5 Netflix Picks is our weekly list of random movies we recommend you move to the top of your queue, from romance to horror and everything in-between.
As December begins and the holidays shift into second gear, thoughts for entertainment shift to Christmas cheer and celebrations. But hold on there good people, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves and over-indulge too early. This week’s list offers a Christmas classic to get us started but then settles back into a more broader approach with a funny comedy, a sizzling romance, a gripping documentary and more. Here’s what to watch.
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MONDAY: Love Actually
This wildly popular romcom was a 2003 hit that didn’t win all the critics over but sure melted audience’s hearts, becoming a staple for the holiday season. Featuring a huge ensemble cast, including Liam Neeson, Keira Knightley, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman and many more, the story combines a variety of interlinked stories about romance with young and old alike, all coming together around Christmas. It’s certainly light and plenty predictable but sure is a satisfying movie with loads of happiness and fuzzy warm feelings. Plus there’s this.
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TUESDAY: Monsters vs. Aliens
For the kids this week, here’s a fun family animated film that is full of big (literally) colorful characters and an empowering story. Centered on Susan Murphy (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), a young woman about to get married, she is hit by a small meteor that causes her to begin an extraordinary growth spurt, turning her hair bright white along the way. Captured by the government, she becomes part of a team of misfits, including an ancient fish man, a sentient glob of blue goo and an enormous bug. Just in time, too, as an invading force from outer space has come to conquer Earth. Loads of great action and a strong message for young girls, this is an exciting and often funny movie that should entertain the youngsters in the house plenty but is a good time for adults, too.
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WEDNESDAY: Y Tu Mamá También
Okay, send the kids to bed, it’s about to get all sexy up in this list. This Spanish language romance from Alfonso Cuarón is a real sizzler but also a terrific coming of age story about two teenage boys who take a toad rip with a woman in her late twenties. Set in the rural countryside of Mexico, Julio (Gael García Bernal) and Tenoch’s (Diego Luna) come from opposing political families. Their girlfriends have just left for Italy and the two boys now take the opportunity to live free, meeting the stunning Luisa (Maribel Verdú) and inviting her to take a drive with them to an isolated beach. She finally accepts and adventures abound, including a moment in a car that made our hottest sex in a car list.
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THURSDAY: Ice Guardians
Like sports? How about hockey? You don’t? Doesn’t matter. This documentary about the on-ice fighters, called enforcers, is incredibly compelling, detailing the rise of the strategy and its slow decline, interviewing many in the game who made careers out of sacrificing their bodies for the team in bouts that cost some of them dearly. Surprisingly emotional, unbelievably enlightening – I guarantee there are things about this sport you didn’t know – and always captivating, this look behind the action from director Brett Harvey is well worth a watch. Read our full review.
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FRIDAY: Copycat
Let’s close the week off with a tense thriller from 1995 called Copycat starring Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter. Weaver is a criminal psychologist who is greatly traumatized by an attack by a former subject (played with sniveling menace by Harry Connick Jr.). It puts her into hiding, refusing to leave her home, doing research via computers. Meanwhile, a cop in San Francisco (Hunter) is dealing with a serial killer, eventually convincing the doctor to join the investigation. Gripping to a degree and extremely well directed by Jon Amiel, this is an exciting and clever crime story with two powerful women in the lead. Don’t miss it.