Compared to the year’s other films centered on dysfunctional families, whether hammy (I, Tonya) or naturalist (Lady Bird), My Happy Family is a gentle tribute to dignity: Manana (Ia Shugliashvili) is never less than noble in her constant dedication to her family, even as she determines that to preserve her sanity she must move out of the apartment she shares with them and lay down roots in a pad of her own. That corpse’s identity is left as vague as Kretzer’s reason for committing this apparent murder. And now that we’re social-distancing, we need more good movie options than … Maybe he’s waiting for Death, but most likely he’s waiting for Peggy (played as an adult by Anna Paquin), who disowned him and has no intention of forgiving him his sins. In doing so, she draws a line directly from the 13th amendment, to today’s America, which has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. In December 2019, the series was renewed for a second season. Where his first films almost had the aesthetic of a videogame come to life—they’re about as close to a big screen adaptation of Streets of Rage as you’re ever going to find—Apostle might as well represent Evans’ desire to be taken seriously as a visual director and auteur. Davis’ brutal performance, made all the more potent by her avalanche of makeup and glistening sweat, perfectly sets the scene. The scene plays out one third of the way into Martin Scorsese’s new film, The Irishman, named for Frank’s mob world sobriquet, and replays in its final shot, as Frank, old, decrepit and utterly, hopelessly alone, abandoned by his family and bereft of his gangster friends through the passage of time, sits on his nursing home bed. Peggy serves as Scorsese’s moral arbiter. It’s also a portrait of childhood cast in the shadow of dispassionate brutality, and what a young girl must do to find safety in a world defined by bloodshed. The Wolf of Wall … Ultimately, this is a movie about the inescapable innate grief of immigrant stories, a companion piece to contemporary independent cinema like Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which captures the dangers facing immigrants on the road and at their destinations with brutal neorealist clarity. Jong-su encounters a childhood acquaintance, Shin Hae-mi (Jong-seo Joon), who apparently he interacted with just once as a kid by calling her “ugly.” Anyways, Hae-mi’s all grown up and claims to have had plastic surgery; she and Jong-su strike up a relationship. The first-time co-direction from onscreen performer Terry Jones (who only sporadically directed after Python broke up) and lone American Terry Gilliam (who prolifically bent Python’s cinematic style into his own unique brand of nightmarish fantasy) moves with a surreal efficiency. The less you know about Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation, the better. Another social outcast, the rotund Neil latches onto Norman, becoming his new best friend (whether Norman wants one or not). It’s probably the best choice for ringing in 2021, and Netflix has plenty to keep you entertained. Madagascar. She is the only Asian student at her school, an immigrant whose underemployed and linguistically challenged father struggles to run her household. We see Jesse Plemmons in the next shot picking up Jessie Buckley in his worn car. Through a series of interviews with former collaborators, friends and family, Schwarz helps paint a picture of an extraordinary boy who lived so far outside what was considered “normal,” he had no choice but to blaze his own trail. A Serious Man is one of the most fascinating, maybe even heartfelt, renderings of a Kafkaesque sensibility that I’ve seen. As Paul would say: Right on. Fortunately, Lana Condor and Noah Centineo can get it. English Aziz Ansari: Buried Alive: November 1, 2013: 1 hour, … If you strip away its exterior particulars, you’ll be left with the bones of a coming-of-age story. —Andy Crump, Year: 2020 Director: Harry Bradbeer Stars: Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Louis Partridge, Helena Bonham Carter, Susie Wokoma, Frances de la Tour, Burn Gorman, Adeel Akhtar Genre: Thriller, Adventure Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92% Rating: PG-13, Someone’s finally done right by Millie Bobby Brown and cast her as a fully fleshed out character. Whichever, The Master will absolutely refuse to give you what you want. —Kenneth Lowe, Year: 1979 Director: George Miller Stars: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90% Rating: R Runtime: 93 minutes, George Miller’s first foray into the dystopian world of Mad Max is distinctly less fantastical than the more colorful and grandiose films that would follow, ala Beyond Thunderdome—the original Mad Max by comparison is lean, mean, grounded and misanthropic in its aims. It’s a fitting juxtaposition because the film sandwiched between the two moments is about the fallacies that drive our neat and tidy narratives about love. An adaptation of Barry Crump’s novel Wild Pork and Watercress, Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople thrives on upending preconceived notions. What’s refreshing about the film is that Lee always brings up the possibility that “none of the above” is a perfectly viable answer for both Nola and for single women—a game changer in 1986. A new Netflix movie called “The Prom” took second place. When they don’t, we look for other signs, and we wait, left only with patience—to watch, and to never stop watching, and to sit with the weight of that, to afford the cost of empathy. Perhaps they’re not wrong, but it is to Cuarón’s immense credit as a thoughtful technician and storyteller that he does, in fact, pull it off. It all works. Like Connie, they thrive on their wits and endless inventiveness—the thrill comes in marveling at how far it can take them. Photo: Netflix, Haishang Films, Lost City and TriStar Pictures . With a wink here, a smile there and a stock-still but knowing glance at viewers, Brown is a dynamo, full of vigor, cheer and enough pathos to make the sub-theme of civil unrest and social change feel real and relevant to children on the cusp of teenhood and teens on the cusp of adulthood. Connie escapes, determined to get his brother out of jail—either through bail money or other means. Lu Over the Wall isn’t a movie that takes itself seriously, and for the average moviegoer, that’s very much a trait worth embracing. UNLIMITED TV SHOWS & MOVIES. It’s about the mystery of identity and how one can find identity by taking on the identity of something other, or can find it when looking in a mirror—not for the physical self but for the spirit. Mr. Peabody & Sherman. When Hae-mi returns to Korea, she—to Jong-su’s suppressed chagrin—has a rich new boyfriend in tow. Special ist eine Netflix-Serie über den jungen Ryan, der an Zerebralparese leidet. It’s a lot like living on the Internet these days; the impossibility of crafting an “authentic self,” negligible the term may be, is compounded by a cultural landscape that refuses to admit that “authenticity” is as inauthentic a performance as anything else. That’s what he does, and he does it better than anyone else. —Tim Grierson, Year: 2012 Director: Chris Butler, Sam Fell Stars: Kodi Smt-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin Genre: Animation, Fantasy Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89% Rating: PG Runtime: 96 minutes, The beautifully crafted stop-motion film ParaNorman opens with two important pieces of information. All of it amounts to a one-step-forward-one-step-back appraisal: There is much to cull from the travails of Andromache the Scythian (Charlize Theron), an immortal warrior who, thousands of years later, still questions the purpose of her own endlessness, and sequels, given Netflix’s ostensibly unlimited resources, are all but guaranteed—but one wishes for more capably clear action auteurism, even when Prince-Bythewood’s action chops confidently step up. It’s a film typical of both Chang Cheh and the Shaw Brothers: high budget, great costumes, beautiful sets and stylish action. —Kenji Fujishima, Year: 1986 Director: Spike Lee Stars: Tracy Camila Johns, Spike Lee, John Canada Terrell, Tommy Redmond Hicks Genre: Comedy, Romance Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91% Rating: R Runtime: 85 minutes, An explosively frank feature debut that immediately announced Lee’s brave, fresh new voice in American cinema, She’s Gotta Have It, shot like a documentary, is a levelheaded exploration of a young black woman named Nola (Tracy Camilla Johns) trying to decide between her three male lovers, while also flirting with her apparent bisexuality, in order to, first and foremost, figure out what makes her happy. Killing himself. The film encourages self-reflection, but not at the expense of either its narrative or the viewing experience. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. For as many times as Dick has been adapted, this is perhaps the one time the go-for-broke energy and imagination of his work has made it into the cinema (Blade Runner is something else entirely). —Dom Sinacola, Year: 2007 Director: Greg Mottola Stars: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader, Seth Rogen, Martha MacIsaac, Emma Stone Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88% Rating: R Runtime: 113 minutes, Every generation of teens has its generation of teen movies, and Greg Mottola’s Superbad is the epitome of mine. But the documentary ends up being less about tracking down the film canisters than being an exploration of nostalgia, friendship and the allure of mentors. In Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera), my friends and I had a mirror for our own insecurity and awkwardness—they were our modern-day Anthony Michael Halls. Learn more about our use of cookies and information. —Jim Vorel, Year: 2018 Director: Lee Chang-dong Stars: Ah-in Yoo, Jong-seo Jeon, Steven Yeun Genre: Drama Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95% Rating: NR Runtime: 148 minutes, Eight years after critical hit Poetry, Korean director Lee Chang-dong translates a very brief and quarter-century old story by Japanese master novelist Haruki Murakami into something distinctly Korean, distinctly contemporary (spoiler warning: there’s a news clip of Trump) and distinctly Lee Chang-dong. The film begins with a tragedy, and within 10 minutes of that opening handily out-grudges The Grudge by leaving ghosts strewn on the floor and across the stairs where his protagonists can trip over them. —Jim Vorel, Year: 2010 Director: Edgar Wright Stars: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Brie Larson, Chris Evans, Alison Pill, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzman, Kieran Culkin Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81% Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 113 minutes, In many ways, all of Edgar Wright’s films have been romantic comedies in some fashion. And the film is at its best when it avoids being programmatic, lets its visuals pulse before you. Connie is played by Robert Pattinson in a performance so locked-in from the first second that it shoots off an electric spark from the actor to the audience: Just sit back, he seems to be telling us. A cross-dissolve cascade of crude shots details the interior of a farmhouse or an apartment, or the interior of an interior. Most of the time, what he’s doing consists of overly referential homage mashups with dialogue that would give most screenwriters carpal tunnel. We howl with laughter, though we can’t help feeling bad for every poor bastard caught on the receiving end of trademark Iannucci verbal abuse, which typically means we end up feeling bad for every character in his films. Lots of streaming deals shifted as the year changed from 2020 to 2021, so January has brought plenty of shake-ups—and Netflix was not spared. JOIN NOW SIGN IN. In film, silence is neither mortal nor venial sin—it’s actually a virtue. Most of John Hughes’ ’80s oeuvre centers on the cringe-worthy struggle of X character getting Y other character to notice their existence in order to have Y inevitably fall for X. Rather than spending your time scrolling through categories, trying to track down the perfect film to watch, we’ve done our best to make it easy for you at Paste by updating our Best Movies to watch on Netflix list each week with new additions and overlooked films alike. Bruce Lee’s most essential film draws upon the classic tournament structure to give a variety of interesting fights (even for a confused-looking John Saxon), but it also shines in any of the other moments where it’s following Lee as he snoops around Han’s fortress, uncovering his drug manufacturing schemes. —Dom Sinacola, Year: 1973 Director: Robert Clouse Stars: Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly Genre: Marital Arts, Action Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% Rating: R Runtime: 99 minutes. His parents’ faltering union isn’t just a detail used to add depth to a certain character. It’s a large subject for any movie to tackle, but the beauty of 20th Century Women is that the warmly empathetic Mills never loses track of the characters’ anguished beating hearts. Scenes from the unfinished film appear in Shirkers, tipping the audience off to the fact that there will be a happy-ish resolution to Tan’s quest. —Toussaint Egan, Year: 1971 Director: Stanley Kubrick Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Adrienne Corri, Miriam Karlin Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88% Rating: R Runtime: 136 minutes, As with most (well, probably all) of Stanley Kubric’s book-to-screen adaptations, A Clockwork Orange remixes several aspects from Anthony Burgess’s novel, and probably for the better (at least Alex [a terrifyingly electric Malcolm McDowell] isn’t a pedophile in Kubrick’s film, for example). Their failure to conceive hints that they’re not young anymore and, with that, exacerbates the feelings of regret they have about the career decisions they made. The pleasure of sitting with Baldwin’s words, and his words alone, is exquisite. Scorsese grew up loving Westerns, and Taxi Driver could be his version of The Searchers—except his man-out-of-time finds no redemption. —Tim Grierson, Year: 2019 Directors: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Kathleen Hepburn Stars: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Violet Nelson, Barbara Eve Harris Genre: Drama Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97% Rating: NR Runtime: 105 minutes, Nothing pays off in The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open. —Andy Crump, Year: 2017 Directors: Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Groß Stars: Ia Shugliashvili, Merab Ninidze, Berta Khapava Genre: Drama Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100% Rating: NR Runtime: 119 minutes, It’s a shame Netflix felt like Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß’s My Happy Family deserved a burial, that the company didn’t bother pushing the film for awards season and neglected to give it a boost in visibility for the average consumer. Special. And so do we. And it’s clear that Watts (co-scripting with Christopher Ford) wants Cop Car to serve as a downbeat commentary about the futility of escape. The brilliance of his portrayal of Alien, a Scarface-aspiring dirt-bag, is that no matter how outlandishly over-the-top it goes—“Look at my shit!”—there remains a deeply unsettling edge to the performance that suggests a white-trash nightmare who could do real damage to those around him. Anvari, himself of a family that eventually fled the Ayatollah’s rule, has made Under the Shadow as statement of rebellion and tribute to his own mother. What appears to be a sticking point for some critics and audiences, particularly Western ones, is the seemingly erratic tone, from sentiment to suspense to giddy action to whimsy to horror to whatever it is Jake Gyllenhaal is doing. This quality is the very essence of film, and it is glorified—and rightly so—in Hugo, a cinematic tribute to the art of movies and to art itself. The artistic direction illustrates such a love for detail and texture that every bit of scenic design, from the town hall to a plastic bag caught in a fence, creates a perfect world for this story. —Mark Rozeman, Year: 2020 Director: Remi Weekes Stars: Wunmi Mosaku, Sope Dirisu, Matt Smith Rating: NR Runtime: 93 minutes, Nothing sucks the energy out of horror than movies that withhold on horror. —Josh Jackson, Year: 2019 Directors: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie Stars: Adam Sandler, Julia Fox, Eric Bogosian Genre: Thriller Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92% Rating: R Runtime: 135 minutes, The proprietor of an exclusive shop in New York’s diamond district, Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) does well for himself and his family, though he can’t help but gamble compulsively, owing his brother-in-law Aron (Eric Bogosian, malevolently slimy) a substantial amount. Soderbergh trusts his audience to intuit what’s going on, and even if you don’t follow the international espionage plot, the violence tells a story known well enough: Mallory must prove herself at every confrontation, underestimated by every man she pummels her way through, punished for ever trusting them in the first place. There’s good reason: Try for a definitive snapshot of a country or a generation, and you risk overreaching or succumbing to pretension. The arrival of Neil also indicates the arrival of the true heart of this endearing film, which is its humor. Holy Grail is, indeed, the most densely packed comedy in the Python canon. You can change (your cookie preferences); by clicking accept, you accept all cookies. DuVernay’s work doesn’t expressly name what we might build in their place, but it demands that those of us watching resist the seduction of sameness disguised as slow progress, and imagine something greater: actual freedom. Other subplots have Scarlett Johansson’s starlet plotting out her unwed motherhood in the public eye and the screen makeover of an unsophisticated cowboy by Ralph Fiennes’ debonairly enunciating director, Laurence Laurentz. (Adding to the despair are the long lines of other expectant couples Richard and Rachel see in the waiting rooms sitting alongside them.) This part of the scene is only significant once we learn that grandma is quite dead. They light up the screen in this documentary; they are the true stars, and they bring the real magic to this story. “It’s hard to even put myself in the mindset of those movies anymore,” he told Paste in 2005. Just before a game, Howard reveals to Garnett his grand plan for a big payday, explaining that Garnett gets it, right? Netflix and third parties use cookies and similar technologies on this website to collect information about your browsing activities which we use to analyse your use of the website, to personalize our services and to customise our online advertisements. It’s actually mundane, though its mundanity can be mitigated—or, really, delineated—via qualifiers: buoyant, bitter, graceful, beautiful, harsh, coltish, doleful, vibrant. —Tim Basham, Year: 2018 Director: Sandi Tan Genre: Documentary Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100% Rating: NR Runtime: 96 minutes, Making sense of one’s past can be both a lifelong undertaking and a thorny proposition. The way the film’s story flows into uncharted terrain is part of its spell. Seeing Shideh defy the Khomeini regime by watching a Jane Fonda workout video, banned by the state, is almost as stirring as seeing her overcome her personal demons by protecting her child from a more literal one. —Lee Tyler, Year: 2019 Director: Craig Brewer Stars: Eddie Murphy, Keegan-Michael Key, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Kodi Smit-Mcphee, Snoop Dogg, Ron Cephas Jones, Barry Shabaka Henley, Tip “TI” Harris, Luenell, Tasha Smith, Wesley Snipes Genre: Comedy, Drama Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97% Rating: R Runtime: 118 minutes, “I want the world to know I exist,” Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) declares in Dolemite Is My Name. It doesn’t even try to be a great movie, really, it simply tries to dissect the life of the mind of the other, and to do that by any cinematic means possible. In his adaptation of Brian Selznick’s novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Scorsese weaves together his many passions and concerns: for art, for film, for fathers and father-figures. Netflix's sci-fi library is quite broad. When the owner of his restaurant (Dustin Hoffman) won’t let him experiment in the kitchen and his social-media ignorance leads to a very public feud with a food critic (Oliver Platt), he quits and buys a food truck. But Weeks is equally invested in making his viewers leap out of their skins. There are penalties to these punches and consequences to these kicks—there should be little doubt that The Grandmaster is not just a masterpiece of its genre but one of Kar Wai Wong’s best. —Jim Vorel, Year: 2017 Director: Mike Flanagan Stars: Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood Rating: N/A Runtime: 103 minutes, Director Mike Flanagan’s Gerald’s Game trims fat, condenses and slims, stripping away some of the odder quirks of Stephen King’s novel to get at the heart of themes underneath. Adapted from a French graphic novel by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette, Snowpiercer is a sci-fi thriller set in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world. And in Superbad’s constant dick jokes (care of a script by namesakes Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg), we had an accurate representation of the way we all talked, maturity be damned. This is true of slow-burn cinema of any stripe, but Kusama slow-burns to perfection. Year: 2018 Director: Mamoru Hosoda Stars: Haru Kuroki, Moka Kamishiraishi, Gen Hoshino Genre: Anime Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91% Rating: PG Runtime: 98 minutes, Most, if not all, of Mamoru Hosoda’s original films produced in the past decade function, to some degree or another, as exercises in autobiography. Regardless, as an ode to the history of movies, this film is a success. Iannucci asks us to laugh at an era not known for being especially funny. A wonder of slapstick and deadpan silliness, The Naked Gun makes jokes about terrorists, gay panic, boobs, even “The Star-Spangled Banner.” There’s a character named Pahpshmir. However, Apostle forces its way into the year-end conversation of 2018’s best horror cinema through sheer style and verve. That doesn’t happen. The first part of the film is spent relishing in its performances and its craft (luminous 65mm photography and fastidious period detail)—what you’d expect from Paul Thomas Anderson, really—and you’ll find Dodd’s cult suspect and you’ll think you’ll predict the path the story will take. After Erica walks out on him, an inebriated Mark goes back to his Harvard dorm room and disses Erica with aspersions to her character and bra size on the school’s social page for everyone to see while also creating a new social website which, with help from a few friends, eventually becomes Facebook. It wouldn’t be much fun to reveal where Sacred Deer goes from there, but Sacred Deer may be Lanthimos’s most visually and sonically ambitious work—technically, it’s pristine—clever without ever quite deciding precisely what it’s about. It is about Orson Welles, showing himself. Did they focus on their art at the expense of parenthood? “I only did what you should,” the poor doomed bastard says before Frank drags him out to the street and crushes his hand on the curb. The movie will be produced by Silvergate Media. A former dramatic actor, Nielsen rejuvenated his career by playing Frank Drebin, a hapless L.A. police detective trying to prevent the assassination of Queen Elizabeth. Ryan O'Connell's semi-autobiographical comedy earned four Emmy nods, including Outstanding Short Form Series. The Irishman spans the 1950s to the early 2000s, the years Frank worked for the Bufalino crime family, led by Russell (Joe Pesci, out of retirement and intimidating). Or is the director drawn to stories that reflect the struggle of women to claim independence in their lives by shedding old scars or ghosts, be they literal or figurative? The movie is a “story,” which means some parts might be invented or exaggerated, and because it’s “by Martin Scorsese,” the whole film is filtered through one artist’s perspective on another. He invites us to look deeper and listen harder, as if the answers can be gleaned from closer study. He’s unafraid of breaking away from the film’s major arcs for the sake of digressions that fill us in on both historical context and characters’ backstories. The documentary traces the strange, mysterious journey of the project, which was waylaid by Georges sneaking off with the reels of film with a vague promise of finishing the work. Gone is the precision of combat of The Raid, replaced by a clumsier brand of wanton savagery that is empowered not by honor but by desperate faith. That TATBILB allows Lara Jean to accomplish this not in spite of but through the fanfic-favorite trope of “fake dating” another, less-risky letter recipient (Noah Centineo’s ridiculously charming Peter Kavinsky) is a story strength. —Tim Grierson, Year: 2006 Director: Martin Scorsese Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone Genre: Drama, Thriller Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91% Rating: R Runtime: 152 minutes, At times truly funny and at others brutally violent, Scorsese’s ambitious gangster flick spends equal time exploring the deceitful inner workings of the Boston Special Investigation Unit and it’s pro-crime counterpart, the Frank Costello-led Irish mafia. Then you get to the “processing” scenes and realize that you’re not ready for what PTA wants to say: that everything is far more complex and far more simple than we make it to be; that we can never really be what we want; that evolution is pain folded in on itself and multiplied, over and over. It’s one of the best movies Stone has ever made—and easily one of the best of the year. Movies can scare audiences in a variety of ways, of course, but the very least a horror movie can be is scary instead of screwing around. Of course, Life of Brian isn’t the first film about Jesus (or: Jesus adjacent) to focus on the human side of the so-called savior—Martin Scorsese’s take popularly did so less than a decade later—but it feels like the first to leverage human weakness against the absurdity of the Divine’s expectations. Louisa or Lucy is forthcoming, a fountain of personality and knowledge and interests. Being hailed as his “comeback” role, Dolemite finds Murphy in fit comedy shape, tackling this lead part with gusto. There are lots of stand-out scenes in Special, a new, significantly autobiographical Netflix show by Ryan O’Connell.There’s one of the most frank depictions of gay sex on TV in a … With this out-and-out masterpiece, del Toro cemented his position as one of this generation’s most exciting and talented visionaries. A figure who could have been an offensive caricature in the wrong hands, Dolemite, in Craig Brewer’s film, is so much more; we go beyond the surface of the character, exploring one man’s quest for stardom and the entrepreneurial risks he took to be the talk of the town. He retells the story of a boy (Hugo Cabret, played by Asa Butterfield) in search of a way to complete his father’s work. A paint bomb goes off in their bag, staining the money and the criminals’ clothes. We get a film befitting of Moore’s legacy while simultaneously reminding audiences the star power of Eddie Murphy. The animated movie “Charming” is the only other Netflix movie in the top 10 this week. Nowadays, when we hear a “flesh wound,” a “ni!” or a “huge tracts of land,” our first thoughts are often of having full scenes repeated to us by clueless, obsessive nerds. Warhol’s Factory did the same thing (Schwarz makes a number of allusions to Warhol), but where Warhol grew to resent his superstars, John Waters, Divine, Mink Stole and the rest of them all seemed to genuinely like one another. Being a woman in public is bad for your health in Kabul. But there’s “whimsical” and there’s “weird,” and Lu Over the Wall ventures well past the former and into the latter before director Masaaki Yuasa gets through the opening credits. It’s Official: … Every narrative detail, demanding resolution, goes mostly unnoticed: When Rosie (Violet Nelson) takes money from Áila’s (co-director Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) purse, for example, we expect that the ensuing time they spend together, the 90 minutes or so, will teach Rosie a lesson, will encourage her to return the bills. Fortunately, it isn’t a serious film, which makes a nice change of pace from the Guy Ritchie movies and the BBC series, which never give in to the idea that tracking clues and apprehending villains could actually be fun. The late actor’s appearance in Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the August Wilson adaptation from director George C. Wolfe and writer Ruben Santiago-Hudson, is equal parts actorly showcase, angry eulogy and comprehensive lament—boiled together in the sweaty kitchen of a ‘20s Chicago recording session. —Andy Crump, Year: 2016 Director: Barry Jenkins Stars: Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, Trevante Rhodes, Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Janelle Monáe Genre: Drama Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98% Rating: R Runtime: 110 minutes, What’s remarkable about Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight is that it’s hardly remarkable at all. His name is Martin (Barry Keoghan), a moody teen who seems as lobotomized as the other characters. In 2016, he resurfaced for the drama Mr. Church, his performance praised but the film critically panned. Thankfully, with those changes come plenty of new additions, like some actually great Netflix originals and a few bangers from our good pal Martin Scorsese. Lead Animator Travis Knight and his sprawling team of animators, designers, and fabricators execute the vision with great flair. Their characters are locked in a cosmic struggle with a nameless adversary, but the narrative’s gaze is focused inward: On the Smiths, on brothers, on how far a relationship must stretch before it can be repaired. It takes a deft hand and a rare talent to make tyranny and state sanctioned torture so funny. The director shows sympathy for Ricky’s innocence, which is reflected in the film’s grand-adventure style. Teen Kim ( Raffey Cassidy ) and some bad stuff happens art at expense! Subject of the best Christmas movies and specials on Netflix in November 2020 more potent her. She—To Jong-su ’ s cruiser the bones of a tough cookie than he—with his fondness for gangsta rap all... Its design and execution Netflix 's action-adventure offerings, or the special movie netflix experience sanctioned torture funny..., each neatly tucked and folded against the luggage ’ s just happens have! Identity is left as vague as Kretzer ’ s a collision of and! 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