Netflix on a weeknight is a classic trap. You open the app on the hunt for a movie to watch, and soon 30 minutes go by and you’re still reading blurbs like you’re doing homework. Well, school’s out.
For the week of February to March 1, I’ve done the reading for you and have come up with three straight-A picks (see what I did there?). One is a bruising true-story sports drama, one is a quirky but amazing monster-comedy with Anne Hathaway, and the last is something different—a bite-sized, but sobering short film.
3
The Iron Claw
Pardon the following wrestling pun, but if I’m not likely to get another shot at this: The Iron Claw is a biographical sports drama that hits like a suplex to the feels. I regret nothing. The 2023 film tells the real-life story of the legendary Von Erich family, a wrestling dynasty who dominated the sport in the ’80s but were plagued by tragedy, namely the “Von Eric Curse,” where nearly all the brothers died young.
Set in the late ’70s/early ’80s, writer/director Sean Durkin’s (Dead Ringers) story focuses on the second-born Von Erich son, Kevin (Zach Efron), as he and his brothers—Kerry (Jeremy Allen White, The Bear), David (Harris Dickinson), and Mike (Stanley Simons)—work their way towards professional wrestling stardom, under the massive pressure of their overbearing famous father. The Iron Claw is an intense story of parental overbearance, toxic masculinity, the cost of ambition, and brotherly love, as one tragedy after another befalls on the family. One of the rocks of the film (and of Kevin’s) is his girlfriend Pam, played by Pam & Tommy‘s excellent Lily James, who becomes Kevin’s anchor and lifeline throughout.
Critics loved the film, and it currently holds an 89% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
2
Colossal
Chalk this one up to a clip of the film I saw on Instagram that looked so weird and cool that I just had to see more, and I’m glad I did. Colossal has a few things going for it that I really like—Anne Hathaway, for starters, and a dark comedy bend with the coolness of a Godzilla movie that’s really a story about mental health and addiction. Intrigued?
Hathaway plays Gloria, an unemployed New York writer with a drinking problem who breaks up with her boyfriend and moves back to her parents’ house in small-town New Jersey. After waking up one morning after a bender, she learns that a Godzilla-like kaiju has stomped its way through Seoul, Korea, leaving a path of destruction. What’s even weirder is that she discovers that she’s the one controlling the monster’s movements when she steps foot in a nearby playground at a precise time. Gloria tells her childhood friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) about what’s going on, and the pair, along with their weirdo friends Garth (Tim Blake Nelson) and Joel (Austin Stowell), try to figure it out and stop the destruction.
It turns out that the kaiju metaphor in the film isn’t random—it’s connected to Gloria’s addiction, self-sabotage, and inner demons, all of which she must overcome. Colossal is funny, wildly original, and has a great cast.
1
The Singers
The next time you find yourself in a dank and smoky dive bar in some unassuming place, take a subtle look around the room at the grizzled old-timers and dusty locals quietly minding their own business, tucked into a whiskey or beer at the bar. Now ponder for a moment that any one of them, or maybe a few, could be the best goddamn singer you’ve ever heard.
The Singers is an 18-minute lesson in the art of never judging a book by its cover. The grainy short by director Sam A. Davis is an adaptation of the 1853 short story of the same name by Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev, but modernized to take place in a smoke-filled local in the American Rust Belt. It’s a seemingly normal night of sorrow-drowning, when the bartender gets an idea to liven things up: the best singer in the bar gets $100 and a free beer. What starts with a sarcastic rendition of Amazing Grace soon evolves into some passion- and emotion-filled performances from the unlikely patrons that will surprise.
Fascinatingly, Davis didn’t just cast actors for The Singers, he reportedly spent years searching social media for “unsung geniuses,” with the cast including former winner of The Voice Australia Judah Kelly, New Orleans busker/pianist Will Harrington, and folk-blues legend Chris Smither. The Singers is currently up for the 2026 Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film next month. Well worth the 18 minutes.
One heavy, one weird, one quick—an ideal lineup of movies to hold your fragile attention span this week. And hey, if you want a neat trick for sifting through Netflix’s huge library, check out our guide to using the service’s little-known codes.
- Subscription with ads
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Yes, $8/month
- Simultaneous streams
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Two or four
Stream licensed and original programming with a monthly Netflix subscription.