What To Watch This Weekend: 'The Bone Temple,' 'Dead Man's Wire,' 'A Private Life,' And 'The Rip'

HOLLYWOOD, CA — From hostage standoffs to desert cults, Parisian mind‑games to Miami siege tactics, this weekend’s watchlist swings between desperation, delirium, psychological intrigue and high‑pressure crime — streaming now or landing in select theaters.

“Dead Man’s Wire” opens with Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård), a financially cornered borrower whose breakdown turns a routine confrontation into a 63‑hour televised hostage crisis, tethering Richard (Dacre Montgomery) to a shotgun rigged with a “dead man’s wire” as police and cameras close in.

“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” jumps to a fractured Britain, where swaggering Satanist leader Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) and eccentric scientist Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) navigate a landscape of collapsed order, semi‑infected captives and clashing ideologies.

“A Private Life” shifts to Paris, where psychiatrist Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster) unravels after the sudden death of a patient, drawn into a mystery that entangles her ex‑husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil) and the volatile widower played by Mathieu Amalric.

“The Rip” closes out the lineup with a Miami‑Dade narcotics team led by Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Matt Damon) and Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne (Ben Affleck), whose discovery of a multimillion‑dollar cash haul traps them inside a stash house as trust fractures and danger circles.

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Ready to dive in? Scroll down for the full lineup — and step into the shimmering world of storytelling, where every frame is an escape, with deeper explorations of each film below that unpack performances, themes and craft in greater detail.

What To Watch This Weekend

“Dead Man’s Wire”

Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Al Pacino; directed by Gus Van Sant

Loosely inspired by the 1977 Indianapolis hostage standoff, the film follows Tony Kiritsis (Skarsgård), a jittery, hollow‑eyed borrower worn down by financial strain and a bureaucratic maze he can no longer navigate. When he finally breaks, storming into his lender’s office on a frigid winter morning, a confrontation meant for the company’s founder instead leaves his son Richard (Dacre Montgomery) as the unintended hostage.

In the chaos, Tony rigs a crude but effective “dead man’s wire,” tethering Richard to the shotgun he keeps trained on him. What begins as seething fury quickly escalates into a public siege, echoing the combustibility of “Dog Day Afternoon” as police, cameras and crowds swarm a 63‑hour standoff broadcast live across prime‑time TV.

Van Sant stages the unraveling with crisp, unfussy precision, shaping a drama of indignation and inequality. Skarsgård delivers a taut, neurotic turn, while Montgomery and Pacino add quiet, unsettled weight around him. The result is intimate, volatile and unnervingly current.

“Dead Man’s Wire” is a tense, contemporary‑feeling crime drama rooted in profound desperation, anchored by Bill Skarsgård’s rawest performance to date.

“A Private Life”

Jodie Foster, Daniel Auteuil; directed by Rebecca Zlotowski

Jodie Foster makes her French-language debut as Lilian Steiner, an American psychiatrist in Paris whose immaculate, tightly controlled life begins to fracture after the sudden death of a patient. The deceased, Paula (Virginie Efira), lingers in fragmented, teasing flashbacks.

Convinced the death wasn’t a suicide, Lilian slips into amateur‑detective mode, her polished world giving way to suspicion, with Hitchcock-tinged stylistic flourishes.

Daniel Auteuil plays Gabriel, Lilian’s ex‑husband and an ophthalmologist whose soft, yielding presence counterbalances her sharp edges. Their renewed partnership has the warm, quick‑witted rhythm of two people who solve problems as naturally as they banter. Meanwhile, Mathieu Amalric adds a menacing jolt as Paula’s volatile husband, whose grief and fury deepen the mystery.

Rebecca Zlotowski blends romance, psychological intrigue and sly humor with a light, playful touch. The plot grows increasingly far‑fetched, but Foster’s gentle dismantling of Lilian’s emotional armor keeps the film grounded.

“A Private Life” is an entertaining, slightly off‑kilter thriller with just enough bite, its polished surface sharpened by Jodie Foster’s commanding performance.

“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple”

Jack O’Connell, Ralph Fiennes; directed by Nia DaCosta

Rather than repeat the stripped-down horror of “28 Days Later,” Nia DaCosta’s “The Bone Temple” veers boldly off-road. Set in a post-Brexit Britain where the virus has been pushed back from Europe but civilization at home has collapsed, the film splits into two wildly different storylines.

One thread follows Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell), the swaggering leader of a gang of young Satanists known as the Jimmys, who attempt to force their way into a farm occupied by several survivors. The other tracks Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), an eccentric scientist who spends his days blasting ’80s records and experimenting on a semi-infected captive in hopes of restoring his humanity.

Eventually, Kelson and Jimmy cross paths, and the collision delivers one of the film’s most provocative turns.

The film’s ambitions outpace its coherence, and the ending snaps back to familiar territory. But the unruliness is part of the appeal. By the end, “The Bone Temple” suggests that unpredictability might be its greatest asset.

“The Rip”

Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Steven Yeun; directed by Joe Carnahan

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon lead “The Rip,” a Netflix crime thriller about a Miami‑Dade Tactical Narcotics Team that discovers more than $20 million in cash inside a rundown stash house. The haul is the “rip” — the team’s term for a major cash seizure they’re required to count on site, which traps them in hostile territory and immediately tests the line between duty and temptation. Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon) and Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne (Affleck) find their long‑standing partnership strained as the pressure of the rip magnifies old tensions.

The ensemble also includes Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Kyle Chandler, and Catalina Sandino Moreno, as trust inside the house begins to erode and suspicion spreads. Outside, coded signals and threatening calls hint at the dangerous forces closing in.