HiberNation: What to watch with mum in lockdown
Now that we movie lovers have hit month two in the big lockdown, we have come to realise more than ever the importance of the feel-good film. And what better way to celebrate with mum than with an uplifting tale.
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Now that we movie lovers have hit month two in the big lockdown, we have come to realise more than ever the importance of the feel-good film. And what better way to celebrate mum than with an uplifting tale or two. If you can’t be right next to each other, perhaps a virtual watching party is the way to go.
While we all have our time-honoured faves, we can’t keep watching them over and over again until the world reboots to normality, can we?
So here are 20 sure-shots of pure movie uplift: a premium blend of oldies, newies and wildcards guaranteed to make your day – and your mum’s – a better one …
LITTLE WOMEN
(To Rent only)
This fastidiously-realised rendition of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel has a beautifully inspiring way of celebrating the love that can only be found inside a family circle. It is this love that gets the young March sisters (led by a great Saoirse Ronan and Amy Pugh) through some tough times during the US Civil War.
MAMMA MIA!
(Foxtel)
The Mamma Mia! flicks (you’ll find the sequel over at Netflix) are undeniably efficient delivery systems for the pure pop perfection of ABBA.
However, it is the franchise’s sunny take on an unconventional notion of family that holds it all together. Just remember to stand well back when Pierce Brosnan bursts into song.
THE BIG SICK
(Netflix)
Kumail Nanjiani plays a young stand-up comic who has loved and lost his perfect match (Zoe Kazan). Now she’s slipped into a coma. Does he stand any chance of winning her back? The answer comes with a lot of laughs and surprising wisdom (particularly from her parents, played brilliantly by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano).
DAN IN REAL LIFE
(Stan & To Rent)
If you’ve never happened upon this note-perfect rom-com – and not many viewers did back in the day – then you are in for a real treat. It all comes down to one of the oddest, yet effective love matches you’ll ever see: American funnyman Steve Carell and French screen siren Juliette Binoche.
BEGINNERS
(To Rent Only)
A beautifully understated, subtly life-affirming piece. Ewan McGregor is still yet to make sense of anything as he nears 40. The surprise coming-out of his secretly gay father (Christopher Plummer) and a tentative affair with a mysterious French actor (Melanie Laurent) add further layers of confusion to be peeled away.
WAITRESS
(To Rent only)
A happy-go-lucky rom-com that rewrites a familiar maxim to let us know “life’s what you bake it.” Keri Russell (of the killer TV series The Americans) stars as a small-town waitress (Keri Russell) who might be able to leave behind a miserable life thanks to a stunning desert recipe of her own making. Well worth the track-down.
RATATOUILLE
(Disney+)
Who’d have thought animated food could look so delicious? Particularly when prepared by a rodent gourmand named Remy the Rat? Forget MasterChef – this lovely family film from Pixar is the perfect entry-level work to foster an appreciation of fine food in youngsters.
BIG NIGHT
(SBS & To Rent)
A perfect capsule of time, place, and taste. In 1950s New York, Paradise, a traditional Italian restaurant run by two brothers is about to go bust. The squabbling siblings decide to bet the lot on one evening’s takings. A lively soundtrack is every bit as flavoursome as the on-screen menu. Stars Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub.
JULIE & JULIA
(Netflix)
Meryl Streep dominates as she usually does, filling the story of legendary American chef Julia Child with great humour and a commanding presence. Child’s boisterous love of life and her deep passion for French cuisine literally comes rushing off the screen at you. Co-stars Amy Adams.
EAT PRAY LOVE
(Foxtel)
Long, lavish and lightweight adaptation of Liz Gilbert’s best-selling me-me-memoirs. Julia Roberts plays the author, on a year-long globe-trot to spiritual enlightenment. There’s eating in Italy. Praying in India. Loving in Bali. A movie as therapeutic pillow, on which throbbing, harried heads can rest for 140 minutes.
DORA & THE LOST CITY OF GOLD
(To Rent only)
Irresistible live-action adaptation of the beloved TV cartoon. The title character (well played by rising star Isabela Moner) leaves the jungle for the big city while her intrepid parents search for a lost Incan kingdom.
A fast pace, friendly vibe and a willingness to send itself up are all big pluses for this crowd-pleasing affair.
THE PRINCESS BRIDE
(To Rent only)
One of the all-time great fantasy movies, channelling a timeless humour that people of all ages can appreciate. Cary Elwes stars as Westley, the great lost love of Princess Buttercup (Robin Wright).
After her abduction by the bizarre trio of a tactician, a giant and a master swordsman, the clock begins ticking on Westley returning to save the day.
MOANA
(Disney+)
Auli’i Cravalho voices the title role, a headstrong Islander princess who goes against her royal family’s wishes and takes to the open sea for an epic adventure. This intelligently scripted and catchy tale is blessed with spellbinding marine visuals (some of which surpass Pixar’s work) and earworms aplenty on the soundtrack.
NANNY MCPHEE
(Foxtel)
A delightful period piece for kids. A near-unrecognisable Emma Thompson stars as a warts’n’all Mary Poppins type, skilled in the mind games and magic spells that put misbehaving tykes in their place. She soon gets the better of the seven motley offspring of lonely Londoner Colin Firth.
Jolly good fun.
MISSING LINK
(Foxtel, Netflix)
Genuinely endearing stop-motion adventure about an exiled Sasquatch who wants to live among his own kind. Enter Sir Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman), a fearless British explorer who will guide the hairy hero towards his long-lost Yeti cousins in the fabled valley of Shangri-La. An emphatic yes.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
(To rent only)
This splendidly-silly animated adventure was a big hit in cinemas just before the big lockdown. Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) is an irrepressibly upbeat extraterrestrial who enjoys nothing more than running around really, really quickly.
STUBER
(Foxtel)
It’s very hard to resist a buddy comedy as big, goofy and broad as this one. Dave Bautista (the burly, surly one in the Guardians of the Galaxy crew) stars as Vic, a rough, tough and near-blind cop looking to stop a major drug deal with the aid of a meek, mild Uber driver named Stu (The Big Sick’s Kumail Nanjiani).
BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE
(Foxtel)
A very young Keanu Reeves and some guy called Alex Winter call upon time-travel technology to ensure they pass their high school history class.
A spectacularly stoo-pid slacker comedy that actually gets better as it goes along, if only because the ungainly chemistry of the two leads really does grow on you.
21 JUMP STREET
(Foxtel)
Don’t be fooled by the tacky exterior. Dumb comedies with real smarts as sharp as this do not come around so often. Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill play two pathetic undercover cops with a lot to learn when they are assigned to a local high school. A very high joke-to-laugh ratio carries over to the sequel too.
SOME LIKE IT HOT
(Stan, iTunes)
A staple of all-time Top 10 lists to this very day, writer-director Billy Wilder’s frantic screwball chuckler ended a so-so decade for laughter with an atomic blast of hilarity. Look past the zany gags, and you will find a freat sophistication that urged audiences of the era to expect so much more from a comedy movie.
LIFE LESSONS FROM CELEBRITY MUMS
You may think they have motherhood and Hollywood cracked but think again because even A-list ladies sometimes fall foul of the pitfalls of being a parent. From sleep deprivation to date night dramas, in our first instalment, six famous parents mark Mother’s Day by talking about the ups and downs of parenthood and the one piece of advice that helps them going.
KIM KARDASHIAN
KIDS: Six-year-old North, Saint, 4, Chicago, 2, and oner-year-old Psalm.
ADVICE: Whenever you can, sleep! Being worth $350 million means Kim has all kinds of help and support available to her, apart from husband Kanye West. But the reality TV star’s top parenting tip is actually free, although priceless at the same time.
MILA KUNIS
KIDS: Five-year-old Wyatt and Dimitri, 3.
ADVICE: Wait ... then date. She starred in comedy hit Bad Moms but in real life Mila seems to be doing OK as a parent, alongside husband Ashton Kutcher. “I think we waited until we were in the right headspace in our life to have children. That makes a huge difference I think,” says the 36-year-old actor who says part of coping with motherhood is enjoying a little me time.’’
DREW BARRYMORE
KIDS: Seven-year-old Olive and five-year-old Frankie.
ADVICE: Remember, you can’t do everything. “Being a parent is super hard and s--- has to fall off the table because I cannot personally do everything,” says Drew, 44, on her sensible approach to parenting. “You have to try to balance work and family.’’
JESSICA ALBA
KIDS: Honor, 11, and Haven, 9, and two-year-old Hayes.
ADVICE: Think outside the box. “I think it’s important for kids to play as kids should – outside with toys instead of inside with the TV,” says the 38-year-old star. “If my kids bump their head, it’s all about distraction. I’m like, ‘Wow! Look at your truck!’’’
GWYNETH PALTROW
KIDS: Apple, 15, and 13-year-old Moses.
ADVICE: Cherish your children. Gwyneth’s advice is simple – enjoy your kids while you can! “I can’t believe how tall they are now, how articulate they are, how funny they are. I’m like, ‘But you were just in diapers and now you’re all grown up’,” says the 47-year-old actor.
REESE WITHERSPOON
KIDS: 20-year-old Ava, Deacon, 16, and seven-year-old Tennessee.
ADVICE: Be diplomatic with the truth.
“One of my very good friends called me because she was on her way to the hospital and she was about to have her very first child and she was so nervous about giving birth,” explains Reese, 43. “She wanted to know if she was going to lose her mind. I didn’t tell her the truth as none of us do!”