Sure-Fire Streaming: Urban Legend, Ginny & Georgia, The Rental, and more!
By Jordan Parker
https://parkerandpictures.wordpress.com/
Urban Legend – Available On Netflix
This low-budget 1990’s slasher hit was all the rage when I was growing up, and I still have a deep soft spot for this one, despite seeing some obvious flaws.
It’s about a college student who begins to suspect a series of deaths on campus are being done to coincide with urban legends.
The cast is incredible – including a young Jared Leto, Joshua Jackson, Alicia Witt, Tara Reid, Michael Rosenbaum, and Rebecca Gayheart – and they all hit the B-movie camp button just enough.
There are some cameos from horror movie greats like Robert Englund and Brad Dourif – Freddy Krueger and Chucky from Child’s Play, respectively – and this one is intense fun.
It’s scary, delightful and just an all-out shocking good time, with kills that will stick in your memory for a long time following.
Ginny & Georgia – Available On Netflix
This interesting little show from debut producer-writer Ginny & Georgia is the latest crazy on Netflix these days.
It follows 15-year-old Ginny and her free-wheeling 30-year-old mother Georgia, and the ways that they clash.
Ginny is responsible, cautious and yearns for stability. Georgia lives by wherever the breeze takes her, and is the first to uproot Ginny and son Austin at the first sign of trouble.
She’s running from her past, but never lets anyone in long enough for them to find out the issues that lie beneath.
Brianne Howey and Antonia Gentry are charismatic and fantastic as the two leads, and they work so well together.
Supporting turns from Jennifer Robertson, Felix Mallard, Sara Waisglass, Scott Porter, Raymond Ablack and Mason Temple make this a fantastic ensemble dramedy.
The Rental – Available On Prime Video
Funnyman Dave Franco writes and directs this atmospheric thriller that was way better than I ever imagined it’d be.
It follows two couples who rent a cabin together for the weekend to celebrate, but jealousy, madness and deceit overcome the group.
It’s an extremely well-acted affair fraught with tension and marked by good intentions gone awry.
Dan Stevens, Alison Brie, Sheila Vand and the incredible Shameless star Jeremy Allen White really make this work. White, to his credit, makes the biggest impact with his screentime and he’s so effective.
It’s a difficult film, and it doesn’t go places you expect. But that’s the most fun part of this thriller.
Margin Call – Available On Netflix
Writer-director J.C. Chandor creates his best film with, quite possibly, the smallest budget of his career.
This is the debut from the director of All Is Lost, A Most Violent Year, and Triple Frontier, and it’s still his best.
Nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, it follows investment bankers who, over 24 hours, see the 2008 financial crisis take shape before their eyes.
The cast here is impeccable: Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell and Demi Moore all get chances to own the screen here.
It’s like Wall Street meets Glengarry Glen Ross, and yet, it still has so many fresh, eloquent things to say. This is an absolute gem of a film.
The War With Grandpa – Available On Prime Video
Every once in a while, you just need to find a way to laugh at something innocuous and easy.
The War With Grandpa is a film that’s not going to stay in your head forever, but my God, was it ever a great way to spend two hours.
Like a Home Alone knock-off with less bludgeoning, the film is about a young boy who becomes dismayed when his grandfather moves into the family home, taking his bedroom and leaving him living in the attic.
He wages a prank war with his grandfather – the loser gets the bedroom, and the old veteran obliges. I’ve got to say, the results are pretty laugh-out-loud.
Starring Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman, Christopher Walken, Rob Riggle, Jane Seymour, Cheech Marin and young Oakes Fegley, the cast is stacked and hilarious.
Though some gags fall flat, enough of them will have you rolling back and forth that you’re going to be glad you sat down for this one.