What to Watch
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Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon when they were kids-ish, Clint Eastwood as a drug mule on the other side of life, and Meryl Streep in “Out of Africa.”
One of the most durable shows of the modern television era leaves Netflix in the United States this month, along with an equally long-lasting horror franchise, a handful of enjoyable genre flicks and several Oscar winners and nominees. (Dates indicate the final day a title is available.)
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Clint Eastwood starred in (for the first time in six years) and directed this 2018 mash-up of character drama and road movie, based on the true story of a 90-year-old veteran and great-grandfather who became a drug mule. Eastwood’s fictionalized protagonist makes this career shift because of hard times, financially and emotionally; he has lost his business and his family has turned away from him, for good reason. It’s a complicated character, likable and even empathetic while simultaneously amoral, and Eastwood seems to enjoy exploring those contradictions (and how they intersect with his own). The fine supporting cast includes Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Andy Garcia, Michael Peña and Dianne Wiest.
Stream it here.
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, the British mathematician and cryptanalyst instrumental in the development of the first computers, in this sharp and well-acted biographical drama from the director Morten Tyldum. Cumberbatch plays Turing as a socially awkward, endlessly brilliant man who has secrets (including his closeted homosexuality). He tells the story of his life in a police interrogation, with particular focus on his time working with the team that broke the Nazi Enigma code; Charles Dance, Matthew Goode and Keira Knightley are among that group, and they tell a compelling story of mile-high stakes and thorny personalities. Cumberbatch was nominated for an Oscar, one of the picture’s eight nominations (its writer Graham Moore won the prize for best adapted screenplay).
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This military police procedural drama, still going strong after a staggering 21 seasons, has never been a favorite of critics. Its fans, though, cannot get enough, making it one of the longest-running shows in TV history, while spawning six spinoffs. (It was a slow starter ratings-wise, achieving its immense popularity several years into its run.) The predictability and formulaic nature of such procedurals, the very qualities that turn off some viewers and critics, are what its fans value. You know exactly what you’re going to get in an episode of “NCIS,” and it’s delivered crisply and efficiently, by actors who get the job done without showing off.
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Years before winning an Oscar for “The Blind Side,” Sandra Bullock revealed the first hints of her considerable range in this engaging serio-comic drama from the director Betty Thomas (“Private Parts”) and the screenwriter Susannah Grant (“Erin Brockovich”). Bullock stars as a fast-living New York writer whose functional alcoholism is becoming less functional; she checks into a rehabilitation facility only when ordered to do so to avoid jail time for a D.U.I. As Michael Keaton did in 1988’s “Clean and Sober,” Bullock allows the loose formula of the rehab narrative to stretch her acting chops without eschewing the charm and charisma that made her a movie star. It’s a scrappy, alive performance, and Steve Buscemi provides able support as the counselor who has seen it all before.
Stream it here.
With this 1984 exploration of terror, dreams and the American suburbs, Wes Craven created one of the finest horror pictures of the 1980s, and one of its most popular boogeymen, Fred Krueger (Robert Englund). Krueger, a long-dead child murderer, begins invading the dreams of teenagers, resulting in their grisly deaths. Heather Langenkamp is a charismatic protagonist, while Johnny Depp makes a memorable feature film debut as her beau. Several of the film’s numerous sequels (and its ill-advised 2010 remake) also leave Netflix this month; “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” is probably the best of the bunch, though the second and fourth installments have their fans.
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