It’s not June without aliens from outer space, obsessed film directors and toxic marriages. At least, that’s how Hulu is celebrating the first month of summer. The streamer’s library is full of great movies and hidden gems, and it’s the latter category that the following films fall under.
Watch With Us has curated a brief list of three films for your viewing pleasure this weekend.
One is a much-maligned sci-fi sequel that’s secretly great, another is a biopic of one of the most famous filmmakers ever and the final film is a comedy so black every time you laugh, it hurts.
‘Alien 3’ (1992)
The Alien franchise peaked in 1992 with the release of its much-maligned sequel, Alien 3. David Fincher’s downbeat movie killed off two fan-favorite characters from Aliens, ditched its heroine on a grimey prison planet occupied by rapists and murderers and had star Sigourney Weaver shave off her signature brown hair. And that’s just the first 20 minutes!
When Ripley realizes one of those pesky xenomorphs has followed her to a planet no one is supposed to escape from, she needs to once again destroy a creature that could threaten every living being in the galaxy. But with no real weapons to kill it, strange allies with violent pasts who can’t be trusted and a chestburster growing inside her, the odds are stacked against Ripley this time around. Can she emerge victorious a third — and final — time?
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Alien 3 almost killed the franchise, but today it’s viewed as the most soulful movie in the series. Fincher is excellent at creating a horror-thriller that doesn’t hold back on the ultraviolence (The kills are particularly brutal this time around), but what’s surprising is how much heart and emotion are present in the film. Alien 3’s conclusion is stirring, moving and, yes, poetic — it properly honors its weary heroine and gives one of the best sci-fi characters ever a proper send-off that future films would unfortunately take back.
‘Hitchcock’ (2012)
Everyone knows of Alfred Hitchcock, but how much do you know about the man behind the myth? Hitchcock attempts to peel back the curtain to reveal the wizard behind it, but it’s more successful at revealing how much the women in his life helped him achieve fame as one of the best directors ever.
It’s 1960, and Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) is on the hunt for his next project. He thinks he’s found it with Psycho, a lurid book about an ordinary man who is really a serial killer with severe mommy issues. But nobody wants to make it, and even Hitch’s wife, Alma (Helen Mirren), has reservations. Can Hitch succeed in making a film that’s destined to change cinema forever?
Well, yes! Psycho is one of the best-known movies of all time, and it’s a kick to see how it was put together by Hitch, Alma and actors like Anthony Perkins (James D’Arcy) and Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson). Hopkins isn’t too physically convincing as the titular director, but he’s still fun to watch, and Mirren is sensational as a wife who knows just as much as her husband but doesn’t crave the spotlight like he does. The movie winds up being a surprisingly sweet portrait of an unconventional marriage that helped produce dozens of film classics.
Hitchcock is streaming on Hulu.
‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ (2024)
One of 2024’s most acclaimed movies, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is still a bit underrated by the general public. Proud family man Iman (Missagh Zareh) is a prominent lawyer who accepts a position as a judge in Tehran, but his superiors soon demand he give blanket sentences to defendants without regarding their guilt or innocence.
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He eventually agrees, but he soon becomes suspicious of his own family, who disapprove of his willingness to be a part of a corrupt system. When a government-issued gun goes missing in his own home, Iman’s paranoia transforms into something more violent, which threatens to tear him and his family apart.
A political drama with some thriller elements, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a heartbreaking meditation about the high cost of ambition and compromise for one man. Iman loves his family, but by sacrificing his morals to provide a better life for them, he unknowingly plants the seeds for their collective downfall. The movie is superbly acted and directed, and the ending is unforgettable.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig is streaming on Hulu.
