Gone by December: Nine must see movies leaving Neon this month

While there are constant arrivals of fresh movies and TV shows on Neon, there’s also a regular churn of content dropping off the Kiwi owned and curated streaming service.

So although you might think a film or programme will be available to watch on there in perpetuity, the truth is licencing deals mean they are usually only there for a few months – or years – at a time.

In order to assist those keen to get the most out of their subscription, and to help with your viewing priorities, Stuff to Watch has come up with a list of nine superb movies that won’t be around come December 1 – so catch them while you can.

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Bad Santa (2003)

For all his star dramatic turns and acclaimed work with the likes of the Coen Brothers, it’s this acerbic, very adult black comedy that Billy Bob Thornton is most associated with.

He plays misanthropic and alcoholic conman Willie T. Stokes, who uses his position as a mall Santa to help him stage an audacious heist. However, it might only take one young believer to make him reconsider his life choices.

Fantastic Mr Fox (2009)

Large-scale larceny, rabies and a severe case of teenage angst – this isn’t your traditional kid-friendly animated movie. However, Wes Anderson’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book is a bravura piece of film-making and, well, truly fantastic entertainment for the whole whānau.

There are nods to classic films like High Noon, The Great Escape and The Wizard of Oz, while Anderson’s attention to detail and use of the whole frame rewards repeat viewings.

The brilliant vocal cast includes George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Michael Gambon.

Gunda (2020)

Yes, it’s a black-and-white Norwegian documentary about six months in the life of a pig and her piglets. It has no dialogue, no music and no visible people.

And yet, it made Stuff to Watch reviewer Graeme Tuckett jump in his seat and swear audibly at the screen louder than any other film in its year of release. If you’ve seen Gunda, you’ll understand.

Hibiscus & Ruthless (2018)

Writer-director Stallone Vaiaoga-Ioasa (working here under the moniker SQS) followed up his 2016 sleeper-hit Kiwi-Samoan comedy Three Wise Cousins with an even bigger and better crowd-pleaser.

This sophomore feature is a more polished affair, which retains Cousins’ charm, but throws in some bolder narrative choices and a surprising amount of pathos. It also offers plenty of laughs too, from disastrous dates to memorable wedding dances and some mean-as dialogue (“I’m going to ACC his face,” Ruth rages against one of Hibiscus’ wooers).

Vaiaoga-Ioasa especially deserves credit for his casting. He uncovered two gems in Suivai Pilisipi Autagavaia and Anna-Maree Thomas and provided them with a perfect showcase and calling card.

Interstellar (2014)

Haunting and heart-wrenching, like Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men, this is 21st century science-fiction that resonates more and more, as humanity stumbles from one crisis to the next.

While at one level it’s about a team of explorers who travel through a wormhole in order to find us a new home, it’s also an emotional story of fathers and daughters as Matthew McConaughey’s widowed Nasa pilot Coop is torn between securing Murph’s (Mackenzie Foy/Jessica Chastain) future and being a part of her present.

With a killer soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and terrific use of footage of Ken Burns’ The Dust Bowl documentary to set the scene, this is movie-making and storytelling at its finest.

The Matrix (1999)

Almost 23 years – and countless rip-offs of its premise – since its debut, the Wachowskis’ narrative still takes some getting used to. Part Alice in Wonderland, part 12 Monkeys, part Terminator, this is one science-fiction movie that threatens to overload your mind with What ifs? And How Comes?

Keanu Reeves is everyday everyman Thomas Anderson, who we quickly discover leads a double life. By day, he is a software engineer for a large company, but, at night, he takes on the role of a computer hacker named Neo.

His nocturnal activities put him into the orbit of Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), a subversive hacker wanted by the police around the world. Those same authorities also take an interest in Thomas, however, something seems off about their interrogation.

More than two decades on, Carrie-Anne Moss’ Trinity seems as cool as ever, the special effects still look groundbreaking, the action crowd-pleasing and the conceit mind-melting.

The Mole Agent (2020)

An undercover operation both Donal Macintyre and Sacha Baron Cohen would be proud of, this Chilean docu-drama offers terrific, thought-provoking entertainment. It’s the story of a private investigator who hires a mole to infiltrate a retirement home where a client of his suspects the caregivers of elder abuse.

Director Maite Alberdi has a history of making “political” tales about specific communities and this delivers its points in an inventive, endearing and, sometimes, directly challenging way.

Totally Under Control (2020)

Made under the radar and completed in early October 2020, the day before the 45th President of the United States tweeted he had tested positive for Covid-19, Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger’s documentary is a rage-inducing, excoriating deep dive into the reasons why America’s initial response to the pandemic proved to be so ineffective.

For Kiwi viewers, it offers a nightmarish vision of what could have been and a validation of our own country’s approach (and relative simplicity of governance).

Through socially distanced interviews with frontline medical staff, health officials, White House journalists and infectious disease experts, as well key moments from the wall-to-wall news coverage, it constructs a timeline, from the first warning from Wuhan in the early days of 2020. The result is a stunning, breathtaking tale of how politics got in the way of science and personality Trumped public health.

Wyatt Earp (1994)

Costner is front and centre in this three-hour epic biography of the western lawman who waged war against the dreaded Clanton and McLaury gangs. Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Michael Madsen and Mark Harmon also feature.

“A great western that was unfairly disparaged back in 1994. The authentic Wyatt Earp is actually a much-better film than the pulpier, more-popular Tombstone,” wrote Fantastica Daily’s Chuck O’Leary.