Halloween is next week, but over on Netflix, it’s all about meddling dads, magical sisters and hijacked planes.
In the action-comedy Good News, terrorists take over a Japanese plane and only one man can stop them — a mysterious fixer known only as Nobody.
In the poetic thriller We Have Always Lived in the Castle, two sisters must battle outside forces, which include a male suitor (Sebastian Stan) with potentially deadly intentions.
And finally, the comedy About My Father casts Robert De Niro as an overprotective dad who only wants the best for his soon-to-be-married son.
‘Good News’ (2025)
In 1970, a plane traveling from Japan is hijacked by the militant Red Faction Army. Their demands? To be flown to Pyongyang, North Korea and be allowed to land peacefully. But North Korea officials won’t allow it, and the plane, which has several hundred passengers, is stuck in the air with nowhere to land. Now, Japan, South Korea and United States officials must find a way to land the plane safely while also capturing the terrorists who hijacked the plane.
On paper, this sounds like your typical Hollywood thriller starring Jason Statham, but Good News is anything but. Instead, it’s played as a comedy of international errors as everyone, from the Red Faction in the sky to the overworked police on the ground, must figure out a way out of this mess. The solution might be Nobody (Sul Kyung-gu), a fixer brought in to help, but his unorthodox methods might cause even more problems.
Good News is a refreshingly lo-fi, fast-paced action-comedy that breathes new life into the “hijacked plane” disaster subgenre. The movie absolutely nails its retro look, with fuzzy visuals and muted colors that bring back the early ‘70s in all their subdued glory, and its skillful blend of over-the-top action and exaggerated comedy makes it the most unique Netflix film I’ve seen this year.
Good News is streaming on Netflix.
‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle’ (2019)
Sisters Merricat (Taissa Farmiga) and Constance (Alexandra Daddario) are outcasts who lock themselves away in their family estate. Temptation arrives in the form of Charles (Sebastian Stan), who seduces Constance in an attempt to gain access to their fortune that’s rumored to be hidden somewhere in the estate. Merricat isn’t as fooled as her older sister is by Charles, but can he convince Constance that they’re both in danger before it’s too late?
Based on Shirley Jackson’s cult 1962 novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a fascinatingly strange hybrid of fairy-tale drama and domestic thriller. This is a story not unlike Beauty and the Beast, complete with a greedy villain, imprisoned heroines and storming villagers, but the movie itself feels as dreamy as Edward Scissorhands. Best known for her work in the American Horror Story franchise, Farmiga has her best role ever as the suspicious Merricat, whose intelligence is only surpassed by her burgeoning powers as a would-be witch.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is streaming on Netflix.
‘About My Father’ (2023)
Have you ever been frustrated with your dad enough to exclaim to him, “You’re driving me crazy!” If so, then the comedy About My Father is for you. Sebastian (comedian Sebastian Maniscalco) wants to propose to his longtime girlfriend, Ellie (Leslie Bibb). But he needs his mother’s wedding ring to do so, and only his father, the traditional and very Sicilian Salvo (Robert De Niro), can give it to him. Salvo agrees to give his son the ring on one condition — he has to meet Ellie’s family first. What follows is a culture-clash comedy that pits not only two very different families against each other, but also Sebastian and Salvo.
About My Father is a very broad comedy that doesn’t shy away from Italian and Sicilian stereotypes. Some of that is softened a bit knowing that Maniscalco also cowrote the screenplay, which doesn’t steer too far from the Meet the Fockers formula. De Niro ultimately is the one who makes this movie work — his grumpy curmudgeon gets the most laughs, although Kim Cattrall, as Ellie’s flinty mom Tigger, scores some easy chuckles too. About My Father isn’t good enough to rush out to the movie theater to see, but it’s just the right amount of entertaining to stream at home.
About My Father is streaming on Netflix.
