Armchair Vacation: 5 Films To Watch This Weekend On Your Television

Not a fan of gawdy, Adam Shankman-directed stage musical adaptations? Done with Adam Sandler films? Tom Cruise not doing it for you any more? Deathly afraid of either dark rooms or large groups of rambunctious and histrionic teenagers? Well, aren’t we all? That’s where we come in.

Every Friday, we’ll bring you five films that you should be watching be it on TV (through outlets like IFC, TCM or others, or films that have recently been added to some sort of streaming source (Hulu, Netflix, etc), all in hopes of help you the reader come to terms with the fact that sometimes, the best weekends are those spent inside with you favorite classic film.

Well, enough chatting. Let’s get to the list.

5. Four films from Ishiro Honda (TCM: Friday, June 15 8pm-2:30am EST)

Iconic Gojira director Ishiro Honda gets the TCM spotlight this Friday night, with a four film block playing in primetime on the network. Included in this block are his previously mentioned masterwork, Rodan, Mothra, and a personal favorite, The H-Man. With the director firmly in the Criterion Collection with what is by far one of the greatest monster films, if not the very best ever made, Gojira. All four of these films are really charming and entertaining, and are time capsules not only of a cinematic time period gone by, but, especially in Gojira‘s case, a political and social landscape that is still being felt today. Seriously. What’s more entertaining than a film about a giant moth’s offspring getting revenge on Godzilla after it kills their mother? Grab some friends, some food, and a drink (adult or not), and get lost in a universe unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

[Criterion Collection note: Both Hausu and Empire Of Passion follow these four films, so you may have to make a late night of it all, because these are two films that are absolutely brilliant.] [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Qt1nN_M6M&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]

4. Morvern Callar (Available on Netflix starting Friday, June 15)

From director Lynne Ramsay, this was Ramsay’s follow-up to her Criterion approved feature film debut, Ratcatcher, and is an absolute stunner. I am not a massive fan of her latest, We Need To Talk About Kevin, but if you found that film a bit off, don’t let that get you here, as this is one hell of a film. Samantha Morton is brilliant here is the titular character, a woman who sells off her recently passed boyfriend’s novel as if it were from her mind, and continues Ramsay’s look into our experience with death and grief. Arguably Ramsay’s most approachable work, her tone poem of a film will make the perfect counterpart for a rainy weekend, or a lonely night in.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osPyLuW_4zY&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]

3. The Trip (IFC: Saturday, June 16 530pm EST)

With the weekend, comes relaxation. Well, what better to relax with than a buddy travel comedy starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon? That’s exactly what The Trip is, but it also happens to be so very much more. A brutally honest look into aging, the film may follow two men as they go on a trip through the country to review and critique the local cuisine, but it becomes a laugh-filled expose on what it is like to age. Hellaciously funny, the film has spawned an upcoming sequel, and endless quoting by whoever sits in front of it. Featuring top notch performances from the two leads, and great filmmaking from director Michael Winterbottom, this is an absolute joy to watch, and one of the funniest films you will ever see. It’s simply the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon.You’ll be quoting it to your co-workers when you get to the water cooler on Monday.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjZ_Mmjs3bc&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]

2. Here are two for you, Dad.

Sunday is Father’s Day, and in honor of this special occasion, TCM will be honoring fathers around the world with a special double bill of two brilliant Westerns, Rio Bravo and Fort Apache. Bravo is a personal choice, as I may not remember watching this with my father (let’s just say he’s the rare dad who doesn’t get into the genre), but seeing this film with my great-grandfather is one of my earliest film viewing memories. It’s in my personal Western pantheon, particularly for Dean Martin’s performance, and it also happens to include my favorite musical sequence in all of film, the singing of ‘˜My Rifle, Pony And Me.’ It’s a beautifully shot film from iconic director Howard Hawks, and with the team of John Wayne, Martin, Ricky Nelson and the stunning Angie Dickinson, it’s simply one of the definitive films within the genre. Apache is an underrated gem featuring great performances from Wayne, Henry Fonda and the always incomparable Shirley Temple. Trust me, Dad will thank you for sitting him down and sharing these films with you. They air at 8pm EST and 1030pm EST respectively.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2ssbgThljU&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]

1. Pi (Hulu Plus)

Okay, so maybe not the happiest way to spend a weekend, but with Darren Aronofsky’s brilliant debut feature now available on Hulu Plus (part of a recent dump of great films including the underrated Beyond The Sea, last year’s indie darling Tyrannosaur, and both parts of the documentary Bob Dylan ‘“No Direction Home), you’d be hard pressed to find a more intriguing option. A sign of things to come, the film has all the visual trappings of early Aronofsky, and some of the most contrast-heavy black and white photography you’ll ever see. A prototypical dense narrative from the auteur, the film would play a perfect predecessor to his follow-up, Requiem For A Dream, and is one of the most esoteric and singular visions of modern American cinema.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ1sZSCz47w&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]