Month: May 2024

Is there a “Bridgerton”-shaped hole in your heart? Why not fill it with “We Are Lady Parts” while you wait?

If Bridgerton Season 3: Part 1 and that carriage-riding cliffhanger has you hungering for more — and Part 2 doesn’t drop for weeks! — might we suggest We Are Lady Parts while you wait?

Sure, on the surface, these two shows might seems wildly different, but hear us out. One is a romantic drama series set in Regency-era England’s high society, and the other is a musical sitcom centering modern-day Muslim women whose passion fuels their punk band, Lady Parts. But these series have more in common than you might expect. For starters, they’re both set in London and revolve around a community with rich traditions. Secondly, both offer a rousing story of female empowerment through romance, friendship, and self-discovery through art. But that’s not all. 

Whether you’re hankering for more talk of the Ton or in need of a pick-me-up after a rough day in our modern world, there’s plenty of reason to cheer for We Are Lady Parts — especially since its long-awaited second season hits Peacock at the end of May. So let’s dig in. 

Husband-hunting and romantic fantasies

In Bridgerton, the quest for a good husband is central to many a debutante, be it Season 1’s Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor), Season 2’s Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran), or Season 3’s Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan). In We Are Lady Parts, the quest for a husband is actually what lures overachieving microbiology PhD student Amina (Anjana Vasan) into the titular punk band — she’s hoping to get close to drummer Ayesha’s (Juliette Motamed) hot, eligible brother Ahsan (Zaqi Ismail). And the crush of this self-described “crusty spinster” sparks a series of fantasies, dripping in romance.

Fantasizing what their life together could be like, Amina welcomes audiences into black-and-white daydreams in which she and Ahsan play out classic Hollywood scenarios, like the restrained yearning in Casablanca and the chaste chemistry between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. But, like the Colin Bridgerton to her Penelope Featherington, Ahsan is only interested in being her friend. Well, that is until another suitor enters the picture.

In season 2, Amina meets her Lord Debling in Billy, a white boy who loves folk rock almost as much as she does. Could her long-established Don McLean obsession mean she’s fated to be with Billy? Is Ahsan just jealous? Or has he had a Colin-like awakening about the incredible woman who is his friend but could be so much more? There’s only one way to find out. (WATCH THIS SHOW.)

Sisters united and divided 

Season 2 of Bridgerton featured a heart-wrenching tale of sisterly devotion as Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) planned to sacrifice her own happiness to the benefit of her younger sibling Edwina (Charithra Chandran). Meanwhile, Penelope Featherington and Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie) were close as sisters — closer to each other than their own blood sisters, really — but they split over the revelation that the former is secretly the mysterious gossip queen Lady Whistledown. 

In We Are Lady Parts, “sister” is a recurring term of affection. Interviewed for a blog, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Saira (Sarah Kameela Impey) describes her bandmates as “sisters who pray together and play together,” showing how the term can be meant for a close personal connection and as a sign of community within the women of the Muslim faith. In the series, the band’s commitment to sisterhood becomes a rallying cry to support each other — even when you want to do anything but. 

In Season 1, this sisterhood compelled hard-headed Saira to mentor Amina through the stage fright that made her freeze or puke. But in Season 2, a similar request for song-writing help is hard for Saira to swallow, as it comes from Gen Z influencer Taifa (Kimani Arthur), whose band Second Wife is blowing up online thanks to their cover of Lady Parts’ banger “Bashir with a Good Beard.” Will Saira’s envy of this younger woman — who is not only ripping her off but thriving financially while doing it — deter her from sharing herself? What does sisterhood demand? 

Social pressures from a tight-knit community

Through her sharp voiceover, Bridgerton‘s Lady Whistledown has educated modern audiences on the strict standards of Regency gentility, while several characters bumbled into faux pas that sparked scandal and threats of alienation. In We Are Lady Parts, Amina’s voiceover provides a similar guide to decorum and pressures, as she grapples with what it means to be a good Muslim woman. Notably, her tone is less judgemental of others and really comically harsh on herself. Through this, sitcom creator Nida Manzoor explores where the social expectations of modern-day Muslim women in London collide with their other identities. 

Season 1 delved into what it means to be Muslim and punk, focusing chiefly on devout but self-doubting Amina. Season 2 expands its scope, exploring rich arcs for Ayesha and Bisma (Faith Omole). For Ayesha, a new love comes with new complications. Dating a white girl with comically accepting parents (they sing a Lady Parts song to show their support of Ayesha), this hot-tempered drummer is forced to confront whether or not she’s ready to come out to her own parents.

It’s an element that first came up in Season 1, episode 5, “Represent,” when Ayesha’s blogger girlfriend Zarina (Sofia Barclay) pushed her to come out publicly in an article on the band. She declined then, but what will she do when another love interest pushes back on her not being out publicly? It’s an arc that easily could lean into tear-jerking cliches of queer drama. But instead, Manzoor keeps in tone with the show’s frenzied and fun attitude, going deep without getting bleak. The result is a conclusion that’s smartly attuned to contemporary queerness in celebrity culture.  

As for Bisma, her interaction with Second Wife’s band members leaves her with an identity crisis. Because her appearance isn’t as hard-core as her bandmates, she is deemed “momcore,” which she takes to mean tragically uncool. She begins to rethink how she wants to present herself in the world — as a punk, as a mom, as a Muslim, and as a Black woman. So, Bisma starts reconsidering whether or not she wants to continue wearing a headscarf or if she should show off her braids.

A passionate debate over the possibilities with her loving partner sparks a fantasy sequence that is at first funny; she literally pushes pause on a remote and freezes her family and the whole world as she processes her thoughts through song. But Omole’s soulful cover of “Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” swells with a flurry of emotions, perfectly capturing the identity crisis of this multi-hyphenate heroine. 

Through sharp and spirited arcs, We Are Lady Parts shows how these conversations around identity and what we owe the public of our private selves are complicated and deeply personal.

Leading a double life and finding one’s self through art

In Bridgerton, wallflower Penelope found her confidence in a nom de plume. With Lady Whistledown, she could deliver the social critiques and exasperation that roared inside her with confident wit. Amina leads a similar double life in We Are Lady Parts. 

Amina’s childhood friends — led by the ever-prim Noor (Aiysha Hart) — are always pleasant and often wearing pastel pink as they focus on the marriage market of modern London. The members of Lady Parts rock punk looks, from dramatic eyeliner to flannels and black-on-black attire, while focusing on their music and being unashamed to say, “Fuck that.”

It’s only with the latter group that Amina can confess her secret shame in Season 1: She’s horny for Ahsan. But rather than scold her as Noor does, they join in a jam session that births “Bashir with the Good Beard.” Within this hallowed space, catharsis and community thrive as she is expressing the parts of herself she thought she had to hide. (Notably, like Eloise, Noor has a scorching meltdown when she discovers her friend’s secret writing.) 

With Season 2, more of the bandmates explore their inner desires, fears, and messier emotions through one badass song after another. And even Noor’s perfect facade gets complicated cracks!

Bridgerton and We Are Lady Parts both have killer soundtracks. 

Bridgerton has superb orchestral covers of pop hits like BTS’s “Dynamite,” Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever,” and Pitbull’s “Give Me Everything.” We Are Lady Parts has kick-ass covers too, like the aforementioned “Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” a punk spin on Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” and a cheeky revision of the American folk song “Man of Constant Sorrow.” But that’s not all. 

“Bashir with the Good Beard” is their most popular song, reflecting a longing that some (like Noor) consider indecent. Season 1’s “Voldemort Under My Headscarf” mocks Islamophobia with cheeky Harry Potter allusions. And in Season 2, the band pulls a Beyonce with the Western-influenced “Malala Made Me Do It.” But most moving might be their rebellion against the pushy A&R rep (a smug white guy) who insist on putting his mark on Lady Parts’ debut album. Their seething response track, “Glass Ceiling Feeling,” is an anthem that evokes Mary Poppins’ “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” with a playful irreverence and full-throated fury that reflects exactly why this show is so satisfying. Femininity, ferocity, and funny come hand-in-hand with every episode and every new song.

So, whether you’re seeking a bit of romantic fantasy, tales of female friendship’s ups and downs, or just a keenly satisfying comedy that blends badass music with compelling heroines, you ought to tune in to We Are Lady Parts. And turn the volume up. You’ll be glad you did. 

How to watch: We Are Lady Parts Season 2 premieres May 30 on Peacock in the U.S. and Channel 4 in the UK.

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From cult favorites like “Bubba Ho-Tep” to modern classics like “Lady Bird,” Tubi has something for everyone.

Other streaming services may keep raising their prices, but the ad-supported Tubi remains free — and it still boasts a broad selection of movies and TV shows to rival all those other platforms that make you enter your credit card information and pay money. Tubi doesn’t require a subscription or even a login to enjoy its huge library of movies and TV shows; it just asks for the patience to sit through some commercials. 

The movies we’ve chosen as the best are all good enough that enduring a few ad blocks seems like a fair trade. We’ve toured Tubi’s endless rows of content for the Oscar winners, high-quality blockbusters, and beloved cult favorites that you’ll want to add to your watchlist (though that functionality will require you to log in). Whether you like unsettling thrillers, astonishing action, smart comedies, or the best of the bizarre, we’ve got picks for your taste.

Here are the best movies on Tubi.

1. Lady Bird

Before Barbie, Greta Gerwig burst out of the gate in 2017 with her solo directorial debut, a lovely little coming-of-age movie starring an Oscar-nominated Saoirse Ronan in the titular role. Lady Bird earned four more Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, for its story about a dramatic 17-year-old desperate to go to college to escape what she sees as a cultural wasteland: her hometown of Sacramento, California. 

Lady Bird (Ronan) is equally eager to get away from her mom (Laurie Metcalf), and the film focuses on the fraught mother-daughter relationship in an authentic way, giving both characters grace. There’s plenty to treasure in Lady Bird’s various relationships in this movie, including those with her dad (Tracy Letts), her BFF (Beanie Feldstein), and boys (Timothée Chalamet and Lucas Hedges), but the depiction of her interactions with her mother make Lady Bird something genuinely special. With its setting in an early-aughts parochial high school and its eager-to-escape-the-suburbs protagonist, Lady Bird feels like it was made just for me, but its appeal is broader, with its combination of specificity and universality in Gerwig’s warm, witty script. 

How to watch: Lady Bird is now streaming on Tubi.

2. Blue Velvet

An exploration of the evil that can hide beneath a veneer of innocence, this 1986 David Lynch thriller earned the auteur an Oscar nomination — and plenty of controversy for its disturbing scenes. In Blue Velvet, Lynch cultivates a feeling of unease with the introduction of one of cinema’s most frightening villains: Dennis Hopper’s Frank Booth. 

Lumberton looks like any charming small town in America, but when Jeffrey Beaumont (Lynch favorite Kyle MacLachlan) returns home from college after his father falls ill, he discovers a sinister underworld lurking near his childhood home. After stumbling upon an ear on the ground, he is drawn into the case of lounge singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), her kidnapped husband, and psychopath Frank Booth. Jeffrey starts a romance with good girl Sandy (Laura Dern), but he can’t stay away from the darkness he has discovered.

Though loved by the director’s acolytes, Blue Velvet is also great entry-level Lynch. It’s not as trippy and impenetrable as, say, Inland Empire or Mulholland Drive, but it provides insights into the director’s weirdo worldview and inimitable style. Blue Velvet is freaky in multiple senses of the word, with scenes that lodge in your brain. The use of Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” is fitting; this Lynch movie invades your subconscious, whether you want it to or not. 

How to watch: Blue Velvet is now streaming on Tubi.

3. John Wick

Four movies and a TV show into the franchise, it’s easy to forget what a sucker punch the original John Wick was when it was released in 2014. Its budget was only $20 to 30 million, Keanu Reeves’ career was in a downturn, and its first-time directors, Chad Stahelski and an uncredited David Leitch, were known for their work as stuntmen, rather than as filmmakers. But what ended up on screen was a beautifully simple — and impressively violent — story of revenge that resonated with audiences and critics alike.

Reeves’ Wick is a former assassin who is forced back into the game after a Russian gang member (Alfie Allen) and his crew steal Wick’s car and kill the puppy who was a gift from his late wife (Bridget Moynahan), unleashing the beast that was dormant in Wick’s retirement. Its straightforward premise isn’t anything particularly inventive, but its genius is revealed in the fight choreography, which feels absolutely electric. The series’ mythology gets more complex as the films progress, shedding light on Wick’s mysterious backstory and the larger world surrounding him, but the fight scenes remain the draw. For those who want to dive deeper into the underworld, Tubi also has the first two sequels, John Wick: Chapter 2 and John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum. 

How to watch: John Wick is now streaming on Tubi.

4. Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Before Taika Waititi struck gold in the MCU with Thor: Ragnarok, the director made this charming comic adventure set in his native New Zealand in 2016. In Hunt for the Wilderpeople, an unlikely pair become even more unlikely fugitives from the law. Adorable teen troublemaker Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) finally feels settled after moving in with Bella (Rima Te Wiata), but an unexpected event threatens to send him back into the foster care system. He escapes into the bush, with his gruff foster uncle, Hec (Sam Neill), chasing after him. Soon, Ricky and Hec mistakenly become the targets of a manhunt with a relentless agent (Rachel House) in pursuit. 

Hunt for the Wilderpeople earned a PG-13 rating for a bit of violence and language, plus some general bad behavior by Ricky in the film’s first act. However, this move has such a warm spirit amidst all the mischief, making it a good choice for family movie nights. It’s fun and funny, filled with goofy humor and great scenes, culminating in a big action sequence that could have served as Waititi’s MCU demo reel. It also features one of the greatest original songs ever written for film, worming its way into your ears just as the film does into your heart. 

How to watch: Hunt for the Wilderpeople is now streaming on Tubi.

5. Snowpiercer

Oscar-winning Parasite director Bong Joon-ho made his English-language debut with this examination of class set in a post-apocalyptic future where the remnants of humanity are confined to a train making an unending loop around a frozen world. Snowpiercer could be a drag — and to be fair, it isn’t a joyful romp — but in addition to its thoughtful critiques on hierarchy, Snowpiercer is also full of exhilarating action sequences, offering just as many thrills as it does insights. 

Its cast doesn’t hurt either; Snowpiercer is led by Chris Evans, in between MCU gigs as Captain America, with supporting performances from Jamie Bell, Ed Harris, Song Kang-ho, John Hurt, Octavia Spencer, and Alison Pill. Curtis (Evans) is crammed into the back of the train with all of the other poor people, where they’re forced to dine on nasty blocks of processed protein as their only sustenance and kept from the upper class passengers by force. Curtis and some of the other passengers decide to revolt, pushing forward through the train and encountering a variety of obstacles along the way — especially those passengers loathe to give up their privileges, including a particularly memorable turn from Tilda Swinton as the second-in-command. 

Snowpiercer is a bleak look at humanity’s future if we continue on our current track, and it lands a real gut punch of a reveal in its climax. Though it was released in 2013, its commentary on class and climate change feels more relevant than ever, and it remains just as wildly entertaining. 

How to watch: Snowpiercer is now streaming on Tubi.

6. The Edge of Seventeen

Between this empathetic comedy from 2016 and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig is two for two when it comes to adeptly exploring the big feelings of being a teen. The Edge of Seventeen stars Hailee Steinfeld as Nadine, a 17-year-old whose high school experience is filled with awkwardness, loneliness, and confusion. Her best — and only — friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson) is Nadine’s sole source of happiness. That is, until Krista starts dating Nadine’s brother (Blake Jenner), and Nadine decides that her world is falling apart.

The Edge of Seventeen always shows generosity toward Nadine, even when she’s being an asshole. We were all assholes at 17 (though hopefully not as much of an asshole as Nadine), so it’s easy to identify with the character. Steinfeld is a marvel as Nadine, who vacillates between self-destructive anger and the verge of tears, and Richardson is a beacon of light as her friend. But The Edge of Seventeen doesn’t just shine in the casting of its teenage characters; it makes the adults equally human as well, especially Kyra Sedgwick as Nadine’s depressed mother and a perfect Woody Harrelson as her sarcastic teacher. Fremon Craig makes the best kind of teen movie: one that resonates with both its target audience who are in the thick of it and grown-ups who remember how tough it is to be between a kid and an adult. 

How to watch: The Edge of Seventeen is now streaming on Tubi.

7. What’s Up, Doc?

This Peter Bogdanovich-directed delight from 1972 pays homage to the screwball comedies of the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s as well as Bugs Bunny shorts, resulting in a pitch-perfect rom-com about a straitlaced musicologist and a beautiful agent of chaos. The plot of What’s Up, Doc? centers on a variety of mix-ups between four identical plaid overnight cases, but that’s not really the point. Barbra Streisand stars as kooky dilettante Judy, who sets her sights on the handsome, but oh-so-serious Howard, played by Ryan O’Neal, when they meet-cute at a San Francisco hotel shop. 

Howard inevitably falls under her spell, and who wouldn’t? Streisand is just stunning here and impossible to resist. Everyone in this cast delivers a wonderful comedic performance — including O’Neal as the straight man, and co-stars Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, and Austin Pendleton — but Streisand outshines everyone.

What’s Up, Doc? manages the near-impossible feat of being just as good as its inspiration, Howard Hawks’ classic screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby. It also has a wacky Looney Tunes energy, as well as the most memorable car chase scene through San Francisco since Bullitt. At just 94 minutes (plus ads, of course), this is a fast-talking, fast-moving pleasure.

How to watch: What’s Up, Doc? is now streaming on Tubi.

8. Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2

Released in 2003 and 2004, Quentin Tarantino‘s one-two punch of the Kill Bill duology took the director from his crime films of the ’90s into a new millennium — and to the next level. Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2 follow The Bride (Uma Thurman) as she wakes from a coma after an assassination attempt, vowing revenge on those who wished her dead, including the infamous, eponymous Bill (David Carradine). Volume 1 largely leans into Eastern influences, with anime and martial arts sequences, while Volume 2 follows the model of a Western in its cinematography and settings.

Across these two movies, there are elements we’ve seen before from Tarantino, like a non-linear chronology, loving nods to cult flicks, and a cast of both returning collaborators (Thurman, Michael Madsen, and Samuel L. Jackson) and genre actors (Sonny Chiba, Michael Parks, and Gordon Liu). Yet while the Kill Bill films feature the quotable, reference-filled dialogue the director is known for, they have far more action — and it’s far better than what we’d previously seen from Tarantino. It’s also shot better. With Robert Richardson as cinematographer, these films felt like a step up in visuals for the director, whose films had always had his signature style but now actually looked gorgeous too. Both volumes of Kill Bill remain undeniably cool, as breathlessly fun as they are beautiful. 

How to watch: Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2 are now streaming on Tubi.

9. Train to Busan

This 2016 South Korean horror movie has a lot of things going for it: good gore, solid scares, and characters who feel like human beings, rather than just fodder for inventive deaths. Train to Busan also boasts a premise that tweaks the traditional zombie story by setting the action largely on a fast-moving train, keeping survivors trapped and focusing the action within close quarters. It’s among both the best zombie films of this century, as well as a standout among recent horror movies overall.

But what really sets Train to Busan apart is the presence of Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok) in his breakout movie role as a devoted husband desperate to protect his wife. His ham-sized fists and equally large charm propelled him to action stardom in Korean movies, as well as in the MCU’s Eternals. If you’re a fan of Don Lee (which you definitely will be by the end of Train to Busan), Tubi currently has one of the best streaming selections of movies starring the big-fisted big guy, including the first two movies in the Roundup action franchise — The Outlaws and The Roundup — and the comedy Champion, which fittingly has Lee playing a competitive arm wrestler. 

How to watch: Train to Busan is now streaming on Tubi.

10. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

This rollicking Australian musical road trip comedy has achieved queer cult classic status in the decades since its release, while it also paved a sparkly road for the success of shows and movies like RuPaul’s Drag Race. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert stars Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce as two drag queens and Terence Stamp as a trans woman who set out across the Outback to perform their lip-sync show featuring creative costumes, bold choreography, and plenty of ABBA. 

With songs like “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor, “Finally” by Cece Peniston, and “I’ve Never Been To Me” by Charlene, the glittering music sequences are a highlight, as are their jaw-dropping outfits. Costume designers Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel won an Oscar for their ingenuity, as well they should have. (A dress made out of flip-flops? Why not?) But the banter between Weaving, Pearce, and Stamp’s characters is just as indelible, thanks to the wickedly witty dialogue in the script from director Stephan Elliott.

Some of Priscilla hasn’t aged especially well, particularly the language around its trans character used by both her friends and outsiders, as well as some gasp-inducing racism in a few scenes with a Filipina character. Yet its heart was in the right place as it treated its central trio with empathy and affection, which was still a rarity for gay and trans people on screen when it was released in 1994. 

How to watch: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is now streaming on Tubi.

11. Set It Off

This modern heist classic doesn’t feature incredibly intricate plans to rob banks with plenty of time devoted to set-up and execution; instead, Set It Off lavishes that attention on its central characters, played by Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise. The actresses star as four friends in Los Angeles who decide to rob banks, not out of opportunity, but out of necessity. They’re each desperate for money for different reasons, but they all struggle to succeed in a system stacked against Black women like them.

Fresh off of the comedy of Friday, director F. Gary Gray makes his first foray into action with this 1996 film, revealing a nascent talent for the genre that he would further develop in movies like The Negotiator, The Italian Job, and The Fate of the Furious. Yet it isn’t just the action sequences that make Set It Off so watchable; the moments that highlight the connection between these women (especially the rooftop smoking scene and the riff on The Godfather) are a source of joy for them — and for the audience. Set It Off features some great supporting work, particularly from Blair Underwood as a love interest, but its four stars are the film’s heart, with each bringing something unique to their characters and to a genre that often hasn’t featured people like them in roles like these. 

How to watch: Set It Off is now streaming on Tubi.

12. Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn)

Haven’t we all gone a little crazy after a breakup and blown up a chemical plant? No? Well, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is still a pretty sympathetic and entirely lovable character in this DCEU entry that shook up the staid series of comic book movies. Birds of Prey is as feral and fantastic as the anti-heroine of its title, thanks to Robbie’s gonzo performance and the inventive approach of director Cathy Yan and screenwriter Christina Hodson. 

The Joker might not have been the best of boyfriends (Harley could definitely do better), but he did provide Harley protection in Gotham City. So when Harley does a hard launch of their break-up, she soon becomes the target for those villains she has angered over the years with her behavior, with the mysterious Black Mask posing a particular threat. Yet this single girl doesn’t have to go it alone; she’s joined by The Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett), and enterprising pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) in her frenetic fight to protect herself (and her beloved breakfast sandwich).

Birds of Prey wasn’t the huge hit it should have been when it was released in 2020; it premiered in U.S. theaters on Feb. 7 but received an early digital release in March as theaters closed due to COVID-19. We’re unlikely to see a real follow-up featuring all these kick-ass women, but James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad features more of Robbie as Harley and is also streaming on Tubi (and is far better than its similarly named predecessor, Suicide Squad). 

How to watch: Birds of Prey is now streaming on Tubi.

13. Shoplifters

Some dramas pummel you with epic emotions and big performances, but this quietly moving gem from Monster director Hirokazu Kore-eda takes a subtler tack — and evokes more feeling for it. Shoplifters mulls the concept of family with its story of a tight-knit group living in poverty in Tokyo who steal to survive. The precarious position of the Shibata family (Lily Franky, Sakura Andô, Kirin Kiki, Mayu Matsuoka, and Jyo Kairi) is put into further danger when they take in a young girl (Miyu Sasaki) who is being searched for by the authorities.

This Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film is gently devastating, but Shoplifters isn’t purely sad. Kore-eda’s script has plenty of wit and specificities that add levity to offset the heavy subject matter. The details of the family’s routines, the pleasures they take in small moments, and above all their connections to each other are touching and tender, without ever descending into schmaltz. 

How to watch: Shoplifters is now streaming on Tubi.

14. A League of Their Own

Women’s sports are seeing a deserved bump in attention thanks to stars like Caitlin Clark, but they’ve been worth watching for decades in real life and on the big screen. Inspired by the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, A League of Their Own is a hall-of-fame-worthy sports comedy from 1992 directed by Penny Marshall. With men off fighting World War II, America’s pastime needs players, sparking the creation of the league in the ’40s.  

Geena Davis and Lori Petty play sisters and teammates on the Rockford Peaches, whose rivalry plays out on and off the field. Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell deliver sassy supporting performances, and I would die for Megan Cavanagh as Marla Hooch. Along with the rest of the Peaches, these women fight to be recognized for their athleticism in a world that only wants to reward them for traditional femininity. Meanwhile, Tom Hanks plays enjoyably against type as a hard-drinking, cranky coach who would rather be anywhere else, doing anything else.

Even beyond the excellent casting and the actors’ performances, Marshall hits a home run with A League of Their Own. The director makes it look easy with her light touch, but she strikes a fine balance between the story’s emotional core and its humorous moments. 

How to watch: A League of Their Own is now streaming on Tubi.

15. Bubba Ho-Tep

Separately, each element of the wildly irreverent Bubba Ho-Tep feels like the product of a fever dream; the end result is something truly entertaining and wonderfully weird. Bruce Campbell plays an aging Elvis Presley (he was only in a coma, it turns out) who is living in a nursing home in East Texas. His friend Jack (Ossie Davis) claims he’s President John F. Kennedy, who is not only still alive but is now Black. (“They dyed me this color! That’s how clever they are!”) However, their fellow nursing home residents do keep turning up dead, and the two unlikely buddies discover their neighbors are the victims of an Egyptian mummy, Bubba Ho-Tep. 

Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, The Beastmaster) directs this horror comedy that seems engineered to be a cult favorite, from the casting of Evil Dead‘s Campbell to its combination of conspiracy theory regulars Elvis, JFK, and ancient Egyptian lore. But Bubba Ho-Tep isn’t just a weird little movie with a killer Elvis impersonation from Campbell and a wild premise. It strikes a surprisingly successful balance between sentiment, scares, and silliness, thanks to its script from horror luminaries Joe R. Lansdale and Coscarelli. Bubba Ho-Tep is big fun with a big heart — and big hair, thanks to Campbell’s Elvis. 

How to watch: Bubba Ho-Tep is now streaming on Tubi.

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Richard Gere delivers a towering performance in Paul Shrader’s latest film, “Oh, Canada.” Review from Cannes.

A story that unfolds on death’s doorstep, Oh, Canada is a thoughtful, reflective work from Paul Schrader, if an occasionally rushed one. Whether or not its hurried approach is a defect — it most certainly plays like one, as though there was only so much time to wrap it up before the reaper comes a-calling — it also results in a more intimate embodiment of everything on Schrader’s mind when it was made.

The tale of a documentary filmmaker on his deathbed who becomes the camera’s subject, the film is based on the 2021 novel Foregone by Russell Banks. (Shrader previously adapted Banks’ novel Affliction in 1997.) The author would sadly pass away in January 2023, a few months before filming began, and shortly after Schrader himself had a brush with death thanks to COVID-19.

This proximity to grief, and to the grave, informs Oh Canada‘s storytelling, which plays like a recollection of regrets. Its structure and narrative POV shift in beguiling ways, as though the movie’s main character — played by two actors at different ages — was rushing to absolve himself of sin. Along the way, he confuses and collapses his many confessions into a single, muddled mythology that constantly shifts through elliptical editing, as if to reflect the character’s disoriented state of mind. The details may be unreliable, but his story pulses with riveting emotional truths, born from lifelong remorse. 

What is Oh, Canada about?   

Now confined to hospice care, Canadian filmmaker Leonard Fife (Richard Gere) agrees to an interview conducted by his former film students, Malcolm (Michael Imperioli) and Diana (Victoria Hill), during his final weeks of life. Cancer has ravaged his body, and his treatment has left him tired, but as an artist who has always used his camera to unearth people’s truths, he hopes Malcolm and Diana’s lens will do the same for him, and help him unburden himself as his wife, Emma (Uma Thurman), looks on.

Many details of Leonard’s life are publicly known, especially his conscientious Vietnam draft-dodging, after which he left the U.S. for the Great White North as a political asylee. However, just as much of his story remains shrouded in mystery, which he now unpacks as last rite. In flashbacks set in the ’60s and ’70s, Leonard is played by Jacob Elordi (of Priscilla fame), though on occasion, Gere himself strides through scenes where Elordi ought to be, a swap that occurs either through straightforward cuts, or the occasional Texas Switch.

The seamlessness with which the older Leonard replaces his younger self has an eerie effect, as though something in the fabric of his story were deeply amiss. As he reveals some particularly shameful and macabre family secrets, Emma remains in denial over his revelations and insists that Leonard must be confused about the details. He is, in a way, given the overlap between events and characters he recalls, but all of these revelations come from a place of deep pain and repression. Whether or not they’re logistically true, Gere makes their emotional truth feel undeniable via a towering, career-defining performance as a man both afraid and determined to stare at the camera and be seen by it, as he struggles to purge himself of demons that have long been eating at his soul.

Paul Schrader brings a thoughtful filmmaking eye to Oh, Canada.

Throughout Oh, Canada, Leonard’s regret is enhanced by Schrader’s interrogative filmmaking, which draws from numerous documentarian techniques. The film for which he provides his personal testimony — about his own life, and his work as anti-war activist after his illegal border-crossing — takes the form of a traditional interview talking head, albeit with an aesthetic twist that yields several haunting close-ups.

In order to pay tribute to Leonard, his students film him with the use of a camera set-up he invented. In reality, this is the Interrotron developed by The Thin Blue Line director Errol Morris; it’s a teleprompter that allows the subject to meet the interviewer’s eye (or rather, a reflection of it) while staring directly down the camera’s lens. By attributing the tool to the fictitious Leonard, Schrader creates a double-edged sword. The technique has long afforded Leonard the comfort of sitting behind a video monitor, rather than meeting his subjects’ gaze directly. But now, as the subject of his own camera, his confession occurs in a darkened, lonely room.

There are people nearby, like the filmmakers, and Leonard’s wife, Emma, whose reflection theoretically appears in the teleprompter, but we only ever glimpse this briefly. For the most part, Schrader locks us into a trio of close-ups of Leonard from three angles (two profiles, and one directly head-on), which appear on side-by-side video screens for Malcolm and Diana, and whose angles Schrader often cuts between. This triptych framing makes the cameras feel incredibly invasive, and by almost never cutting away from Leonard’s close-ups, Schrader forces us to view his self-reflections the way the aging documentarian sees them. His interviewers’ faces may be visible to him on a screen, but he recognizes his own filmmaking facade, and he knows just how lonely he is, here at the end of his life.

This loneliness takes stirring form during Leonard’s flashbacks, too. In isolated moments, Elordi and Gere’s attention occasionally drifts from the characters to whom they’re speaking, and their gaze falls upon nothing in particular, as though they know they’re trapped in a framing device. People from other points in the story sometimes appear where they shouldn’t, and on occasion, a white light consumes the frame, as though hypoxia (or the embrace of death) had threatened to provide Leonard with respite from his confessions.

The question then remains: Does Leonard want to die without having exposed the worst parts of himself?

Schrader’s shifting narrative makes Oh, Canada a holistic self-reflection.

Like Schrader’s most recent works — especially First Reformed, The Card Counter, and Master Gardener, a similarly confessional trilogy — Oh, Canada makes frequent use of voiceover. But in the aforementioned films, these narrations took the form of diary entries by each protagonist, whereas in the latest, the framing device is not only a camera this time, but one that isn’t in Leonard’s control.

Sometimes, the movie’s voiceover comprises snippets from Leonard’s filmed confession. Other times, it draws from an impassioned inner monologue. And on some occasions, the voiceover is spoken by a different character entirely, revealed to be a person who feels deeply betrayed by Leonard. In a literal sense, this patchwork of perspectives helps unearth Leonard’s story from multiple points of view, as Schrader deconstructs both a man and the mythology around him.

However, this shifting POV also serves a spiritual purpose. In essence, it blends the known and the imagined, and plays as though Leonard were in a desperate grasp at absolutely, slowly stepping outside himself and finding sudden empathy for someone he had deeply — perhaps knowingly — wronged.

Oh, Canada is a work of deep-seated guilt frothing to the surface, and while its story is largely fictional, Schrader’s presentation takes strikingly personal form. On one hand, the older Leonard is styled to resemble Banks — Schrader’s friend of many years, who requested the filmmaker to adapt Foregone before he died — but from many angles, this man with short, graying hair and an unkempt beard also resembles Schrader himself, who made the film when it seemed like the nearly 80-year-old filmmaker might not win his long battle with COVID and pneumonia. (He was hospitalized, and suffered breathing difficulties in the aftermath.)

But there’s another personal element to the movie, too, one made far less apparent on screen. Around the time of Banks’ death and Schrader’s illness, the director also moved into an assisted living facility with his wife, Mary Beth Hurt, whose Alzheimer’s had been worsening. Oh, Canada is as much a film about death and elusive truths as it is about memory and its fleeting nature, and it’s hard not to read the visual manifestations of Leonard’s confusion as Schrader’s depiction of his wife’s condition.

Moreover, it depicts a filmmaker whose confessions to his wife — a woman who knows him better than anyone, but still doesn’t know his darkest moments — don’t seem to stick, both because of his illness and his inability to properly articulate them. While Schrader’s avatar suffers from distortions of recollection in the film, and is assisted by his wife, the reverse is true in reality. The idea of a man unable to fully give himself over to the woman he loves because of the impermanent nature of memory is the tragic result, regardless. While Oh, Canada talks through (but quickly skips past) many of these central themes — en route to a conclusion that wraps up too quickly, and too neatly — it stands as one of Schrader’s most personal, most moving, and most impactful films.

Oh, Canada was reviewed out of the Cannes Film Festival.

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