Every week, Netflix adds films and series to its catalog, but it’s not always easy to navigate. Écran Large is here to help you: here are the new features added by Netflix from September 27 to October 3, 2024, films and series combined, in a non-exhaustive list.
What are the films and series not to be missed this week on the streaming platform?
REZ BALL
- Already available
- Duration: 1h51
What is it about? In New Mexico, a high school basketball team steeped in Native American heritage loses its favorite player and faces an immense challenge in persisting in its pursuit of the state championship.
Why should you watch it? Produced by LeBron James and presented at the Toronto festival, Rez Ball ticks a lot of boxes for American-style independent drama. In addition to being inspired by a true story, this sports film is set in the context of Native American heritage, and follows young grieving basketball players. This return to basics for these players is also an opportunity to rediscover a notion of unity and cohesion after the loss of one of their own.
Both an introspective film and a work of cultural reaffirmation, Sydney Freeland’s film displays a certain relationship to spiritualitywhich seems to give a particular heart to the obvious codes of its genre (the team must face a formidable opponent). Add to that his arty photography, focused on the textures and landscapes of New Mexico, and you have the potential for a nice indie surprise.
WILL & HARPER
- Already available
- Duration: 1h54
What is it about? The road trip of Will Ferrell, famous American actor, and his transgender friend Harper, who recently came out as trans.
Why should you watch it? The history between the Will & Harper of the title goes back a long way. They met on the Saturday Night Live in the 90s, became colleagues (they recently co-wrote the Netflix film Eurovision Song Contest : The Story of Fire Saga), then friends. And one day, Harper announced to Will that she was going to start her transition as a transgender woman, at age 61.
The two then decided to go on a road trip. Harper wanted the experience of rediscovering the world, and Will Ferrell had the idea of making a film about it, directed by Josh Greenbaum. It may seem trivial, but in the America/world of 2024, Harper’s little story has great resonance. And this documentary is perhaps the best way to approach this important subject: by simply bringing it down to the level ofa person, a life and a journey, between laughter and tears.
The Creature of Kyŏngsŏng – SEASON 2
- Already available
- Length: 7 episodes of approximately 45 minutes
What is it about? It’s still about monsters and a couple trying to survive, but this time, time travel takes us from the 1940s to the Seoul of 2024.
Why should you watch it? Netflix is home to a big monster: the Korean entertainment giant Kakao Entertainment, particularly active in the field of music, but also audiovisual production. Recently producer of Dr. Brain by Kim Jee-woon on Apple TV+, he also invested in the red N in December 2023 with The Creature of Kyŏngsŏng, telling of the confrontation between two characters and… creatures “born of human greed”.
Season 1 took place in 1945. The second takes a huge jump in time to return to 2024. Yoon Chae-ok (Han So-hee) is still around and crosses paths with Jang Ho-jae, a man who bears a striking resemblance to the Jang Tae-sang she once loved. And for good reason, they are played by the same actor, Park Seo-joon.
RUBY, L’ADO KRAKEN
- Available September 28
- Duration: 1h30
What is it about? Ruby is a teenage octopus who feels bad about herself and is overprotected by her mother. But the day she disobeys him, she discovers that she is the direct descendant of the line of Kraken warrior queens.
Why should you watch it? Faced with the artistic renewal of Dreamworks carried out with Les Bad Guys, Puss in Boots 2 and soon The Wild Robot, Ruby, l’ado Kraken has a bit of an air of regression, even if the most nostalgic will find the tone and animation that made the initial success of the studio behind Shrek.
By setting up a parallel between the transition to adulthood and physical metamorphosis in an initiatory and emancipatory story, the film does not take many risks, and moreover has the air of a best-of from Dreamworks and its competition. It can also be the pleasure of watching, especially since there is still a simi-Kaiju fight, and that’s always cool.
Everything Everywhere all at once
- Available October 1st
- Duration: 2h19
What is it about? Evelyn Wang is at the end of her rope: she no longer understands her family, her work and is drowning in taxes… Suddenly, she finds herself immersed in the multiverse, parallel worlds where she explores all the lives she could have led.
Why should you watch it? Who would have thought that artists best known for having Daniel Radcliffe play a farting corpse would win the Academy Award for Best Director? Authors of the very good (but petomane) Swiss Army Manthe Daniels (duo formed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) broke all the dikes with their second feature film, Everything Everywhere All at Once. The dams of institutional recognition, critical recognition, the box office – it remains A24’s biggest success – but also the dykes of pop culture.
Because the film is indeed a gigantic maelstrom of cultures, aesthetics and cinephiliascolliding to discover the humanity nestled within them. An approach which is reminiscent of the experiments of the Wachowskis and which will therefore put off epileptics as well as fans of measurement. Deliberately exuberant and frenetic, sometimes very funny, the feature film is a fairly tiring object, but ultimately characteristic of its time. For better or worse, it’s up to you.
