Happy Perfect Date!
As the weather changes, so do your streaming options. Here are 10 that deserve a movie night in April before they leave their current home.
All That Heaven Allows, Criterion Channel
Ah, the misunderstood melodrama! Douglas Sirk’s ironic commentary on the unhappiness of post-war American life was so poker-faced it was largely lost on the audiences at the time. There’s nothing like his All That Heaven Allows, a drama soaked in color and intense emotion lurking underneath the pleasant facades of the era. The movie might not be sincere, yet the sentiments it brings to the surface are.
Beach Rats, Hulu (until 5/6)
Humblebrag: I was at Sundance’s world premiere screening of Beach Rats back in 2017, and I’ll never forget a moment that took the audience’s breath away. It was at the Q&A and leading actor Harris Dickinson spoke … to reveal a mannered British accent. The crowd gasped collectively in disbelief that this could be the man behind the tortured teenager discovering his sexuality in the shadows of New York’s outer reaches … and on the limitless playground of the anonymous internet. It’s a stunning performance anchoring a darkly poetic look at a young man resisting his romantic impulses toward men yet indulging his violent ones.
Die Hard, Amazon Prime Video
While we’re still in a celebratory mood for the life and career of Bruce Willis, why not pop on an old reliable classic like Die Hard? The film captures his laconic everyman as few other projects did, and it’s in service of an action movie with continuity of space and time that seems foreign to contemporary blockbusters. Doesn’t even have to be Christmas to enjoy this gift for all seasons!
Moneyball, Netflix
As baseball gets its (delayed) start, the time is right to return to Moneyball. I still don’t think the film gets nearly enough credit for both figuring out how to make statistical modeling of sports sexy and entertaining while also making a case for the romanticism of the game’s intangibles. Can’t believe we’re now entering year 8 without a new movie from its director, Bennett Miller … while we’ve endured two movies in the last 2 years from Moneyball’s co-writer Aaron Sorkin flopping in the director’s chair.
Mulholland Dr., Criterion Channel
David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. has a not entirely undeserved reputation for being a bit impenetrable. “This show is going to be long,” joked Whoopi Goldberg in her 2002 Oscars monologue, “but not as long as it took to explain Mulholland Dr.” The key is not necessarily to explain it but try to and understand it subconsciously through the warped dream logic of Naomi Watts’ (real) character. If you know what’s coming in the last 15 minutes — you might even want to spoil yourself on Wikipedia — you’ll start to see refractions of reality in the surreality Lynch unfurls to mesmerizing effect. I think I’m now fully Mullholand Dr.-pilled now.
The Nice Guys, Hulu
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times … 🗣 RYAN GOSLING SHOULD GO ALL IN ON MAKING COMEDIES. He’s absolute dynamite in The Nice Guys subverting his suave image as a ‘70s-era detective bumbling his way through a seedy Los Angeles. Filmmaker Shane Black is as nimble with his clever dialogue as he is with gag-based physical humor, much of it coming at Gosling’s expense. It’s a rollicking delightful movie that yields fascinating surprises and revelations with rewatching, too.
The Professional, HBO Max
This movie has everyone — literally, it has Gary Oldman screaming “EVERYONE!” from the famous GIF. But perhaps most importantly, it has young Natalie Portman in her debut role as Mathilda, a 12-year-old who takes up the craft of her hitman neighbor Léon (Jean Reno) after the murder of her parents. This badass action movie has always ranked near the top of IMDb’s Top 250, and it’s as good a time as any to see what all the fuss is about.
Punch-Drunk Love, HBO Max
Paul Thomas Anderson’s kinda-rom-com, kinda-musical, kinda-claustrophobic psychological drama Punch-Drunk Love has always been a really tough nut for me to crack — even though many cite it as ranking among the top of his films. I despised it on my first watch in high school and have since revisited it a few times … finally, on watch four or five something changed. I think … I think I like this movie now? Maybe you’ll fall in love at first sight with this brief oddity, or maybe you’ll need it to wear you down as it did to me. Either way, there’s a lot there worth discovering or reconsidering.
The Town, Netflix
Ben Affleck knows how to make an intensely watchable drama … and no, I’m not talking about the extended Bennifer saga. I’m talking here about The Town, the crime thriller set in his native Boston. This movie just delivers in every place you want a movie like this to: action, setting, character, plot, theme. (It also has Blake Lively, and the less said about her participation, the better.)
WHAT I WATCHED
If you know the films of Gaspar Noé, you might appreciate this … choice experience I had last week.
WHAT I HEARD
The return of Still Processing is a joyous occasion! I loved this episode where Wesley Morris delves into the sticky art of canonization in the most joyous, accessible, probing way possible.
WHAT I READ
Book recommendation! I devoured Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman over the last week. It’s like an anti-self-help book in the vein of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson. Sharing one of many quotes that stuck with me in the hopes that maybe it’ll bring you the kind of perverse calm it brought to me:
“Once you give up on the unattainable goal of eradicating all your problems, it becomes possible to develop an appreciation for the fact that life just is a process of engaging with problem after problem, giving each one the time it requires – that the presence of problems in your life, in other words, isn’t an impediment to a meaningful existence but the very substance of one.”
WHAT I WROTE
For Slant Magazine, I interviewed director Robert Eggers about his massive, mythic epic The Northman. I was a little less enthused about the film than anticipated, admittedly, because I just love The Lighthouse that much. Nonetheless, it’s grown on me a bit the more I researched the film — and it definitely deserves to be seen on a big screen!
Hope everyone has a wonderful week! If you’ve made it this far, I hope you know that I appreciate your time and attention — you could give it to any number of distractions. Thank you for making me yours.
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall