Sure-Fire Streaming: The best in TV and film from your living room
By Jordan Parker
https://parkerandpictures.wordpress.com/
Uncle Frank – Available on Amazon Prime Video
One of the best flicks no one saw in 2020, Uncle Frank is about a man and his 18-year-old niece who take a road trip from Manhattan to small-town South Carolina to attend his dad’s funeral.
It’s 1973, and Frank Bledsoe – largely the black sheep to his late father – left and headed to the big city to escape the trappings of his upbringing. When his niece unexpectedly visits him in Manhattan, she discovers he’s been hiding his sexuality and his long-time male partner from the family for a decade.
Written and directed by True Blood creator Alan Ball, this semi-autobiographical flick both chronicles the struggle of Frank to be honest with his family, and the difficulties of losing a loved one.
Paul Bettany, known best for his roles in blockbusters like The Da Vinci Code and the Avengers films, gives the best performance of his career here in a movie that will hit you harder than you’d ever expect.
One Night In Miami – Available on Amazon Prime Video
This Oscar hopeful chronicles a fictional encounter between icons Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown on a fateful night in the 1960’s.
Set against the backdrop of civil unrest and the fight for equality for African-Americans in the U.S., the film unfolds like a stage play, with the four men clashing over ideas and opinions in a Miami hotel.
This feature directorial debut from Regina King – recent star of the HBO Watchmen series and such films as Jerry Maguire and Boyz n the Hood – is an intensely interesting discussion on race relations, and hugely timely right now.
With a quartet of unbelievable performances from young actors Kingsley Ben-Adir, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr. and Eli Goree, this is one that will be buzzed about all through awards season.
The Trial Of The Chicago 7 – Available on Netflix
One of my favourite films of the year is this account of the fallout from the trial after an anti-Vietnam protest in Chicago in 1968.
The real-life events that occurred at the Democratic National Convention have been dramatized here by writer-director Aaron Sorkin.
One of the most talented people in Hollywood, Sorkin is responsible for the scripts for Moneyball, The Social Network, A Few Good Men, and he was a writer for the full duration of The West Wing. This film has crackling dialogue and never misses a beat.
Likewise, he puts together the best ensemble of the year, which includes Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne, Succession star Jeremy Strong, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, the incredible Frank Langella, and more.
But of them all, it’s Borat star and creator Sacha Baron Cohen who is hotly tipped for an Oscar for his role as hippie protestor and smart-mouth Abbie Hoffman. Not far behind him is Steven Spielberg favourite Mark Rylance as the exasperated lawyer trying to defend the men.
This is, frankly, one of the most entertaining, incredible pictures of the year. You can’t go wrong by pressing play.
The Devil All The Time – Available on Netflix
Anyone with a taste for adult fare and crime should look no further than Spider-Man star Tom Holland’s latest.
It’s a highly interesting picture with interwoven storylines all occurring in the same area of America. It’s about the town underbelly and difficult past that makes a normal life difficult for young Arvin.
We watch the character grow up, surrounded by death and violence, and he pushes himself to become more than what he’s witnessed in life, if it’s the last thing he does.
Holland shows he can do more than comic book movies, and it’s nice to see Bill Skarsgård removing his IT makeup and doing something other than playing murderous clown Pennywise.
With Robert Pattinson – surprisingly great here – Riley Keough, Jason Clarke, and Sebastian Stan on board, we’re treated to a number of great stories that connect into a showstopping final act.
Mank – Available on Netflix
When one of the greatest directors working makes a film all about the arduous battle to get a screenplay written for one of the best movies of all time, it will be a feast for film lovers.
Confused? Let me clear it up. Director David Fincher – Fight Club, Seven – makes this black-and-white pic about the 1930’s struggle of Hollywood screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz to write what would become Citizen Kane.
Orson Welles’ epic film is looked at with a magnifying lens here, as Fincher delves into the life of the larger-than-life, hard-drinking, oft-blacklisted Mank and his treacherous fights with the Hollywood elite.
Gary Oldman transforms himself again, and is incredible at Mank, and Amanda Seyfried, previously starring in films like Mean Girls and Mamma Mia!, puts herself squarely in the Oscars conversation.
It’s a send-up of old Hollywood in every sense, and one of the most enthralling, entertaining spectacles of the year.