Welcome to Flick Picks, your twice-monthly movie fix.
In each installment, we’ll spotlight three films: a fresh theatrical release, a buzz-worthy streaming pick and a classic worth revisiting. We’ll wrap it up with a snack suggestion – the perfect pairing for your home viewing.
Ready? Lights down, sound up – let’s dive in.
Now playing
At a time when most movie trailers spill entire plots to lure viewers, nothing hooks me faster than one that offers a sliver of mystery and then lets my imagination run wild. The trailer for the mystery-horror film “Weapons” does exactly that – and its hook is chilling: At precisely 2:17 a.m. on a Wednesday in Maybrook, Pennsylvania, 17 students from Justine Gandy’s third-grade class run from their homes and vanish into the night. When Gandy arrives at school the next morning, only one child remains in her classroom – Alex Lily.
Many so-called “mystery box” films lose their grip as the story unspools, but writer-director Zach Cregger keeps the tension taut by structuring “Weapons” as a series of chapters, each told from a different character’s point of view – the teacher, her principal, a parent and more. Each chapter rewinds the story to reveal unseen moments from another perspective and then pushes the plot forward, deepening the puzzle.
Cregger gives his characters room to grow, allowing their personalities and relationships to shift in ways that keep the story unpredictable. The cast, led by Josh Brolin, Benedict Wong, Julia Garner and a handful of outstanding lesser-known actors, seize that opportunity. Their performances sharpen the drama and ground the horror.
What surprised me most is how “Weapons” threads horror together with humor and biting social commentary. Yes, it earns its R rating with bloody, unnerving sequences, but woven through the shocks are unexpected laughs and sharp observations about school shootings, fraying communities and the cultural rot beneath the surface.
It all builds to an ending that had me thinking, “I haven’t seen that before.” “Weapons” sticks the landing, then lingers like a shadow you can’t shake. As a modern Grimm fairy tale, it’s brutal, messy and resonant. Above all, it’s one of the rare films that fully delivers on the promise of its trailer.
New on streaming
Speaking of movie marketing, have you seen the poster for the new “War of the Worlds?” Roughly 75% of it is Ice Cube scowling. The rest is a dim collage of lazy screen grabs from the movie.
It’s a far cry from the 1953 poster, which shows a fleet of alien ships streaking from Mars to rain fire on a city as a terrified man and woman look on. Beneath the chaos, the title blazes in jagged red script across a besieged Earth.
Never has the contrast between an original poster and its remake so perfectly captured the remake’s complete lack of imagination.
This new “War of the Worlds” takes place entirely on the computer screen in Ice Cube’s Department of Homeland Security office – where, judging by the movie, he’s the only employee. Streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime, the film feels edited for Gen Z attention spans: events move with the rapid fire rhythm of Instagram Reels, and the plot is stitched together from YouTube clips. In the time it takes Cube to gawk at his first alien sighting and switch browser tabs, the militaries of the world have already united against the threat.
Every second is laughably implausible, but the real purpose seems to be product placement – specifically for Amazon Prime. In one scene, Ice Cube orders a homeless person an Amazon Prime gift card in exchange for turning over a crashed Amazon Prime delivery drone so it can resume chasing the aliens. My eyes rolled so far back, the muscles almost snapped.
If you’re in the mood to gape at your TV in disbelief for 90 minutes, be my guest. But shame on Amazon for slapping the name “War of the Worlds” on this. H.G. Wells was a visionary, but even he couldn’t have imagined this nonsense.
From the vault
Sometimes a bad movie – or the hunt for a good one – sends me digging through the vault for an old favorite. Such was the case when my dismay over “War of the Worlds” had me scrolling through Amazon’s library of science fiction classics in search of something from a better time – when filmmakers told relevant stories in fantastical settings and used their imaginations to full effect.
That’s when I landed on “Contact.” Watching the 1997 film was like opening a time capsule and discovering I’d left a piece of my heart inside.
Based on astronomer Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel – which actually began life as an unproduced screenplay – “Contact” follows Jodie Foster’s Dr. Ellie Arroway, an astronomer who pours her considerable brilliance into searching for, as she sheepishly admits to a gathering of colleagues in one scene, “little green men.”
If movies were like wine, “Contact” has aged like a fine merlot. Ellie’s journey is more than a jaunt across the stars – it’s about her struggle to accept that science doesn’t have all the answers, and that sometimes we must take life, and the universe, on faith. The film’s themes remain relevant today.
Foster’s portrayal of a wounded, driven, obsessive Ellie feels even more textured and authentic than when I last saw the film in a theater. The famous, effects-laden climax – when Ellie makes humanity’s first contact with an alien species – not only holds up visually but remains as tense and gripping as ever.
This time, I noticed something I’d missed before: the subtle parallel director Robert Zemeckis (“Back to the Future”) draws between Ellie and her tools of discovery in a beautiful shot of her face, shaded by a wide-brimmed hat, perfectly aligned with an array of radio telescopes in the background. One of the joys of revisiting an old film is unearthing small treasures like this.
Like H.G. Wells, Sagan was a visionary. But I wonder if even he could have imagined how beautifully “Contact” – released after his death – would turn out, or how powerfully it would speak to generations long after its debut.
Rolling out the snacks
Now to make good on my promise to suggest a treat for your movie night. Snacks are a vital part of the ritual, and I can’t think of a better option than a movie-themed charcuterie board. Fill old-school movie-theater–style boxes with buttery popcorn, add chocolate-covered pretzels for a sweet-and-salty bite, then throw in mixed nuts, fresh grapes or sliced strawberries and candies – gummy bears, peanut butter cups, whatever you like. Spread it on a big platter or wooden board so it looks as good as it tastes.