The Observer.
The Old Guard 2, Cleaner and a string of other (better) movies, plus some quality TV and a terrible user interface at HBO/Max, which you probably know.
The Observer is a spoiler-free curated collection of television series and films.
Fresh off of last week’s spirited discussions about the New York Times poll on the 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century, I couldn’t stop watching movies. Still can’t. Neither can others based on this:
NYT's 100 Best Movies/21st Century Poll.
Debate all you want on the New York Times recent “100 Best Movies of the 21st Century” poll — I’m not really here for that — but the one thing it succeeded brilliantly at getting right is knowing the feature would be addictively popular, useful and perhaps, best of all, be a catalyst for people to
In-between responding to comments on that post and getting more ideas for what to watch, I pulled off an inspired double feature deep into the night: “Before Sunrise” and “In the Mood For Love.”
Sure, I could write about those and probably will at some point (when I finish the “Before” trilogy and when I get up off the floor after watching “In the Mood For Love”).
But I had a better idea an idea that was, in the moment I dreamt it up, truly something:
I could write about these handful of amazing movies I’ve watched recently, I thought, or (brain distorts), “Yeah, but what if I just wanted to watch a couple of current movies thoroughly planted in the Mid levels?” — with no glorious NYT praise to help them out by motivating people to watch — just that they popped up randomly as “new” on some streamers home page?
Isn’t that how we really watch movies? The lazy way? Oh, look, something not unlike a movie is available to stream.
No rave review. No buzz in the ether. Just…visual porridge. On your screen.
Something “Mid” by all accounts, aka your first glance. Something “free.” Something algorithmically displayed on a carousel for your eyes.
THAT!
It seemed semi-brilliant, and I stand by it as an accurate reflection of what many people would do after watching more serious films with subtitles and then just needing a break to not focus so much on art.
Processing art can be as exhausting as it is exhilarating.
Also a lot of people — not me, but likely you or someone you know — like to multitask while being entertained; read some emails, text in the middle of scenes, that sort of thing.
Luckily, two major streamers — Netflix and HBO Max — were showing two shiny 2025 movies seemingly made for just such an occasion. Five years after Netflix’s “The Old Guard,” star Charlize Theron and company (and some newbies as well) returned a week ago for “The Old Guard 2,” and over at HBO Max, Daisy Ridley and Clive Owen just popped up for the action-thriller “Cleaner.”
As noted, neither of these will appear on any “Best Of” lists, but Theron has multiple solid action films to her credit, including not one but two all-time greats in “Atomic Blonde” and “Mad Max: Fury Road,” so anything she’s in where she’s likely to beat someone down I take notice, even if “The Old Guard” from five years ago was certifiably Mid.
And while the jury is out on whether Ridley can be (or wants to be) a full-on action star, “Cleaner” looked like the kind of eye candy that seemed primed to waste a couple of hours on a hot and boring holiday weekend.
So, which one is better?
It’s a trick question, because the answer is an almost completely unseen and quickly forgotten action film from 2021 with an even more unlikely female lead.
Who knew?
I’ll explain as I delve into the battle of the watchable Mid movies.
Also below: Surprising TV series, trawling for content and fighting off recalcitrant user interfaces so you don’t have to…
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