‘Tis the season — screener season, that is, for critics! (Who’s that hack they quoted on the White Noise disc?)
I’ll have more to say on the highlights of 2022 later this month, but for now, here are some new arrivals to streaming in December well worth your time and attention!
Avatar, Disney+
It’s back on streaming before the sequel drops on the 16th! If remembering the plot of Pocahontas or FernGully doesn’t jug your memory enough, return to the original Avatar. Sure, it won’t pack the same punch as a giant screen, but the clear visualization and coherent action will undeniably stand out against the sea of CGI sameness right now.
The Awful Truth, Criterion Channel
It’s screwball month on the Criterion Channel! If you’ve never treated yourself to the classical rom-coms that inspired the Nancy Meyers era, time to brush up on your cinema history. Nothing (except, perhaps, the mores) feels dated or irrelevant about these battle-of-the-sexes comedies where the witty banter zings and the physical gags land are executed with aplomb. This “comedy of remarriage” follows the unhappy couple played by Cary Grant and Irene Dunne as they rediscover their love after initiating divorce proceedings. Only in trying to sabotage each other’s next romances do they realize the begrudging affection they still share.
Buried, Hulu
Sometimes filmmaking works real wonders within tight limits. That’s certainly the case for Buried, a real-time single location thriller featuring Ryan Reynolds as a truck driver buried alive after being attacked on a mission in Iraq. It’s just him inside the coffin with a few items — most notably a cellphone — as he fights to stay alive and escape his confinement. Director Rodrigo Cortés and screenwriter Chris Sparling find ingenious ways to make the setting and scenario interesting. The resulting thrills are enough to make you wish Ryan Reynolds would give up the smug self-satsifaction bit for another movie like this again.
Burn After Reading, HBO Max
I’ve actually had somewhat of a turnaround on this movie after absolutely loathing it upon release in 2008. If you enjoy the anarchic comedic stylings of Brad Pitt, then Burn After Reading is probably going to delight you. He’s at his himbo best as Chad (lol), a gym employee who unwittingly finds himself entangled with an embittered CIA agent. In typical Coen Brothers fashion, things get out of control and end up nowhere near where you’d expect as zany personalities exert their will on a situation. No spoilers for those who haven’t seen, but it ends on a dialogue exchange that sums up the filmmakers’ philosophy better than anything else in their formidable body of work.
Elizabethtown, Amazon Prime Video
I wrote something of an apologia for the much-maligned Elizabethtown during COVID on my last newsletter, and I still stand by it. Yes, this is the movie that formalized the “manic pixie dream girl” archetype that engulfed indie dramedy for years. But if you focus on the surface too much, you miss the underlying spirit of Cameron Crowe’s earnestness animating the project. This is a messy film about the messy process of finding yourself amidst the grieving process, and he’s not afraid to take big emotional swings that feel entirely in keeping with the subjective largeness of the situation. I find this sensibility sorely lacking in cinema now — I miss that raw, unprocessed vulnerability.
First Reformed, HBO Max
It’s Advent season for those who celebrate, but if you’re looking for a — shall we say, different — take on the coming of salvation and redemption, gird your loins for Paul Schrader’s First Reformed. This tale of Ethan Hawke’s preacher being shaken at the very foundation of his belief is spiritual cinema at its finest. Schrader’s masterful screenplay and tightly-controlled tonality grapple with the eternal questions of faith while also engaging directly with contemporary concerns about mortality. I called it a modern masterpiece in 2017 in my review out of TIFF, and I stand by that.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Amazon Prime Video
It’s in the title — Judd Apatow’s first feature film is an uproarious sex comedy. But something I learned recently from an interview with the filmmaker is that he needed encouragement to embrace the earnest core of The 40-Year-Old Virgin. That push came from his mentor Garry Shandling, who said of the film’s ending, “You need to find a way to show that his sex is better than his friends’ sex, because he's truly in love.” Now it’s hard to imagine any Apatow movie without such grace to accompany the guffawing.
Krisha, HBO Max
OK, so maybe you’ve missed the timely window to watch Krisha given that this tightly-coiled psychological thriller unfolds as its titular character unravels at a Thanksgiving celebration. But this stylish, searing debut by Trey Edward Shults makes for a cinematic feast any day of the year. In just 81 minutes, he bursts onto the cinematic scene by externalizing and aestheticizing the turbulent inner world of Krisha as she tries — and fails — to reconnect with the family from whom she’s estranged herself with years of erratic behavior. Krisha is tense in the way that’s the most unsettling: it’s familiar.
The Rider, Hulu
This is the part where I brag about interviewing Chloé Zhao before she won the Oscar for Nomadland. I had the feeling she was on to great things when I talked to her about her preceding feature, The Rider, in part because of an answer like this:
“I think a horse is interesting — it’s kind of like a dolphin on land. It’s not as wild as a lion, but it’s not as domesticated as a dog. It’s still powerful and wild and dangerous, but it also can be your best friend and gentle. It’s one of the few animals that can think and work with us, and there’s a reason why human beings feel so deep towards horses. They are the closest to who we are, but also the closest to what nature is. It’s this thing that reflects both, so it gives us a connection to nature.”
The Rider is a different kind of boy-and-horse story, one that reflects an evolving masculinity and a changing country. If I might recommend a double feature, pair it with Lean on Pete (HBO Max) so you can fully engage with my feature about both films!
Win Win, HBO Max
While Win Win did fall from the top slot in my 2011 re-ranking last year, I still unequivocally and wholeheartedly recommend this funny, touching moral drama. As Paul Giamatti’s lawyer and volunteer wrestling coach grapples with how to keep his family afloat through turbulent economic times, he organically faces the macro questions of our society in a human form. It’s a funny, heartwarming way to think deeply about what it means to care and provide for those who you love.
You can always keep up with my film-watching in real-time on the app Letterboxd. I’ve also compiled every movie I’ve ever recommended through this newsletter via a list on the platform as well.
Yesterday, I too received my Spotify Wrapped … and learned that “Leda,” the theme from The Lost Daughter, was my most listened track of 2022. If that isn’t the sign of my general attitude toward the year, I don’t know what is! (Anyways, it still slaps, and I want to watch the movie again now.)
If you don’t remember the pre-#MeToo “cancellation” of director Nate Parker, you can certainly be forgiven for forgetting given how many bigger names eclipsed the fall of this rising talent in 2016. I found this extended interview and interrogation in The Washington Post about what, if any, path of restorative justice might be available to him worth a read. This is challenging journalism, not just a puff piece rehabbing his image. It doesn’t provide easy answers to the tough questions it raises.
I would also recommend reading Alissa Wilkinson’s plea in Vox, “Stop watching movie trailers.” And not only because she offers this sage alternative:
My advice — selfishly, I know — is to pick a few critics, maybe three, who you like, and rely on their writing to help you decide what to watch.
As a reminder, download the Substack app so you can join chats like these! I may add certain bonus content that doesn’t get a full email, and you won’t want to miss the conversation. (This will also free me up to do some of the more “obvious” recommendations elsewhere and use the email to send more fun, curated stuff.)
For Decider, I said SKIP IT to The Immaculate Room on Hulu and The Swimmers on Netflix.
Back to subscribers over the weekend with a little something on an upstart director named Steven Spielberg — maybe you’ve heard of him?
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall