Steamy Streaming: January

BY: Zak Wojnar

In the movies, whenever someone gets out of a tough scrape, they take a moment to dust themselves off and say something coy like “Phew, we were lucky to get out of there, but it looks like the worst is behind us!” Inevitably, things get worse.

On a completely unrelated note, 2018 is over! It was a terrible year which battered the global reputation of the United States, saw a crippling government shutdown, and had an unprecedented stock market drop, bordering on outright collapse. But we’re sure things will turn around in 2019… Right?

Whatever happens, the wheels of entertainment will continue to spin, and January 2019 sees a host of new programming springing up on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Here’s our top picks for new content to devour in the new – and perhaps final – year.

I Am The Night

This new series from TNT is something of a spiritual follow-up to The Alienist. Directed by Patty Jenkins and starring her Wonder Woman hunk, Chris Pine, I Am The Night is a gritty film noir story about the Black Dahlia killing, one of the most infamous unsolved murders in American history.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Netflix are doing two bad things. First, they cancelled The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Then, instead of releasing the final season, they split it in half, releasing a few episodes in 2018 and saving the final batch until January. It’s like they’re trying to get two seasons for the price of one; it’s not like there’s a dearth of content on Netflix, they should have put out the whole season at once! In any case, it will be a bittersweet sendoff for Kimmy Schmidt, a woman who is, indeed, “unbreakable.”

Atlanta: Season 2

This FX series is an awards season darling, and marks the first appearance of the lovely and talented Donald Glover on our January list. Season two, subtitled “Robbin’ Season,” earned two Golden Globes and two Emmys. The show strikes a magical balance, following a cynical and bitter man, but has its own optimistic tone, featuring enough whimsy and idealism to border on magical realism. Say what you will of Atlanta, but there’s nothing else like it on television.

The Two Jakes

Did you know there’s a sequel to Chinatown? Did you also know that it’s awesome? Directed by J.J. Gittes himself, Jack Nicholson, The Two Jakes is a surreal film noir romp, lighter on its feet than its grimly morbid predecessor, but with a unique charm and charisma of its own. The film received mixed reviews and was quickly forgotten during its initial run, but nowadays is regarded as something of a lost classic. If you missed it the first time, there’s no time like the present to give in another shot.

Gods and Monsters

Gods and Monsters is not a traditional Hollywood biopic. Though it ostensibly follows legendary director James Whale (Frankenstein) during his twilight years and features classy and pleasing tributes to his most famous work, it’s also a dark character study about an openly gay World War I veteran seeking greater meaning during the final chapter of his life. Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser deliver incredible performances in this low-key examination of a beautiful man whose art has persisted and continues to entertain new generations of film enthusiasts, even nearly 90 years later.

Revolutionary Road

The second on-screen pairing of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet (following 1997’s Titanic, one of the most financially-successful films of all time), Revolutionary Road is an intimate and provocative drama about domestic bliss in post-war suburbia. By now, it’s old hat to suggest that the 1950s were not a jolly time of nostalgia and metaphorical picket fences, but that doesn’t make Revolutionary Road any less devastating in its storytelling, nor beautiful in its production design, truly capturing the era with its costumes and sets.

Eighth Grade

Bo Burnham is only twenty-eight years old, but he’s already made a name for himself as a comedian on the internet. Before YouTube was flooded with worthless sacks of shit like Logan Paul, it was a place where genuine artists could peddle their wares and make a name for themselves like the old vaudeville days updated for the 21st century. That’s where Bo Burnham comes from.

His feature film debut, Eighth Grade, is an unbelievable ode to adolescence, sincere, heartfelt, and completely genuine in its humor and sensibilities. It’s easily one of the best films of 2018, and puts Burnham on track to be one of the great artists of our time.

Fahrenheit 11/9

Michael Moore’s latest documentary was a surprising underperformer at the box office this year, but its message is no less relevant. Unlike competing docs from fraudulent dweebs liks Dinesh D’Souza, who uses alternative facts and twisted half-truths to force events into a pre-designed narrative to suit his conspiracy theories and corporate interests, Michael Moore takes a different approach; he presents facts, and draws conclusions based on those facts. It almost sounds novel in Trump’s twisted version of America, the country to which we’ve been mutating over the last two years.

Rain Man

Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman were two of the cutest cuties of their time, and 1988’s Rain Man puts them together in a unique take on the “buddy road movie.” They play estranged brothers who take a cross country trip. Cruise is an unscrupulous hustler, perhaps one small rung above a measly con man, and Hoffman is his brother, an autistic savant. Together, they go on a series of misadventures, including the iconic Iko Iko scene. We could describe it, but it’s on streaming, so just watch it, you silly goose!

Solo: A Star Wars Story

It feels odd to call a Star Wars film “underrated,” but here we are. Pundits were skeptical when Solo was given a Summer release date when all other Disney-produced Star Wars films were given December dates. On top of that puzzling choice, the film’s marketing was anemic, as it was expected to coast on the strength of the brand. However, without Harrison Ford in the role of a young Han Solo, audiences sensed a cheap money grab and Solo wound up seriously underperforming at the global box office.

The biggest shame of it all is, against all odds, Solo rocks! A freewheeling adventure in the vein of spaghetti westerns, heist films, and a splash of acid-soaked audacity, Solo is a love letter to the unadulterated spirit of its title character. Alden Ehrenreich has no right to be perfectly cast as a younger version of Harrison Ford’s original take on the galaxy’s most lovable scoundrel, but he offers an irresistible cocktail of plucky tenacity, devilish charm, and righteous charisma which makes every scene full of surprises and a palpable energy. That’s all well and good, but when one throws in an equally perfect Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, and the film reaches heights nobody could have ever predicted. There’s a lot of magic in Solo, and now that it’s hitting Netflix, maybe more people will come to see and acknowledge its greatness.