This Week in Streaming (December 30th)
Our recommendations to counteract the endless scrolling.
Conclave (Peacock) This Vatican intrigue parable about the selection of the new Pope has remained the awards season front-runner for good reason. Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci turn in top-shelf performances as Christian populists torn between tradition and bureaucracy, while All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger offers a gripping portrait of the Church’s ritualistic inner workings. Even with a batshit ending that has to be seen to be believed, it’s a compelling piece of work.
Dexter: Original Sin (Paramount+) We may not need a prequel to Showtime’s hall-of-fame serial killer series, but at least Sarah Michelle Gellar and Patrick Dempsey are along for the ride as a teenage Dexter Morgan realizes his true vigilante destiny.
The Holdovers (Prime Video) While the glut of Christmas movies gets larger every year, 2023’s awards darling from Alexander Payne is the perfect movie for the dead week between Christmas and New Year’s. As we said last year, this 70s throwback tale of a crotchety private school history teacher (Paul Giamatti) left to watch his charges over winter break is a damning indictment of Ivy League elitism that should have been a blockbuster Christmas movie fully equipped to go toe-to-toe with It’s a Wonderful Life.