Clockwise from top: Alien: Romulus, Rick and Morty: The Anime, Chimp Crazy, and Emily in Paris.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Walt Disney Studios/Everett Collection, Netflix, HBO, Adult Swim
Bonjour, mes amis … and like Emily (in Paree, if you say it in the rhyming way you’re supposed to be saying it in), that’s about the extent of my French-speaking knowledge. A new season of the American fille in Paris is partly streaming on Netflix now. If you’ve had enough of France this month, there’s always outer space, as a new Alien movie is hoping to provide chest-bursting excitement. (I will say that the third act had me gasping.) Here are the rest of the best things to watch this weekend. It’s a lot. —Savannah Salazar
After Ridley Scott’s pair of prequels, Prometheus and Covenant, the filmmaker’s franchise is returning with director Fede Álvarez at the helm and Scott producing. Set between Alien and Aliens, Romulus follows a new crew investigating an abandoned space station, only to find some terrible xenomorphs. You know, the usual.
A show you either love or love to hate, Emily in Paris is taking on some new European landscapes this season. But before Emily does that, she has a lot to sort out in Paris — like whatever the hell is happening between her, Alfie, Camille, and Gabriel. If only the season wasn’t split into two parts, ugh.
If you liked Bill Lawrence’s Shrinking, he has another series premiering on Apple TV+. Bad Monkey stars Vince Vaughn as Andrew Yancy, a detective turned restaurant inspector who gets pulled back into the world of crime in Florida.
This four-part docuseries was directed by Eric Goode, the same guy behind Tiger King. Like that most-binged Netflix series during early lockdown, Chimp Crazy focuses on people obsessed with caring for wild animals in their homes. Yes, PETA does get involved, and so does actor and Traitors host Alan Cumming. —Jen Chaney
➼ This is bananas: How are Bad Monkey and Chimp Crazy allowed to come out the same week?
Peacock may have had the Olympics, but Paramount+ has, basically, the Olympics of drag, with RuPaul’s Drag Race’s latest spinoff. In Global All Stars, 12 queens from such countries as Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, Italy, and beyond compete to earn the “Queen of the Mothertucking World” crown. Alyssa Edwards is repping the United States. Let’s goooooo.
Produced by James Cameron, water aficionado, OceanXplorers is a six-part docuseries on the depths of the sea. His crew takes an elite research vessel, the OceanXplorer, to travel from the Atlantic to the Arctic oceans.
➼ Streaming on Netflix; read our full review.
The utterly beloved LAIKA movie is making its way back to theaters in 3-D, in honor of its 15th anniversary. Feel old yet? Read Rebecca Alter’s ode to childhood horror here.
Photo: Rebecca Alter/Vulture
It’s a big week for streaming releases, it seems. There’s Twisters, which, after a fun run in theaters, is making its way to VOD, though you’ll be able to watch that in 4DX later in the month, so if you were looking forward to that, you may want to wait. Then, on Hulu, there’s La Chimera, another film with a dirty, sweaty Josh O’Connor, and Immaculate, the Sydney Sweeney nun horror. And, finally, we can’t forget George Miller’s rip-roaring Mad Max spinoff, Furiosa, now on Max. Honestly, these are all bangers to some degree, so you can spend your weekend just watching the movies in this section and still have a good time.
As Gloria, Rowlands displays a greater sense of exteriority than we’re used to seeing from her, particularly in her inward-driven Cassavetes roles. Clearly written for a big studio, there’s less of a focus on probing monologues or much opportunity for deep character exploration at all. The film is all gun-toting, door-busting, gallivanting action. Any sense of interiority appears only in easily missable flashes. Gloria is really a chance to see Rowlands’s physicality displayed at large: the way she hunches over the mob bosses like a goblin, the way she strides, the way she holds a gun better than even Dirty Harry could. —Emma Madden, “10 Essential Gena Rowlands Performances”
➼ Read our remembrance: “Gena Rowlands Could Knock You Out.”
Technically, you only need to watch Alien before Alien: Romulus. So, afterward, you can queue up the rest of the Alien movies available on Hulu.
Want more? Read our recommendations from the weekend of August 9.
