Another Round is a Danish film about four childhood friends who find themselves dissatisfied and uninspired in the middle of their lives. In an attempt to stir something up and unleash their true potential they decide to test out Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud’s hypothesis that we’re all born with blood alcohol level that is too low, and that to maintain a .05% BAC would make each of them a more relaxed, creative, and open-minded human being. This movie is thought-provoking and fun to watch and despite the disaster that ensues, incredibly uplifting. Also, if like me, you have a healthy obsession with Mads Mikkelsen from Hannibal, you might know that he is a trained gymnast and professional dancer, and in that case, you will not be disappointed. It’s streaming on Hulu now. — CD

One text has outsized influence on the US, and indirectly, on the world: The US Constitution. It is a nuanced article that benefits from scrutiny. I greatly enjoyed the Amazon special based on a Broadway show that documents Heidi Schreck’s deep and innovative exploration of this key document. What the Constitution Means to Me is entertaining, funny, sobering, dramatic, educational, clarifying, and enlightening. What more could you ask for from an hour and 44 minutes? — KK

If you’re in the mood for a documentary but aren’t sure what to watch, bookmark this list of Esquire’s best documentaries for 2021. Some of the documentaries, like Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary won’t come out until later this year (but be sure to check out the sneak peek). — MF

Just type “what to watch” in the Google search bar and you’ll be presented with what appears to be an algorithmically curated offering of popular shows. Somehow, the list it generates is better suited to my interests than Just Watch or other streaming recommendation services. You can filter by TV show or movie and by genre and, most importantly to me, subgenre (like “Horror dramas”). — MF

A counterfactual is a useful “what if” history. What if America lost WWII? That counterfactual was explored by the Philip K. Dick novel The Man in the High Castle, which also became a 4 season sci-fi drama streaming on Amazon Prime. I really enjoyed all 4 seasons. Another great counterfactual, now streaming on Apple +, is For All Mankind. What if the Russians had beat the Americans to be first on the moon? For All Mankind explores an even more innovative and intense alternative NASA/Apollo program because there was ongoing competition; the space race never ended. In the first 10 episodes I got a big dose of NASA engineering geek vibe, plus a very interesting alternative path with women astronauts. Highly recommended. (Season 2 begins February 19.) — KK

I am a fan of Wes Anderson’s movies because of their visual style. In 2018 Anderson released Isle of Dogs, an epic stop-motion masterpiece. Because literally each frame has been designed and crafted in miniature, I think it’s his most visually stylistic movie yet. Every frame is perfect. But there is another reason to stream it now: the very peculiar story concerns a deadly urban pandemic derived from an animal, the spread of conspiracy theories, the denial of science, and a contested election. Feels like it was just made. — KK

JustWatch has a cool way to discover new movies to watch. Just type up a synopsis for your ideal movie and you’ll be given a list of films with similar plots. Tip: Press “enter” after you’ve finished typing and the recommendations will refresh. I made the mistake of pressing the “Ghostwrite a story for me” button which overrides whatever you’ve written with a random plot and related movies. — CD

Recomendo reader Mark Jackson shared this wonderful Slow TV Map and said:

“If you haven’t heard of Slow TV before, it is a genre of long-form television originating from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation’s broadcast of an uninterrupted 7-hour train journey in 2009. Slow TV Map maps these types of videos on a map so you can discover virtual journeys in an interactive way. Most people use Slow TV as a screensaver, but it can also be used as a form of active meditation. I hope you enjoy!”

Such a great way to virtually visit parts of the world you’ve always wanted explore. Here is a 1-hour long, Slow TV video of an 105-year old ship sailing the Denmark Coastline set to acoustic guitar. — CD

There is a lot going on in Pixar’s new movie Soul. It’s definitely worth watching (Disney+), and is best watched more than once to appreciate its many insights. The categories Soul covers — imagining the afterlife in detail, including beings of light, celestial birthing rings, tunnels to the beyond, astral travel, and short circuiting the system — are also the topics of a very long graphic novel I co-produced and published in book form, called The Silver Cord. Fans of Soul, the movie, will probably be fans of The Silver Cord, the book. — KK

Our 17-year-old daughter introduced my wife and me to The Umbrella Academy on Netflix and we’ve been watching one or two episodes a night. There are two seasons so far, with a third on the way. Set in an Earth-like alternate universe where computers and mobile phones don’t exist, the story is centered around seven adopted siblings, born 30 years ago on the same day in different places around the world. Each person has a special ability, and while they dislike one another for the most part, they’re forced to band together in an attempt to stop an apocalypse that’s set to happen in a week. I’m not a fan of superhero shows, but the twisty plot, compelling characters, and astounding sets have me glued to this one. — MF

The TV sitcom Ted Lasso is as good as everyone says it is. It’s a sophisticated feel-good comedy drama that we really needed in 2020. It’s full of no cliche, no sap, smart positivity that is rare and so welcomed. The world would be a better place if there were more Ted Lassos. The show is very bingeable. I’m eager for more seasons. The 10-part first season runs on Apple TV. If you’ve bought an Apple product in the past year (or know someone who did), you may have free access to Apple TV. — KK

Documentary Mania is a website with hundreds of documentaries you can watch for free. So far I’ve enjoyed Free Solo, about the first person to free climb Yosemite’s El Capitan Wall, and The Bit Player, a movie about information theorist Claude Shannon. — MF

At 94, the legendary naturalist David Attenborough has produced a full length documentary about his life. Just released on Netflix, “A Life on Our Planet” doubles as his “witness statement” to our drastic loss of wilderness. But he combines his harsh, honest critique with an unexpectedly hopeful vision of “re-wilding” the planet. This is a high tech, highly urban, but green civilization with vast areas of sea and land protected as wild zones. I find his “re-wilding” framework more appealing than the technically similar “sustainability” framework, because re-wilding suggests exuberant, open-ended thriving (in nature and tech) rather than just responsible, constrained sustaining. Attenborough’s last 11 minutes in this doc is the closest visualization of the future I hope for that I’ve seen. — KK

This is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. Yet nothing about its subject would suggest greatness. My Octopus Teacher is about a tired middle-age man who befriends a small octopus in a South African kelp reef. He visits the octopus every day for a year (while filming it), and what he learns from the octopus is oceanic. This tiny creature is otherworldly, a superhero alien from another galaxy, and her life connected to the particular reef expands until it fills the universe. Everything is divinely photographed. Must see. — KK

This year I’ve watched more movies at home than I thought possible. When I finish a movie I enjoyed I always check the “more like this” tab to find related films to watch, and now as an alternative discovery engine, I’ve been searching Cinetrii, which pulls any mention of influences or inspiration from movie reviews to suggest films with similar moods. — CD 

My family watches an awful lot of anime. We also like horror and thriller movies, so we enjoyed Perfect Blue, a violent, disturbing, R-rated psychological thriller from 1997 about a former pop idol who loses her ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality. If you like the films of Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan) you’ll like Perfect Blue, because Aronofsky is a fan of the anime and even recreated a scene from it in Requiem for a Dream. — MF

Ronnie Chieng makes me laugh. Might be because most of my relatives are Asian American, but I think his humor is much broader than that. You can catch him on Netflix’s stand-up special Ronnie Chieng: Asian Comedian Destroys America. — KK

By the early 1990s television cartoons had hit a depressing nadir. The stories, art, characters, and animation were terrible, and the cartoons existed for the sole reason of selling toys and merchandise. Then along came Ren & Stimpy, a hyperkinetic, rubbery, explosive, hilarious, and beautifully animated cartoon that harked back to the era when Bob Clampett and Tex Avery were producing insanely great work for Looney Tunes. Ren & Stimpy changed the course of animation. The documentary Happy Happy Joy Joy recounts the tragic history of Ren & Stimpy and features extensive interviews with everyone involved, including its creator, John Kricfalusi, a supremely talented animator, a sadistic tyrannical boss, and sexual predator of teenage girls.  — MF

Everyone knows Anthony Bourdain’s various travel/food series, but in 2015 Bourdain did his hanging-out thing with master craftsman and craftswomen, going to their shops, watching them work with their tools, and at times trying his own hand at their craft. I can watch masters work all day. Their obsession with details is astounding, and their extreme excellence is captured in 14 episodes of Raw Craft. The art ranges from hand-tailored suits to a traditional letter-press printer, all sponsored by a whiskey company, and available on YouTube. — KK

For sheer summer-movie enjoyment, we really liked Knives Out. This is a fun murder mystery, constructed with fantastic, vivid characters, great acting, with clever plotting and pitch-perfect editing. It’s a real page turner, if you know what I mean. Now streaming on Amazon Prime. — KK