New Movies On Demand: ‘Dune,’ ‘The Last Duel,’ ‘Belfast,’ + More

It’s a director’s world, we’re just living in it. This week on VOD we’ve got new movies from Ridley Scott, Kenneth Branagh, and Denis Villeneuve, so get ready for all the auteur vibes. The Last Duel, directed by Scott, is packed with prestige. The screenplay marks the first post-Good Will Hunting collab from Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who also star in the film along with Adam Driver and Jodie Comer. Villeneuve’s action-packed, visually stunning Dune has been long-delayed, and while fans (like us) think it works best on the big screen, you should definitely check it out to see what the fuss is.

Meanwhile, Kenneth Branagh has written and directed Belfast, the story of a young boy, Buddy (Jude Hill), who comes from a working-class family in Northern Ireland and who is living through the religious conflict known as The Troubles in the late 1960s. The semi-autobiographical film takes a look at the political strife between Catholics and Protestants outside Buddy’s door, and the conflict within the home, as Buddy’s parents (Caitríona Balfe and Jamie Dornan) are on the verge of splitting. The film also features a soundtrack courtesy of Belfast’s own Van Morrison (he wrote an original song for the film, and several of his greatest hits also appear).

These are just a few of the titles that are available to watch on Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, YouTube, and through your cable service this week. Check out what movies are available to buy or rent on demand now!

The Last Duel

Based on the 2004 Eric Jager book The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial By Combat, The Last Duel chronicles the events that led up to the last officially sanctioned instance of trial by combat in France. The story goes that in January of 1386, Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer) accused a French squire by the name of Jacques le Gris (Adam Driver) of raping her. Despite le Gris’s denials, Marguerite’s husband, Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon with a wicked 1990s hockey player haircut), a Norman knight, took up his wife’s cause and asked the courts to try le Gris. And so, in December of 1386, the courts declared that le Gris’s guilt or innocence would be decided not by a jury, but instead in a trial by combat. So just in case you find our justice system wonky, just be glad we don’t have public fights to the death to determine people’s guilt and innocence anymore.

Where to stream The Last Duel

Dune

Audiences love or hate Dune so if you haven’t caught it yet, now is the time now that it’s widely available on VOD. The most recent adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel directed by Denis Villeneuve had a massive budget, an all-star cast that includes Timothee Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa, and Zendaya, and a sweeping desert locale thanks to location shoots in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. Paul Atreides (Chalamet) and his family are the stewards of the planet Arrakis, which is an inhospitable wasteland, except that it is the only planet in the universe where you can find “spice,” a drug that enhances mental clarity and allows for space travel, both things which are very important in the Dune-iverse. The planet becomes the focus of a high-stakes political war over who controls the spice (while the correct answer on Earth might be the Mayor of Flavortown himself, Guy Fieri, on Arrakis it’s more like the protective killer sandworms that will eat anyone who tries to take their beloved spice away). Though the film clocks in at two and a half hours, Villeneuve refers to this as “Part One,” part two is on schedule for release in 2023.

Where to stream Dune

To Buy:

Dune
The Card Counter
Trolls: Holiday In Harmony

To Rent:

The Last Duel
Belfast
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Castle Falls
Deadlock
Last Shoot Out
Extraordinary: The Revelations
Robbo: The Bryan Robson Story
Love It Was Not
Love, Weddings & Other Disasters
Betrayed