What's New To Streaming In December 2021
We recommend two 1994 movies newly available to stream
We've already made it to December! How is that possible? Anyway, we have some good stuff on the way for you to close out 2021, but for now we are recommending some of the best movies new to streaming this month. Stick around for our review of Oscar contender The Power of the Dog, and have an amazing weekend!
Billy recommends…
The Mask (streaming on HBO Max)
Can we appreciate Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz’s 1994? Carrey starred in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber. Diaz had her breakout role with The Mask. Literally, it was her first performance ever. Two of our most recognizable stars in the same movie and somehow the movie I’m writing about is one of the most visually stimulating yet forgotten movies of 1994.
Let’s start with Diaz because she frankly has the most enticing performance here of the two. I’ll let you interpret what that means. A performance that makes everyone in the biz wonder how they are going to get her into their next picture show. Truly though, her performance here is akin to Margot Robbie’s in The Wolf of Wall Street. The missing piece for Diaz is that she didn’t have Martin Scorsese directing (later they would work together). Can we please live in a universe where Scorsese directed this movie? Carrey, on the other hand, has what should probably be considered his best performance of his unmatched run of movies in 1994. He is asked to do the most in a movie that has no business being as good as it is, showcasing why he is still in our lives to this day.
The Mask is my Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It brilliantly brings cartoons into the live action world. While bringing every trope in the book to life in consistently entertaining ways. Sure, when the mask is first put on and Carrey is spinning around the room like a buffoon we see a pillow of the tasmanian devil on the couch. It is all heavy-handed but in a way I love visiting time and time again. The Mask is one of the few movies that is a piece of elevated B-movie art that brings me back to when I was a kid.
That former kid in me, a part of me that I am trying to hold on to every passing year. And that childlike wonder is slipping through my fingers. That plea may sound a bit pathetic, but I assure you that The Mask is one of the cooler pieces of cinema you could hold on to. Please allow me to put on a mask of my own. You watching this movie is the mask that I need.
Drew recommends…
Four Weddings and a Funeral (streaming on Hulu)
Four Weddings and a Funeral has one of the most ingenious rom-com structures in the whole genre. It’s all there in the title – we follow a group of friends throughout five social events as they navigate love, friendship, and loss. The characters are so lovable and the performances so engaging that you are liable to fall in love with this group very quickly. In less than two hours, you start to feel like you are part of their lives.
That’s no easy feat in any movie, but this one makes it look that way. Richard Curtis wrote the script, and while he would go on to make Notting Hill and Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral may just be his most effortless creation. An unexpected runaway success, it was incredibly profitable (grossing $245 million worldwide on less than a $5 million budget) and earned a Best Picture nomination in 1994. What made this modest British romantic comedy such a smash? There’s probably a long answer that’s more accurate, but I’ll give you the short one: young Hugh Grant.
Before Four Weddings and a Funeral, 33-year-old Grant was your average hardworking English actor. After Four Weddings and a Funeral, he was an international movie star with a newfound screen persona that audiences flocked to see. And it makes sense, because he is charming the socks off everyone in this movie, the viewer included. As the main character Charles, Grant is clever, handsome, and endearing as a single guy allergic to commitment. When he meets an attractive American named Carrie (Andie MacDowell) at a wedding, he’s lovestruck but the two can’t seem to make the timing work. Grant and MacDowell radiate off the screen in their scenes together, playing both the serious and light interactions with lovely chemistry.
But what makes this a more memorable rom-com than just a great will-they-or-won’t-they love story is the surrounding characters. Charles’ friends, which include his roommate, his deaf brother, a gay couple, and a former lover, are pitched at the right mix of relatable and quirky. They are more entertaining than your friends but you can also see people you know in these characters. I think that’s a major aspect of why this movie has endured over the years.
There’s also something refreshingly low-budget and unpolished about Four Weddings and a Funeral, in stark contrast to the many glossy imitators that came after. It’s authentically witty, bawdy, and very British, which has made it a hard formula for Hollywood to copy. Thank the rom-com gods for the original.
New To Streaming In December 2021
Netflix
Looper
Minority Report
Wild Things
Wyatt Earp
Darkest Hour (December 16)
Oldboy (December 18)
Amazon Prime
Edward Scissorhands
Jennifer’s Body
Little Women (1994)
Pineapple Express
Sleepless in Seattle
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
The Hunt for Red October
The Proposal
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Thin Red Line
The Usual Suspects
The Waterboy
Hulu
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Armageddon
Bull Durham
Con Air
Crimson Tide
Days of Heaven
Friday the 13th
Hustlers
My Best Friend’s Wedding
Ocean’s Eleven trilogy
The Princess Bride
Sherlock Holmes
Something’s Gotta Give
World War Z (December 7)
HBO and HBO Max
Chicago
Crazy, Stupid, Love
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Interview with the Vampire
The Italian Job
Jackie Brown
Miss Congeniality
No Country For Old Men
Se7en
The Truman Show
The Wedding Singer
Recent Release Mini-Reviews
The Power of the Dog (streaming on Netflix)
Drew: Despite its familiar Western cinematic setting, The Power of the Dog brilliantly wrong-foots the viewer by never settling into a comfortable rhythm or expected storytelling. Like much of director Jane Campion’s previous work (The Piano, In the Cut), the focus is on elusive characters that keep you guessing. While this could be frustrating in the hands of other filmmakers, The Power of the Dog is so masterfully and cohesively crafted that I was more than willing to be pulled along by Campion’s vision.
Every aspect of this film is carefully considered and modulated, from the complex performances (Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst, most notably) to the beautifully haunting Montana landscapes to the evocative tone-setting score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. Don’t be surprised if the images and mysteries of this elegant and extraordinary movie linger in your mind long after the credits roll. - 4.5 / 5 Apples