Some called Tubi “the people’s streamer,” because it offers an impressive catalogue of films for free — that is, if you don’t mind sitting through a few ads during your watch.
If you can, Tubi truly offers a bounty of visual pleasures, and this December, Watch With Us wants to highlight two brand-new additions to the platform and one can’t-miss movie that’s leaving at the end of the month.
Our picks include Her Smell, an absorbing character drama starring Elisabeth Moss and an Alfred Hitchcock classic, North by Northwest.
Self-destructive rock musician Becky Something (Elisabeth Moss) helps to bring her band, Something She, into the spotlight with her immense talent, but that rise to fame is quickly dashed by Becky’s own behavior. Her Smell is told in five separate scenes from different periods of Becky’s life, highlighting her fraught relationships with her bandmates, her family, her ex-husband and her spiral to the bottom — from which perhaps she can finally find redemption.
Alex Ross Perry’s stressful yet captivating drama is a tour-de-force showcase for Moss, who commands the challenging role with unshakeable verve and total commitment to the character. Her Smell brings the toxic rock-and-roll lifestyle away from the glitz and glamor and into the ugly reality through the sharp script written by Perry. The movie co-stars Dan Stevens, Cara Delevingne and Ashley Benson.
Starring the great Cary Grant, North by Northwest follows Grant’s New York City ad executive Roger Thornhill, who is pursued by a ruthless spy after a case of mistaken identity. Thornhill ends up embarking on a cross-country adventure as he attempts to evade the relentless associates of one Phillip Vandamm (James Mason), and he is eventually accompanied by the mysterious and beautiful Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint).
Handily one of the best spy thrillers ever made, North by Northwest is another exhilarating classic from Alfred Hitchcock with a snappy, suspense-filled script, iconic performances and a masterful score by Bernard Hermann. The chase sequence towards the end, with Thornhill running from a gun-shooting airplane, is widely regarded as one of the most memorable Hitchcock scenes of all time.
Wealthy New York City doctor Bill Hartford (Tom Cruise) gets into a marijuana-fueled fight with his wife (Nicole Kidman) that threatens his masculinity. To blow off steam, he heads out on a nighttime odyssey in the city streets, leading him to crash a perverse and elite party among the upper class. While he attempts to remain incognito, Bill’s presence is discovered, and after he escapes, he descends into paranoia as he gets the feeling he’s being watched.
Though Eyes Wide Shut was released in July back in 1999, it’s become an unconventional Christmas classic. The warm glow of Christmas lights and holiday cheer ends up emboldening the strange atmosphere of Stanley Kubrick’s final film. Sensual, eerie and anchored by one of Cruise’s best performances, watching Eyes Wide Shut is like wading your way through the weirdest dream you’ve ever had.
In New Orleans, three disparate men converge in a jail cell: Jack (John Lurie), a dispassionate pimp, Zack (Tom Waits), a listless disc jockey and Roberto (Roberto Benigni), a goofy Italian tourist arrested for a gambling dispute turned violent. Zack and Jack have both been set up for crimes they haven’t committed, and it’s Robert who finds a way for the three of them to escape from jail. The men, constantly at odds with one another, set out to evade capture and leave the state.
Famed indie director Jim Jarmusch crafts another uniquely American film about uniquely American anxieties. Funny and poetic, Down by Law is a grounded and hypnotic portrait of ennui, the idea of the American Dream and of longing for a better life but being too lazy to get there. Waits, Lurie and Benigni have incredible chemistry as three men forced to be in proximity of each other: Benigni as the impossibly cheerful Roberto, with Lurie and Waits only united by their sheer hatred of him.
Corporate assassin Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) takes out targets with the use of brain implant technology, a delicate process that allows her to inhabit the bodies of others to complete her executions. Her newest assignment has her going into the body of Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott) to kill off CEO John Parse (Sean Bean). However, Tasya struggles with increasing symptoms of her work, and she begins to find herself disappearing into her new host.
Brandon Cronenberg displays an inherited grasp of body horror akin to his father, the great David Cronenberg, in this surrealist, stylistic sci-fi slow-burn. Drenched in ample amounts of blood and viscera, Possessor also boasts an engrossing (if scant) narrative and compelling themes related to gender and identity, plus great lead performances from Abbott and Riseborough.
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