Are you ready to dance with the devil in the pale moonlight this weekend? The long-awaited sequel Joker: Folie à Deux hits theaters, and it’s a good assumption that fans of the original won’t be too pleased with this one, which emphasizes awkward musical interludes and banal courtroom drama rather than the shocking violence that made the first one so popular.
If you’re not in the mood for that movie, well, there’s always HBO and Max. The Joker‘s streaming home has plenty of hits, and we’ve picked three underrated films that are worth your time and attention this weekend. Relax, none of them involve gruesome murders scored to the tune of My Way.
We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Interview with the Vampire (1994)
The movie version of Interview with the Vampire has always gotten a bad rap. Even before it was made, people criticized the casting of the all-American Tom Cruise as the very European, very decadent vampire Lestat. Even the book’s author, Anne Rice, was against it! Today, it’s been overshadowed by the AMC series adaptation, which some call one of the best shows on TV right now.
I like the movie, however, and think Cruise’s florid performance makes it worth watching. The movie follows the transformation of Louis, (Brad Pitt, still in his himbo phase) as he is seduced into becoming a vampire by Cruise’s murderous Lestat. Along the way, the duo adopt a child, Claudia (a superb Kirsten Dunst), into the vampire family, which is eventually torn asunder by Louis’ reluctance to kill, Lestat’s casual cruelty, and Claudia’s desire for a maternal figure.
Directed by Neil Jordan, Interview with the Vampire nails the debauchery of 19th-century New Orleans and old Europe, and the picture keeps chugging along nicely. Pitt makes for a sad sack Louis, all mumbles and tears, but Cruise, Dunst, and a long-haired Antonio Banderas as a lustful vampire pick up the slack.
Interview with the Vampire is streaming on Max.
The Perfect Host (2011)
David Hyde Pierce is famous for his role as Niles in the long-running and much beloved NBC sitcom Frasier. But Pierce is also a respected character actor in film, TV, and the stage, and he got a rare leading role in the underrated thriller The Perfect Host.
Pierce stars as Warwick Wilson, an urbane man who is preparing a dinner party at his home one night when he’s interrupted by a stranger, John, who is on the run from some cops. Desperate, John takes Warwick hostage, needing the man’s help to evade the police. But Warwick isn’t the man he seems to be, and as the movie progresses, John may have landed in another kind of jail, from which there is no escape.
The Perfect Host is streaming on Max.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Did the world need a Gremlins sequel in 1990? Probably not, but we got one anyway, and thank goodness we did. Gremlins 2: The New Batch is that true rarity: a sequel that doesn’t surpass the original so much as create a unique pathway on its own. It’s deeply weird and very funny, and the closest we’ll ever come to a live-action Looney Tunes movie, as the insanity is cranked to 100%.
Gremlins 2 follows the original movie’s protagonists Billy, Kate, and, of course, Gizmo, as they now inhabit a tall, Trump Tower-like skyscraper in New York City. Gizmo gets wet, and soon an army of Gremlins, which will eventually include a lightning Gremlin and a slutty female Gremlin, take over the high-tech building. Billy and a small band of humans must take back the building and save the city from a Gremlin invasion.
This movie is nuts; it’s all non-sequiturs and references to pop culture (if you ever want to see film critic Leonard Maltin get his just desserts, this movie is for you), but it still finds the time to invest in its human, and nonhuman, characters. Quentin Tarantino is a fan, and after you watch it, you will be too.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch is streaming on Max.
