What to Watch on TV this Weekend: Chloe's Guide

Nov. 4–6, 2016

Here are a few suggestions for what to watch on the upcoming weekend.

Dreamcatcher (2003)

Friday, Nov. 4- Sundance - 3 p.m.

Directed by Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Dreamcatcher is a film that one might need to watch twice—or so was my modus operandi when I watched the sci-fi horror, which is based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. Dreamcatcher stars Damian Lewis, Thomas Jane (The Mist, The Crow: City of Angels, The Punisher) Jason Lee (My Name Is Earl, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Mallrats, Vanilly Sky) and Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood, This Is Where I Leave You) as four childhood friends who encounter the invasion of parasitic extraterrestrials.

The film bears quintessentially King-esque elements, doing justice to its source material: purpose versus entropy, ordinary people amid extraordinary circumstances, the cyclical connection of events, the relationship between innocence and the purpose and the victimization of the weak by the strong. These themes are collectively central to the Dreamcatcher storyline, whose transformation is not complete until the final minutes of the production.

V for Vendetta (2006)

Saturday, Nov. 5- IFC - Noon

The dystopian, political thriller stars Hugo Weaving (The Matrix trilogy, Captain America: The First Avenger, Cloud Atlas) and Natalie Portman as anarchist V and working-class Evey, respectively, whose lives intermingle in the midst of an elaborate revolution in a neo-fascist United Kingdom. V for Vendetta grossed $132,511,035 by the end of 2006 and led the U.S. box office on its opening day with an estimated $8,742,504.

Directed by the The Wachowskis, V for Vendetta is one of six films released within the past 15 years based on Alan Moore literature, others including From Hell (2001), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), Constantine (2005), Watchmen (2009) and Batman: The Killing Joke (2016). V for Vendetta employs a classically Moore tactic of cleansing the proverbial palate of what is familiar and revealing what everything the audience had previously learned up to a given point had been a lie.

Shutter Island (2010)

Sunday, Nov. 6- SyFy - 3 p.m.

Based on a Dennis Lehane novel of the same name, Shutter Island follows U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, on his investigation of a psychiatric facility on Shutter Island in Boston Harbor after one of the patients goes missing. Mark Ruffalo plays Daniels's partner officer, with Ben Kingsley as the facility's lead psychiatrist and Michelle Williams as Daniels's wife.

That the film opens with a mystery indicates that not everything on Shutter Island is as it seems, but only those who follow the Shutter Island story to its end will understand the true meaning of such an implication. Martin Scorsese directs this neo-noir thriller, a production notable, in part, for its continuation of Scorsese's collaborations with DiCaprio, which began with Gangs of New York (2002) and most recently The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).

Sausage Party (2016)

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Sausage Party, co-directed by Conrad Vernon (Shrek, Monsters vs. Aliens, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted), is as tongue-in-cheek as one might expect from the mind of Seth Rogen, who co-wrote the film's screenplay. The film is a spoof of Disney and Pixar productions and follows a sausage (Rogen) who tries to discover the truth about his existence. Receiving positive reviews from critics, Sausage Party grossed $136 million on a $19 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated, animated film of all time. It is the first CGI-animated film to be receive an R rating by the MPAA.

Sausage Party employs an all-star cast of Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Michael Cera, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Paul Rudd, Nick Kroll, David Krumholtz, Edward Norton and Salma Hayek, and Rogen has expressed interest in a sequel.

The Jungle Book (2016)

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The millennial generation is now, and what better way to stoke the nostalgic flames than with breathing new life into a classic, childhood favorite. Directed and co-produced by Jon Favreau (Elf, Iron Man, Iron Man 2), the theatrical reimagining is based on Rudyard Kipling's eponymous, collective works with borrowed elements from Disney's 1967 film of the same name. The film introduces Neel Sethi as Mowgli and features the voices of Bill Murray (Baloo, the bear), Ben Kingsley (Bagheera, the panther), Idris Elba (Shere Khan, the Bengal tiger), Lupita Nyong'o (Raksha, an Indian wolf), Scarlett Johansson (Kaa, the python), Giancarlo Esposito (Akela, the Indian wolf alpha) and Christopher Walken (King Louie, the gigantopithecus).

Following the film's early financial success (passing the $800 million mark in the box office a mere month after its release), Walt Disney Pictures has begun working on a sequel. Favreau is reported to return as director, and Neel Sethi is reported to reprise his role as Mowgli. The sequel is intended for a 2018 release.

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