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‘Tis the season for forgetting about the frightful weather outside, curling up on the couch and catching up on your watchlist. But with so many movies coming and going from the best streaming services, separating the gifts from the coal ain’t easy.
Each week, I comb through the newest additions on streaming to shout out the latest movies that are actually worth your time. Leading the pack this week are two high-octane adventures: the nostalgia-filled sci-fi flick “Tron: Ares” on paid video-on-demand platforms and the Tom Cruise-led swan song “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.”
‘Tron: Ares’ (PVOD)
Critics weren’t exactly dazzled by “Tron: Ares,” but audiences have been much warmer to Disney’s nostalgia cocktail of high-tech spectacle set to the tune of Nine Inch Nails. As dazzling as the special effects are in IMAX, it’s not exactly the kind of blockbuster I’d tell people to rush to see in theaters. It’s a flashy but forgettable follow-up that feels tailor-made in a lab to capitalize on Gen Xers and fans of divorced dad rock.
Jared Leto stars as Ares, a virtual warrior who breaks his directive and crosses into the real world to hunt down his creator’s powerful rival (Greta Lee). Life outside the grid is more tempting than he gambled for, but when he begins to push back against his own programming, all hell breaks loose.
Buy or rent “Tron: Ares” on Amazon or Apple now
‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ (Paramount Plus)
“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is a fitting end to one of Hollywood’s most enduring sagas, packed with all the over-the-top set pieces and high-octane spectacle you’d expect. While this long-awaited Part 2 carries over some of the bloat of its predecessor, it still delivers some of the most jaw-dropping set pieces in the franchise — no small feat given its history.
Picking up directly after “Dead Reckoning,” we rejoin Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF crew, including Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg, who are still racing to stop a rogue AI known as the Entity. The plot is just as tangled as the first part, but the relentless action more than smooths over those wrinkles.
Watch “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” on Paramount Plus now
‘It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley’ (HBO Max)
Jeff Buckley was an American singer-songwriter who’s achieved a near-mythical status among music fans in the decades since his unexpected death in 1997 at the age of 30. “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley” is the new documentary from Oscar-nominated director Amy Berg to shine a light on the man, his music and his legacy using archival footage from the ’90s, childhood home movies and interviews with family and friends closest to him. It’s sure to be a story just as tragic and heavenly as Buckley’s music, so have tissues handy.
Watch “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley” on HBO Max now
‘Jay Kelly’ (Netflix)
Adam Sandler’s new Netflix movie “Jay Kelly” may very well be the first to earn him his first Oscar nomination for supporting actor come March. He steals the show in Noah Baumbach’s latest winsome drama, “Jay Kelly,” a deeply meta film about Hollywood that takes place almost entirely away from Hollywood.
George Clooney stars as Jay Kelly, an aging icon (yes, he is essentially playing himself) on the cusp of a project that could reignite his flagging career. But against his longtime manager’s (Sandler) best advice, he instead takes an impromptu trip to Europe to reconnect with his daughter in what ends up being a winding journey of self-discovery.
Watch “Jay Kelly” on Netflix now
‘Perfect Blue’ (HBO Max)
Even if you aren’t necessarily a fan of animation, Satoshi Kon’s works are ones I recommend everyone watch at least once. You may have never heard of him, but you’ve definitely heard of “Inception,” which was partially inspired by his trippy sci-fi thriller “Paprika.”
“Perfect Blue” is another one that gets thrown out among his greatest works (though “Tokyo Godfathers” will always take the crown for me) for its themes about the dangers of parasocial relationships before social media was even a thing. When an up-and-coming idol (Junko Iwao [Japanese]/Ruby Marlowe [English]) retires to go into acting, the combined stress of her new life and torment from an obsessed stalker causes her to crack.
Watch “Perfect Blue” on HBO Max now
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