Nicolas Cage in a quiet role and Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar-winning turn: This week’s best and biggest on Netflix

Check out Jordan Parker's “The week's best and biggest on Netflix” every Friday on HalifaxToday.ca.

Joker

An intensely polarizing film, this dark, brooding take on the origins of storied Batman villain The Joker was one of my favourites of 2019.

Co-writer and director Todd Phillips is mostly known for bold frat comedies like Old School and The Hangover, but he earned an Oscar nomination for this frightful look into the soul of a madman.

An Oscar winner for this role, Joaquin Phoenix stars as depressed, downtrodden Arthur Fleck, a flailing comedian who is beat down by the inhabitants of Gotham City.

As he pushes closer and closer to the brink of insanity, tragedy for the city looms. Phoenix is absolutely unhinged and maniacal in this performance, the best of his career.

He's joined by incredible turns from veterans Robert De Niro and Frances Conroy, who bring depth as his talk show comedian idol and his mother.

It's a difficult, sobering character piece that will challenge you in intense ways.

4.5/5 Stars

The Girl Next Door

This is definitely one for people 16+, but when I was younger, The Girl Next Door was one of my absolute favourite comedies.

It follows a teenager who falls in love with the young porn star who moves into the house next door to him.

As the two become closer, the young man learns a few lessons in growing up, and the actress begins to enjoy the youth she missed.

It's an absolutely hilarious film directed by Luke Greenfield, and it has a whip-smart script and its heart is in the right place.

Young performers Emile Hirsch and Elisha Cuthbert are fantastic, and so are Chris Marquette and Paul Dano.

Giving the best performance of the film, though, is Timothy Olyphant as a skeezy, amoral pimp.

It's a movie you probably haven't ever heard of, and one that will have you absolutely busting a gut.

4/5 Stars

Jarhead

If you read a retrospective now of the most underappreciated and misunderstood films of the 2000s, I'll guarantee this one makes the list.

This film about the psychological warfare during the Gulf War was a bit too on-the-nose for people in the throes of the War on Terror. It was ignored in theatres and derided by critics.

And yet, it has endured to become a much beloved cult classic. It's told through the lens of a U.S. Marine sniper trying to find an escape from the day-to-day of wartime life.

Directed by eventual Oscar-winner Sam Mendes, it's a really great work. Based on the novel from real-life ex-marine Anthony Swofford, it's hugely affecting.

Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx, Lucas Black and Peter Sarsgaard all put in fantastic performances that never got their due.

This is a really tense, incredible film that I'm hoping you'll give a chance.

4/5 Stars

Savages

This crime drama is one of the most exhilarating films of the 2010s, and has a cast and crew pedigree that's unmatched.

It follows two major marijuana growers and distributors who go up against the Mexican drug cartel.

Ben and Chon are pushed into a war when the cartel kidnaps their shared girlfriend, O.

Directed by Oliver Stone, of Natural Born Killers and Platoon fame, it's a madcap crime saga with some intense characters.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Benicio Del Toro, John Travolta, Demián Bichir and Salma Hayek are all fantastic here.

I have one major gripe about the film, you'll know when you see it, but this is otherwise stellar filmmaking.

3.5/5 Stars

The Family Man

You can judge me all you want, but I absolutely love Nicolas Cage.

I think he's immensely talented, even if some of the films he's in are absolute garbage. He throws himself into each and every role, for better or worse.

Here, we actually see a sensitive, dialed-down Cage, and he's wonderful as Jack Campbell in this crowd-pleaser.

A rich, lonely man is offered the opportunity on Christmas Eve to go back and see how his life would've changed, had he married his college sweetheart.

When he wakes up, he is Jack, and has traded his life of luxury for kids, his wife and a mini-van.

Cage, Téa Leoni, Don Cheadle and Jeremy Piven are all wonderful here, in this underrated drama. It's one of those movies that's impossible not to finish when you see it on TV.

4/5 Stars

Jordan Parker's weekly film reviews can be found on his blog, Parker & The Picture Shows.