It’s December, fam. The year is coming to an end, the Starbucks have replaced their pumpkin scones with gingerbread loaves, and the holiday spirit is in the air. What’s the best way to spend your time this season? By holing up inside and watching Netflix, of course!
There’stons of Christmas stuff available for you to watch, of course. But if you’re just in the mood for a good ass movie, we’ve got five of our favorites available to stream now. Here are the best new movies to watch on Netflix in December 2019. Are you still watching? As long as it’s cold outside, and the Starbucks are serving gingerbread loaves – the answer is yes.
Marriage Story
Director/Writer: Noah Baumbach
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, Julie Hagerty, Merritt Wever
Fair warning:Marriage Storywill wreck you. But it’s also not just one of the best films of 2019, it’s the best filmNoah Baumbachhas ever made. The story chronicles the process of divorce from separation to finalization, withAdam Driverplaying the successful theater director husband andScarlett Johanssonplaying the successful actress wife. Complicating matters is the fact that the couple shares a child, but the brilliance of Baumbach’s film is that it tells the story from both points of view, so no matter which side you fall on in the end, you have deep empathy for both individuals. Driver and Johansson give career-best performances as Baumbach writes full-bodied, complex individuals—you know, like actual human beings. And with regards to the subject matter, Baumbach vividly showcases how the voices of the two individuals—and the love they previously shared—get lost in the actual process of divorcing. Heartbreaking and deeply human,Marriage Storyis not to be missed. –Adam Chitwood
Director: Spike Lee
Writers: Arnold Perl, Spike Lee
Cast: Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, Al Freeman Jr., Delroy Lindo, Spike Lee
There’s one acclaimed three-hour-plus film from a celebrated New York filmmaker and one of their best known muses dissecting a wholly American life available on Netflix that you must watch. I am, of course, talking aboutSpike Lee’sMalcolm X, starringDenzel Washington. The film, based onThe Autobiography of Malcolm X, spans a truly epic amount of time and information in the iconoclastic leader’s life with equal parts reverence and verve. Despite its length and didactic-on-purpose approach,Malcolm Xremains a vital, necessary watch, illustrating the complicated struggles of a complicated man with alternating moments of clarity and brilliant obfuscation. It’s one of the best biopics ever made, one of the best films of the 1990s, and one of Lee and Washington’s best pieces of work, either together or apart. What’s “The Irishman”?
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Director: Jay Roach
Writer: Mike Myers
Cast: Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley, Michael York, Mimi Rogers
The rumors are true:Austin Powersholds up. Even though its 1960s-through-1990s-eyes catchphrases and gags felt immediately, iconically dated upon release, it is freaking funny upon a modern rewatch. When Austin Powers (Mike Myers), the world’s greatest secret agent from the 1960s is cryogenically frozen and thawed out in 1997 to defeat Dr. Evil (Mike Myers), he has a lot to learn about how modern life works. They don’t make comedies like this anymore – the film is so patiently eager to stop everything in its tracks for the service of a well-crafted, tightly constructed, capital J Joke. Many of the gags backslide into the overly puerile (though the “Swedish penis enlarging pump” run will make me snort every time), but that doesn’t meanAustin Powersisn’t smart. It knows how to handle its highly physical, highly silly comedy, intelligently crossing it with a loving respect for the swingin’ 60s spy sub-genre – and, it must be said, poking holes in some of that genres problematic elements. And now, as is required by law, I shall end this blurb with a catchphrase: Groovy, baby!
Searching for Sugar Man
Director/Writer: Malik Bendjelloul
Cast: Sixto Rodriguez
If you’re a documentary fiend searching for your next Netflix fix, this one will push all your buttons.Searching for Sugar Manfollows the fascinating journey to findSixto Rodriguez, a Detroit-born musician who somehow became a South African multi-platinum musical legend. Rumors were abound that he had died, but two fans (Stephen “Sugar” SegermanandCraig Bartholomew Strydom) weren’t so sure. So directorMalik Bendjelloulfilmed their journey to find him, and the results are absolutely astonishing. Sometimes feeling like a suspense thriller, sometimes feeling like a joyous exaltation of music, sometimes feeling like a melancholy rumination of life,Searching for Sugar Manproves that damn cliche that the truth is stranger than fiction – and often way more compelling. The film won the Best Documentary Oscar – give it a watch and you will see why. And you might find your new favorite artist, too.
Sweet Virginia
Director: Jamie M. Dagg
Writers: Benjamin China, Paul China
Cast: Jon Bernthal, Christopher Abbott, Imogen Poots, Rosemarie DeWitt, Odessa Young, Jared Abrahamson
Goodness gracious, do I love “patiently paced indie neo-noir thrillers.” AndSweet Virginiais a perfect example of this highly specific sub-genre. If you dig stuff likeBlue RuinorCold in July, you will digSweet Virginia, a story of repressed traumas, examinations of masculinity, and eruptions of violence. And wowie zowie is this a cast –Jon BernthalandChristopher Abbotthave been powerful, magnetic, charismatic-but-slightly-scary performers in separate works for some time now, and to see the two of them together crackles off the screen. Part of the film’s pleasures come from their being cast against type – the beefy Bernthal plays a quieter, more relatably normal man, while the wiry Abbott plays our unstable killer seemingly determined to cause Bernthal to sink into a criminal underworld. If the holiday season is feeling a little too saccharine sweet to you, and you need a shot of bourbon in your eggnog,Sweet Virginiawill taste very sweet indeed.
