Harry Potteris one of the most beloved franchises of all time, with millions of fans around the world diving into the magical wizarding world each year, via the books, movies, stage play, theme parks, fan works and more. However, the woman who started it all, author J.K. Rowling, has become a controversial figure in recent years, due to her public remarks on gender and repeated accusations of transphobia against her.
Given Rowling’s inextricable link to all things Potter, fans were curious to see if and how the author would be featured in the new Harry Potter reunion special on HBO Max, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts.
As it turns out, Rowling does appear in the special, however, it is made clear that, unlike the rest of the film’s returning cast and crew, she did not participate in any new interviews for the anniversary, which marks 20 years since the release of the first Harry Potter film.
Instead, the author is featured in a handful clips — discussing her take on the film adaptations, the casting of Daniel Radcliffe, and more — each of which feature titles explaining that the interviews were conducted in 2019, to be part of the Warner Bros. Studio Tour that now takes place at the sound stages in Leavesden, England, where the Harry Potter films were shot.
“While Jo is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken, as someone who has been honored to work with and continues to contribute to The Trevor Project for the last decade, and just as a human being, I feel compelled to say something at this moment,” Radcliffe wrote.
“Transgender women are women,” he continued. “Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.”
Radcliffe went on to say that, given the rates of discrimination faced by transgender and nonbinary youth, it’s “clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm.”
“Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are,” Watson said. “I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are.”
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts is streaming now on HBO Max.
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‘Harry Potter’ Stars Talk Returning to Hogwarts for 20th Anniversary
In “The Matrix,” from 1999, Keanu Reeves plays Thomas Anderson, who pops a mysterious red pill proffered by an equally mysterious stranger and promptly discovers that his so-called life as an alienated nineteen-nineties hacker with a cubicle-farm day job has, in fact, been a computer-generated dream, designed—I swear I’m going to get all this into a single sentence—to keep Anderson from realizing that he’s actually Neo, a kung-fu messiah destined to save a post-apocalyptic earth’s last living humans from a race of sentient machines who’ve hunted mankind to near-extinction. Neo spends the rest of the film and its two sequels bouncing back and forth between the simulated world, where he’s a leather-clad superhero increasingly unbound by physical laws, and the bleak real world, laid to waste by humanity’s long war with artificial intelligence. Like “Star Wars” before it, “The Matrix” was fundamentally recombinant, unprecedented in its joyful derivativeness. Practically every cool visual or narrative thing about it came from some other mythic or pop-cultural source, from scripture to anime. And, like “Star Wars,” it quickly became a pop-cultural myth unto itself, and a primary source to be stolen from.
Chances are you’re already aware of the original trilogy’s legacy, even if you’ve somehow avoided the films themselves. “The Matrix” is also like “Star Wars” in that we can’t avoid knowing about it, because we now live in a world that it helped shape. The scene in the first film where Neo chooses the red pill’s rude awakening over a blue pill that will return him to obliviousness now looks like a turning point in the history of American thought, although “thought” may not be exactly the right word. Online pickup artists and other message-board misogynists were the first subculture to appropriate the notion of the red pill; if you described yourself as “red-pilled,” it meant you’d accepted the supposed reality that the spread of feminism had rendered society anti-male. The concept propagated across the Internet, taken up by white supremacists and militant gamers alike; by the Trump years, being “red-pilled” had come to connote just about any epiphany leading to a rightward political tilt on the part of the pill-taker.
That’s funny, of course, because from the vantage point of 2021, it’s difficult to see “The Matrix” as anything but a wild leftist provocation draped in a shiny sci-fi trenchcoat—a film written and directed by two trans women, Lana and Lilly Wachowski, about how it’s sometimes necessary to kickbox the cops, whether on the street or inside one’s own head. Yet the specific ideological valence of “The Matrix” has stopped no one, including people on the other end of the political spectrum, from using the idea of the red pill to mean whatever they want it to mean. It’s just too rhetorically useful a concept to leave alone. On May 17, 2020, the entrepreneur Elon Musk, reportedly the world’s richest man, tweeted, “Take the red pill,” in what was interpreted as either a veiled protest of the pandemic-era stay-at-home orders that had shuttered his Tesla factory in Fremont, California, or possibly a declaration of broader Trumpian sympathies. About an hour later, President Trump’s daughter Ivankaquote-tweeted Musk and added a cheerful reply: “Taken!” And then Lilly Wachowski replied to Trump’s tweet, writing, “Fuck both of you.”
Having maybe said in four words all that she felt she needed to say on this issue, Lilly did not collaborate with her sibling Lana Wachowski on “The Matrix Resurrections,” a new “Matrix” sequel whose first act is a barely metaphorical rebuke of the many people who’ve either willfully or just obtusely misread and misappropriated the ideas of “The Matrix.” In “Resurrections,” Neo is back to living the life of Thomas Anderson. He remembers the events of the first three films, but with help from a therapist (Neil Patrick Harris, reliably untrustworthy as usual) and some suspiciously color-coded psych meds, he’s convinced himself that his life as Neo was a vivid delusion. He’s now rich and a little bit famous because he’s used those memories as inspiration for an award-winning trilogy of video games, also called “Matrix”—and when we first see him onscreen, he’s right where Thomas Anderson was at the beginning of the original trilogy, zonked in front of a bunch of monitors, waiting for a sea of code to show him a sign. Neo haunts Thomas the way that Tony Soprano’s life haunted Kevin Finnerty. He’s too blue-pilled to realize that the fellow coffee-bar customer he’s nursing a crush on is really Carrie-Anne Moss’s Trinity, who’s been similarly re-imprisoned in the simulation and believes she’s Tiffany, mother of two, married to a guy named Chad. Neo and Trinity’s struggle to find and love each other again, despite the best efforts of a malevolent hive mind, will become the movie’s emotional crux. But making Thomas’ rival a literal Chad turns the movie’s romance plot into a riff on the Virgin vs. Chad meme, with Reeves as the pining beta male. To make matters more meta, his alpha rival, the “Chad” in this equation, is played by an actual Chad—Chad Stahelski, who was Reeves’s stunt double in the original film and went on to direct him in three “John Wick” films.
Whether you find this part of the movie clever or instantly exhausting will depend on how big a sweet tooth you have for fourth-wall-breaking gags like that bit of literal stunt casting. Thomas’s compartmentalized reality begins to spring leaks after his business partner (Jonathan Groff) informs him that their game studio’s parent company, Warner Bros., has ordered up a “Matrix” sequel. “I thought they couldn’t do that,” Thomas says, but of course they can, contractually, and if Thomas isn’t willing to do it, they’ll cut him loose and hand the project over to someone else. This part of the movie appears to be based on a true story. The Wachowskis had long opposed the idea of expanding on the original “Matrix” trilogy, but, in 2017, The Hollywood Reporter quoted sources as saying Warner Bros. was developing a new “Matrix” film, to be written by “Ready Player One” co-screenwriter Zak Penn. The beginning of “Resurrections” is kind of a bird-flipping quote-tweet of that news and its implications for the Wachowskis as artists. In a montage of soul-withering development meetings, Thomas sits by in mute horror as arrogant and/or pretentious tech bros spout suspect interpretations of his original work (“ ‘Matrix’ means mayhem!”), while popping off toy guns and brainstorming ways to take the original idea in louder, dumber directions. “Originality” is now just another marketing key word, and all the marketing guys parrot the language of psychic-liberationist mind-fuckery that Timothy Leary bequeathed to the hucksters of Web 1.0: “People want us up in their gray space, switching their synaptic WTF light on!”
Thomas just listens, looking like he’s going to be sick. “Resurrections” is, in other words, a piece of corporate I.P. exploitation about how corporate I.P. exploitation ruins everything cool, a sequel about why sequels suck, a big “Fuck you” from Lana Wachowski to Warner Bros. that Warner Bros. gets to release in theatres and on HBO Max just in time to boost its fourth-quarter results. Everyone involved gets to have their virtual steak and eat it, too. The fact that it’s Wachowski meddling with her own Blockbuster source code pays off in playfulness; any other writer-director given a set of keys to this franchise would undoubtedly have felt obligated to treat “Matrix” lore more dutifully so as to dignify the cash grab. In this one, when iconic moments from the first film are historically reënacted, there are new characters watching from the wings, whispering things, like, “Why use old code to make something new?” and generally acting as surrogates for us, the viewers who’ve seen it all before. One of these observers, played by Jessica Henwick, is named Bugs, “as in Bunny”; this being a Warner Bros. movie, you wonder why they didn’t go all the way and cast the Animaniacs as a Greek chorus instead. Henwick is one of several actors who seem like they can’t quite believe they’re in a “Matrix” movie, along with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, playing a reboot of Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus who finds that he really enjoys the wardrobe and the catchphrases.
Eventually, the story moves from the world inside the Matrix—where they’re badass lucid dreamers, avatars skinned in cool suits and sunglasses—to the war-torn future, and Abdul-Mateen gets to come along only as a man-shaped cloud of C.G.I. nanoparticles, which puts a real damper on his energy. At this point, this “Matrix” movie about how they probably shouldn’t have made another “Matrix” movie becomes just another “Matrix” movie, albeit one that wears its self-awareness like an “ASK ME ABOUT MY SELF-AWARENESS” T-shirt. For what it is, it’s still pretty engaging, losing steam only when it tries to make topical points about our red-pilled political climate. The new iteration of the Matrix converts ordinary people into swarms of murderous hate-bots to protect its grip on power; its creator gloats about how easy it is to control people with feelings, rather than facts. “If we don’t know what’s real,” a character says to Neo, “we can’t resist.” None of this is objectionable. But minus a shot of bathroom graffiti guaranteed to turn every dude on Reddit into an expert on the thematic resonances between this film and Don DeLillo’s “Americana” (Don-pilled!), it’s served up without even the modicum of subtlety and egg-hunt mystery that made the original “Matrix” such a durable chew toy for undergrad post-modernists. There’s nothing to unlock in “Resurrections”—it’s a movie whose password is “password.” Then again, if you were Lana Wachowski and you’d spent nearly twenty years watching the world’s worst people hijack your ideas, you’d probably opt for placards over puzzles, too.
What “Resurrections” has to say about the exploitative nature of sequels, the tendency of sheeple to opt for lives of superficially comfortable, algorithm-controlled bondage, or the cyclical nature of life itself is ultimately less interesting than the way it symbolically repositions its male lead. This is a semi-important “Matrix” movie that’s probably too pinned to its context to resonate into the future the way the first one did, but it feels destined to go down as a crucial Keanu Reeves movie. I spent the better part of 2020 writing a book about Reeves’s movies, the thesis of which is that most of Reeves’s characters are essentially versions of himself, and most of his films are actually metaphorical dramatizations of the dilemma of being Keanu Reeves, a sensitive nineties artist whose career has been one long push-me-pull-you struggle with commercial imperatives, including the making of sequels. That being the case, “Resurrections” could not feel more designed to delight and unnerve me, specifically, if it had arrived at my doorstep as an unlabelled dvd in an envelope with no return address. It speaks to what I believe to be fundamental Reevesian themes, chiefly Reeves’s reluctance to participate in his own exploitation, which led him to choose Dogstar and “Hamlet” over a post-“Speed” action-movie career that was his to lose and seemed to tempt him little. In its profound (and profoundly early-nineties-ish) ambivalence about whether it should exist at all—and its attempt to work through that ambivalence onscreen, inside the story—the previous Reeves sequel that “Resurrections” most obviously recalls is “Bill Ted’s Bogus Journey,” from 1991, in which Reeves reprises the role of lovable headbanger Ted Logan and also plays his own evil robot doppelgänger—a walking sequel with no soul, built to kill Ted and destroy everything he stands for.
Reeves would spend the rest of that decade trying not to become an evil-Ted version of himself. After 1994’s “Speed,” he could have settled into a long run as a slightly more zen Bruce Willis; instead, he ran off to play Prince Hamlet in a 1995 Manitoba Theatre Production of “Hamlet.” By the time the script for the first “Matrix” came to him—which happened only after a baffled Will Smith turned it down and Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio had done the same—he’d spent more than a few years adrift. The part of Neo finally allowed Reeves to square his own hipster-philosopher bent with audiences’ desire to see him kick ass. Before shooting, the Wachowskis sent him to martial-arts training camp but also told him to read Baudrillard and books on evolutionary psychology and cybernetics. This, it seemed, was the kind of improbable part he’d spent years looking for: a pop Blockbuster with a hefty syllabus, an intellectually fulfilling tentpole-making experience.
In the second and third “Matrix” movies, Neo seemed increasingly burdened by the role of world savior and Reeves seemed increasingly weary of playing one. There is no creative act so exciting that it won’t start to feel like a job if you have to do it over and over. The wittiest thing about the “John Wick” movies is the way they build their story around Reeves’s disinclination to keep going back to the well—they’re all about a hit man, for whom making hits is a soul-killing way to make a living. And they’re also about getting older, something Reeves now knows a thing or two about.
At one point in “Resurrections,” Neo slips into a movie theatre through a jagged hole in the screen. What’s playing on the screen is meant in the film to be footage from Thomas Anderson’s “Matrix” game, but it’s really footage from the original “Matrix,” of Reeves’s first meeting with Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus, and all of a sudden, we’re looking at Reeves looking at his own smooth, young, worried face circa 1999, a forgotten self projected twenty feet high. “Time is always against us, et cetera, et cetera,” Morpheus says, quoting a Fishburne line from the original that takes on new weight in this context. Time is always against us—all of us. It’s hard to imagine another leading man agreeing to return to one of his most iconic roles in the way Reeves does here, boldly risking comparison with his younger self by playing a Neo who’s lost a step and never quite regains it. The big fight scenes are mostly about him getting knocked around, and when he attempts the Superman-style up-up-and-away move that was once his signature, he can’t quite clear the sidewalk, and his shirt rides up a little, exposing a few vulnerable inches of normal-guy abdomen.
Like a sequel no one asked for, 2021 was basically as unpleasant as the year that preceded it. On the bright side, at least the movies were better. Proving that the show must indeed go on, studios rolled out a number of delayed tentpole releases both in theaters and on streaming platforms. Audiences were also treated to acclaimed smaller films such as Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” and the French body horror flick “Titane,” among numerous others.
Bringing the year to an epic close was “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which may turn out to be one of the best superhero films ever made. Not only was it the first release of the pandemic to earn over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office, but critical and audience reception has been off the charts. Call it the perfect slice of escapism during these troubled times, and a fresh reminder that the theatrical experience is still alive and well—for certain types of movies, at least.
Whether watching at home or in theaters, viewers will find themselves spoiled for choice when it comes to the year’s best releases. So many titles flew under the radar that it could be a full decade before you uncover a new favorite. For instance, you might have caught the latest “Ghostbusters” movie, but what about Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” or Sian Heder’s “CODA?” May the following list be your guide.
To determine the best movies of 2021, 24/7 Tempo developed an index using average ratings on IMDb, an online movie database owned by Amazon, and a combination of audience scores and Tomatometer scores on Rotten Tomatoes, an online movie and TV review aggregator, as of December 2021. All ratings were weighted equally. Only movies with at least 2,000 audience votes on either IMDb were considered. Directorial credits and cast information comes from IMDb.
Whether you’re set on watching the ball drop, or want to ring in the new year with alternative programming, here’s your guide to New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day viewing:
Friday
Ralph Macchio and William Zabka suit up for Season 4 of the “Karate Kid” spinoff “Cobra Kai.” Anytime, Netflix
A woman looks back on the mistakes she made as a young mother in first-time director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s 2021 drama “The Lost Daughter.” Olivia Colman (“The Crown”), Jessie Buckley and Dakota Johnson star. Anytime, Netflix
Ralph Macchio, left, and William Zabka in “Cobra Kai.”(Curtis Bonds Baker/Netflix/TNS)
The new Fab Five suit up for a sixth season of the rebooted makeover series “Queer Eye.” Anytime, Netflix
They may be through with the past, but the past isn’t through with them in the new mystery drama “Stay Close.” With Richard Armitage and “The Good Wife’s” Cush Jumbo. Anytime, Netflix
Cincinnati battles Alabama in the “Cotton Bowl” and Georgia meets Michigan in the “Orange Bowl,” with the winners of each contest facing off for the national title on Jan. 10. 3:30 and 7:30 p.m., ESPN, ESPN2
Times Square in NYC is the place to be — or not to be, what with the omicron variant running amok — in this year’s “New Year’s Eve Live With Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen.” 5 and 10:30 p.m., CNN
From New York to New Orleans and all points in between comes the special “All-American New Year 2022.” 7 and 10:30 p.m., Fox News Channel
The stars of New York’s Metropolitan Opera lend their pipes to a gala New Year’s Eve edition of “Great Performances at the Met.” 7:30 p.m.. PBS
Jason Aldean, Kelsea Ballerini, et al., twang their way into 2022 in the special “New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash.” 8 and 11:30 p.m., CBS
“Today’s” Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager host while celebrity guests supply the snark in the special “2021: It’s Toast!” 8 p.m., NBC
Journey, Daddy Yankee and LL Cool J are among the acts slated for “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2022.” 8, 10 and 11:30 p.m., ABC
Judy Collins and Tony winner Lea Salonga lend their pipes to the NYE special “United in Song: Celebrating the American Dream,” hosted by Chita Rivera. 9 p.m., PBS
“Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” host Guy Fieri has a series of misadventures in the Aloha State in his new travelogue, “Guy: Hawaiian Style.” 9 p.m., Food Network
The new stand-up special “Gary Owen: Black Famous” catches the comic cracking wise about his d-i-v-o-r-c-e and other domestic matters. 9 p.m., Showtime
Miley Cyrus and “SNL’s” Pete Davidson are mistress and master of ceremonies for the special “Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party.” 10:30 p.m., NBC; also on Peacock
Saturday
Wizards, assemble! Daniel Radcliffe and company reunite to reminisce in the special “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts.” Anytime, HBO Max
Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe are shown in a scene from ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.’
Leeza Gibbons, Mark Steines and Micah Ohlman host live and local coverage of the “133rd Rose Parade” in Pasadena. 11 a.m., NBC, ABC
Exterminate! Exterminate! Those dastardly Daleks are up to their old tricks in the annual “Doctor Who” holiday special. Jodie Whittaker stars. 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., BBC America
Utah faces the Ohio State University in the “Rose Bowl,” from Pasadena. 5 p.m.. ESPN, ESPN2
Take this waltz: The Vienna Philharmonic tunes up for “From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2022” on a new “Great Performances.” Hosted by “Downton Abbey’s” Hugh Bonneville. 8 p.m., PBS
A big-city marketing exec learns you can go home again in the TV movie “Where Your Heart Belongs.” With Jen Lilley. 8 p.m., Hallmark Channel
An amnesiac woman worries she may have had an affair she can’t remember in the TV movie “Deadly Infidelity.” 8 p.m., Lifetime
“Star Wars’ ” John Boyega plays a burned-out public defender who goes over to the dark side in the 2021 crime thriller “Naked Singularity.” 10 p.m., Starz
Instead of force-feeding us with periodicity, Darbuka Siva allows the actors to free-flow into the characters. The one problem that I had was in keeping up with the identity of all the youngsters . There are so many of them! Luckily writer-director Siva allows us to choose our favourites.
I came away with the thoughtful musician Vinoth (Kishen Das), the foolhardy Chinese (Harish Kumar, over-the-top initially but settles in), the over smart and mean Catherine (Purva Raghunath), the conservative and possessive Rekha (Meetha Raghunath)…all outstanding in their inconspicuous everyman-ship.
Darbuka Siva extracts the optimum from the indefinable elixir of youth and its impulsive follies. And yet for all its raunchiness and recklessness, it is not all fun and games in the plot which some critics have called “rambling”. It can’t be helped, really. Growing up is not as linear and neat as many coming-of-age films make it seem.
MNMN is not afraid to fall off the edge. The narrative often takes impetuous leaps of faith, opting to remain true to the young protagonists’ journey of life rather than looking to somehow tie up the loose ends. There is a dark subplot about the homophobic Richard (Varun Rajan) bullying Francis (Rahul Kannan) all the way from school to the old boys’ reunion and then suddenly, and unconvincingly apologizing to the victim. Could this apology be just so that Richard’s sensible and just wife is appeased?
Aside from dropping a host of movies at the beginning of each month, Amazon Prime Video doesn’t have a ton of new weekly releases.
But occasionally an original or a flick from the vault comes knocking and deserves to be put on your radar. Below you’ll find weekly highlights and CNET’s full list of best Amazon Prime Video Original movies.
What’s new this week (Jan. 31-Feb. 6)
A ton of new movies hit Prime Video this month. Here are this week’s highlights.
Tuesday
(500) Days Of Summer (2009) — Rom-com starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel.
Wednesday
Freakonomics (2010) — Documentary film based on the 2005 book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by economist Steven D. Levitt and writer Stephen J. Dubner.
Friday
Book of Love – Amazon Original Movie (2022) — Rom-com starring Sam Claflin and Véronica Echegui. Two writers thrown together on a book tour in Mexico.
Entertain your brain with the coolest news from streaming to superheroes, memes to video games.
Read more: Prime Video: The 32 best TV shows to watch | Everything you need to know to sign up to Amazon Prime Video
Best Amazon Prime Video Original films
Drama
Amazon Prime Video
Aaron Sorkin writes and directs this biographical drama based on the relationship between I Love Lucy stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. It stars Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as Ball and Arnaz, respectively. In other words, expect breakneck dialogue, memorable lines and rich repartee. Standout Kidman embodies the actress and comedian, bringing heart to the couple’s complex romantic and professional relationship.
Amazon Studios
Benedict Cumberbatch stars in this biopic about English artist, inventor, entrepreneur and caretaker Louis Wain. Set at the end of the 19th century, it follows a man who, after taking in a stray kitten, creates surreal cat paintings that made him wold famous. They also seem to reflect his own declining sanity. A feel-good drama with a typically gripping central performance from Cumberbatch, this warm portrait is filled with whimsy, even if it’s a little uneven.
Amazon
A sublime anthology that doesn’t drop the ball across its five films. Small Axe is a collection of distinct stories about the lives of West Indian immigrants in London from the ’60s to the ’80s. They’re all directed by Steve McQueen, who’s working at his exquisite best (when doesn’t he?), crafting stories such as courtroom drama Mangrove, based on the 1971 trial of the Mangrove Nine and starring Black Panther’s Letitia Wright. Take a seat and devour this massive achievement.
Amazon Studios
Sound of Metal scored a bunch of Oscar nominations, including best picture and best actor for the outstanding Riz Ahmed. (It won in two categories: best sound and best film editing.) He plays Ruben, a punk-metal drummer who unfortunately starts to lose his hearing. As well as struggling with a drug addiction, Ruben is forced to settle into his new life in the deaf community and to learn American Sign Language. The film’s stunning sound design immerses you in Ruben’s suspenseful story and the experiences of those around him.
Amazon
If you’re into the dark-things-happen-at-boarding-schools genre, then Selah and the Spades might be the subject to sign up for. A senior leads a faction called the Spades who sell drugs to other students. But Selah’s about to graduate, so must find the right candidate to carry on her legacy. Shot beautifully and guided by debut director Tayarisha Poe’s unique lens, this is a taste of even greater things to come.
Amazon Studios
Shia LaBeouf wrote the screenplay for this autobiographical movie about a child actor and his relationship with his father. We follow Otis, who’s traumatized after days on set accompanied by his father, a former rodeo clown. LaBeouf actually plays the character inspired by his father, giving Honey Boy even more psychological layers. This is fascinating, cinematic therapy from a singular perspective.
Amazon Studios
Following lovers from different backgrounds and temperaments, Pawel Pawlikowski’s historical drama is set in a ravaged, post-World War II Poland. Zula is an ambitious young singer faking a peasant identity, while Wiktor is a jazz musician holding auditions for a state-sponsored folk music ensemble. The politics are handled elegantly and the black-and-white visuals are precise and beautiful. For an 88-minute treat of a sumptuous, passionate, almost impossible love story, look no further than Cold War.
Amazon Studios
King Lear is, of course, an adaptation of the Shakespeare play, but two powerful forces help this one stand out: Anthony Hopkins and Black Widow scene stealer Florence Pugh. Not to mention Emma Thompson! This adaptation is set in an alternative universe during the 21st century, where London is under strict military control. Lear is ready to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, but not all of them are accepting. If you’re OK with the Shakespearean dialogue, then simply sit back and marvel at Hopkins and a stacked ensemble cast, including Emily Watson, Jim Broadbent and Andrew Scott.
Amazon Studios
Before we jump into this Spike Lee film, note that it’s technically a recorded stage play. And yet somehow it captures cinematic magic, thanks in large part to the engaging performances from Jon Michael Hill and Julian Parker. They play two young men dreaming of the promised land from their fixed spot on the sidewalk. Educational, moving, funny and surprising, Pass Over will keep you on your toes more than you think.
Amazon Studios
Prepare for Amazon’s first big, prestigious movie to wallop you in the chest. A broken man who’s experienced terrible losses becomes the guardian of his teenage nephew. Lee Chandler’s story will hit you with punch after emotional punch, as will the immense performances from the likes of Michelle Williams. Another accomplishment from Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea is full-bodied, unforgettable storytelling.
Amazon Studios
In trademark Jim Jarmusch style, this low-key indie narrows in on the finer details of regular life with a distinct sense of humor. Spanning one week, Paterson follows a bus driver and poet named Paterson who listens to passengers talking, takes his dog for walks and stops for beers at his local bar. Adam Driver alone makes all that endlessly watchable. Dotted with the idiosyncratic characters living in a New Jersey town, Paterson offers a wise take on life, delving into personal setbacks and the new paths weaved around them.
Horror
Amazon Prime Video
This impressive directorial debut from Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. presses the same emotional buttons as a Black Mirror episode. It focuses on Nolan Wright (Mamoudou Athie), a man who survives a car crash, but now suffers from amnesia. After failing to pick up his 10-year-old daughter from school, he undertakes an experimental treatment that leads to chilling results. Part of a Blumhouse anthology, this sci-fi horror plays familiar cards, but will satisfy thanks to a focus on character and a twist to look forward to in the end.
Amazon Studios
Luca Guadagnino’s horror picture framed in a bleak, art house window won’t be for everyone, but for those who go down the rabbit hole of its prestigious Berlin dance school, you’re in for a twisted treat. Tilda Swinton is the majestic lead teacher, who mentors young ingenue Dakota Johnson. Be warned: The flexible dancers bring new contortions to body horror. It’s a long movie, at over two and a half hours, but if you’re into disturbing visuals and a touch of witchcraft, there are a couple of jaw-dropping scenes you’ll want to stick around for.
Musical drama
Amazon Prime Video
This coming-of-age musical drama is based on the true story of teenage British schoolboy Jamie Campbell, who secretly dreams of becoming a drag queen. Peppered with songs from the stage musical’s original score, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie will lift you up with optimism, hitting all the right feel-good beats.
Amazon Studios
This tale comes from the minds of a stellar team, including Donald Glover, his brother Stephen Glover and Atlanta collaborator Hiro Murai. Donald Glover voices the free-spirited Deni Maroon, a musician who lives with Kofi, voiced by none other than Rihanna. Deni encounters various obstacles on his mission to hold a music festival for his island community, exploring big themes such as capitalism through the film’s short, 56-minute runtime. Note that Rihanna doesn’t sing, but overall this musical is just catchy and sweet enough to warrant a look.
Thriller
Amazon Prime Video
Mélanie Laurent directs, co-writes and stars in this emotional French thriller set in the late 19th century. Laurent is Geneviève, a nurse who attempts to free Eugénie (Lou de Laâge), a woman committed to a mental asylum when her family learns she communicates with spirits. Carried by outstanding performances from its two leads, The Mad Women’s Ball poignantly sweeps the inequities of the era into its disturbing melodrama. An accomplished watch.
Amazon Studios
The Coen Brothers meet Wes Anderson in this black comedy thriller steered by two brilliant young female leads. Set in a snowy fishing town in Maine, Blow the Man Down follows sisters, played by Morgan Saylor and Sophie Lowe, who try to hide the body of a man after he attacked one of them and she fought back. While on their crime caper, they find themselves digging up the town matriarchs’ dark secrets, spinning this into a noir mystery. It’s as wonderful as it sounds.
Amazon Studios
A psychological thriller starring a pre-Joker Joaquin Phoenix? Yeah, more people need to watch You Were Never Really Here. Lynne Ramsay’s masterful take on a story about a hitman who’s hired to rescue a politician’s daughter from a human trafficking network, is stark, brutal and mercifully straight to the point, running at a taut 90 minutes. With Phoenix doing his brilliant committed actor thing, You Were Never Really Here is more than your average thriller.
Amazon Studios
Even if you’ve heard good things about The Handmaiden, nothing can prepare you for the insane twists this exquisite South Korean movie takes. Classed as an erotic psychological thriller, The Handmaiden contains explicit scenes you should probably avoid watching with parents around. It all kicks off with a con man wooing a Japanese heiress with the intention of committing her to an asylum once they’re married. But his pickpocket partner who poses as her maid strays from the plan. If you’ve been getting into South Korean films thanks to Parasite, this is a must watch.
Sci-fi
Amazon Studios
Following in the footsteps of Palm Springs, The Map of Tiny Perfect things is a rom-com exploring the lives of its protagonists through a time loop. Katheryn Newton and Kyle Allen star as Margaret and Mark, two teens repeating the same day over and over again. Their meet cute involves saving someone from being knocked into a pool by a beach ball. Charming and heartfelt, this is solid if not totally perfect viewing.
Amazon Studios
The Vast of Night is a curious indie sci-fi flick from debut director Andrew Patterson that plays with narrative in clever ways. Long, sweeping shots carry us after two young radio workers who investigate an audio frequency they think could be traced to aliens. The distinctive 1950s New Mexico setting, and characters delivering monologues with the smooth intonations of those on radio, all build an eerie atmosphere with satisfying payoff.
Comedy
Amazon
Need more Paul Bettany in your life? Of course you do, especially since WandaVision is done and dusted. Try Uncle Frank, a road flick set in the ’70s about a gay man and his relationship with his family, including niece and college student Beth (Sophia Lillis from the It movies and I Am Not Okay With This). The pair drive across America to attend a funeral, Frank grappling with whether to let his partner Wally (Peter Macdissi) come along. A comedy with sharp edges, Uncle Frank ultimately leaves you on an assuringly positive note.
Amazon Prime Video
Nearly 15 years after Kazakh journalist and TV personality Borat first graced our big screens, he’s back playing pranks on unsuspecting Americans while delivering some incredibly incisive cultural commentary. In Borat 2, or Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Borat’s on a trip to the US to offer his daughter Tutar (played by a revelatory Maria Bakalova) to Vice President Mike Pence during the 2020 presidential election — and the COVID-19 pandemic. Prepare to cringe at the doubled-down political incorrectness before succumbing to the outrageous laughs.
Amazon Studios
A teen comedy-horror-thriller with a dash of social commentary. What a combo! Get Duked! follows three slacker students, one nerd and their mundane teacher as they head to the Scottish Highlands to attempt to win an award involving navigating the area using just a paper map. Everything becomes a little more thrilling when the four teens end up fending for themselves against murderous hunter the Duke, played by the brilliant Eddie Izzard. The whole young ensemble is fantastic, playing with a tight script crackling with banter. Boy Scouts meets Attack the Block, Get Duked! is chaos walking, cussing and eating questionable local flora.
Amazon
An enjoyable comedy, yes, but Brittany Runs a Marathon also hits close to home, focusing on the things we’re all obsessed with: food, body image and exercise. Brittany, played by the effortlessly relatable Jillian Bell, receives strong advice from her doctor to lose weight and cut the hard-partying lifestyle. She starts running, taking all the tough steps toward the life-changing finish line. Watch it from your couch, then be inspired to head outside for a jog.
Amazon Studios
Written by and starring Mindy Kaling, Late Night follows an acclaimed news show host whose ratings are on the decline. She hires a female, Indian-American writer to shake up her white-male writer’s room. Never preachy, while making an argument for transforming Emma Thompson into a real-life talk show host, Late Night is lively comedy with hints of The Devil Wears Prada. That alone should be a solid reason to watch it.
Romance
Amazon
While Sylvie’s Love is, at its core, an old-fashioned love story, its dewy romance is remarkably refreshing: a period drama centered on Black people that isn’t dominated by issues of race and bigotry. Set in an aesthetically enchanting ’60s New York City, it follows Sylvie and Robert, who have a chance to reconnect after a summer romance five years earlier. Both work in music, and the film’s soundtrack, featuring Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and more, helps transport you to this glowing place.
Amazon
The Big Sick introduced the world to Kumail Nanjiani, who co-wrote the movie based on his real-life romance with partner Emily V. Gordon. After the pair go on a few promising dates, Emily inexplicably falls ill and must be placed in an induced coma. While Kumail gets to know her worried parents at the hospital, his own Pakistani family keeps arranging dates for him with other women. Not only ripe for cultural comedy setups, The Big Sick is also a down-to-earth and heartfelt story of an interracial couple.
Crime
Amazon
Not your usual crime thriller, I’m Your Woman follows the perspective of a mobster’s wife, played by The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Rachel Brosnahan. A betrayal forces Jean to go on the run with a newborn baby and a bodyguard, her husband’s former associate Cal (Arinzé Kene). The ’70s-set neo-noir circles around themes like racial tensions, privilege and survival. It moves along at a surprisingly steady pace, giving you time to absorb the powerful psychological impact of Jean’s new situation.
Adventure
Amazon Studios
Based on the life of British adventurer Percy Fawcett, The Lost City of Z drops you into the Amazon rainforest on the search for an ancient lost city. If that setup for adventure isn’t enticing enough, the movie stars Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland… with a mustache. A beautiful, grandiose film put together with great care, The Lost City of Z might move slower than you think, but that only enhances its fascinating psychological layers.
Movies coming in 2022 from Marvel, Netflix, DC and more
“I think I’m scarily like my character,” Grint says. Cuarón agrees. He tells a story of giving the actors an assignment to write an essay in character. Grint didn’t do it. “I say, ‘Rupert, where’s your assignment? He says, ‘Well, uh, I thought that Ron wouldn’t do it. So I didn’t do it,’” Cuarón says. “Rupert is Ron. One hundred percent.”
