The end of 2020 is approaching, and while the next few weeks are sure to be full of holiday
celebrations, you also have some movies to be sure to watch before they leave Netflix!
Like the holiday season itself, there's something here for everyone to enjoy.
Just make sure you act fast.
If you think your family is weird, just wait until you meet the Coneheads. In this 1993 comedy based
on a series of classic Saturday Night Live sketches from the '70s, original SNL cast
members Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin star as Beldar and Prymaat, two aliens from the planet Remulak.
Initially, the duo heads to Earth to stage an invasion. However, when their ship is shot down,
the alien couple does the only logical thing: move to the suburbs and start a family.
The Coneheads' ill-fated attempts to blend in with regular humans quickly attract the
attention of two Immigration and Naturalization Service agents,
played by two more SNL alums Michael McKean and David Spade.
"Where are you people from?"
"France. We come from France."
"But we are American citizens now."
But Prymaat and Beldar have plenty of other problems to deal with. For one thing,
their teenage daughter Connie, played by Michelle Burke, is getting serious with her boyfriend,
Ronnie — portrayed by Saturday Night Live icon Chris Farley — much to her parents' chagrin.
Meanwhile, Beldar has his eye on the local country club's golf tournament trophy, while Prymaat
begins to worry that her marriage is in trouble. And complicating matters even further, a rescue
ship's arrival is imminent, threatening to take Connie away from the only home she's ever known.
Coneheads is basically a live-action cartoon, which explains why it's a childhood favorite
for many '90s kids. These days, it also doubles as a time capsule. It's crammed full of comedy stars
from the era, including Seinfeld castmates Michael Richards and Jason Alexander, comedy legends
Sinbad, Drew Carey, Ellen DeGeneres, and a whole slew of other SNL cast members like Adam Sandler,
Julia Sweeney, Kevin Nealon, Tim Meadows, Phil Hartman, and Jon Lovitz, to name just a few.
You will enjoy it. Just make sure you do before it leaves on December 31.
Around the same time that Ted Mosby began telling a long, winding story to his children about how
he met their mother, Ryan Reynolds took to the big screen to do pretty much the same thing.
"You know something? I'm gonna tell you the real, true story of how me and your mother met."
There are a few differences, though. Definitely, Maybe's Will Hayes is a divorcee,
not a widower, and as he tells the story he's intentionally hiding his ex-wife's name,
leaving his precocious daughter, Maya, to guess her true identity.
Is her mom Will's college girlfriend, Emily? Is it Will's co-worker-turned-lover April?
Is it Summer, a top-notch reporter who happens to be Emily's old college buddy?
Definitely, Maybe is a charming, low-key romantic mystery that'll keep you guessing
up until the very end. But don't be too shocked: Writer/director Adam Brooks is romantic comedy
royalty, having helmed classics like French Kiss, Practical Magic, Bridget Jones: The Edge
of Reason, and plenty of others. He's aided by an all-star cast — Emily, April, and Summer are
played by Elizabeth Banks, Ilsa Fisher, and Rachel Weisz, respectively. And its script throws out the
regular rom-com formula in favor of something that's much more structurally interesting.
If you're looking for a cozy way to ring in the New Year, Definitely, Maybe will do the job.
Just don't wait much longer. It leaves Netflix on December 31, 2020.
Frost/Nixon dramatizes the real-life television interviews between American ex-president Richard
Nixon and British journalist David Frost. It really comes down to two performances:
Michael Sheen as Frost, and Frank Langella as Nixon. In fact, a few years earlier,
Langella and Sheen played those same roles in the stage play the movie is based on,
which earned Langella a Tony Award for Best Actor and Sheen his fourth Olivier nomination.
It helps that Frost/Nixon is surprisingly exciting. Three years after the Watergate
scandal forced him to resign the presidency, Nixon sees the three interviews as his last
chance to reclaim his legacy. Frost, meanwhile, has everything riding on the broadcast. Not only
did he buy TV airtime with his own money, but by trying to get a confession out of Tricky Dick,
the former comedian hopes to prove his journalistic cred once and for all.
"I'm saying that when the president does it, that means it's not illegal."
The battle of wits that follows is nothing short of thrilling.
The machinations of supporting characters with their own agenda,
like Nixon's literary agent and his unflinchingly loyal chief of staff,
complicate things even further. No, Frost/Nixon isn't entirely historically accurate, but it
doesn't matter. It's still a fascinating look at what motivates people in power — especially
after they lose that power — and is well worth catching before it departs on New Year's Eve.
A trio of mischievous nuns. A runaway servant who was caught sleeping with his master's wife.
An alcoholic priest. Mix them all together, stick them in a 14th-century Italian convent,
and what do you get?
According to The Little Hours — a black comedy written and directed by Jeff Baena — you get
nothing but trouble. The problems begin when the nuns, which include Alison Brie's Alessandra,
Kate Micucci's gossipy Ginevra, and Aubrey Plaza's violently unstable Fernanda,
torment the convent's gardener so badly that he quits. They get worse when Father Tommasso,
played by John C. Reilly, replaces him with Dave Franco's Masseto,
who pretends to be deaf and mute while hiding from his master's wrath.
"What are you doing?
You digging a ditch? You're digging a ditch."
By the time Jemima Kirke shows up as Marta,
one of Fernanda's friends, and convinces everyone to get drunk on communion wine,
things go completely off the rails — and we haven't even gotten to the witches yet.
The whole story is loosely based on a story from Boccaccio's Decameron,
a work of classic Italian literature, meaning it's irreverent, hilariously dirty, and,
in its own way, kind of classy. And despite its historical setting, The Little Hours' characters
speak and act like modern people, which all adds up to quite the unconventional comedy.
If you want something a little different to kick off the Christmas season in earnest, The Little
Hours will get the job done quite well. Just catch it before its December 22nd farewell date.
If you're planning to look for love in 2021, get in the mood a little early with Possession,
which leaves Netflix on December 31. Neil LaBute's romantic drama,
based on A. S. Byatt's Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name,
has not one but two steamy love affairs, split across two separate timelines.
In the modern-day story, American academic Roland Michell, played by Aaron Eckhart, discovers a
love letter from Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash to a woman that's decidedly not his wife.
This sends his peer Maud Bailey, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, into a tailspin.
See, the lives of Ash and his maybe-lover Christabel LaMotte are her specialty, and
Bailey is desperate to know the truth. So the two scholars journey across England to discover it.
Possession also delves into the affair between Ash, played by costume drama
mainstay Jeremy Northam, and LaMotte, portrayed by Jennifer Ehle. At first,
the two couldn't be more different. Ash is a conservative, happily married man,
while LaMotte is an unabashed feminist currently in a relationship with another woman.
Still, their attraction is undeniable, and as Michell and Bailey unravel the mystery
surrounding their affair, sparks begin to fly between them, too. It's complicated but clever,
and LaBute does an excellent job drawing parallels between Possession's twin romances.
If the sugary sweetness of the holiday season is starting to get to you, cut through the fluff with
Splice, director Vincenzo Natali's sci-fi horror film, before it disappears on New Year's Eve.
The story of genetic manipulation begins when two scientists, Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast,
respectively played by Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, successfully splice
animal DNA to create a new species. That's when they announce that they're
ready to move onto trials using human genetic material. But when their bosses tell them no,
Clive and Elsa go ahead and do it anyway. The product of their research, which they name Dren,
ages super-fast, has wings, is amphibious, and turns out to be incredibly smart.
She's marvelous, but also incredibly dangerous. Of course, that doesn't stop Elsa, and later Clive,
from treating her like a surrogate daughter. The makeshift family's uneasy domestic bliss
doesn't last for long. Not only does Dren consume all of Elsa and Clive's attention,
making them neglect their other experiments, but Dren's innate
animalistic tendencies grow increasingly more pronounced. That spells trouble for everyone.
Years before the internet took over everyday life, star Matthew Broderick and director
John Badham released WarGames, a techno-thriller about a teenage hacker who almost ends the world.
Broderick's character, David Lightman, accidentally hacks into a military computer
designed to predict what'll happen in the case of nuclear war. Lightman mistakes the system for
a game, and takes on the role of the Soviet Union in one of the computer's simulations.
Unbeknownst to the teen, NORAD has recently automated America's nuclear missile launch
centers. When the computer mistakes David's gaming for actual Soviet aggression, World War III seems
all but inevitable. Naturally, the government gets involved, forcing David to escape with the help of
his attractive classmate, track down the scientist responsible for the system, and save the world.
WarGames' computers and online tech are from 1983,
but its underlying themes are still all too relevant. Even with its heavy themes,
it's a fun, early-'80s romp, and with its December 31 sunset date,
it serves as an excellent reminder that as chaotic as 2020 was, it could've been way, way worse.
"Shall we play a game?"
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