weekend watchlist: when the ghosts won't shut up
plus sci-fi noir, sun-fueled madness, and more
Don’t spend hours scrolling the menus at Netflix, Prime Video, and other movie services. I point you to the best new films and hidden gems to stream.
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published August 12th, 2022
both sides of the pond
Things are pretty awful everywhere, so please enjoy some light diversion in the form of the 2019 Irish fantasy comedy Extra Ordinary. Comic Maeve Higgins is achingly authentic — achingly as in poignantly, but also achingly as in side-splittingly funny — as Rose, a single woman of a certain age living alone… except for all the ghosts she can hear, and talk to, and who simply will not leave her alone. They’re really boring, for one big thing: turns out they’re mostly into possessing potholes and haunting toasters. There are nods to Ghostbusters, of course, but this delightful little masterpiece also shares a tender spirit — no pun intended — with paranormal romance Truly Madly Deeply. It’s all sly, sharp, and snarkily underplayed. There will be an Oscar Wilde reference. This is a very Irish sort of comedy. (Read my review.)
US: available for rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV
UK: available for rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV
US
leaving Netflix soon
It’s a noirish mystery in a sci-fi dystopia, with overtones of Shakespearean tragedy. Writer-director Andrew Niccol’s magnificent debut, Gattaca, was an instant classic in 1997, and it has hardly dated in the quarter century since. In a near future in which those who have not been genetically engineered for human perfection are the new underclass, Ethan Hawke must “disguise” himself with someone else’s DNA — via borrowed blood, hair, and urine for regular testing — in order to fulfill his dreams. But then a murder and the ensuing investigation in his high-stakes workplace threatens to unmask him. Jude Law and Uma Thurman also star. This is incredibly stylish cinema, more than a little terrifying, and yet ultimately optimistic about the human spirit. It’s also a rare example of a filmmaker whose best work, at least so far, was his first film. (Read my 1998 review, from the very first year of Flick Filosopher.)
streaming on Netflix through August 31st; also available for rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV
leaving Netflix soon
There’s never not a good time to revisit GoodFellas, but the recent passing of star Ray Liotta is a terrific excuse. Remind yourself how damn good he was as mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 jewel, which seduces you into a life of crime, just as Henry is — “as far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster” — and then pulls the rug out from under you… just as happens to Henry. Every performance here is iconic, but especially those from Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, and Lorraine Bracco. Every scene is perfection, but especially that one-shot entrance to the Copacabana. And the preparing-an-Italian-feast-in-prison sequence. And Pesci’s “Am I a clown?” bit. And a paranoid, coked-up Liotta seeing helicopters following him everywhere. And on and on… (Read my review from 2000, also pretty early in the Flick Filosopher era.)
streaming on Netflix through August 31st; also streaming on HBO Max; available for rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV
UK
leaving Prime soon
The UK is in the midst of its second heatwave of the summer: hot enough for ya? At least you’re not flying directly into the sun, like the astronauts of the 2007 sci-fi thriller Sunshine. The sun is dying and Earth is freezing, so they’re gonna drop a giant bomb into ol’ Sol in the hopes of jumpstarting it. That’s the plan, anyway. Legendary director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland (who wrote and directed the recent horror flick Men) descend into madness with their spacefarers — the amazing cast includes Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, and Benedict Wong, and that’s just for starters — as they’re increasingly mesmerized by the enormous flaming orb they’re barreling toward, and start to go a bit space-crazy. You could say it all goes rather hot and bonkers.
streaming free for members on Prime Video (expiring in 30 days); also streaming on Disney+; available for rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV
leaving Prime soon
It’s the best Indiana Jones movie that doesn’t actually feature Indiana Jones. He gets split down the middle in 1999’s The Mummy: Rachel Weisz’s bubbly librarian and antiquities expert is the brains; Brendan Fraser’s soldier and square-jawed adventurer is the brawn — and man, do they have chemistry to spare. Their adventure is one of dark magic, ancient maps, cool artifacts, secret societies, regularly snarking, and constant peril, thanks to the undead high priest of Osiris they accidentally reanimate from his mummified rest. The golden glow that pervades the film — gorgeous desert sunsets, gilded temples, warm torchlight — isn’t just symbolic of a longing for a fantasy past of biplanes, khakis, and worn leather satchels hiding priceless historical treasures; it’s also about a nostalgia for great rollicking adventures and winking movieness. (Read my 1999 review, another blast from the early days of Flick Filosopher.)
streaming free for members on Prime Video (expiring August 20th); also available for rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV
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