Paramount+ is definitely a streaming service with a library big enough to make browsing its catalog for a movie to watch feel productive and indecisive at the same time. You didn’t sign up for a scavenger hunt, but we did—challenge accepted.
Even though the end of the month pickings are getting slim, for the week of February 23 to March 1st, skip the hunt with these three solid movies: a Coen Brothers modern classic that’s gotten better with age, a music biopic told in a very unique way, and a small-town drama with a stacked ensemble cast when they were all young.
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No Country for Old Men
The Coen brothers’ Oscar-winning psychological crime thriller No Country for Old Men doesn’t creep up on you so much as it advances—quietly, patiently, and with a dead confidence that you can’t outrun it. Javier Bardem is the engine of that dread as the haunting, bowl-cut coiffed Anton Chigurh, a cold killer who calculates murder and hides its morality in a coin toss.
The chaos starts in the West Texas desert when Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles onto a drug deal gone sideways and walks away with a sack of cash that definitely isn’t his. And that money has consequences: cartel gunmen, a tracking device, and Chigurh hunting Llewelyn like it’s a code he has to live by.
As Llewelyn goes on the run and scrambles to stay one step ahead—while keeping his wife Carla (the excellent Kelly Macdonald) safe—sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) follows Chigurh’s bloody trail of dead in hopes of getting to Llewelyn before that maniac does.
Adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s novel, No Country is a darkly funny thriller that will stick with you for days. The 2007 film currently carries a 93% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
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Better Man
I’m willing to bet that Better Man is a biographical drama unlike any you’ve ever seen. The 2024 film about the rise to fame of British pop star Robbie Williams is both bizarre and bizarrely entertaining, and I’ll give you one guess why. Directed by The Greatest Showman‘s Michael Gracey, Better Man is first and foremost a biopic that traces Williams’ career from childhood wannabe through his explosive fame with boy band Take That and then into his even more stratospheric run as a solo artist. And it doesn’t leave out the nasty bits, delving into the superstar’s trials and tribulations with drugs, self-sabotage, fame, and his struggles with wondering if he was ever good enough for any of it.
Where Better Man will either hook you or lose you, is that Robbie is portrayed by a motion-capture anthropomorphic chimpanzee, because, as Williams explains in the film, “I don’t see myself how others see me,” he says. “To be honest, I’ve always been a little less evolved.” Leaning into his “performing monkey” self-image, we follow along as the chimp—performed by Jonno Davies and voiced by Williams—dances and sings his way through Williams’ life and relationships with the key players who meant the most to him along the way. It’s a fascinating watch, as none of the characters react to the chimp—it’s just as he sees himself. And with a little suspension of disbelief, he eventually blends into the narrative seamlessly,
Critics and audiences loved Better Man, and it currently has an 89% rating for both on Rotten Tomatoes. It was also nominated for an Oscar for best visual effects.
Release Date
December 25, 2024
Runtime
136 minutes
Director
Michael Gracey
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What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
It was only a year after a young Leonardo DiCaprio charmed audiences on the classic sitcom Growing Pains that he took on the memorable role as Arnie, a lovable whirlwind of a boy with an intellectual disability in 1993’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. DiCaprio played the role so convincingly that it earned him his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. But DiCaprio’s performance is only part of what makes this coming-of-age drama so compelling.
The “Gilbert Grape” in question is played by Johnny Depp, who holds the movie down as a young man stuck in a dead-end grocery clerk job in the dead-end small town of Endora. His housebound momma (Darlene Cates) has health issues, leaving Gilbert all the responsibility for taking care of her, his two sisters, as well as chasing Arnie around town ’cause of all the mischief he gets in. Oh, and he’s having a sordid affair with an older woman (Mary Steenburgen). Everything changes for Gilbert when free-spirited Becky (Juliette Lewis) arrives in town, showing him that there’s more to life than Endora and that he deserves to have a life of his own. Easier said than done, but Gilbert’s journey to self-realization is what makes this charming film such a great watch.
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape still holds a 90% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Wind down during the week with one of these movie picks on Paramount+ that I hope do the trick. Start with whatever matches your mood, and let the rest hang around for the nights you can’t be bothered to choose.
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Yes, $8/month
Simultaneous streams
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