Good Movies

I’ve recently enjoyed some good streaming movies that were not blockbusters, and maybe not even Great. I thought they were entertaining, maybe just good, yet still recommendable, if below the radar.

Society of the Snow. Everyone’s heard of the sports team whose plane crashed in the Andes and the boys had to survive for 2 months. It was a great book (Alive!), and later an okay movie, but this 2023 movie, filmed in Spanish by a Spanish crew, is stunning, moving, accurate (parts filmed in original crash site) and as close to being there as anyone else will get. This one is memorable.

The Holdovers. A sweet drama about a jaded prep-school teacher and bratty, troubled students who have to spend the Christmas holidays together at school and they all get life lessons. Despite the well-worn premise, there are almost no cliches, and the turns are unexpected, in part because the story is semi-autobiographical. Perfect for a Christmas movie list.

Jules. A comedy about an elderly man living by himself (played by Ben Kingsley) who makes friends with an alien who crashes his space ship in his back yard. The alien is non-verbal and needs dead cats to fuel his rocket. It’s a rom-com with an alien. — KK