You're probably covered when it comes to holiday cheer. Everyone tries to do that. How about some holiday chills? Something that will make you wrap the blanket tighter around you, or maybe spill a little eggnog?
Our pick for this month is a slow-burn apocalypse from the creator of Mr. Robot and two modern classics that are both worth visiting and revisiting for zeitgeist reasons.
Editor's Choice: Leave the world behind
Photo: JoJo Whilden/Netflix
Director: Sam Esmail
Form: Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha'la, Julia Roberts
Netflix's latest major release is the isolated nail biter Leaving the world behinda story about what happens when a family on vacation receives unexpected visitors just as a cyber attack cuts them off from all communication.
Based on the novel by Rumaan Alam, Leaving the world behind is part eat-the-rich drama, part social critique, part apocalyptic sci-fi, all with a dash of techno-paranoia from writer-director Sam Esmail. The slow-burning script creates unsettling moments that will keep you hooked for the entire 141-minute running time, and the small cast – including an exceptional performance from Mahershala Ali – is given plenty of space to process events and react. petty grievances and privileged incompetence.
It's less about how the world ends (those who are only looking for answers will likely leave unsatisfied) than about how we will end. know the world is ending – the steep, terrifying chasm between everything you could ever want to know at your fingertips, and then nothing at all.
Black Swan
Image: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Form: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel
Netflix's other big release this month is May December, Todd Haynes' vibrant new melodrama, loosely based on the true story of convicted sex offender Mary Kay Letourneau, stars Natalie Portman, Charles Melton and Julianne Moore in award-worthy turns. It's a good excuse to visit again Black Swanthe film that earned Portman her first Oscar after several nominations.
Portman plays Nina Sayers, a New York City ballerina who gives in to an obsession when her company's prima ballerina retires, leaving the coveted dual roles of White and Black Swan in their production of Swan Lake up for grabs. Nina's ability to perform just one of the roles to her director's satisfaction sends her into a state of paranoia as she begins to think that a new ballerina, Lily (Mila Kunis), is there to replace her and perhaps replace her. to tempt.
Perhaps Darren Aronofsky's best film, Black Swan is the perfect marriage of the director's tendency to toe the line between thrilling an audience and making them wildly uncomfortable. Black Swan blurs the line between what's real and imagined, sinking further into Nina's ragged perspective the more the audience wants to withdraw from it. The result is unforgettable and deeply disturbing.
Prometheus
Image: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Director: Ridley Scott
Form: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba
Before Ridley Scott gave historians a bit of a fuck-you with his grand epic Napoleon, he made this divisive Alien prequel was a bit of a fuck-you for fans of the famous sci-fi franchise. Have you ever wondered about the Space Jockey, or where the Xenomorphs come from? Spent years reading additional comics and watching sequels, wondering if we would ever discover what is at the heart of the many mysteries suggested by the 1979 classic? Well, here's your answer: God is real, and he hates you.
However misanthropic it may be, Prometheus Ridley Scott continues to operate at the height of his powers as an exciting director of sci-fi horror, depicting the slow rampage of a Weyland Corporation expedition to LV-223 in search of a progenitor race that will kickstart life on Earth gave.
Strikingly dry, wonderfully paced and featuring the most gripping body horror in the long-running franchise since the original film. Prometheus is an all-rounder in the science fiction thriller canon. And maybe, with a little open mind, in the Alien franchise too.