New Movies to Watch the 4th of July Weekend – Variety

This Independence Day weekend will see the timely release of “Hamilton,” with the hit Broadway show about America’s founding fathers making the leap to living rooms at Disney Plus. Beyond that, a host of other releases are also coming to the public over the holiday weekend.

With theaters closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, many of the store’s films originally slated to premiere this summer have been withdrawn for now. This includes “In the Heights,” an adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first musical hit on Broadway, which was supposed to come out on June 26 and has been promoted almost entirely until June 18, 2021. However, the Playwright fans can instead see a filmed version of their original Broadway production of “Hamilton” on Disney Plus beginning Friday.

In addition to a small theatrical release, “The Outpost” is also making the leap to video-on-demand services. Although the dramatization of a unit of American soldiers participating in the bloodiest American confrontation of the war in Afghanistan was designed with the largest scale of movie theaters in mind, it is still effective when viewed on a television screen.

Meanwhile, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s follow-up to his Palme d’Or winners “Shoplifters” is finally receiving a US release after his festival last fall. “The Truth” is the first Kore-eda film that is not in its native language and unites the acclaimed director with a cast that includes Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, and Ethan Hawke.

Here’s a full rundown of the week’s new releases, with excerpts from reviews and links to where you can see them. Find more movies and TV shows to stream here.

Disney Plus Exclusive

Hamilton (Thomas Kail)
Where to Find It: Disney plus
Supervised by Thomas Kail, who also directed the show on Broadway, this direct version of “Hamilton” is not a filmed adaptation but a “live capture,” a dynamic record of the musical as it appeared in New York, with the original cast. Covered in multiple performances by six cameras, the 2 1/2 hour show is edited as the world’s longest spectacular Super Bowl halftime show, setting it apart from those sophisticated theatrical productions broadcast on PBS, as if everything else. it wasn’t completely unique. already. – Peter Debruge
Read the full review

Independent movies now on demand

The Outpost (Rod Lurie) THE CRITICAL CHOICE
Distributor: Screen media
Where to Find It: Select theaters, Amazon, and video-on-demand services
Such a movie can be seen at home, and yet “The Outpost” represents the most exciting new movie audiences that have been offered since the closing began, softening the commitment to seeing it in less-than-ideal conditions, though it seems frivolous to talk about the poor conditions compared to what the Troop Bravo, 3rd Squad, 61st Cavalry Regiment military faced at COP Keating. The film makes it clear in its first moments how tense life must be in such a camp at all times, as bullets shine from above, cutting streaks of fire on the screen. – Peter Debruge
Read the full review

Black Magic for White Boys(Onur Tukel)
Distributor: Magic movies
Where to Find It: Available on Amazon and other video on demand services
This silly supernatural set comedy, centered on a decrepit Off Off Broadway theater, will not be its creator’s late trailer. But for those who amicably assimilate his misanthropic and carefree humor, he will grasp yet another satisfyingly idiosyncratic chapter in a singular career that takes a trail previously marked by people like Woody Allen, Henry Jaglom, and Amerindie, from Alexandre Rockwell to Joe. Swanberg – Dennis Harvey
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Force of Nature (Michael Polish)
Distributor: Lionsgate
Where to Find It: Available on Amazon and other video on demand services
This fun thriller from director Michael Polish features Emile Hirsch as a cop who protects several apartment building residents (including Kate Bosworth and Mel Gibson) from a gang of murderous thieves. However, the most complicated factors, from wild animals to Nazi spoils of war, are thrown into the hectic hopper of the first script produced by Cory Miller. None of this is particularly credible, let alone memorable, but everything is run with enough energy and humor to make for an enjoyable night of entertainment. – Dennis Harvey
Read the full review

John Lewis: Good Trouble (Dawn Porter)
Distributor: Magnolia
Where to Find It: Available on Amazon and other video on demand services
Currently serving his 17th term as a member of Congress, the 80-year-old United States Representative has always been at the forefront of the fight for racial justice, from being one of the original 1960 “Freedom Riders” who protested segregation of transportation, even battling repression of black voters since the early 1960s. Therefore, the timing couldn’t be more ideal for Dawn Porter’s “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” a detailed study but painted by numbers from the living legend who believes in the need to create good problems as the instigator of social change. – Tomris Laffly
Read the full review

Scheme Birds(Ellen Fiske, Ellinor Hallin)
Distributor: Syndicated
Where to Find It: Available on Amazon and other video on demand services
Filmed with eye and ear for poetry in the cracks in the pavement, “Scheme Birds” recalls in its best passages the external affinity and the sensory and symbolic aesthetics of Andrea Arnold’s narrative cinema; As a feature film debut for the Swedish duo Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin, it is a work of great promise. Her invigorating non-native perspective is subtly felt throughout a trapped study on the fringes that evokes working-class life with great textural specificity, but without a timid and timid stance. Only with Gemma’s discreet, sometimes wistfully perceptive voiceover as our guide through the events, meanwhile, political commentary is mostly left for the audience to infer. – Guy Lodge
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Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash (Jared Cohn)
Distributor: Cleopatra
Where to Find It: Available on Amazon and other video on demand services
The film delivers on the promise, or threat, of its title in a big and vivid way, with enough suspense once the engines start firing and enough creepy carnage on the ground to give most viewers at least a second. Thought about flying again soon, at least on a prop-powered plane, and especially one with musicians on board. Despite its probably modest budget, “Street Survivors” is actually first-rate, as evidenced by the compellingly heartbreaking aviation disaster movies, if you’re a follower of the 1993 Peter Fearing genre “Fearless”. – Chris Willman
Read the full review

Suzi Q (Liam Firmager)
Distributor: Utopia
Where to Find It: Available in various video on demand services
The documentary is almost as charming as its subject, who is seen in binding scenes re-setting the bar for some raucous rock shows in the lead up to his recent 70th birthday. However, she suffers a bit from being in that precarious position of needing to satisfy the curiosity of her 50-year-old fans and at the same time repeatedly reinforcing for a younger audience who never heard from her how important it was. – Chris Willman
Read the full review

The Truth (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Distributor: IFC Films
Where to Find It: Available on Amazon and other video on demand services
The film wants to be a meditation on how lies can sometimes be true, and on how memory is by nature misleading (or something like that). “The Truth” has the opportunity to connect with veteran clients who will be drawn to the unmissable factor of Deneuve’s performance, and shows that Kore-eda, in ways we might not have expected, has dazzlingly exportable talent. But it still left me wishing that the story she was telling came to less loving terms. – Owen Gleiberman
Read the full review

Only on Netflix

David Foster: Off the Record(Barry Avrich)
Where to Find It: Netflix
The movie is fine; Directed by Barry Avrich, it’s a once-too-light portrait that teeters between offering a fascinating close-up look at how pop sausage is made and being a kind of infomercial. Since David Foster’s music is all about connecting with a massive audience, boosting those numbers by bloating his heart (he won 16 Grammys, was nominated for 47, and sold half a billion records worldwide), a film that features him as A success icon is not totally out of place, but it is still invaluable for telling us stories of how it does what it does. – Owen Gleiberman
Read the full review

Only on HBO

Welcome to Chechnya (David France)
Where to Find It: HBO
This vital and fast-paced new documentary by journalist-turned-filmmaker David France urgently raises the lid on one of today’s most horrifying humanitarian crises: the state-sanctioned purge of LGBTQ people in the eponymous republic of southern Russia. Plotting multiple missions closely to extract and protect the regime’s brutalized victims, France picks up on the candid first-person perspectives that have been hard to come by in this climate of terror, thanks in large part to technology that alters their faces and keeps them hidden. their identities, but not their burning truth. Guy lodge
Read the full review

Other Releases to Debut Streaming This Week

Alone Wolf (Charles Ehrlinger)
Distributor: Gravitas Ventures
Where to Find It: Available on Amazon and other video on demand platforms
A voyeur witnesses a murder outside his home and has his entire agoraphobic lifestyle altered.

Ask No Questions (Jason Loftus, Eric Pedicelli)
Distributor: 1091
Where to Find It: Available on Amazon and other video on demand platforms
A member of Chinese state television remains incarcerated in a facility until he accepts the official narrative of a public suicide and puts his beliefs aside in a government conspiracy.

Beyond Skiing Everest (Steve Bellamy)
Distributor: 1091
Where to Find It: Available on Amazon and other video on demand platforms
This documentary follows the journey of two twin brothers’ journey to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame.

Denise Ho: Becoming the Song (Sue Williams)
Distributor: Kino tent
Where to Find It: Choose a virtual cinema to support
The openly gay Hong Kong singer appears in this documentary and tracks her journey from Cantopop commercial superstar to political activist.

Earth (Nikolaus Geyrhalter)
Distributor: Kimstim
Where to Find It: Available on Amazon and other video on demand platforms
Observing people in mines, quarries, and construction sites, this documentary recounts the struggle to take possession of the planet.

The F**k It List (Michael Duggan)
Distributor: Gravitas Ventures
Where to Find It: Netflix
A joke goes wrong for a high school senior and he begins to share his wishes for how he could have done things differently.

Homewrecker (Zach Gayne)
Distributor: Dark Star Pictures / Uncork’d
Where to Find It: Available on Vudu and other video on demand platforms
A sinister painter draws an interior designer into her home.

Money Machine (Ramsey Denison)
Distributor: Sin City Cinema
Where to Find It: Available to rent on Event Live
This documentary explains how Las Vegas corporations were able to change the city’s image of its 2017 mass shooting, leaving victims behind.

Skyman (Daniel Myrick)
Distributor: Gravitas Ventures
Where to Find It: Available at drive-in theaters on July 3; Vudu and other video on demand services on July 7
A man claims he was visited by an alien while camping with his father. Thirty years later, he is convinced that they will return.

This is Love (John Alexander)
Distributor: Crook & Nanny
Where to Find It: Available on Vimeo until July 6.
This documentary celebrates the life and music of Rudy Love.

Viena and the Fantomes (Gerardo Naranjo)
Distributor: Universal tables
Where to Find It: Available on Amazon and other video on demand platforms
A young roadie begins a journey of self-discovery traveling with a punk band in the 1980s.