The first weekend of January brings with it some exciting new content to streaming platforms.
This week, Watch With Us is putting HBO Max in the hot seat by highlighting three of the best movies that have just been added to the platform and make for great weekend movie nights.
Our first pick is While We’re Young, a comedy-drama from Noah Baumbach starring Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts. We’re also recommending sci-fi Ex Machina and the comedy classic Blazing Saddles from comic mastermind Mel Brooks.
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‘While We’re Young’ (2014)
Middle-aged married couple Josh (Stiller) and Cornelia (Watts) find themselves at a sluggish crossroads in their lives, but are suddenly invigorated by the arrival of two new friends named Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried). The free-spirited millennials act as a shot of adrenaline for their older counterparts, especially for filmmaker Josh, who pines for the glory days of his once-nascent career. When Josh and Cornelia start ditching their older friends, they’re forced to confront whether their new friendship can weather a 20-year age gap.
This poignant, funny and refreshingly honest film comes from the director of the Oscar-nominated Marriage Story and the more recent Jay Kelly. Featuring affecting performances across the board from Stiller, Watts, Driver and Seyfried, hilarious dialogue and relatable characters, While We’re Young will be a surefire winner for fans of movies that make you laugh just as much as they make you cry.
‘Ex Machina’ (2014)
Search engine company programmer Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a contest to spend a week at the private estate of his firm’s tech genius CEO, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac). However, Smith hasn’t actually won a week-long getaway — he was purposefully chosen to administer the Turing test on Nathan’s new intelligent humanoid robot, Ava (Alicia Vikander). Through uncovering Ava’s true consciousness capabilities, she proves more cunning and self-aware than either man realizes.
The directorial debut of 28 Days Later screenwriter Alex Garland, Ex Machina was widely praised upon release for its idea-heavy science fiction that leans away from CGI extravaganza and instead focuses on existential questions about human nature, empathy and isolation. With polished visuals, a tight script and some career-best work from the core cast, Ex Machina is handily one of the greatest sci-fi films of the 2010s.
‘Blazing Saddles’ (1974)
This satirical Western film directed by comedy maestro Mel Brooks stars Cleavon Little as Bart — a Black railroad worker who is appointed mayor of Rock Ridge, in a ploy to stoke chaos and get the townspeople to leave to make way for a new railroad. While the townspeople are initially vehemently racially biased towards Bart, they eventually realize Bart and his drunk gunfighter friend Jim the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder) are their only line of defense against the gang of thugs sent their way.
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Blazing Saddles — co-written by Richard Pryor — is easily Brooks’ best-directed film and remains a laugh-out-loud riot to this day. The ruthless satire of racism and Hollywood is led by two towering comedic performances from Little and Wilder, whose infectious chemistry makes a meal out of the relentless, grab-bag humor, from anachronisms to slapstick, fourth wall-breaking and sharp parody.
