What to Watch While Quarantined
It’s day 29 of quarantine (or at least it feels like it) and you’ve already re-watched all of your favorite movies and binged every show on your “must watch” list. What now? Well make another bag of popcorn because we’ve asked members of the Coral Gables community for their movie and TV show recommendations. Happy binge watching!
Our first recommendation is the Gables Cinema Drive-In. Every day, the Coral Gables Art Cinema puts three movies on its website for you to watch from home. From classics to indies, it lets us watch films that aren’t available on streaming platforms.
Staff Pick
Movie: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Platform: Netflix
We couldn’t write an article about movie recommendations without promoting the Mitch Kaplan’s Netflix original film. The owner of Books & Books is also a film producer and his production company, The Mazur/Kaplan Company, released this movie in 2018 on Netflix. Taking place in 1946, a London-based writer begins exchanging letters with the residents of Guernsey Island, which was German-occupied during World War II. She decides to write a book about their experiences during the war. While visiting the island, she starts to get a picture of what it was like under Nazi occupation.
Recommendations from Katherine Dagand, Marketing Manager, Coral Gables Community Foundation
Show: The Sopranos
Platforms: Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Now, YouTube TV
Tony Soprano juggles the problems of both his peevish family and his other family – the mob. He deals with power struggles, affairs, violence, and the threat of exposure and betrayal. All of this brings on panic attacks, which leads him to seek professional psychiatric counseling.
TV Show: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Platform: Amazon Prime
Having won numerous Emmy and Screen Actors Guild awards, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel takes place in 1950s New York City. Miriam “Midge” Maisel has everything she has ever wanted – the perfect husband, two kids and an apartment on the Upper West Side. But her life takes an unsuspected turn when she discovers a hidden talent – stand-up comedy. She goes from her cushy life on the Upper West Side to the cafes and nightclubs of Greenwich Village as she navigates the city’s comedy industry.
Movie: When Harry Met Sally
Platform: Hulu
In 1977, college graduates Harry Burns and Sally Albright drive from Chicago to New York and argue about whether men and women can truly have a platonic friendship. Ten years later, they meet again at a bookstore and put that argument to the test.
Movie: Hook
Platform: Netflix
When Peter Banning’s children are abducted by his old nemesis, Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman), Peter (Robin Williams), a middle-aged lawyer, must return to his magical origins as Peter Pan. He revisits, Neverland, the Lost Boys and Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts), who he all abandoned when he decided to grow up.
Picks by Francesca Valdes, City of Coral Gables Business Development Coordinator
Movie: Romancing the Stone
Platform: Hulu
A romance-adventure writer is taken on an adventure of her own when she receives a treasure map from her brother-in-law, who was recently murdered. She then has to travel to the Colombian jungle to save her sister, who will be killed if the map is not delivered to her captors.
Show: The White Queen/The White Princess
Platforms: Starz, Hulu, Sling TV, YouTube TV
Highly recommended for historical fiction fans. Based on Philippa Gregory’s series “The Cousins’ War,” “The White Queen” and the sequel “The White Princess” tell the tale of the War of the Roses and the fight for the English crown.
Show: Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
Platforms: Hulu, YouTube TV, Sling TV, furboTV
Zoey discovers she has the ability to hear people’s innermost thoughts in the form of songs and musical numbers. “It’s a fun show that bursts into song, which is unexpected and delightful,” says Valdes.
Recommended by Vice Mayor Vince Lago
Movie: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Platforms: Crackle, Amazon Prime ($2.99)
Naïve and idealistic Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) is appointed as a state senator when the previous senator suddenly passes away. In Washington, he meets childhood hero and presidential hopeful Senator Joseph Paine. However, Paine isn’t as noble as his reputation makes him seem, and he becomes involved in a scheme to discredit Smith. “The message this film conveys is that although humans can be corrupt, despite the odds, there is still hope for making things right,” says Lago.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Platform: Netflix
Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is wrongly accused of murdering his wife and her lover and is sentenced to two life sentences in prison. While at Shawshank State Penitentiary, he befriends fellow inmate Red (Morgan Freeman), becomes instrumental in a money-laundering operation led by the prison warden, and devices a plan for his way out. “It teaches us how to pick ourselves up even when we are at our lowest, how to adjust to every situation and make the most of it,” says Lago.
Chef Cindy Hutson’s Picks (Ortanique on the Mile)
Show: Fleabag
Platform: Amazon Prime
A dry-witted woman, known only as Fleabag, has no filter as she navigates life in London while trying to cope with a recent tragedy. The grieving woman rejects anyone who tries to help her, but keeps up her bravado through it all
Recommended by Mark Trowbridge, President and CEO of the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce
Show: The West Wing
Platform: Netflix
Cutthroat presidential advisers get their personal lives hopelessly tangled up with professional duties as they try to conduct the business of running a country. President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet and his staff struggle to balance the needs of the country with the political realities of D.C. His two terms in office include countless scandals, threats and political disputes.
Coral Gables Art Cinema Staff Picks
Movie: Coming to America (Brenda Moe, Co-Executive Director)
Platforms: $2.99 on Amazon Prime or YouTube
Eddie Murphy stars as Prince Akeem, an extremely pampered African prince who travels to Queens, New York to escape an arranged marriage. He goes undercover to find a wife who will love him in spite of his title.
Movie: Police Story (Javier Chavez, Associate Director)
Platforms: $2.99 on Vudu, $3.99 on iTunes
An honest Hong Kong cop Kevin Chan (Jackie Chan) finds himself framed for the murder of a dirty cop after he captures a big-time drug lord. Kevin has to clear his name, all while keeping himself from getting killed or arrested and keeping his girlfriend from leaving him.
Movie: Stoker (Elizabeth Dedios, Operations Manager)
Platforms: $3.99 on Amazon Prime, YouTube or iTunes
India Stoker’s world comes crashing down when her father dies in a car accident. Then Charlie, an uncle she never knew existed, suddenly arrives and moves in with her and her unstable mother. Soon India begins to suspect that this charming and mysterious man has ulterior motives, but instead of feeling alarmed, she becomes increasingly infatuated with him.
Movie: Tokyo Drifter (Reginald Desjardins, Front-of-House Manager)
Platforms: $3.99 on Amazon Prime or iTunes
After yakuza boss Kurata dissolves his own criminal empire, a rival offers a position to Tetsuya Hondo, Kurata’s top operative. When the fiercely loyal Tetsu declines, Otsuka hires hit man Tatsuzo to assassinate him.
Movie: Robin and the 7 Hoods (Nat Chediak, Director of Programming)
Platforms: $2.99 on iTunes, $3.99 on Amazon Prime and YouTube
Set Prohibition-era Chicago, the Rat Pack’s take on the Robin Hood legend finds bootlegger Robbo (Frank Sinatra) and his cronies refusing to pay the greedy Guy Gisborne a cut of their profits after Guy shoots mob boss Big Jim and takes over. When Big Jim’s daughter, Marian, gives Robbo a large sum of money, believing he has avenged her father’s death, the gangster donates it to an orphanage.
Movie: Amazonia (Midge Blumberg-Krams, Chair of Children & Family Programs)
Platforms: Vudu, $1.99 on Amazon Prime
After a plane crash, Saï, a capuchin monkey born and raised in captivity, finds himself alone and lost in the wilderness of the Amazon jungle.
