3 top Netflix movies to watch this week (March 16

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Who remembers browsing the DVD aisles and (gulping) VHS tapes at Blockbuster Friday night looking for something good to watch? I mean, me neither; I was just testing to see if You did. With its rows and rows of movies and shows to watch, Netflix can sometimes feel this way too. Well, since I’m in the… uh, Block, let me help you out.

For this weekend, March 16-22, I’ve put a few films in my basket for you: a modern masterpiece of kaiju destruction, a quick take on what it was like to make the very first SNL, and a hilariously goofy mockumentary about small-town theater.

3

Godzilla minus one

A monster movie institution reborn, with surprising emotional depth

Fingers crossed you have a decent-sized TV or projection screen on your home theater setup for this absolute beast of a visual effects monster movie (it even won the Oscar for the category). And while, yes, Godzilla minus one definitely lives up to its giant radioactive lizard, screaming, city-stomping monster roots that were planted in 1954, writer-director Takashi Yamazaki remembered that all that destruction means so much more when people and emotions are caught in the middle.

With a story that is part of Godzilla’s canon and official history, Godzilla minus one has its own autonomous continuity. Set in post-war Japan, it tells the story of Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a disgraced kamikaze pilot whose cowardice prevented him from shooting the monster the first time. When Godzilla returns years later, Koichi must face his cowardice and redeem himself in the eyes of his sweetheart Noriko Oishi (Minami Hamabe) and their newly adopted daughter. Koichi teams up with former weapons engineer Kenji Noda and ex-Navy mechanic Sosaku Tachibana to fight the monster head-on in one of the coolest boat fight sequences ever.

Godzilla minus one is epic in its scope, the monster itself is spectacular, and the film’s old-school Godzilla vibes make it a great watch. If you want a more authentic old-school experience, be sure to check out Black and White. Godzilla Minus One: Less Color version.

Godzilla minus one

Release date: November 3, 2023
Runtime: 124 minutes
Director: Takashi Yamazaki

2

Saturday evening

The Chaotic True Story Behind SNL’s First Airing

Oh, to be a fly on the hallowed walls of Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza on the night of October 11, 1975, when the very first live broadcast of Saturday night on NBC took place. In one of the best dramas of that legendary night ever, writer-director Jason Reitman’s love letter to his iconic father’s generation of comedy and work with many of SNL’s legendary original cast members.

In Saturday evening, Reitman captures the chaos and brilliance of the 90 real-time minutes leading up to and leading up to SNL’s first broadcast, as a young and ambitious producer named Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) attempts to keep the wheels from completely coming off. The show takes place in and around 30 Rock and goes behind the scenes as its cast of eccentric geniuses – including Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), John Belushi (Matt Wood), Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien), Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn) and Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris) – prepare to change the world forever.

Saturday evening is a thrill ride that does a great job of capturing the stress, egos, studio meddling, and willpower it takes to put on a live variety show. The scene where Chevy Chase trades barbs with JK Simmons as a delightfully vulgar Milton Berle is reason enough to watch.

Saturday evening

Release date: October 11, 2024
Runtime: 109 minutes
Director: Jason Reitman

1

Waiting for Guffman

Christopher Guest’s mockumentary comedy gold

If you’ve never seen any of Christopher Guest’s groundbreaking “improvised-simulated” films like Best of Show Or A powerful windthen this is the best place to start, as it is the first of three major guest-written and directed films of the genre and serves as a model for those that followed (and the genre in general).

Co-written by Eugene Levy, Waiting for Guffman is a simply hysterical zoom into the world of small-town theater, and how even it is not immune to inflated egos and delusions of grandeur. It’s Blaine, Missouri’s 150th birthday, and to celebrate, the local theater company plans to put on a big musical…Red, White and Blaine. Led by eccentric director Corky St. Clair (Guest), the play’s cast is pure comedy gold: a dentist, Dr. Allan Pearl (Eugene Levy), a Dairy Queen employee, Libby Mae Brown (Parker Posey), and married travel agents Ron and Sheila Albertson (Fred Willard and Catherine O’Hara), who never left Blaine. Everyone loses their minds when it is announced that a sophisticated New York producer, Mort Guffman, will be there, leading everyone to believe that they are all ready for Broadway.

What makes Guest’s films so special and funny is that even though they have scripts that guide the plot and direction, almost all of the dialogue in each scene is improvised, exploiting the genius of the actors and their backgrounds in improvisational comedy troupes like The Second City and The Groundlings. Guffman is a classic guest star that you should watch now before leaving Netflix on April 3.

A little chaos, a little spectacle and a lot of personality go a long way. This week’s picks make a strong case for letting your movie night get a little weird. We’re also here to help make your Netflix experience smoother, so check out this tip to make it a little less boring.