weekend watchlist: a documentary about Ukraine that Putin probably should have watched
plus films of joy, whimsy, and charming nonsense to distract you from current events
Don’t spend hours scrolling the menus at Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other movie services. I point you to the best new films and hidden gems to stream.
Movies included here may be available on services other than those mentioned, and in other regions, too. JustWatch and Reelgood are great for finding which films are on what streamers; you can customize each site so that it shows you only those services you have access to.
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both sides of the pond
If you need a bit of background on the invasion of Ukraine by Russia this week, Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom is absolutely essential and unmissable. This Netflix documentary, an Oscar nominee in 2016, looks at the 2014 revolution that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych in the wake of his refusal to align the nation closer with the European Union. Russian-born, Los Angeles–based filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky shows us what a revolution in the 21st century looks like, with cell-phone charging stations for protesters and online journalists ensuring that if international mainstream media won’t pay much attention, the Internet certainly will. It’s tempting to imagine that if Vladimir Putin had seen the resolve, the bravery, and the spirit to be free and independent of the Ukrainians on display here, he might have thought twice about messing with them. (Read my review.)
globally: streaming on Netflix
(The rest of this weekend’s recommended viewing is very light, I promise!)
US
back on Netflix
Before they gave us the unexpectedly wonderful Lego Movie, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller made their 2009 feature debut with the sharply witty and wickedly clever delight Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Adapted from the beloved children’s picture book but perfectly enjoyable by adults as well as kids, it treats the charming nonsense of food falling from the sky like weather with exactly the sort of buoyant nimbleness it deserves. Animation bursting with personality and lashings of cunning wordplay leave you wishing for seconds. (Read my review.)
streaming on Netflix; also available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
leaving Netflix very soon
By sheer coincidence, here’s another Lord and Miller wonder: their second feature, 21 Jump Street… though this one is suitable only for grownups. This big-screen reboot of the cult-favorite 80s TV series about very young-looking cops who go undercover to investigate crime in high schools is fueled almost entirely by an appreciation of its own ridiculousness. Yet it achieves the dual wonders of balancing absurdity with smart truths and walking a fine tonal line — one that the vast majority of Hollywood comedies are unable to manage — in making us care about characters who are barely more than cartoons. An extra marvel: I usually cannot abide its stars, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, but they’re terrific here. (Read my review.)
streaming on Netflix through February 28th; also available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
UK
new on Disney+
Wes Anderson’s latest cinematic bonbon, The French Dispatch, is as packed with star power as his films always are: Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Elisabeth Moss, Owen Wilson, Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright, and many others. It’s as resplendent with whimsy as we expect from his work, with 1960s small-town France popping off the screen like stylized postcards half-remembered from a dream. He is as sly as ever with his takes on art, politics, cuisine, sex, crime, and other human endeavors. But the cheeky aspect of this luscious flick that hits with a melancholy zing for this writer is how it harkens back to a not-too-distant past when a journalist could spend months writing a single magazine article while lapping up a far-flung foreign culture.
streaming on Disney+; also available for purchase on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
back on Netflix
As Wes Anderson does, Joel and Ethan Coen often make movies that exist in their own unique realms. With their 2000 masterpiece O Brother, Where Art Thou?, they turned Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey into a Depression-era fantasia with a screwball-comedy spin worthy of Frank Capra. This unpaved-road movie leads our himbo heroes — the now stone-cold classic cinematic trio of George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson, and John Turturro — through golden fields and ethereal swamps… and a joyfully feting of the movie fantasies of a bygone era. The rootsy, bluegrassy soundtrack is sheer perfection. (Read my review.)
streaming on Netflix; also free to stream on IMDb TV, via Amazon Prime, with ads
find lots more movies to stream at Flick Filosopher
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I haven't seen O Brother, Where Art Thou in quite a while - might be the perfect break from the real world, now that I think about it.