Movies to watch with your family over the holidays
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I’m on my way upstate to spend Thanksgiving with my parents and brothers. I’ve been the de facto movie-chooser for the family l since I went to film school and made it (more or less) my life. My selections have not always been a hit—they do not, I discovered, enjoy John Carpenter—but once in a while I make a choice that manages to please my mother who claims she does not want to think too deeply from her chosen entertainment, intrigues my brothers seeking more edgy fare, and keeps my dad awake (in some ways the hardest bar to clear).
Below are my picks, plus a few from fellow writers/critics Dan Schindel and Sam Bodrojan—two people who really know movies.
What movies should I watch with my family?
Movies you dodged in the theaters but can better tolerate at home
Is Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut/image-rehab kickstarter starring Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen any good? Is Ari Aster’s attempted 2020 period piece as baffling as everyone says? Who is Jay Kelly? New releases you would never spend money to see in a theater suddenly make perfect and pleasant sense as a $19.99 living-room rental with your parents and cousins. At least the financial loss is communal if it’s bad.
The Knives Out movies exist almost exclusively for this purpose. Wait until December 12 to stream the third installment, Wake Up Dead Man, and introduce your family to Josh O’Connor. If your parents are too cool for Rian Johnson’s franchise, congrats.1 You obviously don’t need this issue of the newsletter, and you’re free to watch History of Sound in peace. [Update: I would not watch this slower-paced puzzle-box mystery with your family unless they are somewhat religious, but I do still recommend the other films in the franchise.]
I personally will be turning to Roofman, a rom-com/ con-man caper / ’90s period piece, and Derek Cianfrance’s inexplicable follow-up to Blue Valentine. Channing Tatum stars as a McDonald’s burglar who lives in a Toys “R” Us. It’s the kind of grown-up, modestly budgeted middlebrow fare everyone is always lamenting that Hollywood doesn’t make anymore. It also has Kirsten Dunst.
Something that stuns
If you can’t please everyone, you can at least give them something to talk about with a film that goes batshit sideways, holding everyone in suspense, and is best watched without any context or knowledge of plot synopsis. Zach Cregger’s Weapons checks the boxes, as does Korean thriller Save the Green Planet!—aka the original Bugonia. I’ll also plug If I Had Legs I’d Kick You one last time.
In the past, I have found the Brazilian movie Bacurau a most successful chaos-delivery system. Those undeterred by subtitles and impressed by Bong Joon-ho’s melding of humor, suspense, and violence into a metaphorical tale of class warfare in Parasite, will also relish Bacurau, which hits similar pleasure centers and espouses similar ideals. For what it’s worth, Bong also counts himself a fan.
Director Kleber Mendonça Filho has long been interested in resilience. His previous feature spent three sublime hours watching an older woman fend off a real-estate developer determined to pry her from the only home she’s ever known. Bacurau shares that spirit, but it’s only 120 minutes before the subterfuge gives way to gratifying and deranged bedlam.
One of the actors, Udo Kier, passed away on Monday. Watch it in his honor and get ready for Filho’s equally excellent new movie The Secret Agent, in theaters now.
Movies where people look at documents and screens
Recommended by writer and editor Dan Schindel
Siblings, parents, and the discerning cinephile can all agree on the elemental satisfaction of watching competent people unraveling complex webs of intrigue through nose-to-the-ground journalism. These movies are well-stuffed with both character actors and stars, so your mother can nod and say things like, “Oh she’s on that Gilded Age show now.“ They’re often historically based, so your dad can watch it while standing up with his arms folded meditatively, nodding and muttering “I read about this at the time.“ The Insider, Shattered Glass, The Post, All the President’s Men, Spotlight, things of that nature.
They don’t tend to have violence, sex, or otherwise outre content, so the group doesn’t have to white-knuckle it through anything too uncomfortable (journalists only swear a professional amount). They are autumnal in vibe if not in setting. They are very easy to find on streaming services. They have an excellent batting average of at least competent classical journeyman direction, sometimes hitting much higher. You can watch them together and take comfort in the illusion of solving social problems by exposing them to public scrutiny.
James L. Brooks movies
Recommended by writer Sam Bodrojan, cc: helmet girl
Spend as much time as possible watching (most) James L. Brooks movies with your family. Ahead of the December 12th release of Ella McCay —which will surely be amazing and misunderstood, as has become standard for Brooks—it’s worth reacquainting yourself with the alien charms of the middlebrow laureate himself. If you or your parents have already seen whichever ones you have available: Good! Watch them again! There is a cultish quality to his work, in that people are more rabid to rewatch his films than to see them for the first time.
There is nobody else making films quite like this anymore; slapstick-y, egregiously sentimental, actor-forward. They are borderline-crude in tone, disarmingly subtle in their characterization, and politically unreal in a way that algorithmic homogenization has drilled out of anyone under the age of 60. His films follow an Old Hollywood logic, where Joan Cusak does parkour between filing cabinets (Broadcast News) or men routinely block traffic with their displays of love for Reese Witherspoon (How Do You Know). Amidst such bigness, Brooks slips in minuscule gestures, such as the evolving non-verbal signals between the mother-daughter duo in Terms of Endearment.
The secret is that every broad moment is a flashing sign pointing to the smaller ones. Even omnipresent markers of modern life, like the 24-hour news network or health insurance, are distorted into tertiary reminders of his characters’ neuroses. That’s what makes his movies so primed for killing time at a family get-together. You can cat-nap through the first third, leave the room to get a handful of M&Ms, take a Facetime call upstairs; no matter how much someone misses, you don’t need to pause and ‘get caught up’—the current stakes of a scene are always felt and rewarding in isolation.
Not every Brooks film is created equally in this regard. I’d Do Anything, no matter which version you have access to, is too odd to make for easy viewing. Moreover, you must not, under any circumstances, put on Spanglish. Such a sad, loaded film is practically purpose-built to derail family downtime with the most out-of-pocket couch commentary your relatives can muster.
If your parents are Richard Brody-level then watch La Chimera, or Robert Atlman’s absolutely delightful Brewster McCloud asap before it expires on Criterion Channel.
Love this! The Holdovers can be a good family watch too
Just started Brewster mccloud! Such a blast