If you’re hoping to shut out the cruel world with a Netflix pick, the flicks below will make you think, make you feel, and/or make you say, “that movie was OK, I guess.” There’s a feature for everyone on this end-of-the-month list, from incels with weak jaws to fans of gigantic gorillas.
Dumb Money (2023)
A likable cast including Pete Davidson, Vincent D’Onofrio, and America Ferrera hold together this (kind of) true David and Goliath tale of Reddit cretins vs. Wall Street ghouls. While the real story is more complicated than the movie, the basic beats are the same: in 2021, a bunch of very-online people boosted GameStop’s stock to heights it should not have achieved, to the irritation of financial types.
Open Wide (2024)
This Netflix documentary profiles controversial creators of “orthotropics,” John and Mike Mew, the father/son duo behind the “mewing” craze that taken over the incel-y corners of TikTok. Mewing, if you’re not familiar, is a combination of tongue exercises and gum-chewing designed to give you straight teeth and a more defined jaw. It’s pure crackpottery, but the rabbit hole around how an orthodontics heretic became an internet messiah is fascinating.
Train to Busan (2016)
Train to Busan sets itself apart from the horde of zombie movies through its breakneck-pace, interesting setting—it takes place almost entirely on a train—and its surprisingly heartfelt emotional core. Busan uses the dead rising to explore capitalism, class, and the price of modernity, but you can ignore that if you want to simply enjoy a rip-roaring undead explosion instead.
The Hill (2023)
If you want an inspirational sports movie, jump on The Hill. It details the true story of Rickey Hill, who overcame degenerative spinal disease to play professional baseball. It features all the faith-and-hard-work-moves-mountains stuff that cynics like me sneer at, but we’re wrong, because Hill actually made it—not to the Bigs, but close, closer than he would have if he hadn’t tried so hard anyway.
Apollo 13 (1995)
Apollo 13 tells the true story of the famous near-disaster of the Apollo 13 moonshot, in which courageous astronauts played by Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon learn they’re going to die if they don’t figure out how to fix their malfunctioning spaceship. Apollo 13 takes a just-the-facts approach because the actual story is so gripping it plays like a thriller. Just an amazing movie that will keep you on the edge of your couch.
Bitconned (2024)
I want to say I’m tired of documentaries about low lifes, but the allure of the outlaw is powerful. The alluring outlaws in Bitconned, a new Netflix original docuseries, are a gang of blackhearts from Miami who are as brainless as they are ruthless. In 2017 Ray Trapani and his pals muscled into the ground floor of the booming cryptocurrency world and scammed every mark the internet could offer up—and that’s a lot of marks. Unlike international bankers, dumb dudes from Florida who scam people tend to get caught, so Bitconned offers a comeuppance narrative to go with the “dipshits get rich” main story in the form of a New York Times financial reporter who sees through Trapani’s scheme in about eight minutes.
Good Grief (2023)
This romantic tragi-comedy is set among sophisticated London urbanites who have better furniture and better friends than you. But Good Grief manages to not be annoying because tragedy and death don’t spare anyone; mourning is mourning, even if you’re doing it in a well-appointed Paris flat. If you like serious movies wrapped in funny jokes or comedies that are tragic, Good Grief is the movie you should watch this weekend.
