Knives Out (2019)

For the first time in about 11 months, I watched what my dad chose to rent. It just so happened to be the last item on my own Netflix queue, whether I had added it most recently or simply moved more recent additions higher up. I could not tell from advertising whether there was anything innovative about the plot or it was simply another facetious whodunit, but its popularity told me to try it.

The morning after his 85th birthday, Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), multimillionaire crime novelist and publishing company owner, is found bled out next to a knife in his Massachusetts home. The police are inclined to call it an open-and-shut case of suicide, but at least a few of the many people who'd recently seen him doubt it very much. So does Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), if only because an anonymous source hired him to investigate. The motive for killing a rich old man would be obvious....

Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)

So yeah, we've made a family tradition of watching current Star Wars movies on Christmas. Never my mom's first choice, but it beats our previous tradition of dark musicals in my book.

Picking up right where Episode VII left off, Rey (Daisy Ridley) has found the hiding place of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and wants him to train her so she can contribute better to the war. But Luke has grown bitter and disenchanted with Jedi ways and dreads the possibility of creating another Vader-esque Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who has some Force-related connection to Rey. Meanwhile, despite its previous victory, the Resistance is weakening and struggles to retreat from a First Order bent on eradicating it.