Sure-Fire Streaming: The Lost Daughter, Don’t Look Up, Fury, and more
By Jordan Parker
https://parkerandpictures.wordpress.com/
The best in TV and film from your living room.
The Lost Daughter – Available On Netflix
One of the most quietly troubling films of the year, this somber look at motherhood and missed opportunity makes for one heck of a movie.
It follows a woman in her forties whose own past mistakes and issues with her now-grown children are brought back to the surface during a vacation.
As she lies on a beach paradise attempting to relax, Leda sees glimmers of herself in young mother Nina, and is forced to re-live all the ways in with she failed her own family – whether real or imagined.
Co-writer and director Maggie Gyllenhaal takes Elena Ferrante’s source novel and creates a spellbinding adaptation.
Oscar winner Olivia Colman is remarkable, as are Ed Harris, Jessie Buckley and Dakota Johnson. It’s a film that grabs hold of you, and leaves you breathless.
Don’t Look Up – Available On Netflix
Part biting satire, part social commentary about the “fake news” pundits and keyboard warriors of our times, Don’t Look Up is a searing skewering of our society.
It follows two astronomers who, on a routine look, find a meteor headed toward the planet. Upon telling people about it, they’re mocked and turned into memes.
The President ignores them and their media tour is met with skepticism or questions that have nothing to do with the issue at hand.
While director Adam McKay – equally known for silly Will Ferrell comedies and satiric gems Oscar-bait like The Big Short – gives his best shot here, he aims for the moon and lands in the stars.
The performances here make it, with Jennifer Lawrence and Jonah Hill both shining in their first on-screen turns in a few years. Sprinkle in Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett, and you have a fabulous group at the top of their game.
McKay takes a scattershot approach to the comedy here, and it hits about 75 per cent of the time. But the cast absolutely salvages it when things miss the mark.
Fury – Available On Prime Video
Any war film done post-Black Hawk Down has mostly paled in comparison, but Fury was a rare one that managed to hit differently.
It follows a gruff tank commander and his team as the push, scratch and claw their way through the enemy in Germany near the closing of World War II in April 1945.
The gritty nature of the film and its refusal to cater the a modern audience’s need for levity or gimmicky content makes this one worth it.
No doubt the film that got writer-director David Ayer the gig on Suicide Squad, one only wishes he was able to bring the same tone and verve to that comic book adaptation.
His actors go to their limits here – and some of them even go method. Brad Pitt, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal are fantastic. But make no mistake, it’s the embattled, now-disgrace Shia LaBeouf who shines.
He removed his own teeth to play Boyd ‘Bible’ Swan, and his commitment shows on-screen. Call it crazy, but it worked.
Fury is a work that will keep you completely entranced, and it’s one of the best in the genre in the last 20 years.
The Witcher – Available On Netflix
After a two-year hiatus, this incredible Netflix original series is back, and spellbinding audiences once again.
The Witcher is based on a popular video game, and it’s an adaptation that works wonderfully for both game faithful and newcomers.
It follows Geralt, a Witcher or monster hunter, who finds his way of life changing when destiny takes a turn.
Henry Cavill – best known for playing Superman – is Geralt here. I always thought he was a one-trick pony, but he embodies this character.
With its huge, ever-expanding world, host of characters and all kinds of different stories and plotlines, it can be hard to follow, but it’s worth your effort.
Being The Ricardos - Available On Prime Video
There’s something really splendid about watching two incredible thespians gleefully play off each other, and that’s what makes this one sing.
From legendary writer-director Aaron Sorkin – of The West Wing and The Social Network fame – comes this tale of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
Fraught with the tension and intrigue of the married couple behind-the-scenes of television hit I Love Lucy and the communism scandal that almost ended their careers, this is an interesting little ditty.
Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem are nominated for Golden Globes for this one, and J.K. Simmons is being touted for an Oscar nomination.
They make Sorkin’s script – a sure Screenplay contender – crackle, and even if the film sometimes veers into the melodramatic, these stars make this one work.