Alls Well When Read (and Watched) #7: What to Watch on New Year's Eve and Day
Check these out if you're going to be spending time at home on New Year's Eve and Day!
Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone!
First off, I want to tell you how thankful I am you’ve stuck around with Alls Well When Read (and Watched) this year. I’ve spent a good part of this year tinkering and curating all kinds of content for you all to enjoy. So, if you find even one new movie, show, or book to fall in love with from this newsletter, I’ve done my job and there’s nothing more I could wish for.
We’re ending 2022 with a bang with this newsletter. So, if you’re staying home today/tonight/tomorrow, get yourself some good food, get warm, turn on one of the movies or shows listed below, and enjoy!
Movies to Watch
1. White Noise
Movies about suburbia have always been maddening to me because they’re always about hypocritical, middle-classed people and their specialism/ignorance. White Noise is no different.
White Noise screams American nightmare from the moment we meet Jack Gladney and his family, and hear about Jack’s distaste of the middle-class station wagons that show up at the university he teaches at. The entire bunch is brilliant, witty, chaotic, and we can just sense right away that they’re the kind of family to either have secrets or weird shit going on behind the scenes (both kind of apply in this case). And that was the stuff I REALLY enjoyed because who really wants to watch 2+ hours of a family that’s immune from the realities of the human condition?
What might turn a lot of people off is that there is just too much going on for such simple concepts. The extreme, whimsical apocalypticism is evident in every nook and cranny of the film and is thrown right in your face almost constantly. So, by the end, you might feel like you watched a catastrophic art piece instead of something simple and satisfying.
Check it out on Netflix!
2. Turbo Cola
Turbo Cola is the first feature film from Director/Writer/Producer Luke Covert and while it may be easy to write this one off as just a Clerks rip-off, you just can’t compare the two. Yes, the antics and humor may seem similar but Covert gives the film a deeper level of charm and emotion that isn’t seen in Clerks.
On the surface level, the film holds its own because it’s a conglomerate of things that can appeal to different audiences. It’s a coming-of-age film, a teenage crime heist, a technical holiday film (it takes place on NYE 1999), a small-town drama, and the list goes on and on. So, no matter what you’re looking for, you’ll probably find it with this one (there’s some MILF talk also so if you’re into that, it’s here).
Everything below the surface is where the real gold is. Turbo Cola provides insight into the unique perspectives that teenagers/young adults had at this time. Not only were they worried about their families, home lives, schooling, futures, etc., but they were the youths that were surrounded by Y2K and theories about how the new millennium would be earth-shattering. These youths probably had NO idea of what a shit show the 2000s would be (and still are). And that’s the saddest part.
You can check this out on Prime!
3. Best Sellers
I’ve seen a lot of back and forth in different articles that Best Sellers is Michael Caine’s last movie. But, after watching it, I sure hope it isn’t because this film showed how Caine’s vibrancy onscreen is more powerful than ever. Even at almost 90 years old, he has a particular type of zest and charm that other actors can only wish to have.
Caine stars as a grumpy, down-and-out author alongside Aubrey Plaza in Best Sellers. And, I’m just going to say it right now, as much as I LOVE Plaza, Caine was the one who carried this entire movie on his back and is the reason why I like it. He adds pizazz and humanness to an otherwise pretty limp story about the publishing industry. By the end, we not only feel for him and Plaza but are reminded that one day, Caine won’t be part of this world anymore and there won’t be another like him (I’m tearing up thinking about this AGAIN).
You can watch this on Prime!
Shows to Watch
1. Moon Knight
I’ve literally watched Moon Knight from beginning to end 5 times and I’m still mad at myself for not talking about it sooner.
Oscar Isaac, who plays Steven Grant, Marc Spector, etc., isn’t your typical Marvel superhero, and that’s what makes the show so attractive and addictive. His performance shows a side of Marvel that was missing, one that’s imperfect and human. And the result? Audiences couldn’t help but cheer Moon Knight on and they want more. Whether we get more of Isaac and Moon Knight is still up in the air, but I’m choosing to stay hopeful.
Check it out on Disney+!
2. Dinosaurs
Talk about a throwback! When I found that Dinosaurs was on Disney+, I literally binged as many episodes as I could before work the next morning and was feeling good all day long from that nostalgia high.
Dinosaurs is simple yet so satisfying and warm. The Sinclairs are a working-class family trying to make it in a modern world sans killer meteor, and they constantly endure hilarious conflicts that result in heartwarming lessons and messages. The best part is that every episode makes us believe the Sinclairs are just like us without having to use crude language, inappropriate situations, or the severely dysfunctional family trope. It’s just about togetherness, love, and being decent beings.