Instant Gratification: “Interstellar” and four other good movies to watch on Amazon Prime and Netflix

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Pick of the week: “Interstellar” (Amazon Prime) — My full review is here. Christopher Nolan’s latest film comes so close to greatness and just can’t quite grab it. The first third of the film is a plausibly realized version of a dystopian Earth, with humans just getting by as the planet seems to be shutting down all around us. It’s when a mission to save the planet takes flight that the film finds its most breathtaking outer-space visuals, but also its most misbegotten ideas, and the attempt to build an emotional father-daughter through line never quite materializes. Still, it’s a terrific attempt.

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“In the Heart of the Sea”: I once caught a Ron Howard movie THIS BIG

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“In the Heart of the Sea” opens Friday at Point, Palace, AMC Fitchburg and Sundance. PG-13, 2:02, two stars out of four.

“If I don’t write it, I fear I shall never write again. If I do write it, I fear it won’t be good enough.”

That’s a young Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) agonizing over writing the novel that will be “Moby Dick,” but I wonder if director Ron Howard and screenwriter Charles Leavitt had similar misgivings about making “In the Heart of the Sea.” Technically the film isn’t a straight adaptation of Melville’s novel, but based on the real-life events that supposedly inspired it (made into a nonfiction book of the same name by Nathaniel Philbrick). But the shadow of the whale and of the Great American Novel loom large over a weak screenplay and some stock seafaring characters.

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“One-Eyed Girl”: Bleak Australian thriller might not become a cult classic

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Movies about cults are difficult to pull off well. At some point, we have to understand how right-thinking people would so completely give themselves over to another person’s control. If done well, in a movie like “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” the effect can be insidious and unsettling, making us question if we’d be strong enough to resist under the same circumstances. If not does well, such as in Jonestown-esque “The Sacrament,” you wonder just how these rubes could so willingly march to their own destruction.

Falling somewhere in between is “One-Eyed Girl,” an Australian thriller that’s being released on DVD in the United States under the Dark Sky Films imprint. Dark Sky usually releases straight-up horror films, but “One-Eyed” is psychological horror if anything, a war of wills between two fallen healers. It looks terrific (first-time director Nick Matthews is a former cinematographer) and has some strong performances, but is narratively shaky.

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Now that “Mystery Science Theater” has a future, “Vol. XXXIV” looks to the past

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“Oh, come on! How can it be American and International?” — Joel Robinson

The seeming geographical contradiction at the heart of the B-movie kingpin studio known as American International Pictures seems only a minor flaw, especially comparing it against the studio’s long and rich history of getting teenage audiences in the ’50s and ’60s to part with their money by any means necessary. In other words, movies like “Earth Vs. The Spider” and “The Beginning of the End” were perfect fodder for Joel and the ‘bots to riff on on “Mystery Science Theater 3000.”

So, it’s only fair that AIP gets its due on the latest DVD boxed set from Shout! Factory, “Vol. XXXIV.” Not only are all four movies in the set all black-and-white cheesy classics from American International — “Viking Women Vs. The Sea Serpent,” “War of the Colossal Beast,” “The Undead” and “The Sea Creature” — but the primary bonus feature on the set is a full-length 90-minute documentary on the studio called “It Was A Colossal Teenage Movie Machine!”

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Instant Gratification: “A Very Murray Christmas” and four other good things to watch on Netflix

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Pick of the week: “A Very Murray Christmas” —  Wes Anderson movies excepted, can Bill Murray just play Bill Murray from now on? While his last couple of movies (“Rock the Casbah,” “St. Vincent”) were underwhelming, Murray is his charming, funny self in this affectionate goof on old celebrity Christmas specials, playing himself snowbound in New York’s Carlyle Hotel and putting on an ad hoc holiday special with the help of Jenny Lewis, Jason Schwartzman, Maya Rudolph — and, oh yeah, Miley Cyrus and George Clooney. It’s a smooth, silly, after-the-kids-are-tucked-in-their-beds kind of holiday special.

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“The Quay Brothers: Collected Short Films”: Nightmares reproduced in miniature

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If the “FREE” box at an estate sale became possessed by a demon and began to make art, the result might look something like a Quay Brothers short film. The famed brothers work in miniatures, bringing broken dolls and misshapen puppets to chilling life in a pocket universes of rusty gears, peeling paint and dirty mirrors.

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Instant Gratification: “Tangerine” and four other good movies to watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime

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“Tangerine” (Netflix) — My full review is here. You might think a film about two transgender prostitutes working the streets of Los Angeles on Christmas Eve might be a bit of a downer, but Sean Baker’s film is bright, kinetic and awfully funny, even as it poignantly shows the power of friendship among those living on the margins of society.

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“Racing Extinction”: Fighting to save the planet, one caper at a time

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“It’s beautiful, but it’s disgusting.”

That’s a quote from an activist looking at footage from a special camera that can detect carbon emissions from cars and trucks, even people, depicted in clouds of brilliant blue. It is beautiful to look at, but, of course, sobering as to its effects on climate change.

That quote could also serve as a mantra for several recent environmental documentaries, including “Chasing Ice” and the new “Racing Extinction,” which played at the Sundance Film Festival and now has its premiere on the Discovery Channel this Wednesday at 8 p.m. CST. This new wave of films wants to make environmental films that aren’t just educational and enraging but poignant, exciting — and even beautiful.

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Gone in an Instant: Five great movies leaving Netflix at the end of November

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Got some extra time this Thanksgiving weekend with the family? Good, because you’ll want to curl up and catch up on some classic movies that are leaving Netflix as of Tuesday, Dec. 1.

The end of the month is the time that Netflix usually quietly disposes of movies in its catalog, while it adds new movies and TV shows constantly. This monthly column draws attention to five good ones that you really ought to catch if you haven’t yet.

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“Creed”: A graceful passing of the baton that’s anything but rocky

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“Creed” is now playing at Point, Palace, AMC Fitchburg and Sundance Cinemas. PG-13, 2:12, three and a half stars out of four.

Anyone who wants to understand how formula doesn’t dictate form should watch the new “Creed” and this summer’s “Southpaw” back-to-back. Both are boxing dramas that follow a similar arc, hitting many of the same notes. But while “Southpaw” felt forced and melodramatic, “Creed” is a hugely entertaining and rousing film. Same ingredients, different result.

It helps that “Creed” is following in the footsteps of the master, 1976’s “Rocky.” In many ways, this is the seventh installment in the four-decade-old series, and the best since the original. But it’s also very much its own movie, with its own feel and texture, its own hero, and a graceful handing of the baton from one champ to the next.

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