Watch List Weekly Recap 1/14/22

A legend leaves us, a cheeky Watergate comedy, and four good bets for weekend streaming

Watch List Weekly Recap 1/14/22

This is the Friday recap of Ty Burr’s Watch List postings for the week. If you’d like to receive this weekly email ONLY, please go to your account page and under “Email notifications” uncheck every box except “Weekly Digest.” If you’d prefer to not receive it at all, uncheck just “Weekly Digest.”


On Saturday I weighed in on the late Sidney Poitier and the challenges, accomplishments, and limitations of being the first Black matinee idol.

Sidney Poitier 1927-2022
It took decades for Sidney Poitier to be seen for who he was rather than what he meant. He was the first Black leading man in the movies, the first Black matinee idol, the first Black Oscar nominee for Best Actor (for 1958’s “The Defiant Ones”), an…

Time to shake off the January blues with a comedy. I dove into the pop culture remnant bin and came out with one of my favorite farces from the past 20-odd years.

You Don't Know "Dick"
Here we are in the second week of January, and just about everyone I know is climbing the walls. The holidays are over and two to three months of frigid, sunless winter stretch before us. It’s too cold to huddle outside and too viral to socialize inside and forget about flying someplace warmer. For those of u…

For New Release Friday, I’m assuming you still want to steer clear of theaters, so here’s a quartet of movies available on demand, classical (“The Tragedy of Macbeth,” below), savory (“Delicious”), elliptical (“Wheel of Fantasy and Fortune”), and under-appreciated (“The Last Duel”).

What to Watch This Weekend 1/14/22
The Nut Graf: Joel Coen, sans Ethan, turns “The Tragedy of Macbeth” (on Apple TV+, *** stars out of ****) into a stark minimalist battlefield of ambition and bloodshed. “Delicious” (in theaters and on Vudu, **1/2 out of ****) is a predictable but tasty bit of period-film food porn from France.

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