A Boxing Day treat for you all! As you’re weaning yourself off the Mariah Carey and Macaulay Culkin, turn your attention to things that are dropping off streaming services as contracts expire for 2021. I’ve paid special attention in this edition to familiar favorites that soon may be harder to find, as well as some titles that are only available infrequently on digital services.
Do the Right Thing, Netflix
It’s always the right time to watch Do the Right Thing. Of course, the thematic elements will always remain relevant. But the more you know the plot and the characters, the more you can appreciate what an immaculately crafted movie Spike Lee made. The colors! The camerawork! The editing! We fixate so much on the content that we often lose sight of form, which both matches and amplifies Lee’s masterful yarn.
Dr. Strangelove, HBO Max
I still haven’t watched Don’t Look Up yet (kind of dreading it), and that only deepened when I saw people unfavorably comparing it to Kubrick’s apocalyptic comedy masterpiece Dr. Strangelove. I must admit, I didn’t find the satire particularly funny when I first watched the film because our reality had so closely come to resemble the ridiculous bickering on-screen. I’ve come over to fully appreciate the tricky tonal balance this film navigates — and how the film serves as a hilarious, haunting warning of how easily petty squabbles can distract a population from the rise of fascism in their midst.
Pan’s Labyrinth, Netflix
I’m mixed-positive on Guillermo del Toro’s latest effort Nightmare Alley, where the Oscar-winning director attempts to infuse the film noir style with the lurid colors of his fantasy films. I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I like del Toro most in full fantasy mode like Pan’s Labyrinth, a fairy tale set amidst the Spanish Civil War that does not shy away from the brutality surrounding young protagonist Ofelia. The design is as impeccable on the page as it is on the screen, too.
We should all just be watching Shrek all the time, frankly. I think we’d be happier as a people. For what it’s worth, my family has long been avowed Shrek 2 fanatics for the never-ending clever pop culture references submerged within the world of Far Far Away for the audience’s discovery. (Take note, M*rvel.) But I rewatched the original Shrek last year and gained a renewed appreciation for how effortlessly it establishes a skewed fairytale world populated by eccentric characters. You can’t go wrong with either.
The Social Network, Netflix and Hulu
I really cannot think about how much of my income is dependent upon the protagonist of The Social Network without wanting to curl up in a ball questioning all my life decisions. But that doesn’t stop me from feeling that I need to rewatch this perfect movie to appreciate just how trenchantly Fincher and Sorkin embody and presage the millennial mentality. (Also, Oscar voters still owe the world an explanation and apology for their inexplicable snub of Andrew Garfield in Best Supporting Actor.) If you don’t have time to watch the full movie, just watch the trailer to get a 150-second hit … and then read my essay on why I think it’s one of the most important pieces of pop culture from the last decade.
Stories We Tell, Amazon Prime
This is not an exaggeration: I think about Sarah Polley’s documentary Stories We Tell every day. As the filmmaker investigates an open secret among her family surrounding her late mother, she comes to uncover both a factual and emotional truth. The first of these provides the mystery to propel the film forward narratively, but it’s the latter that sticks with me years later. Polley finds moments of such disarming grace and uncommon wisdom among her kin as they come to terms with the difference between the stories they tell themselves about their past and the factual truth. “I remember feeling so happy that she had found love,” one sibling says of their mother, “and that she had been loved that much.” May we all find such pockets of poise in our own lives.
Tower, Criterion Channel
If you think animation is just for kids — I mean, first and foremost, check yourself. There’s an entire curated section on the Criterion Channel for art-house animation that showcases the wide possibilities for the format besides catering to the imaginations of children. Keith Maitland’s Tower finds a powerful use of rotoscoping animation technology to recapture the immediacy of survivor testimony from a 1966 incident where a gunman opened fire from the University of Texas’ clocktower. Not an easy watch, sure, but one that thrillingly uses the language of cinema to connect the contemporary horror of mass shooters to historical antecedents.
What a Girl Wants, Netflix/HBO Max
A recent meme I saw posted a bunch of movie posters for rom-coms released from roughly 2000-2005 with the caption “I am who I am because they raised me.” Respectfully, they need to answer for their omission of What a Girl Wants, a truly canonical piece of early-aughts culture. (In an early example of CANCEL CULTURE, Warner Bros. had to censor Amanda Bynes flashing a peace sign in the film’s poster to avoid being seen as an anti-Iraq War message.) This story of unconventional empowerment where Bynes’ Daphne both accommodates and bends stuffy aristocratic protocols is a dashing delight through and through. If nothing else, respect the game of the Willa Ford “I Wanna Be Bad” needle drop.
What’s Up, Doc?, HBO Max
Don’t miss the chance to watch this New Hollywood screwball comedy in December because it’s frequently quite hard to stream! Director Peter Bogdanovich expertly manages to both pay homage to classical comedy while also commenting on it in that distinctly ‘70s way. You’re sure to be wowed by both the verbal and physical humor between stars Ryan O’Neal and Barbra Streisand — and amazed at how lazy big-budget movie comedy has gotten these days.
WHAT I WATCHED
A lot of Christmas movies and 2021 catch-up. Oh, and post-booster shot ennui prompted me to rewatch Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love which … I think I might like now?
I’ve also watched all of the TV show Search Party on HBO Max now for an upcoming piece. Apologies to everyone who I ignored when they told me I needed to watch it. The show is good!
WHAT I HEARD
I’ve been jamming out to “Leda,” the theme of the protagonist played by Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter. It’s a vibe, as they say.
I really treasured the conversation between Bradley Cooper and Dax Shepard on Armchair Expert recently — it’s worth your time. Cooper has recently become quite guarded in promotional appearances as he’s entered his “serious actor” phase (see: this all-timer NYT celebrity profile from 2018), so it’s remarkable to hear him being so open and vulnerable here. Definitely helps that Shepard is a longtime friend, which was news to me. Beyond just the discussion of art and celebrity, there’s also a refreshingly frank conversation about friendships between guys that I don’t feel really exists much in our culture.
WHAT I READ
Sean Baker’s Red Rocket has started rolling out nationwide, and there’s a good chance you’ll be hearing about its unconventional leading man during awards season. (At least, unless voters want to be complete prudes.) I’d recommend reading up on him in this fascinating Vulture profile: “Simon Rex Doesn’t Want to Be That Guy Anymore.”
Noticing a big trend in the color — or lack thereof — in some of the biggest awards-contending movies this year? Over on Vox, Alissa Wilkinson breaks down why there are so many black-and-white movies in 2021.
WHAT I WROTE
I closed out the year at Slant with three exciting interviews: Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul about his new film Memoria (opens today in NY), Oscar winner and legend of Spanish cinema Pedro Almodóvar about his latest masterwork Parallel Mothers (now open in NY/LA), and perhaps soon-to-be Oscar winner Jonas Poher Rasmussen about the fascinating animated documentary Flee (slowly opening across the country).
I’ll have full year-in-review content of my own soon, but I contributed voting to The Playlist’s top 25 movies of the year — as well as a blurb for a personal favorite, The Lost Daughter. I also got to pen a few words about the show I love to hate (or perhaps it’s the show I hate to love), Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, for their 2021 guilty pleasures list.
(I could also direct you to the awards given out by the critics’ group in which I vote, the New York Film Critics Online. But I actively disliked most of the selections the group made, so you can just Google the winners.)
Also, a dumb and hyperbolic tweet I sent after my ecstatic reaction to Benedetta at NYFF got turned into a social video … enjoy (and go watch the movie on VOD, all ye sinners):
Next week is rankings week! You’ll get my top 10 of 2021 as well as what might become a new tradition — taking another stab at my top 10 list from a decade ago (2011, a stealthily great movie year).
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall