Tag Archives: instant gratification

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

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Pick of the week: “Ex Machina“ (Amazon Prime) — My full review is here. In Alex Garland’s sleek sci-fi thriller, a young programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) is tasked with evaluating the humanity of an android (Alicia Vikander) built by his boss (a great Oscar Isaac). Naturally, complications ensue. Garland largely dodges deeper questions about humanity and identify, instead making a beautiful and tense movie that’s something special.

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Instant Gratification: “Anna Karenina” and four other good films new to Netflix

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Pick of the week: “Anna Karenina“: Director Joe Wright and actress Kiera Knightley reunite from “Atonement” in this bracing adaptation of Tolstoy’s novel, written by playwright Tom Stoppard, in which sets blur into each other, and country houses become stages, the better to heighten the artificiality of Anna’s life. At the center of this maelstrom, Knightley holds her own with a finely-tuned performance as the tragic heroine.

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Instant Gratification: “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part I” and four other good movies on Amazon and Netflix

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“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part I” (Amazon Prime/Hulu) — My full review is here. It’s all setup for “Mockingjay — Part 2,” coming Nov. 20, but it’s effective setup, with Katniss Everdeen and the rebels on the run, planning, waiting, hoping. Those hoping for action in this film will be disappointed — Katniss fires exactly one arrow in the film — but those looking for mood will be swayed, especially as Jennifer Lawrence sings the haunting “The Hanging Tree.” Part 2 better pay off, though.

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Instant Gratification: “Beasts of No Nation” and four other good movies on Netflix and Paramount Vault

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Pick of the week: “Beasts of No Nation” (Netflix) — My full review is here. This brutal and beautiful film follows a West African boy who gets conscripted as a rebel child soldier under the tutelage of a charismatic Commandant (Idris Elba). Sections of the film are hard to watch, as the boy witnesses (and takes part in) unspeakable acts of cruelty, but we somehow hang onto a thread of empathy for him, especially as the war ends and he struggles with his guilt and grief.

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

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Pick of the Week: “Back of the Future“ (Amazon Prime) — For the month of October, and apparently only the month of October, Amazon Prime is exclusively streaming Robert Zemeckis’ time-travel comedy-adventure plus its lesser two sequels. Watching the 1985 movie 30 years later really is like traveling back to the future.

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

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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.

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