As fall comes to a close and opens up to the seemingly never ending months of winter, many are looking for things to do as they stay inside, huddled together away from the cold. Here are two movies to watch with loved ones and two to look past as everyone does their best to avoid the harsh icy grasp of winter.

Good – Heretic – R

So much of this movie holds itself up on anticipation and making the viewer guess. During every scene of this film, I was theorizing how it would end, what this was all leading up to, the characters motivations, etc. I think most of this excitement comes from how good the actors are. Hugh Grant, who plays our main villain, was so good at playing off-puttingly friendly neighbor character. He reminded me a lot of Willem Dafoe in American Psycho, uneasy and creepy and hard to read. It was very good.

This enthusiasm on my part however was ruined by the trashy ending of this movie. I was really sad to see them take what could be a really thought provoking plot and turn it into the characters saying out loud during the climax that “religion is control,” and that people who do it are stupid but at least they’re happy. It’s hard to even describe what the message is,  I was sorely disappointed in the last few moments of the film. If you watch this one, maybe just turn it off after the first girl dies because from that point on it gets really stupid.

Best – Small Things Like These – PG-13

Much like the other good movie here, this one has some heavy themes of religion. However, this one is much less gory and has a way better ending. I’m not very familiar with Cillian Murphy as an actor, but this film seriously made me want to watch every single thing he’s been in. Murphy’s performance  is so understated and gentle while still conveying so much emotion. The way he subtly shifts his expression to show love, sadness, contemplation and fear was phenomenal, and I loved it so much.

An interesting detail about this one that I really loved was how quiet it was. There’s not really a soundtrack for most of this film, which sounds weird, but it works here. Maybe that’s a normal thing, but I haven’t really seen it before. There’s this one scene where Murphy has just seen this horrible thing occur and didn’t do anything to stop it. The scene is dead silent, no dialogue, no music, no internal monologue, only the hum of his car and the sound of wind as he stares out the window in horror of what he’s seen, and what he failed to do to stop it. It was just so good! I don’t even know what to say, it was a great movie, watch it. 

Bad – Here – PG-13

This movie had so much missed potential that it was actually a little impressive. The whole point of it is that you’re seeing life evolve from one perspective, with only one camera angle that stays stagnant the whole movie. It’s something that, if it was done with great actors, writers and directors, could’ve been interesting. But instead we get Tom Hanks mixed in with poorly handled subplots about racism and a lack of any real messaging that all balls itself up and pretends to be some deep movie about human nature.

I think this film’s fatal flaw was its own attention span. There’s like 10 different main plots. Some of which include Thomas Jefferson just kind of existing, the invention of the La-Z-Boy, dinosaurs, and a family failing to break the cycle of emotional neglect. Does that sound like a lot? Because it is, and surprisingly, none of it’s important. That’s the thing about this movie, they keep showing you stuff, but refusing to give any of it meaning. Look at Tom Hanks getting a divorce, does it matter? Not really! Look at this stereotypical caricature of an indigenous person, why did we put it in the movie? We don’t know! None of it has any meaning, and for that, I think you can miss this one. 

Worst – Moana 2 – PG

I got pretty heated with this one honestly. I think I’m biased because I went into it assuming I wouldn’t be into it, but I didn’t expect it to be that bad. The songs were really what got me. Can we please just bring Lin Manuel Miranda back? I’m not saying he’s perfect or anything, but between this movie and Wish, I’m really missing his musical talents. “Can I Get A Chee Hoo?” sounds like it should be in an ad for Planet Fitness, not this movie. 

I was reminded a lot of Venom: The Last Dance while watching this one. Mostly in how cheap and lifeless they both felt. This movie felt like a big compilation of GIFs all edited together to make something that can barely call itself a film. In a world where kids’ content is so oversaturated that people look to these big studios to make the “good stuff,” this really feels lame. If you have Disney+, I recommend just watching Moana, or Bolt.