Hello and happy almost-weekend!

Maybe not every Friday, but at least some Fridays, I'm going to be sending a recommendations letter like this one. I watch a lot of stuff, more than is medically advised, so I figured I should lend some of that horrible knowledge to you, subscriber. In this crazy mixed-up modern-day media world of ours, it can be hard to pick something to put on in the background while you scroll through Cynthia Nixon’s Reels on your phone. I mean, I hope you don’t do that in actual movie theaters, but while at home, put one of these things on, stick a hand down your pants Al Bundy-style (oppa Bundy Style—that’s good, right?), and get to exploring the trip to Ireland that Cynthia took this summer. God knows I have!

First off, if there’s anything from my 21 Best Movies of 2025 list that you haven’t seen yet, try to watch one of those if available. I swear they’re all good. If you don’t like whatever I painstakingly picked for you, then go to hell but also please keep subscribing thx thx thx. But other than those gorgeously curated selections, here are some full-length features you could go see, or watch on the toilet, over the next few days. 

Wake Up Dead Man (Netflix) 

This is the most obvious, even cheugiest, thing I could recommend this week. But here’s the thing: it is actually pretty good. I did not love the last Knives Out installment, Glass Onion, because it was too smug and reference-y and twitter-brained. The central puzzle-box mystery was well-constructed, but all the zeitgeisty humor surrounding it suggested that during the pandemic, writer-director Rian Johnson spent entirely too much time swimming around the internet, sifting the plankton of pop culture through his baleen. Wake Up Dead Man does way less of that, instead taking things kinda seriously as Johnson mulls over faith and decency in a world gone horribly cynical. 

Its greatest asset is Josh O’Connor, to whom I am wed. Well, okay, no, sorry for that dumb internet boyfriend joke. In truth I’ve found his cutesy sweaters and school-boy stylings a little cloying on this press cycle, but O’Connor is still darling and, most importantly, a truly wonderful actor. He’s staggeringly good in Wake Up Dead Man, playing a priest with a sorrowful past who is, genuinely, just trying to do the right thing while being met at seemingly every turn with selfishness and skepticism. Only Benoit Blanc, still played as a dandy from Neptune who has maybe escaped a mental institution, can help him save the day. Not everything lands equally well in the film, but the aggregate result of Johnson’s weird impulses and curiosities is rich and satisfying. I do wish that maybe there was a little sexual tension between the sad priest and Detective Inspector Blanc, but I don’t think any priests are gay in real life. 

The Shining in IMAX 

Stephen King’s favorite film is getting a brief re-release for its 45th anniversary, on the hugest screens imaginable outside of the Sphere in Las Vegas (where they’re showing a new AI-enhanced version of Hearts in Atlantis). Depending on how old you are, it’s very likely you’ve never seen this movie in an actual theater, and let me tell you as someone who is very cultured and very sophisticated and therefore has seen The Shining in a movie theater, it really is something. I went to see it on a date with a nice guy many years back and while things didn’t work out between us, I ran into him a couple months ago and it was lovely to catch up and I remembered seeing this with him. Thank you, Scatman Crothers. 

Left-Handed Girl (Netflix)

Sean Baker, currently clanking around town with a pocket full of Oscars, produced and co-wrote this movie with director Shih Ching-Tsou, who co-directed Baker’s first film, Take-Out. Much of their signature stamp is on this one, another low-to-the-ground look at lives on the economic fringes, this time in the city of Taipei. The very adorable Nina Ye plays a little girl watching in confusion and alarm as her older sister (the excellent Shih-Yuan Ma) and mother (Janel Tsai, also amazing) try to make ends meet, quarrel about familial responsibilities, and allude to a secret far outside a child’s understanding. 

It’s a sad but raggedly hopeful movie, loaded with interesting texture and, unfortunately, one rather melodramatic plot beat that sticks out like a sore thumb. Had that last-act thing not happened, I probably would have put this on my best movies of the year list. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the bustle and struggle of Taiwanese night markets and betel nut kiosks and the familiar, and unfamiliar, ramble of life far away from (my) home. 

Do Not Watch This:

I know it’s tempting. I know you might go on Amazon and see Oh. What. Fun., a new Michael Showalter Christmas movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer—about a neglected Christmas mom ditching her ungrateful family—and think to yourself, gee it’s been like 20 years since The Family Stone and we’re really overdue for a high-gloss holiday movie about people in an elegantly cluttered house being acrimonious but ultimately loving with one another. I certainly thought that as I pressed play, with foolish optimism, last weekend. 

I know many people have issues with The Family Stone. I too have issues with The Family Stone. But compared to Oh. What. Fun., The Family Stone is The 400 Blows. I can’t think of a single amusing thing that happens in this acrid little movie; at least Family Stone has Claire Danes falling off a bus. Felicity Jones plays Pfeiffer’s eldest and it is never explained why she is British. Chloë Grace Moretz plays a serial-monogamist lesbian daughter who is bizarrely cruel to her dorky brother-in-law, played by Jason Schwartzman—not somewhat credibly cruel like Rachel McAdams in Family Stone. Like, personality disorder cruel. 

Anyway, then Michelle Pfeiffer ends up on her favorite talk show (hosted by Eva Longoria’s character, who is named Zazzy Tims), which tapes a live Christmas episode every year, and also does another episode the next day? Can you imagine any mega-famous TV host being like, “Yeah I’ll work over Christmas”? I cannot. 

I like a lot of people involved in this, but yikes. Oh well. At least we have a new thing to say whenever we see a friend’s new work boots: “Hey, zazzy Tims.” 

Not a lot of new television comes out mid-December, so the pickings here are slim. Sure, watch Pluribus on Apple if you haven’t yet. It stalls out a bit, plot wise, midway through the season, but I’m told things pick up again toward the end. But who am I kidding. You’re all too busy flicking your beans to Heated Rivalry to pay attention to anything else. But just in case you need something to cool down/wipe up with afterward, here are a couple suggestions. 

Tournament of Champions: All-Star Christmas (Food Network)

This competition show has been running for a number of seasons now, but I have avoided it until this year. Oftentimes the shows featuring the cloistered world of Food Network celebrities (largely made up of people from their own series and Top Chef émigrés) are too shouty and cliquey and self-congratulatory. There is certainly plenty of that on this holiday special, but it is also undeniably fun to see Alex Guarnaschelli and Antonia Lofaso and Marcus Samuelsson and Mei Lin and the Voltaggio brothers square off against one another. The season is almost over and, inevitably, some big names have already been knocked out. I’m invested. And it goes down easy. You don’t really have to pay attention until the meals are judged after each round. It’s the perfect thing to let play continuously as the light of a Sunday afternoon dwindles on the horizon and then we’re all cast back into the cold reality of the week. 

The Abandons (Netflix)

This try-hard Western isn’t good, certainly, but I got a kick out of watching a couple episodes about Lena Heady running a woke ranch for misfit children in the 1800s, menaced by Gillian Anderson as a woman of industry who does business with the Vanderbilts. You also have Love Simon from Love, Simon squaring off against the love interest from The Hannah Montana Movie (who was also the lead of the movie Monster Trucks, which is about monsters who live in trucks. I’m not sure if he was one of the monster’s love interests or not though). Also, a pretty famous person gets eaten by a bear in the second episode. So, it’s got that going for it. 

Happy viewing, friends! And please be in touch. What else might you be watching this weekend? Email me. I see every message and just might reward a lucky correspondent with a kiss. Or you could just pay to subscribe to these letters, which would honestly go a really long way toward changing my life.