Settle in for some crowd-pleasers this holiday weekend
The post 7 Best New Movies on Paramount+ in November 2023 appeared first on TheWrap.
It’s Thanksgiving week, which means the holiday season is officially in full swing. In keeping, Paramount+ is stocking up with crowd-pleasers and awards favorites this month, just in time to settle in with friends and family for a good movie.
From Ridley Scott’s sword and sandals epic “Gladiator” to the Coen Brothers-produced Christmas Comedy “Bad Santa” (which is most definitely not appropriate to watch with the whole family, heads up,) here are the best new movies to watch on Paramount+ this month.
Ridley Scott is about to be back in theaters with another historical war epic starring Joaquin Phoenix, which means now is the perfect time to revisit ” Gladiator.” Russell Crowe stars in the action-packed revenge drama, which follows Crowe’s Maximus from leading armies on the battlefield to fighting for his life in the Gladiator arena after a royal betrayal puts Phoenix’s perfidious and power-hungry Commodus on the throne. Fiercely entertaining with a prestige sheen, “Gladiator” is the rare film that thrives in the intersection of crowd-pleaser and awards drama.
In the year of the “Barbie” movie, it’s absolutely time to “Think Pink.” Candy-coated and directed with panache, Stanley Donen’s musical intersects high fashion and beatnik culture in Paris, set to the immortal sounds of George Gershwin’s music. The musical classic is a bit of a strange brew (none stranger than someone calling Audrey Hepburn’s face “funny”), but it’s a delightful song and dance, with a vibrant turn from Hepburn — you can’t beat that beatnik dance number — and a later-career Fred Astaire musical performance that proved he never lost a step.
Somewhere along the way, “Catch Me If You Can” earned a reputation as “minor Spielberg,” which seems a real disservice to one of the most entertaining movies of the early aughts. Perhaps it’s because the 2002 film is so light-footed, tender-hearted and ultimately, and such a downright pleasure to watch. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as con artist Frank Abignail, “Catch Me If You Can” follows the gifted fraud through stints as a doctor, pilot, lawyer and forger — while also following the hot pursuit of the FBI Agent (Tom Hanks) who made it his missing to bring the criminal down.
An odd couple rom-com that really works, Jonathan Levine’s “Long Shot” pairs Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron as the all-time unlikely duo that ultimately wins you over. Rogen plays Fled Flarsky, a gifted but unemployed progressive journalist who reunited with his former babysitter, Theron’s Charlotte Field, who is now a polished politician on the brink of a presidential campaign. Unexpected sparks fly and the mismatched pair has to navigate their newfound romance in the public eye, under all the day-to-day pressures of an international diplomat. It’s sharp and funny, sweet and sexy — just an all-around winning rom-com, with a refreshingly optimistic take on a pair of principled people being the change they want to see in the world.
Rob Marshall’s adaptation of the Bob Fosse-famed musical “Chicago” is a jazzy, toe-tapping spectacle. It’s also loaded up with spectacular performances and enough filmmaking panache to pull off the oft-attempted, rarely successful stage-to-screen translation. Renée Zelwegger and Catherine Zeta-Jones dance and dazzle as two women trying to get out of murderess’ row by winning over the public. “Chicago” took home six Oscars, including Best Picture.
Terry Zwigoff’s early-aughts Christmas comedy is a perfect piece of holiday counterprogramming; a foul-mouthed and sour-spirited laugh-a-minute hangout heist film that somehow also embodies the Christmas spirit. Billy Bob Thornton stars as Willie, a small-time crook and full-time alcoholic who makes his posing as a mall Santa and robbing the department stores after the big Christmas spend. The Coen-produced film is packed with knockout comedic performances, from greats like Bernie Mac and John Ritter to inspired casting choices like Tony Cox, Lauren Graham and Brett Kelly.
The post 7 Best New Movies on Paramount+ in November 2023 appeared first on TheWrap.
