Netflix Your Weekend, June 2.0 Netflix Your Weekend Full view

Netflix Your Weekend, June 2.0

Zombeavers Movie Poster
Zombeavers – The title is genius. The premise is exactly what it promises. And every time you think it can’t get any crazier, it does. Zombeavers deserves to join the pantheon of great B-horror films. Standard “you’re watching a horror film” provisos apply – there is nudity, gore and other things you probably don’t want to see while sitting next to your mom.

The Burbs Movie Poster

via Laura Fissel

The ‘Burbs – This spoof on the horror genre is just as funny today as it was in the ’80s. Hanks is thoroughly enjoyable as Ray Peterson, a curmudgeonly middle-aged suburbanite who gets sucked into spending his week of vacation snooping into his next-door neighbors’ lives. Not a profound film by any means, but the cast is spot on, it’s got a bit of a twist, and is good for a few guffaws.

Nightcrawler Movie Poster

via Josh Crabb

Nightcrawler – This potentially could be my favorite Jake Gyllenhaal movie after a couple more views. He’s been pretty good in a lot of different movies, but Gyllenhaal disappears into this role as Lou Bloom. He’s a smarmy huckster without a conscience, a byproduct of the American, consumerist mindset to get the people exactly what they want, and what you want, at any cost. Lou Bloom is a slightly overblown but fairly accurate picture of what the darker corners of the American Dream looks like.

A much cooler aspect of the movie is how it presents the city of Los Angeles. I’ve been watching Num3ers as of late with my wife, and LA is always presented as sunny, hot, and glitzy. Nightcrawler shows us the shadowy, glowing perpetual dusk of the LA nights; which is kind of inherent in name. It’s a more emulsified presentation of LA, fitting for the movies characters and their intentions. Writer/director Dan Gilroy crafts a compelling narrative through story and setting. It’s one of my favorite movies of 2014 and definitely worth your time.

Written by Joshua Crabb

Josh Crabb (@HeyItsThatJosh) is an editor, writer, and sometimes talker for Reel World Theology. He is also the co-host of a weekly Star Wars podcast, Home One Radio (@homeoneradio). When he's not obsessing over movies or Star Wars, he works as an educator in Appleton, WI and spending time with his best friend and wife, Tina, and his 4 super awesome kids!