weekend watchlist: building a house, going into space...
plus a football movie for Super Bowl weekend that even non-fans can get behind
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
With the waiting list for social housing years long, a single mom in Dublin trying to escape her abusive ex and make a nicer life for her small daughters decides to take matters into her own hands — literally — to build her own house. Herself is a wonderfully humanist drama about kindness and community, pride and accomplishment, friendship and family. We often talk about movies being uplifting, but here’s a movie about lifting yourself up. This one is an absolute treasure.
US: streaming on Amazon Prime, free for members only
UK: available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
bonus both-sides flick!
In honor of International Day of Women and Girls in Science (which is today), why not watch the fab documentary Mercury 13 ? This is the true story of the forgotten women of the United States’ early space program, capable aviators who were shunted aside so that men could get all the glory. If not for outright sexism, the first American in space might have been — and probably should have been — a woman. (Read my review.)
Globally: streaming on Netflix
US
Hulu hidden gem
Indie action drama Pilgrimage shouldn’t have gone as under the radar as it has, not with its impressive cast: current Spider-Man Tom Holland, The Hobbit and Hannibal ’s Richard Armitage, and Jon Bernthal, recently seen in both The Many Saints of Newark and King Richard. This is an extraordinary little film, with a sharp attention to psychological and moral realism. It is moody, atmospheric, even beautiful in its grimness, a medieval adventure set in a land and a time beset by superstition, where religious traditions clash in ways that are by turns gruesome and horrifying. (Read my review.)
streaming on Hulu; also available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
Disney+ hidden gem
It’s Super Bowl weekend! For a thoroughly delightful football movie that even complete non-fans can enjoy (as I can testify as a complete non-fan), check out 2006’s Invincible, based on the true story of an ordinary guy who attended open tryouts for the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1970s… and actually made the team. Mark Wahlberg is hugely charming as the hangdog everyguy at the center of this sportsball fairy tale. It’s cornball Hollywood stuff, in the best way. (Read my review.)
streaming on Disney+; also available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
UK
new on demand
The extraordinary Danish film Flee just hit an unusual trifecta: Oscar nominations in the categories of Best International Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature, and Best Animated Feature Film. Filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen lets his friend “Amin Nawabi” (not his real name) tell the story of how, as a child, he fled Kabul, Afghanistan, with his family in the early 1990s, and how he ended up in Copenhagen a few years later, on his own. This is a heartbreakingly poignant film, rooted in tough emotion and hard realities, that makes an unspoken, effortless plea for compassion for refugees’ distress and desperation. (Read my review.)
streaming on Curzon Home Cinema
new on demand
Oscar Isaac’s central performance in The Card Counter is a work of astonishing minimalism. As a former military interrogator turned professional blackjack and poker player, he barely moves his body or his face but lets us see the roiling inside him anyway, and how it threatens to explode from him at any moment. This is a film mysterious and unsettling, as our antihero struggles to come to terms with trauma he’s been sitting with for many years. Brutality lurks below its calm, slick surface. (Read my review.)
available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
find lots more movies to stream at Flick Filosopher
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