What to stream this weekend: 'One Night in Miami,' 'Promising Young Woman,' 'Locked Down'

Brian Truitt, USA TODAY

Sat, January 16, 2021 at 12:53 AM UTC

4 min read

New streaming movies are coming to entertain you and your family during socially distanced times.

This weekend, director Regina King goes back to the 1960s for her knockout period piece centering on four Black icons, and while Martin Luther King Jr.'s history with the FBI is explored in a new documentary. Carey Mulligan crushes a role as a woman on a vengeful mission in a darkly comic thriller, and Anthony Mackie and Damson Idris team up for a sci-fi action film. And Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor are a COVID-19-era couple having relationship troubles – but plan a heist anyway – in a pandemic romantic comedy with a bunch of celebrity cameos.

'Promising Young Woman': Carey Mulligan is not starring in the revenge movie you expect

Streaming preview: 10 must-see movies in 2021, from 'One Night in Miami' to 'Coming 2 America'

Here's a rundown of new movies hitting streaming and on-demand platforms this week, for every cinematic taste:

Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir, from left) takes a picture of his friends Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), Cassius Clay (Eli Goree) and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) in "One Night in Miami."

If you want to see the best movie of 2020: 'One Night in Miami'

In her engaging and dazzling drama, King takes us back to the civil rights era for a fictional night spent in 1964 with four famous friends: newly crowned boxing champ Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), football star Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), soul singer Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and activist Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir). Their powerful conversation is moving and all four actors are top notch as legends humanized by their emotional depth.

Where to watch: Amazon Prime

Cassie (Carey Mulligan) is a woman on a quest of vengeance in the darkly comic thriller "Promising Young Woman."

If you need to scare your date straight: 'Promising Young Woman'

In writer/director Emerald Fennell's feature-film debut, Mulligan is sensational as Cassie, a med school dropout who slings coffee by day and at night teaches a thing or two to guys willing to take advantage of a drunk woman. Like Batman but with better fashion sense and a more withering stare, Cassie has rights to wrong from her past in a slick and satisfying work that weaves thriller tropes with themes of sexual assault and consent.

Where to watch: Apple TV, Vudu, FandangoNOW

Leo (Anthony Mackie, left) engages in battle as Harp (Damson Idris) tries not to die in the sci-fi action film "Outside the Wire."

If you could use a good buddy action flick: 'Outside the Wire'

The futuristic sci-fi tale centers on a cocky drone pilot (Idris) who makes a last-second decision on a mission that angers his superiors. To avoid a court martial, he's sent to Ukraine and assigned to work up close on the battlefield with a high-tech android officer (Mackie) to keep old Soviet nuclear silos out of enemy hands. Come for the neat effects and thought-provoking plot, stay for Mackie tapping into the same macho charm that makes him so enjoyable in Marvel movies.

Where to watch: Netflix

COVID isolation drives a couple (Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor) apart and crazy in the romantic heist comedy "Locked Down."

If you've had it with the COVID-19 lockdown, too: 'Locked Down'

Doug Liman ("Mr. & Mrs. Smith") directs the best movie so far made about the pandemic during the pandemic. (Sorry, "Songbird.") Hathaway (who rages and dances a lot) and Ejiofor play a London couple – she a stressed-out, Zooming businesswoman, he a furloughed van driver – already on the verge of breaking up before the coronavirus hit, and forced cohabitation has pretty much deepened the split. But a bonkers plan to steal a valuable diamond at Harrods gives them new romantic life.

Where to watch: HBO Max

The new documentary "MLK/FBI" examines the FBI's efforts to undermine and humiliate 1960s civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

If you're in the mood for an insightful history lesson: 'MLK/FBI'

FBI director J. Edgar Hoover famously worried of a "Black messiah," and he had a mission to discredit the work and influence of Martin Luther King Jr., whom he once declared the "most dangerous" Black man in America. Both illuminating and infuriating, director Sam Pollard's documentary uses recently declassified files to dig into Hoover's dirty tricks and surveillance methods, drawing parallels to today's political climate while also leaning into King's undeterred fight for equality.

Where to watch: Apple TV, Vudu, Google Play

Lucie Debay stars as a woman chased by a predatory villain in the survival thriller "Hunted."

If you dig a violent twist on Little Red Riding Hood: 'Hunted'

"Persepolis" co-director Vincent Paronnaud crafts this gripping survival thriller and gives it a ton of style, plenty of gore and a touch of absurdity. Lucie Debay stars as a woman saved from a creep by a seemingly kind dude (Arieh Worthalter), but that guy turns out to be a predator who kidnaps her and crashes in the woods. A cat-and-mouse chase kicks off when she gets loose, turning from damsel in distress to absolute rage machine.

Where to watch: Shudder

After returning home from war, a Marine captain (Gary Dourdan) jumps back into action and goes on a rescue mission when his archaeologist wife is kidnapped by terrorists in "Redemption Day."

If you're curious about the first turkey of 2021: 'Redemption Day'

In this forgettable military thriller, "CSI" veteran Gary Dourdan plays a Marine captain home from war and still dealing with a traumatic attack when he has go back on a new rescue mission. This one's personal, though: His archaeologist wife (Serinda Swan) has been kidnapped by terrorists while on a dig in Morocco. The action is stale, the plot is all over the place, and even an 11th-hour, Southern-fried cameo from Robert Knepper can't save this thing.