What's New To Streaming In December 2022
What should you be streaming this month? Let us tell you.
As we arrive near the end of 2022, we want to thank you all for reading, following, engaging, sharing, and supporting us throughout the year. We love hearing about what you guys think of what we wrote or a movie we recommended. It’s why we do this. We’re excited about some of the things we have planned for the remainder of the year, and we hope you are too!
Just like we do at the beginning of every month, we’re running down the list of new to streaming titles on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and HBO, as well as singling out a couple to recommend. This week’s picks couldn’t be more different. Enjoy!
Billy recommends…
Never Back Down (streaming on Hulu)
I will let Drew class up the place a little bit with his suggestion, but part of recommending movies to you all is to give you a glimpse into what movies shaped us. When asked, “what movies did I grow up with?” Never Back Down is purposefully left off the list of movies I bring up. Jaws, Galaxy Quest, Twister, The Mummy are the ones that I bring up. Mainstream movies, but niche enough and my surrounding film community will understand perfectly what shaped my taste. Never Back Down doesn’t quite do that. Mainly because not many people have heard of it and the other being it is the ultimate guilty pleasure. If you come into it not growing up with it I don’t think it will be your bag.
Never Back Down is a Karate Kid rip-off updated to fit into underground MMA. Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) is a troubled youth that has just moved to Florida with his family. They had to move from Iowa after he was expelled for fighting during a football game. A string of many expulsions has made his whole family very worried about him. Once in Florida he is able to attend a ritzy high school with all the cliche stereotypes, my favorite being that everyone in this movie is clearly not in high school. Shortly after arriving at school a video of his fight in Iowa is being spread around like wildfire. The aloof and forgotten Jake is all of a sudden the belle of the ball. His clucky new best friend Max Cooperman is a fighter himself and begins to sow the seeds of how fighting is ingrained into this community. Max is played by the now-scary sex symbol Evan Peters. And the hottest girl in school, Baja Miller convinces him to come to a massive party (Amber Heard). Two characters we can seemingly trust, but have a link to our main villain Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet). Jake goes to a party to try and acclimate himself in his new environment. What he finds in the depths of this absurdly nice party is an underground fight club. Ryan is touring him around, peaking his interest, and all of a sudden reveals the main event. A Ryan vs. Jake showdown that has the entire crowd circling around to watch the fight.
This is where I think the movie will either suck you in for the fun/absurd ride or drop off immediately to something of much higher quality. MMA, training montages, and an actually really great Djimon Hounsou as a mentor to Jake at the gym he joins is the entire movie from here on out. Ideally, the mid-2000s soundtrack that is remarkably effective (and hilarious), will draw you in right away. I am aware of the absurdity of this movie, but there are reasons that I think it works well enough for a recommendation here. All the actors are completely committed to the performances they are giving. There is no winking and that is needed because the world they live in is unrealistic, but feels lived-in because of their commitment. The soundtrack is sick. And the action is well-directed. You can track every movement and the impact of the damage these characters are inflicting on each other is felt greatly. You all have been with me for 3 years now. Trust me with my absurd picks.
Drew recommends…
The Rider (streaming on Hulu)
What do you do when harsh reality gets in the way of your dreams? Chloe Zhao’s The Rider is a graceful deconstruction of the cowboy myth and frontier masculinity, but her film truly stands out as a beautiful story of purpose and making the hard choice. Shot on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota with entirely non-professional actors, this deeply moving drama inhabits a rare authenticity due to Zhao living among the Lakota Sioux for years before making The Rider. Prior to helming the Oscar-winning Nomadland and taking the keys to a $200 million Marvel movie, Zhao made her best movie so far with a small budget and no recognizable names in 2017.
The story concerns Brady, a rising rodeo star that suffered a brain-damaging accident. All he wants to do is get back to the life he thought he was destined to live, but recurring seizures have doctors telling him it’s too dangerous. Most main characters in a classic Western get back on the horse and ride, expert advice be damned, and that’s what Brady is set on doing. However, his relationships with friends and family – and the nature of his circumstances – have him second-guessing if this is what every cowboy ought to do.
Zhao has such preternatural control over the world of The Rider, capturing awe-inspiring natural imagery and the mysterious connection between human and horse. Much like director Terrence Malick, who Zhao has credited as a major influence, her films explore how nature and spirituality intertwine, and what one can tell us about the other. She has said, “I think I’m attracted to telling stories that somehow relate to nature because it’s a reflection of humanity.” This idea shines through brilliantly in The Rider, as does Brady’s relationship with the horses that have given him a career and almost taken his life. The scenes where he trains horses are spellbinding as we watch how man and animal communicate and cooperate in a kind of dance. As Brady sorts out his life’s purpose, Zhao’s film takes us on a thoughtful, poignant, and life-affirming ride.
New To Streaming In December 2022
Netflix
21 Jump Street
Coach Carter
My Girl
Peppermint
Troy
Bullet Train (December 3)
Emily the Criminal (December 7)
Side Effects (December 18)
Trolls (December 19)
Amazon Prime
Basic Instinct
Capote
Cloverfield
Eat Pray Love
Eight Men Out
Heist
Hotel Transylvania
Ordinary People
Paper Moon
Superbad
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
The Day After Tomorrow
The Proposal
The Pursuit of Happyness
The Ring
Thelma & Louise
Thief
To Catch a Thief
Zoolander
La La Land (December 8)
Hulu
Anger Management
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
The Da Vinci Code
Dawn Of The Dead
Final Destination
Hancock
The Happening
Liar, Liar
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Rio
The Royal Tenenbaums
Wall Street
White Men Can’t Jump
The Night House (December 8)
Blade Runner: The Final Cut (December 26)
Blade Runner 2049 (December 26)
HBO and HBO Max
Burn After Reading
Can’t Hardly Wait
First Reformed
Friends With Benefits
Gone Girl
Green Room
Hook
Trumbo
Amsterdam (December 6)
The Banshees of Inisherin (December 13)
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (December 27)
Links
We got our first look at some of 2023’s biggest releases this week, as trailers dropped for the fifth Indiana Jones movie and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but the most eye-catching had to be the trailer for Cocaine Bear, which is exactly what it sounds like it would be.
There’s a new belt-holder for the title of greatest film of all-time, according to the over 1,600 “critics, programmers, curators, archivists and academics” that participate in the Sight and Sound poll, which is taken every 10 years. In 2012, Vertigo knocked Citizen Kane from its perch atop the list, but this year 1975’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles has become the new champion. See the full list here.