NETFLIX RECENTLY surpassed Disney as the world's biggest pure media company. If anyone is doing well at the moment, it is toilet paper manufactures and streaming services. They are churning out such a level of content it is hard to keep up with it, so here are some recent additions to Netflix which are worth watching.
Outbreak
Along with Contagion, Outbreak is surely the best pandemic movie. It is a little dated and feels very 1990s but I’ve had several conversations in the last few months saying, 'Isn’t it great we have WhatsApp groups and smartphones?' This is a fun look at what would happen if something similar had happened in 1995. It does not have the uncomfortable real feel Contagion does, but that means it is a little more fun.
Big Night
One of my all time favourite movies and by far the best film about food/dining. It is hard to know why food and restaurants rarely work well on the big screen. Big Night is about two immigrant restaurateur brothers who are on the verge of bankruptcy, and gamble it all by inviting the local press and their neighbours in New Jersey to a big feast to get some buzz going. Understated and hilarious with a great cast. This is comfort food as a film.
Brexit - An Uncivil War
A nice look back on the halcyon days when the entire news cycle was centred around something that would not kill us. Benedict Cumberbatch is actually great here playing Dominic Cummings as a kind of modern Rasputin. It has one or two really great scenes and as far as I can tell they are true. When all the biographies are written years from now it will be fun to look back on this film and see how much was right.
Goon
This is a movie you will need to be convinced to watch, it is about a Ice Hockey hard man played by Stifler from the American Pie movies. On paper it sounds awful, but it is a surprisingly warm, funny, film. I thought it would be a lot more popular when it first came out in 2011 so hopefully it will find its audience on streaming.
Nightcrawler
The oscars in 2015 seemed to get every decision wrong in my opinion but the most egregious mistake was not even nominating Jake Gyllenhaal for Nightcrawler. By far his best ever performance, Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, a low level photojournalist, who spends his nights driving around Los Angeles taking photos of violent crimes and accidents.
