Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
More On:
Peacock
-
Stream It Or Skip It: 'Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story' On Peacock, A Docuseries About The History Of Joe Francis And The Hit Adult Video Series
-
Andy Cohen Reads His Mom's Private Texts On 'WWHL': "My Mom Is Ripping Me A New One"
-
'Yellowstone' Star Denim Richards Says The Fan Response To Colby's Death Has Been "Overwhelming In A Beautiful Way"
-
‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Episode 12 Recap: “Counting Coup”
NBC Universal’s streaming service Peacock staked a lot of its identity on being the new home of The Office, even to the extent that they had the show baked into the tiers of their pricing plan. But if they wanted to tout their movies, too, they’d be well within their rights. Peacock’s offerings are built on a cornerstone of the Universal Pictures library for more mainstream tastes and a smaller selection from their arthouse label Focus Features. The streamer also hosts a wide variety of box office hits and under-the-radar indie flicks from outside their own corporate umbrella. Best of all? It’s all available totally free with some relatively unobtrusive ads (though you will get even more bang for your buck at the Premium tier)!
But where to begin on finding the right movie on the platform for your next viewing? Decider is here to put a feather in your cap by sorting through all of Peacock’s film offerings and providing 50 solid recommendations for any number of moods or preferences. Rather than visit the Scranton branch of Dunder-Mifflin for the umpteenth time, let these accomplished works of cinema transport you and transform you. Whether you’re in the mood for an ’80s or ’90s favorite, a recent indie hit, or a low-budget gem, Peacock has you covered.
‘Friday Night Lights’ (2004)
DIRECTOR: Peter Berg
STARS: Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke, Lucas Black
RATING: PG-13
If you only know Friday Night Lights as the deeply felt small-town drama from television, you don’t know the half of it. Peter Berg’s 2004 film captures the grit and grime of Texas high school football in Odessa, a town known for little besides exporting oil and tossing pigskin. The movie captures the desperation behind the blood, sweat, and tears poured out on the field like few other football movies do. It’s fascinating to see the sport portrayed with so little romanticism, even as it occupies such a fabled position in the town.
‘Support the Girls’ (2018)
DIRECTOR: Andrew Bujalski
STARS: Regina Hall, Haley Lu Richardson, Dylan Gelula
RATING: R
As the so-called #girlboss era slips from powerful to parodic, there’s never been a better time to visit (or revisit) Andrew Bujalski’s incisive workplace comedy Support the Girls. Regina Hall shines as a woman just trying to get through the workday despite all the distractions and disruptions caused by the people she serves. Without getting on any kind of polemical soapbox, he effortlessly conveys the kind of emotional labor that so often falls on the female managerial class. And what better vantage point into the wide range of humanity than a Southern “breastaurant” modeled on Hooters?
‘Clockwatchers’ (1998)
DIRECTOR: Jill Sprecher
STARS: Toni Colette, Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow, Alanna Ubach
RATING: PG-13
Move over, Office Space. There’s a new cult classic comedy from the late ‘90s about the drudgery of officework, and it’s Jill Sprecher’s Clockwatchers. Don’t believe us? Talk to our friend, John Early, about it.
‘Afternoon Delight’ (2013)
DIRECTOR: Joey Soloway
STARS: Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, Josh Radnor
RATING: R
Who’s the comedic dynamo you need more of in your life? It’s been Kathryn Hahn all along! Joey Soloway’s Afternoon Delight is one of the rare opportunities she gets to be at the center of a narrative, and she of course knocks it out of the park. As a sexually frustrated carpool mom dealing with feelings of inadequacy, Hahn’s Rachel makes the questionable move to “rescue” a young stripper and hire her as the family nanny … and life around the house gets a lot more interesting.
‘Scarface’ (1983)
DIRECTOR: Brian de Palma
STARS: Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Steven Bauer
RATING: R
Don’t hold all the dorm room posters against Scarface. Brian de Palma’s crime epic of a Cuban immigrant rising through Miami’s drug cartels has all the trappings of a classic American dream story. It’s just soaked in the kind of cocaine-fueled energy of its leading character, vividly brought to life by Al Pacino at his absolute hammiest. There’s a reason his screaming delivery of “say hello to my little friend!” has become an iconic line … and is worth waiting nearly three hours to hear.
‘Putney Swope’ (1969)
DIRECTOR: Robert Downey Sr.
STARS: Arnold Johnson, Stan Gottlieb, Allen Garfield
RATING: R
Sure, you know Jr. – but what about his father? Robert Downey Sr. was a trailblazing artist at the forefront of culture in his own way. Granted, it was the counterculture. If you want to get a sense of his radical work that embodied the anarchic energy of the ‘60s, start with Putney Swope. This blistering satire spirals outward from a simple concept: the only Black member of an advertising firm’s board becomes its chairman. Half a century later, the film’s unwillingness to pull punches makes it feel as relevant as ever.
‘Burning’ (2018)
DIRECTOR: Lee Chang-dong
STARS: Steven Yeun, Yoo Ah-in, Jong-seo Jun
RATING: Not Rated
If you loved the sincerity of Steven Yeun’s Oscar-nominated turn in Minari, broaden your knowledge of his formidable skills by watching him smolder in Korean drama Burning. This slow-burn of a film features the actor as the mysterious, magnetic Ben, a Gatsby-like nouveau riche South Korean with an unconventional hobby. Ben emerges out of nowhere as a romantic rival to the sheepish Jong-su, and his presence sparks a small flame that will soon engulf their lives. Give it time – the patience of director Lee Chang-dong really pays off.
‘Starred Up’ (2014)
DIRECTOR: David Mackenzie
STARS: Jack O’Connell, Ben Mendelsohn, Rupert Friend
RATING: Not Rated
In 2014, the media told us that Jack O’Connell was the next big star rising in Hollywood. Unfortunately, they all lined up behind the wrong movie (Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken) and missed the movie that best harnesses his talents. In the prison drama Starred Up, the incorrigible O’Connell channels all the energy of a caged bull as he moves from juvenile detention to an adult prison. Though the youngest person locked within the walls, his arrival unsettles and overturns the established order in fascinating and unexpected ways.
‘The House of the Devil’ (2009)
DIRECTOR: Ti West
STARS: Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov
RATING: R
Many people try to vibrate on the wavelength that filmmaker Ti West occupies – that is to say, they want to harken back to retro style while maintaining a distinctly contemporary edge. But few can manage what he does in The House of the Devil, which is to recapture the feeling of ‘80s horror without winking too much at his audience. This story of a babysitting job gone wrong intersects with the slasher film and the haunted house flick without making you feel like you’ve seen this story a dozen times before.
‘Half Nelson’ (2006)
DIRECTOR: Ryan Fleck
STARS: Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Shareeka Epps
RATING: R
We’ve all seen too many white savior dramas where a teacher plops into an under-resourced school and helps inspire a classroom of students. But Half Nelson flips that formula on its head with a story showing that it’s a teacher in need of rescue … and only his student can deliver him from the depths of his addiction. As Dan, the unconventional and radical history teacher with a drug habit, Ryan Gosling has scarcely ever been more electrifying a force on screen.
‘A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints’ (2005)
DIRECTOR: Dito Montiel
STARS: Robert Downey Jr., Shia LaBeouf, Channing Tatum
RATING: R
Adapting your own memoir for your directorial debut might sound like a recipe for navel-gazing, but Dito Montiel manages to pull it off with A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. The film captures with affection and anguish his time growing up on the mean streets of Astoria in 1986. He acknowledges the way the neighborhood simultaneously shaped his life and drove him to look for a new one elsewhere. Phenomenal performances abound, but the real standout is a young Channing Tatum, who gives a ferociously physical performance as Dito’s volatile friend Antonio.
‘Unexpected’ (2015)
DIRECTOR: Kris Rey
STARS: Cobie Smulders, Anders Holm, Gail Bean
RATING: R
The concept of Kris Rey’s Unexpected seems like it would be a bad idea: an inner-city Chicago high school teacher (Cobie Smulders) and her bright student (Gail Bean) both have unplanned pregnancies at the same time. But it’s all in the execution here. Beyond the compassion bursting out of the frame, Rey’s film keeps an incisive edge throughout as the influence of class and racial dynamics exert themselves subtly but powerfully throughout.
‘They Live’ (1988)
DIRECTOR: John Carpenter
STARS: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster
RATING: R
You’ve probably seen the memes of the guy who takes off his sunglasses to see aliens as well as “OBEY” written everywhere around him. It’s time to see They Live, John Carpenter’s sci-fi classic, to understand the full meaning and context. This is a rare politically charged flick to emerge from Reagan-era Hollywood, and the attention it pays to how subliminal messages breed conformity speak to the very reason the film is such a unicorn from its era.
'Dark River' (2018)
DIRECTOR: Clio Barnard
STARS: Ruth Wilson, Sean Bean, Mark Stanley
RATING: Not Rated
British director Clio Barnard channels a grounded earthiness in her work like few other filmmakers can, and her 2018 feature Dark River is no exception. This psychological and pastoral drama features a powerful Ruth Wilson as a sheep shearer who must deal with the unresolved pain of her past upon inheriting her father’s farm. Barnard plunges us into piercing flashbacks that underscore the trauma triggered by Wilson’s Alice fighting her brother tooth-and-nail for tenancy of the property. These 89 minutes feel like they contain the full lifetime of a character.
‘Monsters’ (2010)
DIRECTOR: Gareth Edwards
STARS: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able
RATING: R
You might recognize the name Gareth Edwards from his gigs in the director’s chair for the Star Wars and Godzilla franchises. If you’re ever curious about the audition, so to speak, that lands someone these jobs, check out Edwards’ scrappy triumph Monsters from 2010. This creature feature has little to do with flashy visual effects and everything to do with the power that mysterious organisms can exert over a journalist and tourist traversing the U.S.-Mexico border. Even in Edwards’ humble beginnings, the seeds of big things to come were already blossoming.
‘Big Fan’ (2009)
DIRECTOR: Robert D. Siegel
STARS: Patton Oswalt, Kevin Corrigan, Michael Rapaport
RATING: R
How far does your fandom extend? That’s the question Patton Oswalt’s Paul Aufiero, a parking garage attendant and talk radio enthusiast, has to answer in Big Fan after his favorite Giants player beats him up to the point of hospitalization. If Paul stands up for himself, he runs the risk of imperiling the chances of his beloved team by taking a star player off the field. Oswalt fully leans into the twisted mental logic of his character and keeps us guessing about how he’ll respond to the bitter end.
‘Black Christmas’ (1974)
DIRECTOR: Bob Clark
STARS: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder
RATING: R
Who says all Christmas movies need to be cheerful? Black Christmas will have you seeing red for the holiday season – red for blood, that is. This slasher film following a sorority house stalked by a crazy killer during the Christmas season is exactly the kind of holiday counterprogramming you’re looking for. But ho ho ho-ld up before you unwrap this gift: the kills from this ‘70s horror flick are gruesome and disturbing even by today’s standards.
‘Jennifer’s Body’ (2009)
DIRECTOR: Karyn Kusama
STARS: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody
RATING: R
If your recollection of Jennifer’s Body is that of a tawdry, trashy horror flick featuring a solicitous Megan Fox, then you’re precisely the person who needs to see it again. The studio tragically mismarketed Karyn Kusama’s queer-coded teen vampire film to the kinds of teen boys that Fox’s Jennifer lures into her literal thirst trap. But it’s not for or about them; it’s an uncommonly insightful look at female desire and its limited range of expression in the halls of high school. The film is as fun as it is frightening.
‘The Fly’ (1986)
DIRECTOR: David Cronenberg
STARS: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz
RATING: R
DESCRIPTION:: No name in contemporary body horror says more than David Cronenberg, due in no small part to singular visions like the one realized in The Fly. This ‘80s sci-fi classic features Jeff Goldblum as a scientist exploring teleportation. He seems to be on the verge of a breakthrough with his “telepods” and feels confident enough to test on himself … only to inadvertently cross paths with the tissue of a housefly. The incremental metamorphosis into a hybridized creature is both a testament to the power of screen makeup (it deservedly won an Oscar!) and the danger of hubristic technological development.
‘Better Watch Out’ (2017)
DIRECTOR: Chris Peckover
STARS: Olivia De Jonge, Levi Miller, Ed Oxenbould
RATING: R
‘Tis always the season for scares. Better Watch Out starts out like a typical holiday-themed home invasion flick, but let’s just say what Santa’s bringing this year isn’t the only surprise ahead. Chris Peckover’s clever, modest thriller turns many an expectation on its head to wildly entertaining effect.
‘Listen Up Philip’ (2014)
DIRECTOR: Alex Ross Perry
STARS: Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce
RATING: Not Rated
If you’re unfamiliar with filmmaker Alex Ross Perry, Listen Up Philip is a great place to begin acquainting yourself with one of the major talents to emerge from the American independent cinema scene over the last decade. Here, he fuses the frankness of the naturalistic “mumblecore” style with the more witty, urbane trappings of a New York intelligentsia comedy. His character study of the self-obsessed novelist Philip Lewis Friedman (Jason Schwartzman) in the wake of his professional successes and personal foibles has a bite so sharp and venomous it could draw blood.
‘Shaun of the Dead’ (2004)
DIRECTOR: Edgar Wright
STARS: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost
RATING: R
Edgar Wright’s breakout action-comedy Shaun of the Dead remains a stunning display for a master already in full command of his style. The zippy, zesty adventure following two British schlubs fighting off a zombie invasion lovingly ribs the horror genre while cribbing its pleasures liberally. If nothing else, surely you’ll at least find something to love in the inspired comic pairing of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who make for a kind of jaded Gen X equivalent of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.
‘Meet the Patels’ (2015)
DIRECTORS: Ravi Patel, Geeta Patel
STARS: Ravi Patel, Geeta Patel
RATING: PG
The idea of arranged marriage might sound like something that only exists in a fictional movie, but it’s very much a part of documentary Meet the Patels. Ravi Patel, with the help of his sister Geeta, films the romantic journey that ensues when he indulges his traditional Indian parents’ request to consider the idea. It’s a moving, provocative and ultimately sweet investigation of the relationship between love and marriage.
‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968)
DIRECTOR: George A. Romero
STARS: Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea, Karl Hardman
RATING: Not Rated
Were you a fan of the “social thriller” as configured by Jordan Peele in Get Out? Thank George A. Romero, a pioneer of the subgenre in Night of the Living Dead. What this lo-fi zombie film might lack in scares after 50 years of advances in technology, it more than makes up for in subversive social commentary. It’s living proof that sometimes the most enduring political messages are smuggled through genre films, not blared out from a soapbox in self-important dramas.
‘The Cabin in the Woods’ (2012)
DIRECTOR: Drew Goddard
STARS: Chris Hemsworth, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford
RATING: R
Horror afficionados who know the genre’s tropes like the back of their hand are in for a real treat with The Cabin in the Woods. This razor-sharp satire from the minds of Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon rivals Scream in terms of self-aware thrills. The setup of a college students headed into a wooded environment only to encounter the supernatural might seem clichéd … but then the film takes a step backward and reveals a group of well-versed operators quite literally calling the shots. It’s scary, it’s smart, it’s scary smart.
‘Hide Your Smiling Faces’ (2014)
DIRECTOR: Daniel Patrick Carbone
STARS: Ryan Jones, Nathan Varnson
RATING: Not Rated
There’s little nostalgia for childhood in Hide Your Smiling Faces, but the film is all the better for its clear-eyed take on the coming-of-age story. After two young Jersey boys spot a body alongside a river, they begin to process the nature of death. Filmmaker Daniel Patrick Carbone observes their understanding of mortality from an abstract concept to something concrete with remarkable sensitivity. He renders with grace the parts of growing up that we try to elide, even though they shape us irrevocably.
‘The Proposition’ (2005)
DIRECTOR: John Hillcoat
STARS: Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson
RATING: R
If you think there’s no new ground to trod in the Western, turn your eyes even further west: to Australia. The Proposition takes us back to the 1880s where Guy Pearce’s outlaw Charlie Burns faces a brutal mandate to kill one brother in order to save another sibling. Perhaps the only thing more unsparing than his mission is the land itself of the arid Australian outback.
‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ (2009)
DIRECTOR: Wes Anderson
STARS: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray
RATING: PG
The kids want something silly. The grown-ups want something refined. Meet in the middle with Wes Anderson’s adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox! Everyone can appreciate the cleverness of the stop-motion animation, and the careful craftsmanship (as well as artful workaround for profanity) is sure to be a massive relief to anyone anesthetized by mass-produced family entertainment.
‘The Sacrament’ (2014)
DIRECTOR: Ti West
STARS: Joe Swanberg, AJ Bowen, Kentucker Audley, Amy Seimetz
RATING: R
This side of Cloverfield, there are very few found footage horror films worth your time. There’s none of the now-standard hokey gimmickry in The Sacrament, which essentially reimagines the Jonestown Massacre if Vice-like journalists were there to capture it on camera. This is a chilling look at cults that’s rendered terrifyingly realistically, both by the chosen aesthetic device and the narrative one. The film’s emotional entry point is that one of the video guys is there to help rescue his sister, who has been fully brainwashed into Eden Parish.
‘The Messenger’ (2009)
DIRECTOR: Oren Moverman
STARS: Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton
RATING: R
As messengers delivering the news of a soldier’s passing to their loved ones at home, Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) and Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) are used to getting a wide range of emotional responses to their arrival. But The Messenger examines one interaction in their line of duty that cuts through to something deep within their core – a widow (Samantha Morton) whose calmness in the face of tragedy startles them. Such a reaction inspires such curiosity with Montgomery that he can’t help but investigate and understand her better.
‘Videodrome’ (1983)
DIRECTOR: David Cronenberg
STARS: James Woods, Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits
RATING: R
Cronenberg is an undeniable master of the body horror subgenre, and Videodrome may just be his finest hour. Though this tale of a television executive discovering a channel broadcasting violence is born of an analog era, it has frightening relevancy in a digital age. Decades ago, Cronenberg saw the danger of a people merging with the devices that broadcast their entertainment and crafted a chilling cautionary tale more people should have heeded.
‘Welcome to Me’ (2015)
DIRECTOR: Shira Piven
STARS: Kristen Wiig, James Marsden, Linda Cardellini
RATING: R
There’s always a hint of melancholy and aloofness in Kristen Wiig’s comedy, even dating back to her earliest sketches on SNL, but her turn in Welcome to Me is peak Wiig weird. Here, she stars as Alice, a woman for whom the boundary between garden-variety narcissism and mental illness ranges from thin to non-existent. After winning the lottery, she devotes her earnings to producing a cringeworthy vanity project talk show to feature herself to the world. It’s bonkers, bizarre … and also kind of brilliant as a piece of biting social commentary.
‘Short Term 12’ (2013)
DIRECTOR: Destin Daniel Cretton
STARS: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Lakeith Stanfield
RATING: R
If you know this movie for anything, it’s probably as an incubator of great actors. Short Term 12 features early standout turns from Oscar-winners Brie Larson and Rami Malek along with Lakeith Stanfield, Kaitlyn Dever, Stefanie Beatriz, and more. But Destin Daniel Cretton’s film is worth a watch for the story as well. The story of Larson’s Grace, a supervisor at a home for troubled teens with family issues of her own, is full of raw, vulnerable, and poignant emotion.
‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ (2004)
DIRECTOR: Alfonso Cuarón
STARS: Daniel Radcliffe, Gary Oldman, David Thewlis, Emma Thompson
RATING: PG
You can make an argument for just about any Harry Potter movie as the best, but it’s pretty hard to dispute that Prisoner of Azkaban is the most important of them all. Director Alfonso Cuarón’s infusion of dark ambiance and devilish humor helped the series graduate from kiddie literature into the stuff of serious adult drama. Rather than relegate it forever to the dustbin of fantasy, he grounded it in the realities of teenage anxieties and growing pangs. It’s got a wicked sense of style and fun that set the tone for all that was to come from the franchise on-screen.
Watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on Peacock Premium
‘Palo Alto’ (2014)
DIRECTOR: Gia Coppola
STARS: Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer, Nat Wolff
RATING: R
Let’s just go ahead and say it: the “ick” factor looms large over James Franco’s role in Palo Alto as a high school soccer coach who hits on one of his players. But his involvement should not invalidate all the other people who make the film such a riveting look at teenage boredom and ennui from director Gia Coppola to star Emma Roberts. This is such a singular, striking, and stylish coming-of-age story where the journey is not toward maturity so much as it is to getting accustomed to disappointment and dissatisfaction.
‘Driveways’ (2020)
DIRECTOR: Andrew Ahn
STARS: Brian Dennehy, Hong Chau, Lucas Jaye
RATING: Not Rated
There’s a beautiful, elegant simplicity animated Andrew Ahn’s Driveways. This wholesome tale of a young boy who makes friends with his lonely, elderly neighbor possesses the kind of animating spirit that fills you up with goodness and grace. Films may not be able to change the world, but they can change our hearts – and this has the ability to lift yours.
‘I Am Big Bird’ (2015)
DIRECTORS: Dave LaMattina, Chad N. Walker
STARS: Carroll Spinney
RATING: Not Rated
It’s hard to imagine anyone else other than the late Carroll Spinney as Big Bird after watching this documentary, frankly. I Am Big Bird takes us behind the scenes of Sesame Street to understand how the creation of the series’ most beloved character was so intimately connected to its puppeteer. This is sure to delight Sesame fans old and new.
‘Drag Me to Hell’ (2009)
DIRECTOR: Sam Raimi
STARS: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver
RATING: PG-13
As far as genre mashups go, horror and comedy feel like they’d mix as well as oil and water. But somehow Sam Raimi makes it work in Drag Me to Hell, a supernatural scare-fest that follows the fallout from a loan officer who gets cursed by the gypsy whose mortgage extension she denies. Raimi renders her satanic torments with such unrelenting intensity that it’s entirely possible you won’t know whether to laugh or scream at any given moment.
'The Imposter' (2012)
DIRECTOR: Bart Layton
STARS: Adam O’Brian, Anna Ruben, Cathy Dresbach
RATING:
Saying “truth is stranger than fiction” is one of the most hackneyed clichés, but it holds eerily true with Bart Layton’s documentary The Imposter. Fans of true crime simply must check out this riveting story of how a “missing child” from Texas returns home as someone … seemingly a bit off. You won’t see some of the twists coming, so just make sure the ground is clear for when you jaw inevitably hits the floor.
‘Let the Right One In’ (2008)
DIRECTOR: Tomas Alfredson
STARS: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar
RATING: R
If Twilight convinced you that vampires were too sexy to be scary, let Let the Right One In dispel you of such notions. This chilling Swedish film foregrounds its horror in the innocence of youth as a bullied boy strikes up a connection with a beguiling girl next door for psychological support. She’s of course got a dark secret, but the film treats that as secondary to the secret bond she shares with her neighbor. Don’t come expecting schlock as the craftsmanship on display from director Tomas Alfredson is quite exquisite.
‘James White’ (2015)
DIRECTOR: Josh Mond
STARS: Christopher Abbott, Cynthia Nixon, Kid Cudi
RATING: R
The struggles of addiction rarely feel so searingly real as it does in James White, the story of how Christopher Abbott’s titular twentysomething must summon all his strength and composure to care for his ailing mother. Filmmaker Josh Mond offers no easy platitudes or narrative contrivances to make the character’s struggles more palatable for our consumption. Yet in the absence of comfort, what we have is a different kind of reassurance. We may not always be perfect, but sometimes we just have to be there for each other.
‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’ (2011)
DIRECTOR: Lynne Ramsay
STARS: Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, John C. Reilly
RATING: R
A decade out, Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin only grows in relevance. Our society continues to struggle in reckoning with the “mother of a monster” figure given the plague of disaffected young men committing acts of unspeakable violence. Ramsay never gets preachy or didactic in her exploration of the nature vs. nurture debate, instead letting her propulsive visuals pull us deep into the tortured psyche of Tilda Swinton’s Eva Khatchadourian. Don’t expect easy answers from the film, but Ramsay’s challenges and provocations will undoubtedly deepen your emotional understanding of this new cultural archetype.
‘It Follows’ (2015)
DIRECTOR: David Robert Mitchell
STARS: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist
RATING: R
Inspired by early John Carpenter horror films but not content to merely imitate them, David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows finds new and exciting ways to portray the terror of teen sexuality on screen. The film’s monster is like a looming transmissible disease, stalking its prey until passed along to someone else through sex. Mitchell can work impressively on multiple planes as a filmmaker, building an ambiance of unbearable tension and then piercing it with a well-executed jump scare that can startle even at home.
‘Office Space’ (1999)
DIRECTOR: Mike Judge
STARS: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Gary Cole
RATING: R
The technology and corporate environments might have changed, but the frustrations bottled up in Office Space certainly have not. The drudgery and inanity of office work, from nagging bosses to meaningless meetings, get put on blast by Mike Judge. The film is both highly specific to a hollow brand of ’90s capitalism but still rings true today. Anyone who’s ever held a knowledge economy job will laugh, then groan, in utter recognition.
‘Get Out’ (2017)
FILM: Get Out
Before Daniel Kaluuya was avoiding posh WASPs in films, he was Posh Kenneth on the incredible and incredibly sexy, druggy and rock n' rolly British TV series Skins (which also introduced the world Academy Award nominee Dev Patel). The series' first trailer alone is enough to make any Dare Dorm seem like kindergarten recess time! Photo: Everett Collection
DIRECTOR: Jordan Peele
STARS: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford
RATING: R
How many movies can say they added an entire term to the popular lexicon? Say someone’s in the “sunken place” and they’ll instantly have a complex and frightening web of associations thanks to Jordan Peele’s Get Out. (As I once pointed out in my “Smells Like ‘10s Spirit” column, it’s perhaps the best embodiment of how memes remade moviegoing culture in the last decade.) The right movie for the right time, his “social thriller” provided America the release valve for all the tensions boiling in the turnover from Obama to Trump.
‘Limbo’ (2021)
DIRECTOR: Ben Sharrock
STARS: Amir El-Masry, Vikash Bhai
RATING: R
If you love those neatly arranged Wes Anderson frames but feel like his characters act like paper dolls, have I got the movie for you. Ben Sharrock’s Limbo does the impossible by making a heartwarming and uplifting tale out of the situation faced by refugees stuck in immigration purgatory outside the UK. He uses visual humor in the cinematography to highlight the silliness of their situations. But rather than sapping the film of its humanity with these fastidious compositions, he creates a space for our compassion to fill the void. It’s a remarkable, rousing feat of filmmaking.
‘The Darjeeling Limited’ (2007)
DIRECTOR: Wes Anderson
STARS: Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman
RATING: R
Stealthily one of the best Wes Anderson movies, The Darjeeling Limited provides the director’s trademark cleanly planned aesthetic with a big helping of heart and humanity. This story of three brothers uniting on a train running through India to reconnect and reconcile following a fissure in their family features some of the most accurate portrayals of how male family members interact with one another. Anderson abandons his traditional ironic detachment to sensitively render the way guys talk around their real issues rather than tackling them head-on. The result is both oddly humorous and heartwarming.
‘Bernie’ (2012)
DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater
STARS: Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, Shirley MacLaine
RATING: PG-13
If there was ever any doubt that Richard Linklater is Texas’ cinematic poet laureate, that’s dispelled in Bernie. This ripped-from-the-headlines story of small-town undertaker Bernie Tiede (Jack Black) and the shocking turns in his relationship with crabby benefactor Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine) is as gripping as any true-crime tale. But the movie really belongs to his Greek chorus of the real-life residents of Carthage, TX, all of whom provide undeniable local color and flair to the story in their talking-head interviews.
‘Hot Fuzz’ (2007)
DIRECTOR: Edgar Wright
STARS: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Timothy Dalton
RATING: R
The Scary Movie series and their ilk seem to have torpedoed the popularity of the movie spoof for now. If any intrepid producer wants to revive the genre, they should use Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz as a Rosetta Stone. This parody of bombastic action buddy comedies gleefully sends up recognizable tropes while outlandishly one-upping their antics. At the root of the hilarity is a truth more filmmakers should acknowledge, be they straight-laced or satirical: people who watch a lot of movies are prone to see themselves as starring in the movie of their own life.
‘Shrek’ (2001)
DIRECTORS: Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson
STARS: Mike Meyers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow
RATING: PG
Nearly two decades after its release, Shrek remains as relevant and vital as ever – and if you need proof, scroll any social media service long enough to eventually see a meme featuring everyone’s favorite ogre. This family-friendly adventure works as both a witty send-up of fairy tale lore and a moving journey of self-acceptance. It’s got clever jokes for adults and juvenile ones for the kids, ensuring that everyone’s happy with this movie night pick.
