Pick of the week: “Boogie Nights“: Paul Thomas Anderson’s ensemble drama about the heyday of ’70s porn is wildly entertaining and ambitious, with terrific performances from Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Category Archives: Instant Gratification
Instant Gratification: “Moonrise Kingdom” and four other good movies to watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime
Pick of the week: “Moonrise Kingdom“ (Netflix) — Wes Anderson’s ode to young love is him at his Wes-est, for sure. But it’s also poignant and funny, as two adolescents who meet while summering on a vacation island run away together, a cadre of disillusioned middle-aged adults (including Bruce Willis, Bill Murray and Edward Norton) in pursuit.
Instant Gratification: “Dear White People” and four other good movies to watch on Netflix
Pick of the week: “Dear White People“: My full review is here. Justin Simien’s bold, funny and complex comedy looks at several African-American students trying to navigate the identity minefield of a “post-racial” campus, including a biracial activist, a gay nerd, and a dean’s son who can calibrate just how “street” he needs to be in a given situation. It’s a little flabby in spots, but I found this a bracing film that that accuses, and then flips the mirror back on the accusers.
Instant Gratification: “Lawrence of Arabia” and four other good movies to watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime
Headshot of Irish actor Peter O’Toole (L) and Egyptian-born actor Omar Sharif in a still from the film, ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ directed by David Lean, 1962. (Photo by Columbia Pictures/Courtesy of Getty Images)
Pick of the week: “Lawrence of Arabia” (Netflix) — This must be a huge honor for “Lawrence of Arabia” to be the Instant Gratification Pick of the Week, right? I mean, I could have gone with “Byzantium,” but I thought I’d throw a little love the way of literally one of the greatest movies ever made. Anyway, David Lean’s epic starring Peter O’Toole as T.E. Lawrence, the British adventure entranced and seduced by the desert sands, is a wonderful movie, and is presented here in its diamond-sharp HD restored edition.
Instant Gratification: “Timbuktu” and four other good films on Amazon Prime and Netflix
Pick of the week: “Timbuktu“ (Amazon Prime) — My full review is here. A small town in Mali chafes under the ironclad rule of fundamentalist Muslims in this Oscar-nominated drama which makes both oppressors and oppressed into three-dimensional human beings.
Instant Gratification: “Two Days, One Night” and four other good movies to watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime
“Two Days, One Night” (Netflix) — My full review is here. Marion Cotillard plays a working-class woman who must convince her fellow employees to forego their bonuses or else she’ll be laid off. From such a small struggle, Cotillard’s unshowy performance and the Dardennes Brothers naturalistic direction make for a film that’s full of drama and suspense, as well as a resonant look at an economy that turns fearful workers on one another.
Instant Gratification: “A Most Violent Year” and four other good movies to watch on Amazon Prime and Netflix
Pick of the Week: “A Most Violent Year” (Amazon Prime) — J.C. Chandor’s thriller about an ambitious heating oil salesman (Oscar Isaac) who tries to keep his hands clean (or clean enough) in a world of crime and corruption owes an obvious debt to great ’70s films by Sidney Lumet, Francis Ford Coppola and William Friedkin. But its exploration of the intersection between capitalism and morality seems utterly relevant in an age of “Corporations are people too, my friends.”
Instant Gratification: “The Hurt Locker” and four other good movies to watch on Netflix Instant
Pick of the week: “The Hurt Locker” — My full review is here. Kathryn Bigelow’s unrelenting tense 2009 Oscar winner follows a three-man bomb squad in Iraq, trying to stay ahead of insurgents who have made every patch of ground a potential deathtrap. Bigelow rivals Michael Mann in her staging of spectacular, nerve-shredding action sequences that illuminate the character of the people involved.
Instant Gratification: “Tig” and four other good movies to watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime
“Tig” (Netflix) — My full review is here. This documentary on comedian Tig Notaro is intimate and revealing, even for a film about a standup comedian who turned her bout with breast cancer into a legendary stand-up show. The doc looks at what comes after for Notaro, as she struggles to figure out the next chapter in her professional life, falls in love and pursues her dream of having a baby.
Instant Gratification: “Wild Canaries” and four other good movies new to Netflix and Amazon Prime
“Wild Canaries” (Netflix) — My full review is here. It’s like Woody Allen’s “Manhattan Murder Mystery” set among the artisanal cupcake set, as a Brooklyn couple try to figure out who killed the elderly lady in their building. It’s lightweight, fizzy fun, an homage to screwball comedies of the days of yore.
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