The juice is loose this weekend. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, the sequel to the beloved 1989 comedy Beetlejuice, is set to make a mint at the box office this weekend, and it’s not hard to see why. The Tim Burton-directed sequel has already received decent reviews, and as Twisters proved this past summer, nostalgia for pre-2000 movies is strong.
For those not charmed by Michael Keaton’s “ghost with the most,” there’s always streaming. HBO and Max share a fantastic library full of recent hits like Furiosa and past gems like The Sopranos. Here are three movies that are worth your time and attention this weekend.
The Upside of Anger (2005)
Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen) has had it…officially. She just found out her husband of nearly 20 years has just left her, and he most likely ran off with his twentysomething secretary to live the sweet life in Sweden. Depressed, Terry turns to the bottle, much to the chagrin of her four teenage daughters, and finds a drinking partner in her next door neighbor Denny (Kevin Costner), a former baseball player now working as a radio show host. Their friendship turns into something more, but will Terry’s anger, both at her husband and at herself, sabotage her romance and her relationship with her daughters?
The Upside of Anger is one of those movies that balances comedy and drama delicately, and often very well, until a late-act reveal cheapens everything that came before it. It’s still worth watching, though, due to Allen’s terrific performance as Terry and Costner’s laid-back turn as Denny, who still loves his boozy paramour even when’s she self-destructing.
The Upside of Anger is streaming on Max.
Leap of Faith (1992)
Steve Martin is a comedic genius. Cinephiles love his work in such classics as The Jerk and All of Me while your parents just adore him in the hit Hulu series Only Murders in the Building. Martin is also a very good dramatic actor, and he’s never been better in Leap of Faith, a now-forgotten 1992 movie where he stars as a con man preacher, Jonas Nightengale, who travels to small towns to sell faith to people who need to believe in something to get by.
His con is put to the test when he lands in Rustwater, Kansas, which is suffering a drought that is fatal to their local economy. Everyone flocks to Jonas’ shows to find some kind of relief, and one such congregant is teenager Boyd (Lukas Haas), who was in an accident years ago and wants to walk again. Guess what he asks Jonas to do?
Leap of Faith has a magnificent supporting cast that includes Debra Winger and future action movie star Liam Neeson and a humdinger of an ending, but its greatest asset is Martin, who sells Jonas’ crisis of faith that, in the end, makes him to the impossible. What that is, I’ll leave it to you to find out.
Leap of Faith is streaming on Max.
Oasis: Supersonic (2016)
You might have heard recently that the ’90s Britpop band Oasis is reuniting for the first time in 15 years for a series of concerts in 2025. Even if you haven’t, or aren’t much of a fan, it’s still worth watching Oasis: Supersonic, an absorbing documentary that eschews hagiography and presents the band, particularly its two key members, Liam and Noel Gallagher, in an honest, often unflattering light.
The documentary uses archival footage and contemporary interviews with the band and various other musicians, family members, and hangers-on to chronicle the rapid rise and gradual fall of Oasis as they, for a brief period, assumed the throne of rock stardom from The Beatles. That didn’t last long, and Supersonic makes it clear why, and how their music still remains vital after all these years.
Oasis: Supersonic is streaming on Max.
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