New year, new catalogs! Here are ten streaming recommendations for you and for me for January. There are more TV shows on the list than normal, as I think that I overdid it with movies in 2020 and want something with shorter runtimes.
Bonnie & Clyde (Netflix, January 1)
This 1967 film can be tonally jarring, but has a great cast (Faye Dunaway, Warren Beatty, Gene Hackman) and is iconic in the crime/true crime genre. I find it interesting that we still idolize criminals from 100 years ago, but folk heroes never really die. The Highwaymen (2019, also Netflix) even managed a newish take on the story, with its focus mostly on the Texas Rangers hunting the doomed lovers.
Pieces of a Woman (Netflix, January 7)
The scuttlebutt was mixed on this drama about a relationship fracturing after a trauma, but Vanessa Kirby’s (Mission: Impossible: Fallout, Hobbs & Shaw) performance was consistently cited as the best part of the film. I like Kirby, so I’ll give it a try. Shia LaBeouf costars: your mileage may vary.
12 oz. Mouse (HBO Max, January 1)
The Adult Swim late-night programming block was hugely popular among segments of my generation, and I imagine that it still resonates with newer generations of high schoolers and college kids. AS made their name early on with Generation X riffing on Baby Boomer TV (Space Ghost: Coast to Coast; Harvey Birdman; Sealab 2021), thanks to Cartoon Network’s Hanna Barbera catalog, then segued into syndicated comedy (The Mighty Boosh; Shin Chan) and dadaist absurdity (Aqua Teen Hunger Force; Assy McGee), then what felt like a constant stream of shows where everyone shouts at melting psychedelic blobs that cut people in half (China, IL; Squidbillies; Superjail, also Aqua Teen Hunger Force at times).
ANYWAY, peppered in there were some genuine classics like The Venture Bros., Children’s Hospital, and this one, 12 oz. Mouse (2005–2006), a surreal noir about heavily armed, alcoholic rodents in a John Carpenter-esque future police state.
If that sentence made you excited, you may like the show. Everyone else may want to move on, though. I don’t pretend to care about the chain of acquisitions and mergers that led to this eventuality, but HBO Max has most of the Adult Swim catalog, which rules.
Let Them All Talk (HBO Max)
Meryl Streep (Mama Mia!, It’s Complicated), on a cruise, talking to Candice Bergen (Boston Legal, Murphy Brown) and Dianne Wiest (Bullets over Broadway, Law & Order, The Lost Boys) about life, relationships, and her new book. Steven Soderbergh (Magic Mike) has directed seven films since his retirement in 2013 and has produced many more. I found The Laundromat to be a slog despite the top-notch talent involved, but his genre movies tend to be among my favorites in any given year (Logan Lucky, Haywire, Che). I am excited to see Let Them All Talk as it looks like a good time.
One Night in Miami (Amazon Prime, January 15)
Regina King (Watchmen, Friday) has her directorial debut premiering on Amazon Prime this month with this stage adaptation. The premise is interesting: Jim Brown, Sam Cooke, Malcolm X, and Muhammed Ali meet in 1964 after Ali beats Sonny Liston for the boxing title. There has been a ton of buzz about the movie, although I’d watch it just to see Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton, Person of Interest) portray Sam Cooke, one of my favorite singers.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Amazon Prime, January 1)
I’ll keep pushing this movie until every dad-movie person out there has seen it. Peter Weir (Witness, The Truman Show) directed this 2003 adaptation of a famous series of naval adventure novels. The ship-to-ship action is incredible, the sound design is amazing, the costumes are dope, the vistas are incredible, and the cast includes Russell Crowe (Gladiator, The Nice Guys) and Paul Bettany (Vision in a buncha Marvel movies) as the leads two years after their far more celebrated collaboration, A Beautiful Mind (a movie that I will never stop insisting that people avoid).
This movie is a great actioner, and it also is an all-time-great Sunday afternoon movie, with its measured pacing, Bach score, and episodic structure.
Also, this probably has the single-best occurrence of a character preemptively laughing at their own joke, telling the joke, and then laughing even harder afterward.
GO WATCH IT.
Eve’s Bayou (Amazon Prime, January 1)
I primarily know the director, Kasi Lemmons, as Clarice Starling’s FBI academy friend in The Silence of the Lambs. As I’ve seen Silence roughly 30 times, I figured it is time to check out Lemmons’ celebrated work as a director.
Eve’s Bayou, her directorial debut, includes Samuel L. Jackson and a performance by 10-year-old Jurnee Smollett (Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn; Lovecraft Country) as the titular character. The drama focuses on a family in Louisiana in the 1960s and how the repercussions of a bad decision beget more bad decisions.
Tony Parker: The Final Shot (Netflix, January 6)
Netflix has several good NBA documentaries, including The Last Dance and The Carter Effect. I wasn’t aware that they were making one about Tony Parker, but you can bet your sweet bippy that I’ll be tuning in to see interviews with Spurs legends like Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich.
My beloved Spurs have had a rough couple of years after their historic run which featured Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobli. As this year is shaping up to be another frustrating season, I’ll gladly watch footage of the salad days of the late 90s and early 2000s.
Lupin (Netflix, January 8)
A Netflix original series, this French heist show involves an elaborate plan to steal a necklace from The Louvre. The trailer looks promising, although it sounds like there may be a little supernatural element involving a book about the famous cat burglar Arsène Lupin, and the trailer doesn’t mention anything about this angle.
Netflix shows tend to be overlong and thus a little fatty in the middle (all of the Marvel shows, The Witcher) but I love a fun heist, so this is worth a try.
Letterkenny (Hulu)
Offbeat Canadian sitcoms are my jam (Trailer Park Boys, Corner Gas, Schitt’s Creek) and Letterkenny has been recommended to me multiple times as being as good as or better than most. This is near the top of my list for the new year.
Season 9 just released on Hulu, and before you get antsy, the show doesn’t run overlong like American sitcoms. There are 6 or 7 episodes per season (as opposed to the absurd 22 episodes in a US show), so we are talking about maybe 60 episodes for the entire run.
See you in February!