Francis Ford Coppolas Dracula: the wild 90s horror movie that holds up – Polygon

What did the Polygon staff spend their weekend watching? Whether its the latest virally popular Netflix series, discovering an animated gem, or educating ourselves in older genre classics, most of us find something worth recommending before we head back to work.

And as usual, the answers range widely, as some people check out whats new and popular on streaming services, and some return to past favorites. So heres what were watching right now, and what you might enjoy watching as well. Head to the comments to drop in your own recommendations.

Francis Ford Coppolas 1992 adaptation of Dracula absolutely slaps. It stars 90s heartthrobs Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder as the novels protagonist Jonathan Harker and his bride-to-be Mina, as well as legends like Gary Oldman as Dracula, Anthony Hopkins as Professor Van Helsing, Richard E. Grant as Doctor Jack Seward, and Tom freakin Waits as the mad minion Renfield.

Coppolas direction is metal as hell. The opening scene sees Count Dracula plunging his sword into a stone cross that cracks and starts filling the room with blood. Coppola was inspired by the silent film era and wanted all of his effects to be practical he even told EW that he fired his VFX team when they told him it couldnt be done and hired his son, Roman, who was an enthusiast about magic. Problematic nepotism aside, the effect worked. Bram Stokers Dracula has a uniquely goth visual style. (In that same interview he called Keanu Reeves a prince, which is categorically correct.) Emily Heller

Bram Stokers Dracula is available to rent on Amazon, Vudu, and Apple.

[Loud, completely off-key voice you only get from staying inside for seven months] WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYES LIKE A BIG PIZZA PIE, THATS AMOOOOOOORE!!!!!

Moonstruck is regarded as one of the great romantic comedies of all time, but mio dio, its truly the antidote to bad vibes. Written by acclaimed New Yawk playwright John Patrick Shanley, the film stars Cher as Loretta Castorini, a widow hoping to finally land a husband and a steady life. But when Johnny (Danny Aiello), the man she settles for, jets off to Sicily to care for his dying mother, she meets his brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage), a greasy 23-year-old who falls head over heels in love with her at first sight. The feelings are reciprocated, and suddenly the woman who never thought shed love again is stuck in a romantic quagmire.

Shanleys movie is like My Big Fat Greek Wedding with fewer jokey jokes and deeper characters. Even though its one of his earliest performances, Cage slices off pounds of prosciutto in every scene its just whacked. Cher is the opposite: grounded, fierce, but vulnerable (its no surprise she won the Oscar in 1988). Director Norman Jewison (Fiddler on the Roof, Rollerball) surrounds the pair with a cast of pros, including the regal Olympia Dukakis as Lorettas mother, Vincent Gardenia as the bozo dad, and Frasiers John Mahoney in a small but key role playing the quintessential, pathetic womanizer. Most of the movie takes place in Brooklyn Heights during winter, and if youve ever clocked time walking New York streets through a bitter freeze or ducked into a family-run Italian joint for refuge, pasta, and a stiff drink, the movie will transport you. Its alive enough that it may work even if you dont have the memories. Matt Patches

Moonstruck is available to rent on Amazon, and is coming to the Criterion Collection in November.

I am a sucker for a good war movie, even the ones that hurt and The Outpost hurt quite a bit. Its largely a story of our military being supremely negligent, and the troubled young men who ultimately paid for its mistakes. But the meat of the film the elaborate engagement known as the Battle of Kamdesh, aint half bad.

A troubled production (the directors son passed part-way through), it feels a lot like two films spliced together. The back half is a lot better than the first, especially since it doesnt include any of Orlando Blooms preposterous Southern drawl. But even that portion of the film feels rushed especially the CGI special effects. Id recommend watching it the whole way through, just to get a feeling for what we ask our armed service members to do when they go off to war.

I cant say enough about the performance of Caleb Landry Jones (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), who gives its sprawling cast an emotional centerline. His performance is nearly undone however by Scott Eastwood (The Fate of the Furious, Pacific Rim: Uprising), whose attempt to be Mormon Captain America falls flat.

Before you watch this movie, do yourself a favor and watch the two episodes of Netflixs Medal of Honor that it deals with. Combined, episodes 2 (Clint Romesha) and 8 (Ty M. Carter) offer first-person interviews with the soldiers who were actually there and provides a better framework for understanding the battle scenes, which at times suffer from directorial tunnel vision.

When youre finished, go back and watch Restrepo again. And dont forget to vote. Charlie Hall

The Outpost and Medal of Honor are both streaming on Netflix. Restrepo is available through Amazon.

I thought it would take some convincing to get my wife to watch PEN15 with me: She doesnt do well with cringe-fests, and when I mentioned that the series was executive-produced by The Lonely Island, she said, You know thats not a selling point for me. (I did know that.) In reality, all it took was the trailer, in which the shows inherently funny, novel conceit early-30s co-creators Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle playing their middle-school-aged selves, the characters Maya Ishii-Peters and Anna Kone, with no de-aging is on full display.

The trailer also contains an instant-classic line spoken by Anna to Maya: You are my actual rainbow gel pen in a sea of blue and black writing utensils. PEN15 is a pitch-perfect nostalgia trip for Old Millennials like us, with its dial-up modems, bubblegum pop, and frosted lip gloss. (In fact, my wife, just like Maya and Anna, started seventh grade in the year 2000.) And of course, it can be perfectly devastating when it illustrates just how much hasnt changed over the past two decades, like girls being labeled slutbags while boys are called players.

But the shows beating heart is the friendship between the two girls, who are at that fraught age where everythings changing and each new development is a life-or-death moment and BFFLs might not actually end up being, yknow, BFFLs. Its through the ups and downs of that relationship that PEN15 offers a refreshingly honest and sincere portrayal of middle school. Samit Sarkar

PEN15s second season premiered on Sept. 18; both seasons are available to stream on Hulu.

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Francis Ford Coppolas Dracula: the wild 90s horror movie that holds up - Polygon

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero