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INDIE PICK:
In Knives Out mastermind Rian Johnson’s Brick (2005), Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a teen detective investigating the murder of his ex-girlfriend, who may have been involved with local drug lord “The Pin” (Lukas Haas). Dialogue and all, the film is like a Humphrey Bogart movie transplanted at a California high school. Also, it has a great third-person brag: “If you put me in the game, Brad Bramish is going to do what needs to be done!” Starz.
HOLLYWOOD PICK:
If the final week before James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water floods theaters feels long, why not pass the time by watching Cameron’s True Lies (1994)? It’s morally offensive (for too many reasons to explain here) and not very good, but you can’t be a Cameron completist unless you’ve watched Arnold Schwarzenegger ride a horse into an elevator. Based on the 1991 French film La Totale! Hulu.
INTERNATIONAL PICK:
Wong Kar-wai may have made his directorial debut with the glorious gangster flick As Tears Go By, but his signature brand of woozy romanticism really solidified with Days of Being Wild (1990). The main plot (which focuses on Leslie Cheung’s wrathful playboy) wears out its welcome, but a heartfelt vignette about spurned lover (Maggie Cheung) and a stoic policeman (Andy Lau) roaming the streets of Hong Kong is as beautifully haunting as anything Wong has created. HBO Max.
HOLIDAY PICK:
The Lohan-aissance is upon us! In Janeen Damian’s Falling for Christmas (2022), Lindsay Lohan plays Sierra Belmont, an amnesiac heiress wooed by a hunky lodge owner (Chord Overstreet). Shout-out to George Young, who is insanely funny as Tad Fairchild, the preening social media influencer Sierra can’t remember she’s engaged to. Netflix.