I don’t know about you, but I’m done with Christmas already. The stockings have been stuffed away, the tree is already down, and the holiday music has been turned off. When I’m watching a movie, I don’t want to see a single red Santa suit or green mistletoe. I’m over it.
If you’re like me, and need a good movie (or three) to watch this weekend, this list is for you. Max has plenty of non-holiday films for you to stream, and this batch, which includes an underrated sports rom-com and a creepy sci-fi flick, is just the ticket to get you over Christmas and prepare for 2025. (Oh, and if you’re also going to the movie theater this weekend, check out Nosferatu. It’s great!)
We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Leatherheads (2008)
Was the world clamoring for a 1920s football rom-com? The answer, then and now, is a resounding no, but we got Leatherheads nonetheless. The 2008 movie didn’t do so well at the box office, and it’s not really remembered today. It’s not a bad film, though, and it features an appealing cast (George Clooney, Renée Zellweger, and John Krasinski form the love triangle) and immersive period detail to appeal to those looking for an old-fashioned romance.
Jimmy “Dodge” Connelly (Clooney) has a big problem. It’s 1925, and he’s trying to make pro football a viable, profitable sport. His team, the Duluth Bulldogs, is struggling, and the idea of guys throwing pigskins at each other doesn’t appeal to enough people. Enter Carter “The Bullet” Rutherford, a WWI hero and star player for Princeton University, whom Dodge is convinced can save his team … and the league. But a nosy reporter, Lexie Littleton (Zellweger) thinks Carter is full of baloney, and is determined to expose him, and ruin Dodge’s dream of playing pro football.
If you liked Clooney’s 2023 movie The Boys in the Boat, you’ll like Leatherheads. It has a similar old-timey feel, with direction so languid, you may just fall asleep. That’s praise, I promise! Krasinski shows the leading man qualities he got to flex in his Amazon John Ryan series, and Zellweger is game (pun intended there) to slip into Jean Arthur’s shoes and play a no-nonsense reporter whose looking to get swept off her feet.
Leatherheads is streaming on Max.
Splice (2009)
AI is all the rage these days, but 15 years ago, it was genetic engineering that dominated the hearts and minds of sci-fi nerds everywhere. Plenty of bad movies were made about the dangers of playing God, but one of the best was Splice, a 2009 sci-fi horror movie that stars two actors who aren’t normally associated with the genre: Oscar winners Adrien Brody (The Pianist) and Sarah Polley (Women Talking).
They star as married scientists Clive and Elsa, who are secretly trying to create a female human-animal hybrid so they can extract the creature’s proteins for medical research. Major problems naturally arise when the creature, named Dren, forms a bond with the two, and rapidly mutates as she grows from an infant to adolescence in a matter of days. As Clive and Elsa’s employers grow suspicious, can they hide Dren from them and the world? And can Dren resist her growing urge to leave and explore her surroundings, possibly endangering the human race?
Well, what do you think? Splice‘s plot may seem obvious, but it takes several major detours, including one I’ve never quite seen in a sci-fi before. Both Brody and Polley elevate the material, and director Vincenzo Natali goes for broke in examining the perverse possibilities of playing with nature’s genes.
Splice is streaming on Max.
Faye (2024)
There are divas, and then there’s Faye Dunaway. The Oscar-winning actress, still best known for her work in Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, and Network, has a reputation of being temperamental, with past conflicts with director Roman Polanski, actress Bette Davis, and playwright Andrew Lloyd Webber all contributing to her being labeled “difficult.”
But as Faye reveals, in archival clips with her peers and her own candid interview that took place recently, she had her reasons. And that’s what makes Faye so fascinating to watch. This isn’t a documentary to whitewash her sins, but rather to explain them, own them, and recontextualize them.
The result is a fascinating portrait of a women who wasn’t difficult as much as she was a perfectionist. If that label was acceptable for her male collaborators and peers like Warren Beatty and Stanley Kubrick, well, why not her?
Faye is streaming on Max.