I know we’re a few days into 2026, but Happy New Year! Now that the dust has settled after Stranger Things madness and my annual holiday screenings of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Inglourious Basterds, it’s time to ease into January with some classics and a doc on Paramount+.
For the week of January 5 to 11, I stumbled upon a fantastically nostalgic trip down hip-hop memory lane with a doc about one of its greats, Biz Markie. I’m also recommending you reacquaint yourself with the greatest whip-wielding archaeologist ever and a Paul Thomas Anderson masterpiece.
3
All Up in the Biz
Marcel Theo Hall, aka The Clown Prince of Hip-Hop, aka Biz Markie, was an icon of the golden age of hip-hop from the mid ’80s to the mid ’90s. And whether you were a fan of his trailblazing beat boxing or his global hit Just a Friend from back in the day, or you’re of a newer generation discovering the legendary American rapper/DJ/producer through streaming services, the late Sacha Jenkins’ doc All Up in the Biz is the definitive portrait of his life and career.
You don’t even need to be a fan of rap or hip-hop to enjoy this 2023 documentary. Like Biz Markie himself, this 100% Rotten Tomatoes fresh movie is fun, silly, and big-hearted, offering rare archival footage and home videos—from behind-the-scenes in the studio and backstage at early club shows with some of the industry’s biggest names to intimate family moments and his personal life. And in true Biz fashion, it mixes in cool and playful animations and reenactments using puppets—yes, puppets.
All Up in the Biz covers Biz Markie’s rise to fame, from his youth as a foster kid in Harlem through him pioneering making beats using just his mouth and a microphone to the pop culture phenomenon of Just a Friend. Of course, all his famous friends and admirers chime in to tell the story, including Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Darryl D.M.C. McDaniels, Fat Joe, Nick Cannon, and Tracy Morgan, among others. The beloved personality died in 2021, but not before leaving an indelible mark on the music industry and the people around him.
All Up in the Biz
- Release Date
-
June 17, 2023
- Runtime
-
100 minutes
- Director
-
Sacha Jenkins
2
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Sure, you can start at the beginning of Steven Spielberg’s original classic swashbuckling Indy trilogy, Raiders of the Lost Ark (the whole thing is on Paramount+), and you should. But if you’re like me and have seen them all a dozen times, you can absolutely go straight to the best of the bunch—the third film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Of the two pop culture phenomena characters that Harrison Ford played immediately following Han Solo, Indiana Jones is hands-down the most iconic—and that’s not meant to take anything away from Blade Runner‘s Deckard at all. By 1989, Ford had Indy’s rugged, sarcastic adventurer so down pat that the only thing that could possibly rattle the whip-cracking archaeologist (besides snakes) was his daddy issues. Enter Sean Connery, whose turn as Henry Jones Sr. (they named the dog Indiana!) is pure brilliance, offering a fun new dynamic to the franchise.
Set in 1938 during the buildup to the Second World War, in Last Crusade, Indy must rescue his estranged father (Connery), who has been caught up in a feverish search for the Holy Grail—yes, the mythical cup of Christ that is said to deliver everlasting life to those who drink from it. The problem is, an unscrupulous rich American, the Nazis, and other mysterious parties all want the Grail, sending Jones on a global scavenger hunt for his dad and to uncover the Grail’s whereabouts.
1
There Will Be Blood
If you’ve been to the theater (or HBO Max) to see Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar-worthy One Battle After Another and are hungry for more of the prolific auteur, his repertoire doesn’t get much better than There Will Be Blood, and that’s saying a lot. Although it’s insane that Anderson himself hasn’t won his own Oscar yet, There Will Be Blood‘s star, the incomparable Daniel Day-Lewis, won his second Best Actor statue for his haunting role as ruthless turn-of-the-century American oilman Daniel Plainview.
Based loosely on Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel Oil!, the 2007 psychological period drama follows “family man” Plainview and his young son and “business partner” H.W. as Daniel uses whatever underhanded means necessary to secure his oil empire. The most notable of Daniel’s questionable schemes involves the small oil-rich California town of Little Boston, where Daniel clashes with local preacher Eli Sunday (a possessed Paul Dano), whose greed-disguised-as-faith motives may just be as unscrupulous as Daniel’s.
Come for PTA’s brooding character-first storytelling and unsettling score by Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood, but stay for iconic moments such as the much-quoted (and parodied) “I drink your milkshake” scene and the final bowling alley showdown with Daniel and Eli. There Will Be Blood holds a firm 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
There Will Be Blood
- Release Date
-
December 26, 2007
- Runtime
-
158 minutes
- Director
-
Paul Thomas Anderson
It might not be easy to wade through all of Paramount+’s ever-changing roster of new and old movies, but hopefully there are a couple suggestions here that will add some entertainment to your weekly watch list.
- Subscription with ads
-
Yes, $8/month
- Simultaneous streams
-
3
If you enjoy CBS offerings, you’ll want to subscribe to Paramount+. You get access to hit shows like Star Trek and Yellowstone, as well as a variety of SHOWTIME content.
