western reads.

The Invitation (Netflix)

In this 2022 horror thriller inspired by a very famous novel, Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones, the Fast & Furious franchise) plays Evie, a woman in New York who – having no other known relatives after the death of her mother – decides to take a DNA test.

In the process, she discovers Oliver (Hugh Skinner, Fleabag) – a long-lost cousin she never knew she had.

Oliver winds up inviting Evie to a lavish wedding in the English countryside.

“She’s at first seduced by the sexy aristocrat host (Thomas Doherty, Gossip Girl) but is soon thrust into a nightmare of survival as she uncovers twisted secrets in her family’s history and the unsettling intentions behind their sinful generosity,” the plot synopsis reads.

Nightwatch / Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever (Shudder)

In the 1994 Danish murder mystery thriller Nightwatch, Martin (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) – a disaffected law student in Copenhagen – gets a job working as a night watchman at a morgue.

Thinking it will be an easy gig – where he can get paid to study while on shift – the position proves harder than he thought, as he becomes spooked by being in the same place alone where dead bodies are kept.

As all this is happening, Martin and his best friend Jens (Kim Bodnia, Killing Eve) start daring each other to commit more and more outlandish actions, as a way of rebelling against their surroundings.

When a serial killer starts targeting sex workers in the Danish capital, however, Martin gets pulled into the mystery of who the culprit is – eventually becoming a prime suspect for the murders due to one of Jens’ dares.

Both Nightwatch and its 2023 legacy sequel Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever have been added to Shudder.

TV Shows

Sugar (Apple TV+)

Irish Oscar-nominee Colin Farrell stars in this mystery thriller series as John Sugar, a modern-day private investigator who specialises in finding missing people.

The PI winds up being hired by famous Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell) to locate his granddaughter, Olivia (Sydney Chandler), who has disappeared..

A recovering addict, the rest of Olivia’s family – including her less successful producer father Bernie (Dennis Boutsikaris), her rockstar step-mother Melanie (Amy Ryan) and her former child actor step-brother David (Nate Corddry) – are not as concerned about her going missing.

As Sugar investigates, however, he uncovers the seedy underbelly of LA hiding just beneath the glitz and glamour.

All eight episodes of Sugar are streaming on Apple TV+ now. You can read JOE’s review of the show right here.

Tires (Netflix)

This new sitcom co-created by and starring Shane Gillis centres around Will (Steve Gerben), the anxious and seemingly unqualified heir of an auto repair chain, as he attempts to turn his dad’s business around.

This is despite constant torture from his cousin and now employee, Shane (Gillis). Stavros Halkias and Andrew Schulz are also among the cast.