This article will be updated throughout the month as more movies are available to rent on demand.
The football season is coming to an end, and we’re months away from the summer blockbuster season. How are you supposed to stay entertained at home? Why not check out a movie that’s still in theaters, a Premium Video On Demand (PVOD) release of a major Oscar nominee, or a blockbuster that’s still putting butts in seats? This month has a bit of everything, including horror, drama, and a movie about a singing monkey.
February 4
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September 5
Tim Fehlbaum, 94 minutes
In September 1972, armed men infiltrated the Olympic Village in Munich and took athletes and trainers hostage. Tim Fehlbaum’s historical thriller doesn’t recount the assault as much as the journalistic response to it, focusing on the perspective of the ABC Sports crew who were on the scene to cover the Olympics. Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, and Leonie Benesch star in a film that points out how much TV news changed that day by being live as the news was happening instead of just reporting on it after the fact. The film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
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Wolf Man
Leigh Whannell, 103 minutes
Leigh Whannell followed up his acclaimed adaptation of The Invisible Man with this disappointing take on the creatures who come out when the moon gets full. Julia Garner and Christopher Abbott star in the story of a family who goes to clear out the cabin of Abbott’s estranged father only to find something deadly living in the nearby woods. After Dad is bitten, the threat starts to emerge inside the house as much as outside. Whannell’s film slumps more than it soars, but it might play better at home.
February 11
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Better Man
Michael Gracey, 135 minutes
Paramount spent over $100 million on one of the most ambitious and original biopics of all time … and no one saw it. The headlines in the United States were about how no one here knew or cared about subject Robbie Williams, but this is a movie that you really should see, a daring and unexpected way to tell a true story. It was also an Oscar nominee for Best Visual Effects. That has to make the financial loss feel just a little bit better.
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One of Them Days
Lawrence Lamont, 97 minutes
A sort of female riff on the plot of Friday After Next, this buddy comedy proves two things: Keke Palmer is still one of our most enjoyable movie stars, and SZA could become one. The perfectly cast pair play two friends who are struggling to make rent and the crazy day they have trying to scrape together the funds. Crowd-pleasing, unpretentious comedies like this are rarer than they used to be. Support this one so they make more.
February 14
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Flight Risk
Mel Gibson, 91 minutes
This delayed thriller bombed with critics and viewers in January, leading to a lightning-fast PVOD release, but it’s the kind of guilty pleasure that generally does better on the home market anyway, so maybe it belongs there. Gibson directs for the first time in a decade, telling the story of an Air Marshal (Michelle Dockery) who is transporting a fugitive (Topher Grace) across the snowy Alaskan airspace when they discover that their pilot (Mark Wahlberg) is not on their side.
February 18
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Mufasa: The Lion King
Barry Jenkins, 118 minutes
Some people gave the Moonlight director flack for doing a Disney “live-action” cartoon, but Barry Jenkins brought about as much artistry as he possibly could to this blockbuster prequel to the story that everyone knows and loves from The Lion King. This will certainly be on Disney+ before long, but you’ll get it only on PVOD for a window starting in mid-February. It’s funny how many people complained about this film’s existence right from the minute it was announced and then it went on to become the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2024.
February 25
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A Complete Unknown
James Mangold, 141 minutes
Hollywood loves its biopics, fêting this one with eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director. In fact, it might be a front-runner in a few of those categories. The difference between this one and other recent musician flicks? This one is pretty darn good. It tells the story of a formative chapter in Bob Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) life in which he went from the new kid in town to the face of the changing folk-music scene. Chalamet is fantastic, ably supported by fellow Oscar nominees Edward Norton and Elle Fanning.