Jessica Henwick, left, Daniel Craig, center, and Janelle Monáe in a scene from Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.John Wilson/Netflix via The Associated Press
Do you feel like you’re drowning … but you haven’t even left your couch? Welcome to the Great Content Overload Era. To help you navigate the choppy digital waves, here are The Globe’s best bets for weekend streaming.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix)
A month after Rian Johnson’s sequel enjoyed a week-long “sneak peek” at theatres, the film arrives for the rest of Netflix’s subscribers to savour. One of the purest pop pleasures of the season, the kind of irresistible crowd-pleaser that balances its franchise obligations with a clear sense of wit and creative purpose, Glass Onion refashions the whodunit genre into a cinematic pretzel of twists and triple-takes. Just when you think that you have figured out which rug will next be pulled out from under you, Johnson and his starry cast led by Daniel Craig reveal that there are rugs woven inside rugs woven inside even tinier rugs – and that the floor beneath those many carpets isn’t actually a floor at all, but a ceiling.
Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount+)
Tom Cruise as Capt. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick.Paramount Pictures via AP
If you have somehow spent the entirety of 2022 avoiding the juggernaut that is Top Gun: Maverick, then you have just a week or so to close out the year with a wild ride that confirms Tom Cruise as being an immortal being of pure light. (Has the film compelled me to read up on Scientology? Maybe, maybe not.) Any way, after watching the sequel at home the other week on 4K Blu-ray, I can confirm that Maverick plays pretty dang well outside the space of a cinema – it is not the sky-high experience that IMAX afforded, but director Joseph Kosinski’s film is still a slick, thrilling production that moves fast. Just crank your speakers way up when signing into Paramount+. It’s worth risking the city bylaw noise complaint. And if you get fined, tell ‘em to take it up with Xenu.
Moonage Daydream (digital TIFF Lightbox)
Moonage Daydream illuminates the life and genius of David Bowie, one of the most prolific and influential artists of our time.Courtesy of TIFF
Quite unlike any other music documentary – whether in biographical or concert form – Brett Morgen’s David Bowie film is, like its subject, a crafty shape-shifter. Half love letter to the erstwhile Ziggy Stardust and half head-spinning experiment, it’s worth a serious look for those who missed its theatrical engagement this fall. And the ability to pause the film and give your head a shake midway might actually benefit Morgen’s ambitious but sometimes messy work, especially as it dips into screen-saver territory toward the final third.
The Fabelmans (on-demand, including Apple TV, Google Play, Cineplex Store)
Gabriel LaBelle in a scene from The Fabelmans.Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment via AP
There is a whole, long, frustrated essay to write about what it says about the future of “adult-oriented movies” when Steven Spielberg’s presumed Best Picture frontrunner The Fabelmans is available to watch at home less than a month after it opened in cinemas. While I cannot count myself as the autobiographical drama’s biggest fan – just thinking about Michelle Williams’s performance as Spielberg’s mother gives me second-hand embarrassment – anyone (re: everyone) who has been captivated by at least one or two or three Spielberg movies should give it a shot. If only to see what the director seems to misunderstand about his own success.
Bones and All (on-demand, including Apple TV and Google Play)
Timothée Chalamet as Lee and Taylor Russell as Maren in Bones and All.Yannis Drakoulidis / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
Another prestige fall drama that has disappeared from theatres far too quickly, Luca Guadagnino’s romantic drama/horror is delightfully weird. Frightening and romantic, dreamy and dreary, the movie following two young cannibals (Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet) laces the gore of a zombie movie with the magic-hour sunsets of a Terrence Malick film, plus a healthy amount of 1980s needle-drops. It is, in so many ways, one of the most unusually beautiful and violently sensual films in recent memory – decidedly rougher and less polished in its sex than Call Me By Your Name, but with as much pounding, beating, bloody heart. Perhaps it will find a stronger-stomached audience at home.