What’s new to VOD and streaming this weekend
Including Tom Hanks in News Of The World, Regina King s One Night In Miami and buzzy Sundance hit Promising Young Woman By Norman Wilner and Kevin Ritchie
Jan 15, 2021
NOW critics pick what’s new to streaming and VOD for the weekend of January 15. Plus: Everything new to VOD and streaming platforms.
News Of The World
(Paul Greengrass)
Set five years after the Civil War, Greengrass’s prestige-minded Western stars Tom Hanks as Captain Jefferson Kidd, a former Confederate officer who wanders America as a sort of travelling town crier, performing theatrical readings of newspaper stories. Things grow more complicated when Kidd decides to return preteen Johanna (Helena Zengel), a German immigrant raised among the Kiowa people since infancy, to the family she’s never known. Stately in its pacing, and just cynical enough about America to pass for contemporary commentary, News Of The World plays just fine when it zooms in o
Jenny Shi’s (Medill M.S. ’17) film on the disappearance of Yingying Zhang, a Chinese international student at the University of Illinois, gained critical acclaim after a year-long festival run.
While the documentary’s filming wrapped before the pandemic, COVID-19 shutdowns affected its release and reception. Diane Quon, a producer of the film, said the year’s most exciting moment came when she heard the film would show at the highly esteemed South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW). Although the March-scheduled festival was canceled, SXSW honored Shi with the special jury recognition for breakthrough voice.
Before the film would show to any festival audiences, though, Shi wanted Zhang’s family to watch it first. Shi eventually asked some of her friends in China to travel to Zhang’s parents hometown and show them the film on a laptop. Shi and Shilin Sun, the film’s co-producer and cinematographer, were present through a video call. Shi said she was initially nervous tha