If you're looking for a flick to watch this weekend on Max, there are all kinds of excellent possibilities. You could check out Max's original documentary They Called Him Mostly Harmless, which adds a wrinkle to the true-crime genre by chronicling message board sleuths. You could re-visit Barbie, a movie that stays entertaining no matter how many times you've seen it. Or you could check out some of my other picks for best movie to stream on Max this weekend.

They Called Him Mostly Harmless

In the documentary They Called Him Mostly Harmless, a band of internet sleuths put their research skills to the test by trying to track down the identity of a hiker whose body was found in a Florida swamp. The amateur investigators uncover troubling and confounding details about the unnamed man, while their in-fighting and internet drama spill over into the official investigation.

Barbie (2023)

It's time to re-watch Barbie in light of its massive influence on our culture. Warner Bros. could have used the Barbie property to make a $150 million toy commercial, but instead, they put the iconic brand in the hands of Greta Gerwig, who helmed a world-shaking phenomenon of a movie. Equal parts hilarious parody and thought-provoking commentary, Barbie manages to be both wildly entertaining and to nudge our culture a tiny bit closer toward justice. Not bad for a movie about a line of dolls.

Midsommar (2019)

Ari Aster's masterpiece of a horror movie takes us inside an ancient Swedish cult. It builds an aura of dread by subverting all expectations of what's "scary." Instead of a cramped, dark house, Midsommar takes place in a bucolic meadow bathed in perpetual sunlight. Seen through the eyes of American tourists, Midsommar's rites at first seem picturesque and quaint, but are gradually revealed to be unsettling, then sinister—or redemptive, depending on your point of view.

Godzilla (1954)

If you think of Japanese giant monster movies as campy, silly jokes, i urge you to watch the original Godzilla and have your mind changed. Made less than 10 years after the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Japan, Godzilla is a serious, even somber, movie that uses a gigantic monster to explore the nature of war and the horror of nuclear annihilation. The version on Max is the original Japanese movie, not the pukey re-edited "American" version.

Last week's picks

Dicks: The Musical (2023) 

Dicks takes the tropes of musical theater and gives them the South Park treatment by infusing a self-aware, cheesy set-up with provocative, for-adults comedy. Craig and Trevor are the dicks of the title, a couple of alpha male salesmen who decide they’re actually "fucking identical twins" even though they don't look alike. Their logical next move is to trick “their” parents into getting back together. It's like The Parent Trap, if the dad was gay. The supporting cast includes Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally, Bowen Yang, and Megan Thee Stallion, which really should be enough to earn your attention.

Rolling Along: Bill Bradley (2024)

American icon Bill Bradley tells his own story in documentary Rolling Along. Much of the film is composed of footage from Bradley’s one-man show, in which he recounts his remarkable life: He was a hall-of-fame basketball player who led the Knicks to two championships before turning to politics and getting elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served three terms and changed American life at least as much as he changed the sport of basketball. If you want hard-won wisdom from a guy who crammed at least three lifetimes into one, check it out.

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (2015)

It's easy to get hyperbolic about Steve Jobs and the fandom/cult he inspired—the influence of Apple on our culture is hard to overstate—but this documentary avoids the obvious by adopting a just-the-facts style and drawing no conclusions about its subject's life. It doesn't gloss over Jobs' many faults, nor overstate his obvious virtues. Stream it on your new Vision Pro.

A Ghost Story (2017)

If you're hoping for some mindless horror movie thrills, A Ghost Story is not the right choice. If you're looking for a dreamlike film about heartbreak and the inexorable crush of time (in other words, an A24 horror film), this is your jam. A Ghost Story earned a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes for its deliberate pace, outstanding performances, and its willingness to take cinematic risks. It's strictly arthouse, but there is a ghost in it. It wears the traditional "sheet with eyeholes cut in it" garb and is more like a representation of grief and loss than a traditional spirit, but still, a ghost is a ghost.

Wedding Crashers (2005)

Meant as a throwaway raunchy comedy, the passage of time has turned Wedding Crashers into a movie about shifting societal values. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are hilarious as pals whose weekends are spent crashing strangers' wedding receptions for the free booze and access to single women. There's plenty of wild-partying, but they're ultimately good dudes; the creators of Wedding Crashers knew that it wouldn't be funny if the leads were overly predatory or misogynist, and their antics are refreshingly hate-free. But just when you're feeling relaxed, there's a scene where Vaughn's character is sexually assaulted, and it's played for laughs, so not everything has aged well. It's completely jarring in 2024, especially because I saw Wedding Crashers when it came out, and a series of "Ha ha! A man got raped!" jokes didn't even register as weird at the time.

from LifeHacker https://ift.tt/eBoTsAf