Netflix
If you’re anything like me, December means one thing—finding a corner to hide from your family in. And thanks to Netflix and their handy apps for all of your devices, it’s easier than ever to watch some movies while you’re doing your hiding. Need help finding good ones? No problem. This list has got you covered in regards to worthy recent additions. As always, click on the films’ titles to be taken to their Netflix pages.
Pick of the Month: A Very Murray Christmas (2015)
A Very Murray Christmas doesn’t actually drop on Netflix until December 4th, so we don’t yet know for sure if it’s really any good, or even what it really is (a mockumentary about the making of a Christmas variety show?). But, come on, it’s a Bill Murray-starring Christmas special that was directed by Sofia Coppola. How could it be anything other than completely great? I was already sold when they let Michael Cera make fun of Monuments Men in the weird trailer. This holiday oddity features performances from George Clooney, Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, and many, many more. Plus, it features music from Phoenix, just like that last little project Coppola and Murray collaborated on. What was the name of that movie again? A Very Murray Christmas is an embarrassment of riches that almost makes you forgive it for allowing Miley Cyrus to participate.
August: Osage County (2013)
The main draw of August: Osage County is that it puts together an ensemble of really talented actors, it casts them as really mean people, and then it gives them carte blanche to just verbally tee off on one another as loudly and as viciously as they want, which is wildly entertaining to watch play out. Meryl Streep is, of course, the main event here, and she’s great, but this movie also features first-rate performances from the likes of Chris Cooper, Margo Martindale, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Juliette Lewis. Shit, even Julia Roberts is really strong in this, and she’s just about the least consistent A-lister ever. She finds another gear here and generates an intensity that I’ve never seen from her before. Going toe-to-toe with Streep and not getting eaten alive is not an accomplishment to sneeze at, so fire this one up and watch Roberts live out her finest hour.
Blue Caprice (2013)
If a movie has Tim Blake Nelson in it, then it’s already worth watching. That’s just a fact. Blue Caprice has a lot more going for it than just Nelson’s presence though. It’s based on those Beltway sniper attacks that happened back in 2002, and it attempts to explore what could lead to a couple of men deciding to drive around and shoot people at random, for seemingly no reason. The story told here has a bit of a cult of personality element to it and a bit of an abuse element to it, and it’s positively chilling to watch play out. Isaiah Washington brings the murderous energy to the movie as the older killer who exists as a twisted father figure to the younger, and he’s really intense, really intimidating, and really great. Director Alexandre Moors does interesting things with his camera too. Add in Nelson playing a creepy hillbilly and you’ve got a real winner.
Call Me Lucky (2015)
Whenever you’re watching a movie that’s been directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, you know that you’re in for something pretty dark. So, seeing as his new documentary, Call Me Lucky, is about the life of comedian Barry Crimmins, one could surmise that Crimmins has lived a pretty dark life—which he has. The thrust of this doc is his confronting the fact that he was raped as a child, which makes it a pretty difficult watch, but it also makes it a really important watch, and a really emotionally engaging one. Of course, seeing as Goldthwait and Crimmins are both powerfully hilarious, there are some laughs in here too, so the movie never plays as being homework, or, even worse, a movie of the week. Call Me Lucky is powerful stuff that shines a light on some of the most terrible things that go on in our society, yet it somehow still manages to find the humanity that exists inside the darkness.
Columbia Pictures
Can’t Hardly Wait (1998)
Of all of the teen movies that came out in the 90s, Can’t Hardly Wait is certainly one of them. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, because teen movies from the 90s are generally crowd pleasers. Ethan Embry stars here as the likable everyman in love with the popular girl, which works because he’s generally very likable. Jennifer Love Hewitt plays the popular girl, which works because she’s really pretty and makes sense as an object of affection that some schlub would put up on a pedestal. Sure, Seth Green goes a bit over the top as the insecure white guy who’s trying to pass as being street, but this is a teen movie from the 90s, so a little bit of cheese is to be expected. Admit it, you still get a thrill whenever the dopey guy makes a big spectacle of himself and gets the girl at the end of movies like this. We all do. It makes us forget about the traumas of our real high school years.
Desk Set (1957)
Hollywood has been getting better about making movies that focus on complex female characters recently, but that doesn’t mean that movies about ladies are a new invention. Desk Set is all about the office life of sassy women who we like because of how smart they are and not because of how they look, and it was made all the way back in 1957. Sure, this one is marketed as an onscreen pairing of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, but don’t be fooled, this is Hepburn’s show all the way. The spotlight is fully on her as she glides through scenes, effortlessly showing off the gift of gab that made her famous.
Bonus fun is to be had in how the characters in this film view computers. They’re treated as being essentially magic, but still aren’t regarded enough that anyone could imagine how they’d ever be better for looking up information than having access to an office worker with a good memory. Oh, the 50s.
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
Back in the salad days of the 1980s, whenever you saw the Cannon logo come up before a movie you were watching, you could be pretty much guaranteed that you were about to watch something tacky, outrageous, probably pretty bad, but nonetheless completely awesome. That’s because the company was run by a pair of Israeli cousins, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, who were full-on crazy, and who had a glorious misunderstanding of what kinds of films would play well with mainstream America. This doc is a nostalgic look back at the company that brought us amazing films like the Death Wish sequels, basically every Chuck Norris movie ever, The Last American Virgin, Breakin’, Lifeforce, American Ninja, and a million more awesome things than would fit in a list here. These guys had a big hand in making the movies of the VHS era so damned trashy, and we should be eternally grateful to them for it.
The Enemy Below (1957)
Looking for a manly movie? Then this story about an American Naval officer getting caught up in a game of cat and mouse with the commander of a German submarine should be right in your wheelhouse. Robert Mitchum plays the American, and you can practically smell the brown liquor wafting off of him. Curd Jürgens plays the German, and he’s so steely and determined that you can practically feel your chest hair growing as you watch him work. Also, there are big explosions. What really sets this movie apart from other war flicks is that it tells the story from both sides though. There aren’t any heroes or villains here, just tough, honorable men doing what they have to do when put in a tough situation. It’s the kind of thing that would bring a tear to your dad’s eye, if that dude were capable of crying. But he isn’t.
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