Watch List Weekly Recap 12/2/22

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.”

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I posted a Tuesday heads-up for a sweepingly emotional documentary journey to the Red Planet in “Good Night Oppy” (⭐ ⭐ ⭐, streaming on Amazon Prime), the story of the Mars Rover program and the ebullient scientists and engineers who made it happen. It’s the kind of movie to get a kid hooked on STEM, but you don’t need one to enjoy it yourself.

My Favorite Martians

Who knew that a documentary about a robot could leave you verklempt? The inspiring drama that propels “Good Night Oppy” (⭐ ⭐ ⭐, now streaming on Amazon Prime) is the narrative of how NASA scientists put a pair of mobile data collectors dubbed Spirit and Opportunity on the surface of Mars, where they were meant to go about their tasks and expire after th…

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Paid subscribers got a reminder that one the great Christmas classics no one knows about is making a rare TV appearance this weekend.

TiVo Alert: "Remember the Night" (1940)

This is the movie Amy Dickinson and I were both kvelling about in our conversation about much-loved holiday classics last year:

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For New Release Friday, a honey of a documentary and a love letter from a movie star son to his cult director father:  “Sr.” (⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2, now streaming on Netflix). Also: Dissecting a favorite Robert Downey Jr. moment — from a press interview that went awry.

Fathers and Sons

“Sr.” (⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2, now streaming on Netflix) is a gift, from Robert Downey Jr. to his father, from Robert Downey Sr. to his son, and from the two of them to us. The documentary covers the last year or so of the older Downey’s life before his death in July 2021 from complications of Parkinson’s Disease; it’s directed by Chris Smith (“American Movie,” “The…

Ty Burr's Watch List

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