Weekend Watchlist, 10/1: Seasonal

Happy Friday, PV Guide readers! I hope you have a great weekend ahead of you.

My review of Supergirl went up earlier this week – check it out if you haven’t yet!

Here are this week’s picks.

Something spooky on the Criterion Channel

Where to watch: Criterion Channel

It’s October! I’ll be including at least one spooky/seasonal watch in each installment this month. Luckily, the Criterion Channel just added a ton of great options, like:

• The “Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa” collection (rec’d a few weeks ago but now in one place!)
• The “Directed by Dario Argento” collection
• The “Possessions” collection (including Possession, Jennifer’s Body, and The Wailing – also rec’d a few weeks ago)
• The “Unwelcome Guests” collection (including The Night of the Hunter, Funny Games, and You’re Next)
• Don’t Look Now 
• Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Hundreds of Beavers

Where to watch: Dropout (and a whole bunch of other places)

I will never tire of recommending this movie, and now I have an extra reason to: Dropout licensed it, which means one of the funniest and most creative movies of the decade is now streaming on the platform. 

The movie follows 19th century applejack maker Jean Kayak (Ryland Tews), contending with the snowy elements and the titular hundreds of beavers (played by people in large beaver mascot suits) as he tries to win the hand of a local girl and survive the harsh winter. Equally influenced by silent movies and video games, Hundreds of Beavers was made for an estimated $150,000, yet has more effective use of CGI than many modern blockbusters (and better action sequences than many of them, too). Above all else, it's an excellent example of how unbridled creativity and cinematic genius can be fun as hell, and it’s a great fall-into-winter movie. And when you’re done, check out this fascinating VFX breakdown and my old review of the movie.

The WNBA playoffs

Where to watch: Scattered across way too many places, frankly

This WNBA season gave us a rare gift in sports: a league with the same amount of good teams (8) as playoff slots (also 8). That set up what is already gearing up to be a phenomenal playoffs, where anything can happen – like my favorites to win it all (the Lynx) getting swept by the #8 seed Liberty in the first round. We’re hurtling towards the second round, and two of the four opening round series went to three games – Fever-Aces (which concluded Thursday night with an Aces victory) and Valkyries-Wings (tonight at 9:00 PM on ESPN2 – watch the highlights of the incredible Game 2 above). 

The semifinals start Sunday, with the Liberty taking on the Dream and the Aces facing off against the winner of Valkyries-Wings. The Liberty are one of the most talented squads in the league, but struggled in the regular season before routing the top-seeded Lynx. Meanwhile, with my Mystics out, I’ll be rooting for the Dream. It feels like genuinely any of the teams left could win it all (with the probable exception of the Wings, who have a lot of talent but are still putting it all together), and it should be a great few weeks of basketball.