7 Best Movies to Stream this Weekend on Netflix, Peacock, Prime Video and more (6/22-23)

7 Best Movies to Stream this Weekend on Netflix, Peacock, Prime Video and more (6/22-23)

Summer is heating up, so there's a movie offering across the best streaming services. To help you beat the heat, we've rounded up the best movies to see that just landed on streaming. 

Leading this weekend's lineup is John Krasinski's "IF" on the video-on-demand platform. This colorful family adventure imagines a world in which imaginary friends exist for a long time after their creators have forgotten them, and it gives them a new home Another family-friendly pick, "Kung Fu Panda 4", lands on a peacock watching Jack Black's Po and co. Fight new form-changing threats. 

Meanwhile, Netflix has a new thriller led by Jessica Alba called "Trigger Alert" and a documentary that dives into a little-known corner of Mattel's history in "Black Barbie."And in the Prime Video you can find Christopher Nolan's Oscar・winning biopic "Oppenheimer."

So here are the best new movies that have just landed on streaming without any more struggles. If you're looking for more recommendations on what to watch, check out our roundup of the best new TV shows of the week. 

When I first saw the "IF" trailer, it reminded me of the cross between "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" with a mix of live-action and animated characters.Written and directed by John Krasinski of "Quiet Place" fame, it stars Kayleigh Fleming as Bea, a young girl who goes through a traumatic period of her life, discovering that she can see other people's imaginary friends known as IFs. 

She revealed this ability after moving to her grandparents' New York apartment while her father was preparing for heart surgery. These imaginary friends include the fuzzy, grimacing blue (Steve Carell's voice) and Blossom (Phoebe Waller Bridge), which look like a cross between a butterfly and Betty Boop. Bea's new neighbor, Cal (Ryan Reynolds), can see them too, and together they try to find a new home for a forgotten imaginary friend whose creators outnumbered them long ago. 

Buy or Rent now on Amazon or iTunes

Netflix's latest action thriller "Trigger Alert" comes from award-winning Indonesian director Mouly Surya. Jessica Alba stars as Parker, a special forces commando on active duty abroad who is called back to his hometown after the death of his father. Tasked with running her father's bar, Parker juggles her new responsibilities by investigating the strange circumstances of his death.

The search for her answer is at odds with violent local gangs and she will make good use of her combat training. In addition to being Jessica Alba's first feature film in 5 years, it also stars Anthony Michael Hall, Mark Webber and Gabriel Basso. Netflix has had pretty good luck with this month's original movie (watch you, "Hitman"), so we'll see if the "trigger warning" continues to trend. 

Watch Now on Netflix

I'm a sucker for good documentaries, and Netflix's latest is definitely on my watchlist this weekend. "Black Barbie" celebrates how Mattel's three women, Beulah Mae Mitchell, Kitty Black Perkins and Stacey McBride Irby, transformed the Barbie brand as they know it by creating the first Black Barbie in the 1980s.

The documentary looks at the history of diversity within Mattel's Barbie world. As he returns, he shines a light on the secrets of the charismatic insiders who have driven the company forward.  But it's not just a retrospective. Through insider interviews, "Black Barbie" takes a behind-the-scenes look at this transformative era in toy history, showing why the first black Barbie was more than just a doll. 

Watch It now on Netflix

Po (Jack Black) and the Furious Five play "Kung Fu Panda 4," a Dreamworks beloved game that pits anthropomorphic animals against each other in a thrilling martial arts showdown. In "Kung Fu Panda 4", our adorable hero Po is facing some kind of career crossroads. He has to give up his title as a dragon warrior, as he is preparing to become the spiritual leader of his hometown, the Valley of Peace. But finding the right successor is not an easy task. 

Things get worse when a new villain, the shape・changing Chameleon (Viola Davis), emerges. Chameleon can take the form of Poe's past enemies and even imitate their formidable fighting style. With the help of a new ally, a crafty fox named Jen (Awkwafina), Poe sets out on a mission to thwart the villainous plot of the Chameleon before she can steal the Kung fu abilities of all the material arts masters in China.

Watch now at Peacock

Christopher Nolan's Oscar・winning "Oppenheimer" landed in Prime Video, a sprawling biographical thriller about the man behind the creation of the first nuclear weapon. Cillian Murphy is an American theoretical physicist who is widely considered the father of the atomic bomb.It stars as Robert Oppenheimer. 

This story tells of Oppenheimer, who was studying quantum physics in college, leading the development of an American atomic bomb during World War II, and after Matt Damon's character adopted him into the war effort, Oppenheimer launched the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico. But when the battle is over and the smoke disappears, Oppenheimer is haunted by his role in all the bloodshed. 

Watch now in Prime Video

"Aftersun" has been on my radar since Paul Mezcal's powerful portrayal of his troubled father was nominated for him at the 2023 Academy Awards. Since it was released on Netflix, there's a great excuse to watch A 96% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes for the A24 adult drama.

Scottish director Charlotte Wells's feature debut, After Sun, interweaves a fascinating story through the past and present through the lens of a summer journey in the 90s between a young father (Mezcal) and his 11・year・old daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio).A few years later, adult Sophie (played by Celia Lawson Hall) looks at camera footage from that holiday, trying to figure out what had happened to her father, whom she once knew. 

Watch now on Netflix

Originally shot as a home video to record the last days of tennis legend Roger Federer's career, this new prime video documentary has already been called a must-watch watch for tennis fans. A glimpse of Federer's personal life as he prepares and plays for the Laver Cup, the final tournament in 2022. 

His last game will be a dramatic tiebreaker after Federer made an unexpected error of equalizing the score in an already tight game. Naturally, this documentary contains plenty of archival footage and interviews with former rivals and colleagues, including Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and other players in Federer's vast career, as well as footage of his own great tennis. 

You can watch it now on Prime Video

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