A Boy Called Christmas – Picture: Netflix
Happy Thanksgiving weekend and welcome to a special what-to-watch movie edition. Below, we’ll take you through some of our top movie picks for Thanksgiving from the past week and even more from the past year including some feel-good favorites and some new holiday-themed movies to watch for the holiday.
We’re not going to preamble for long but if you are looking for everything new on Netflix this week, we’ll have a full roundup post tomorrow and you can find an expanded list via our what’s new on Netflix hub.
Finally, if you’d rather dive into a new show, check out our TV picks of the week.
Let’s get into 6 movie recommendations for the weekend with three new ones from this week and 3 you may have missed in 2021.
Bruised (2020)
Genre: Drama, Sport
Director: Halle Berry
Cast: Stephen McKinley Henderson, Halle Berry, Shamier Anderson
Writer: Michelle Rosenfarb
Runtime: 129 min
We’ll begin with Bruised which has beat out Red Notice to the top spot of the movie charts over the past few days since its addition on Wednesday.
The movie is really a tour-de-force of Halle Berry’s talent both in front and behind the camera. While it doesn’t land in every sense with a lot of sections feeling particularly drawn out, Berry’s performance here is exceptional.
The movie is about an MMA fighter who grabs one last shot at redemption when the young son she left behind comes back into her life.
A Boy Called Christmas (2021)
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Family
Director: Gil Kenan
Cast: Maggie Smith, Michiel Huisman, Kristen Wiig
Writer: Ol Parker, Gil Kenan, Matt Haig
Runtime: 106 min
Given the holiday season, we’d be remiss not to include one of Netflix’s many new Christmas movies for the holiday season.
Although we’d thoroughly recommend Robin Robin to everyone, we’re specifically giving a shoutout here to the British-produced A Boy Called Christmas which arrived in most Netflix regions this week.
The movie revolves around a young saint Nikolas who learns of his destiny by traveling up to the north pole. It’s got some of the best VFX of any Christmas movie ever. It’s a magical adventure and is full of heart.
Vita & Virginia (2018)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Director: Chanya Button
Cast: Gemma Arterton, Elizabeth Debicki, Isabella Rossellini
Writer: Eileen Atkins, Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West
Runtime: 110 min
We’ll end this week’s new arrival top picks with Vita & Virginia which is a British biopic released in the United States by IFC Films.
The period drama led by Gemma Arterton is set in the 1920s around revolves around the decade long affair between Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf.
The movie didn’t quite hit the spot with critics back in 2018 when it was released but we feel the movie has aged well and deserves a first watch particularly for any fans of LGBTQ stories.
Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2005)
Genre: Documentary, Comedy, Music
Director: Michel Gondry
Cast: Dave Chappelle, Yasiin Bey, Lauryn Hill
Writer: Dave Chappelle
Runtime: 103 min
Rewinding back to the November 1st additions, we don’t believe (rightly or wrongly) that the 2005 musical extravaganza Block Party received enough love.
The concert’s history is perhaps even more interesting than the concert itself (it happened shortly after the cancelation of Chappelle’s Show) but the idea of the show was to allow Dave to express his thanks to the people of Brooklyn by putting on a big bash.
The critically acclaimed concert featured acts such as Kanye West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Dead Prez, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, the Roots, Cody ChesnuTT and Big Daddy Kane.
Blue Miracle (2021)
Genre: Adventure, Biopic
Director: Julio Quintana
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Jimmy Gonzales, Miguel Angel Garcia, Anthony Gonzalez
Heading back to May, we saw the release of Blue Miracle, the feel-good drama which told the story of a guardian and his kid’s partner battle it out in a lucrative fishing competition to save their flailing orphanage.
As with most Netflix Original movies, Blue Miracle has fallen victim to being buried deep in the Netflix library so we’re happy to help bring it back to the surface to give it another shoutout.
Silver Skates (2020)
Genre: Drama, Family
Director: Michael Lockshin
Cast: Fedor Fedotov, Sonya Priss, Yuriy Borisov, Kirill Zaytsev
Acquired by Netflix earlier in the year, it feels appropriate to resurface this Russian family drama that was released over the summer.
The well-reviewed movie is set in St. Petersburg where winter has arrived and all of the local rivers and canals have frozen over revealing a playground for skaters.
While watching the original Russian audio with English subtitles is recommended, Netflix does provide numerous alternative audio tracks for the movie including English.
That’s six movie picks for your Thanksgiving weekend – do you have any movie recommendations? Let us know in the comments down below.