Movies, now more than ever! There was a lot of conversation over the weekend about how The Marvels underperformed at the box office, at least compared to other Marvel movies. But don’t let the fragile state of the MCU distract you from what we should be talking about: the number of good movies in theaters (and in one case, theaters and on streaming). Here are five worth checking out.
David Fincher’s first film for Netflix was a biopic of Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz. His second film for Netflix is a biopic about another Hollywood legend: himself. Sort of.
The Killer follows a detail-oriented assassin (played by Michal Fassbender) who has the worst possible thing happen to him: he loses control. Fincher has a (possibly overstated) reputation of being an obsessive filmmaker; he once did an estimated 200 takes for a single scene in Mank. In The Killer, he channels his own stick-to-the-plan tics into Fassbender’s unnamed hitman.
But Fincher is also self-aware enough to poke fun at his lead character, and by proxy, himself. The Killer is bleak, yes, and it has one of the gnarliest pummeling fight sequences you’ll see all year, but it’s also darkly funny. The only reason it’s not in the top-three of my personal Fincher rankings is because Zodiac, The Social Network, and Gone Girl are masterpieces. The Killer doesn’t quite get there, but it’s a solid number four.
Yes, it’s almost three and a half hours. Yes, there’s no intermission. Yes, you will probably have to pee. Blah blah blah. But should you miss Killers of the Flower Moon? Absolutely not. No living American filmmaker is a finer chronicler of masculinity than Francesca Scorsese’s dad, and Killers belongs among Goodfellas, The Irishman, and The Wolf of Wall Street. Yet, like Sharon Stone in Casino before her, it’s the one woman on the poster, the Oscar-worthy Lily Gladstone, who steals the show (er, movie) from her male co-stars.
Anatomy of a Fall
Anatomy of a Fall took home the Palme d’Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Previous winners include The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Pulp Fiction, and Parasite. Not too shabby. But did those films, or previous Palme d’Or champions Dancer in the Dark or All That Jazz, also win the Palm Dog Award, which celebrates “dog performances on the big screen”? Because Anatomy of a Fall did. Take THAT, Lars Von Trier. Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall not only features an all-time great dog (and a brilliant human performance from Sandra Hüller), it’s also a thoughtful, riveting French legal drama about the way an accident — or was it a crime? — can expose the ugliest parts of ourselves to the public. You’ll never hear 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.” the same way again.
I have to admit that I haven’t found the time to see Priscilla yet, but the reviews for the film, especially actress Cailee Spaeny‘s lead performance as Priscilla Presley, are very good, and director Sofia Coppola has yet to make a bad movie. Even her “worst” film, 2020’s pandemic-released On the Rocks, has its moments. Plus, if it wasn’t for Priscilla, we would have never learned that tall king (of rock ‘n’ roll) Jacob Elordi learned about Elvis Presley from Lilo and Stitch. That alone makes it worth a watch.
You know what the world needs more of? Movies to watch on cable on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The Holdovers fills that void. Working with Paul Giamatti for the first time since Sideways, Alexander Payne’s boarding-school throwback is about a curmudgeonly teacher (Giamatti, naturally) who looks after the students (including newcomer Dominic Sessa) who have nowhere to go during the holidays. The Holdovers is a bittersweet comedy that won’t surprise you (spoiler: it’s the student who teaches the educator a lesson), but it’s a prickly delight nonetheless. If you’re looking for something to watch with the family during Thanksgiving break or the holidays, make it The Holdovers.