TRUMBO tells the story of McCarthy’s assault on American civil liberties from the perspective of the Hollywood screenwriter who undermined the blacklist by finding new ways to keep working. Bryan Cranston has a hell of a time playing Dalton Trumbo, the crusading Communist screenwriter who won Oscars for Roman Holiday and The Brave One – which were credited to a front writer and a pseudonym. (See full review).
Rating: NNN
Available to watch: Netflix
Anomalisa delivers lots of stop-motion surprises.
ANOMALISA, a stop-motion picture co-directed by award-winning writer and director Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, is a masterpiece. Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis) is a successful, middle-aged author and motivational speaker who flies to Cincinnati to deliver a talk about customer service. He’s unhappily married, and once at his hotel he looks up an old flame, but the reunion doesn’t go well. Then he meets Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and they fall for each other. (See full review).
Rating: NNNNN
Available to watch: Netflix
THE WITCH is set in 17th century New England where a pious family of settlers becomes convinced that their run of bad luck is the result of witchcraft and turn on one another in an attempt to root out the malevolence in their household. (See full review).
Rating: NNNN
Available to watch: Netflix
Small-town rabbit Judy Hopps (left, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) hits the big city in charming Zootopia.
ZOOTOPIA is a lot of things at once, and all of them are pretty good. It’s a buddy comedy in which the overmatched Judy enlists the help of a crafty fox named Nick (Jason Bateman) to crack a missing-person case. And it’s an allegory about the need for tolerance and understanding in a quietly racist society where xenophobia and fear of the other are recast as the tension between predators and prey. (See full review).
Rating: NNNN
Available to watch: Netflix
THE REVENANT isn’t Leonardo DiCaprio’s best film, but it’s good film. Leonardo DiCaprio is limited to making pained faces as Hugh Glass, a fur trapper mauled by a bear (a jaw-dropping sequence) and left for dead by John Fitzgerald, a vile character made compelling by the glint of humanity in Tom Hardy’s performance. Glass’s rise from the grave and long slog through the brutal environment in pursuit of retribution are padded with moments that mimic Terrence Malick. (See full review).
Rating: NNN
Available to watch: Netflix
THE BOOK OF NEGROES novel is perfect fodder for miniseries treatment, covering over four decades in the life of Aminata, a midwife, translator and slave, and unfolding in four cities. The CBC took the bait, producing a six-part TV extravaganza helmed by Clement Virgo.
Available to watch: Netflix
THE GET DOWN is the sort of thing that makes up for all of director Baz Luhrmann’s other silliness. A drama about the rise of hip-hop music and culture in 70s New York, it’s precisely the type of storytelling he does best: full-on immersion. Like his magnificent, rapturous Moulin Rouge!, this six-part series smothers you in its created world, turning every scene into an experience. Production design, sound design, camerawork and performance are all precisely attenuated to create an overwhelming cinematic juggernaut. You don’t watch it passively, you hang on for dear life. (See full review).
Available to watch: Netflix
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