It’s a new calendar month, and you know what that means: more movies on Paramount Plus. And this month’s list of new additions to the Paramount Plus catalog is a doozy, with some absolute classics joining the line-up.
With so much to choose from it’s hard to pick just three favorites, but whether you’re looking for a big old weepie, a beautifully acted take on a very modern obsession or just a story about a man with a really big part – and we don’t necessarily mean an acting part – then Paramount Plus has you covered.
Her
Score: 95%
Rating: R
Run time: 1h 59m
Director: Spike Jonze
This is even more fun if you imagine it as a prequel to the Joker movie, because the star here is Joaquin Phoenix. But this is a very different role. Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly, a quiet, sensitive man who discovers who he thinks is ‘Miss Right’, played by Scarlett Johansson. There’s just one problem. She’s Siri.
If you liked Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind I think you’ll love this. Empire magazine says it’s “a sweet, smart, silly, serious film for our times, only set in the future,” while RogerEbert.com said that it was “one of the most engaging and genuinely provocative movies you’re likely to see this year”.
45 Years
Score: 97%
Rating: R
Run time: 1h 33m
Director: Andrew Haigh
Charlotte Rampling is magnificent alongside Tom Courtenay in this incredibly poignant tale of lost love and missed opportunities. Rampling is Kate, a married woman whose life is thrown into upheaval when her husband’s long-lost ex is finally discovered in sad circumstances. The revelation puts incredible strain on their relationship, and it’s a definite box-of-tissues weepie thanks to the towering performances by both leads.
According to MovieFreak it’s “a drama of profound majesty sure to be marveled at for many years to come,” while the Associated Press was enchanted: “How many great movies could be written across the enigmatic, profound face of Charlotte Rampling? Hundreds? Thousands? At any rate, Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years is one of them.”
Boogie Nights
Score: 94%
Rating: R
Run time: 2h 32m
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
It’s 1977 and in the San Fernando Valley Eddie (Mark Wahlberg) and his impressive attributes are discovered by porn producer Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), who turns him into porn superstar Dirk Diggler. According to the Chicago Tribune the story is told as “a beautifully made survey of ’70s excess, filtered through the trashy world of the burgeoning porno film industry in southern California”.
The film was frequently compared to Quentin Tarantino’s work, but as Vice suggests “the Tarantino comparison is ultimately less about technique than a shared joyful electricity of the filmmaking, the sense of an artist clearly high on the sheer act of making a movie.” Entertainment Weekly was one of many publications that felt it really hit the spot. “Boogie Nights, an epic tale of porn, pleasure, and excess, offers a purer hit of exhilaration than any movie this year,” it ejaculated.