🦃 What to Watch This Weekend: Thanksgiving Edition
Plus, a review of Queer.
Happy Wednesday and Thanksgiving Eve (is that a thing?),
In movie news: Wicked scored the best opening weekend at box office for a live-action musical grossing $114M worldwide—the third biggest of the year. Read my review here.
Today I’m recommending two movies about the beautiful complexities of family. Plus, a review of A24’s newest release Queer, starring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey.
Thankful for you,
Karl
Streaming on Max
The Birdcage
Today’s first recommendation is for a cult classic (and personal favorite) timeless comedy: Mike Nichols’s The Birdcage.
What it’s about: Armand Goldman (Robin Williams) owns the drag club The Birdcage with his life partner Albert (Nathan Lane), who’s also the star performer under the drag persona Starina. When their son Val (Dan Futterman) announces he’s getting married, they’re forced to put up a false straight front to host his fiance’s ultraconservative parents (Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest). Watch the trailer.
Why you should watch it: Considering Mike Nichols and Elaine May started their careers as an improv comedy duo, The Birdcage was the perfect story for them to adapt. The premise is basically an improv prompt. However, like their best work, they guide the story and the actors to the edge of ridiculousness, but never let it spill over to caricature (okay maybe a little). But even Nathan Lane whose performance is as bombastic and queer as a three dollar bill leans on the side of high camp rather than slapstick.
The Birdcage takes its time to explore, get to know and, most importantly, let us fall in love with its motley crew of misfits. It's perhaps one of the best comedic ensembles of all time with every actor getting their moment to steal a scene whether it’s Hank Azaria’s high-camp Guatemalan housekeeper repeatedly falling over because he’s not used to wearing shoes or Christine Baranski playing Val’s biological mother prancing around her office or Williams directing Albert’s cabaret performance. A comedic delight with a strong beating (incredibly gay) heart.
🎬 Directed by Mike Nichols
🖊️ Written by Elaine May
🎭 Starring Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, Dianne Wiest, Hank Azaria, Christine Baranski
⏱️ 117 mins
Streaming on Prime Video
The Humans
Today’s second recommendation is one of the most underrated movies of the decade. Based on his play of the same name, Stephen Karram’s The Humans.
What it’s about: Brigid (Beanie Feldstein) and her boyfriend Richard (Steven Yeun) face everyone’s greatest fear: their family coming over for Thanksgiving dinner. As the night goes on, their cramp Chinatown apartment in New York City turns claustrophobic as past wounds and traumas surface. Watch the trailer.
Why you should watch it: Throughout The Humans, the bulbs in each of the rooms progressively go out in the two-floor New York City apartment in Chinatown where the entire movie takes place. The space the characters inhabit is literally shrinking and they’re forced to face the darkness — and each other. The tension builds until the final bulb finally burns out and all that they’re left to see is what’s in their heads — existential dread, worry, regret. So, basically, the most New York movie ever made.
If that sounds like horror to you, then you’re right. Though the premise of the film isn’t one that lends itself to the genre it fully inhabits the new subgenre of family drama horror. Although it’s understandable. What is more horrifying than facing your self-truths in front of people that you’ve known your whole life? Filled with dark comedy, a cast of delightful characters, and relatable family dynamics. If I could say one thing to convince you to watch The Humans it is this: by the end, you’ll be sad you can’t hang out in that apartment anymore. Read my full review.
🎬 Written and directed by Stephen Karam
🎭 Starring Jayne Houdyshell, Richard Jenkins, Amy Schumer, Beanie Feldstein, Steven Yeun, June Squibb
⏱️ 108 mins
In Theaters
Queer is messy, mad and marvelous
Anyone who claims to fully understand what William S. Burroughs is trying to tell us with his writing is either lying or on some really good drugs—and I’d like to know where I can get what they’re having. Some filmmakers might try to smooth out the raw, jarring edges of Burroughs’s trademark sensibilities. But director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes (Challengers) lean wholeheartedly into his idiosyncratic style, transposing his unsettling blend of mesmerizing horror and reality into something deeply affecting. Remarkably, it also becomes an aching romance about longing and desire. Amid the drug-addled maze of Burroughs’s thoughts, Guadagnino and Kuritzkes manage to find a thread—a profound one that, once pulled, unravels into a beautiful, moving drama that is, at its core, deeply... well, queer.
📽 P.S. You can see every movie I’ve ever recommended right here.
🍅 I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes! You can find new movie reviews here and here.
🔗 Find me on Letterboxd and Bluesky.