The Pitch: Convict James Cole (
Bruce Willis) is sent back in time from 2035 to 1996 to gather info on a deadly plague that wiped out almost all of humanity.
Why It’s Essential Quarantine Viewing: We’re currently in the midst of a pandemic Christmas, which makes
12 Monkeys, a pandemic movie set during Christmas, feel all the more relevant this year. Then again, it’s not exactly going to lift your spirits and bring you holiday cheer.
Arguably the last genuinely good movie of
Terry Gilliam‘s troubled filmmaking career,
12 Monkeysis the perfect Christmas movie for 2020. The film deals with a deadly pandemic against a Christmasy backdrop, and it’s as bleak and weird as you’d expect it to be. That might not appeal to everyone right now, but as the sudden resurgence of
(Welcome to
The Quarantine Stream, a series where the /Film team shares what they’ve been watching while social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.)
The Movie:
Where You Can Stream It: Crackle
The Pitch: Three homeless people discover an abandoned baby in a garbage dump on Christmas Eve, and decide to do anything in their power to find it a home.
Why It’s Essential Quarantine Viewing: I’m an avowed fan of Satoshi Kon, whose name I believe should be celebrated in equal standing as the globally acclaimed Hayao Miyazaki. His often brutal meditations on identity and memory are some of the most astounding animated films nay, films that I’ve ever seen.
(Welcome to
The Quarantine Stream, a series where the /Film team shares what they’ve been watching while social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.)
The Movie:
Where You Can Stream It: YouTube
The Pitch: This hour-long documentary tracks the rise of singer/songwriter/guitar virtuoso John Mayer, taking you behind the scenes of each of his studio albums from 1999 until 2014. But unlike the godawful music documentaries that you see on channels like AXS TV, there’s no obnoxious narrator, no laughably fake recreations of certain moments, and no floating heads being interviewed – Mayer’s voice is the only one you hear, so you get his career arc described in his own words.
The Pitch: It’s
A Christmas Carol, but with the Muppets.
Why It’s Essential Quarantine Viewing: While it’s perfectly okay to not be in the holiday spirit this year, if you’re in search of just a tiny bit of cheer you can’t go wrong with
The Muppet Christmas Carol, a funny, sweet adaptation of the Dickens classic full of great songs, great gags, and Michael Caine as arguably the best-ever on-screen version of Scrooge.
I don’t have to explain what this is, right? Surely, reader, you know about
The Muppet Christmas Carol
. It’s basically the same exact